Gus has been here nine months

Goose, Gus-Gus, Mus, Gussy, Gusaloo...after nine months a person can get lots of nick names. (We only hear "August" at the doctor's office though.)

I'd say the theme of the last month has been "Gus on the move." He's just so busy, getting around and getting into everything. He crawls super fast and he's even starting to try to climb

the stairs. (He can get up one step.)

As of yesterday, he can even pull up! I saw him pull up on the bath tub but grandmother said he had already pulled up on the couch. Frank had to lower his crib mattress or we would have had the youngest escapee. He's so active that I think he's losing weight (or at least not growing as rapidly as he once was). He's starting to lose that baby fat which is sad but it's also fun to see what his face really looks like underneath all the chub.

Gus' other trick is growing teeth. He's got FIVE--two on the bottom and three on the top. He wants to bite on everything and I mean everything. (Starting to rethink this whole "breastfeeding till their one" idea.)

Now let's talk about Gus' favorite subject: food. He likes everything we put in front of him and now enjoys three meals a day in his high chair. He still eats purees along with his finger food but he always steals the spoon from me, making it a messy battle. When I opened the pantry the other day while holding Gus, the kid practically hyperventialated at the sight of all the Cheerios.

He's an excellent sleeper. I think I have his thumb and blanket to thank for that. He just sucks that thumb and holds his soft blankie and goes to sleep. Most importantly, he stays that way!

He's still very good natured, so content to just sit and watch every

one. He also smiles and laughs really easily. Exceptions: when we put him in his car seat and when a meal is over.

It's fun to see him start to take an interest in toys. Now we have to have a supply of them at the ready. He likes balls, teething toys and recently

has taken an interest in soft blocks. If he had his way he'd prefer to play with cords and shoes. His favorite playmate is his big brother Leo. Although the feeling is not always mutual.

We love you, Gus! Happy nine months!

Posing and Performing

Gus is such a ham when he crawls! Don't ask me why he has on shoes and no pants but it makes the whole thing even funnier.

Look how he poses on his side and even cheeses for the camera!

"What? You never seen a pantless dude crawl before?"

"I'm gonna get you...and when I do, I'll eat your shoes!"
And here's Leo performing a song he learned at school:

Lots of Love

Here's the fun thing about Valentine's Day with a three-year-old: it's all about mommy. He makes Valentines for mommy, he gives hugs to mommy and he's super excited when mommy comes to school for his Valentine's Day party!

Here's Leo loving his pizza (but not his fruit)

All the cute kids in the "star class." I didn't realize that being one of the party moms would require so much nose wiping!

The kids playing freeze dance with their monkeys. Leo loves this monkey and sleeps with it.

So Leo gave me hugs, Frank gave me flowers and Gus gave me a new tooth (on top) which means lots of drool for Valentine's Day!

Gus has been here eight months

He's on the loose! Gus is a full-fledged crawler now. The gate is up; our eyes are peeled and Leo is terrified that Gus is going to take his toys! (He should be, by the way. I let Gus play with his dump truck while he's at pre-school...shhhh.)

Gus is also into:

--Eating his shoe: He has tons of toys but his favorite thing to play with/eat is his shoe. I figure it's all right since he's never actually walked in those shoes. (Too loosey goosey?)

--Leo: He thinks Leo is the coolest person on the planet. When he sees his big brother, he breaks into a grin that usually evolves into laughter. He can no longer sleep in the car if Leo is there. I think he's going to get a crick in his neck from turning to gaze at him.

--STILL being angelic: His dislike list is short: having his diaper/clothes changed, getting in the car seat (but is fine after a few seconds) and waiting even a nano-second for food. People who meet him still say he's "content" but I'd say he's also jolly. When I go in to get him after a nap or in the morning he looks like he's posing for a picture: "CHEESE!"

--Eating: I love these pre-picky days. He'll eat anything right now. We give him a mix of finger foods (sweet potato, avocado, broccoli, bread, beans, Cheerios) and purees. I'm still making his purees and I'm really proud of this one I made called "Super Foods Puree." It contained ground turkey, spinach, sweet potatoes, shallots (!) and oatmeal. Of course, he just ate it up. Pretty sure it gave him super powers!

--Babbling: It's tough to write out what he's saying but there definitely are some "mama" sounds in there!

--Playing: We're full on into the toy stage now. He's truly delighted by His favorites are these soft bath toys that are shaped like buildings. I'm always saying, "Where's Gus' building?" Good thing we have plenty of them! He's also showing a preference for balls. Feels familiar.

Here's Gus doing one of his favorite things. You can tell he feeds himself because he has avocado in his hair.

And I like this one because you can see how progressive we are being with finger food--apples, black beans, maybe some Puffs on there.

Here's Gus saying "More" in baby sign language. I wasn't even demonstrating it. I was just holding the camera!

I LOVE this adorable thing Gus does: He poses on his side like he's doing a side plank in Yoga. He even crosses his legs for extra cuteness.

Swinging and Silliness

Frank commented, "This was a big week of firsts for Gus." I asked, "What firsts?" He said, "Swinging and riding in the wagon."

Oops. Gus has been in the wagon before. Guess I forgot to tell Frank. I told everyone else, right?

But anyway, he was right on the swinging. Here he is, having a rootin' tootin' good time!

Leo loves that "bucket" swing at our neighborhood playlet but he let his baby brother use it while he practiced leg pumping on the big boy swing:

Prior to swinging, Leo made a chair train in the kitchen:
Here are the boys on Gus' second wagon ride. Sorry again, Frank!

Here you can see Gus swinging and hear his sweet giggles!

Finger Lickin' Good

I'm all about finger food with Gus. I was clueless about this with Leo. I thought if he had to chew anything (no matter how soft), he could choke. Now I know that chewing is important, even if you're toothless! Leo does finally like to chew things but he won't dare eat anything crunchy.

The other nice thing about finger food is that the kid can do it himself. (Although Leo liked soft food so much it seems like he's always been spoon-savvy.) I don't have time to sit there and shovel food into Gus' mouth but then again, he's only seven months old so it's not so easy for him to pick it up either.

A friend told me about putting wheat germ on stuff to make it easier for babies to pick up food themselves. It totally works! The only downside: it's a big 'ol mess.

But Gus doesn't mind! Here he is picking up and chewing bananas!

Gus also likes Happy Baby puffs, steamed apples, steamed sweet potatoes, steamed broccoli and avocado! He can pretty much pick it all up himself. And if he can't, well that's what that trough in the bib is for.

Hollywood Heavy Weight

I have two things about Leo that I want to report and I'm very pleased with the title I've come up with to cover the dual topics.

1. Leo is eating more and it's showing! It's not just the horizontal stripes either. He's gained about two pounds and to me, his face looks fuller. His teacher even commented that he's eating his lunch now. Woo hoo!

2. In other news, Leo is taking his "stories" to a new level. He's now making up movies. He wants to know all about movie making. "What's a set?" "What does the director do?' He then explained to me how it all works: "The director makes the movie and then he puts the movie on the truck and the truck takes it to the movie theater and they show the movie."

In these videos Leo is an actor, not a director (although he still bosses me around plenty by telling me exactly which lines to say). He's playing the part of the conductor on the Dinosaur Train:

Now that you know the two topics, isn't my title pretty awesome?