Beach Boys

We took our first vacation as a family of four to Tybee Island, Georgia. Some highlights: Leo being so brave in the ocean, Gus putting his feet in the ocean for the first time and lots of fun times in the pool. Some lowlights: Frank finally getting burnt after a summer of risky no-sunscreen-applying, Leo being a general menace and torrential rain on the drive back.

Here are some pictures (and of course we only photographed the highlights because who wants a picture of Leo being a menace?)

This is how Gus spent most of his beach time--in this cool tent-umbrella contraption we borrowed from friends:

Frank said, "If only Gus could sit up, this could be our Christmas card!"

Leo LOVED the ocean. He and Frank frolicked in there. I tried to play with him in the ocean and he told me that he preferred to swim with Daddy. (I was very insulted, especially after I had sung my cover of "Ring around the Roses" which I changed to "Ring Around the Ocean...Splashes, Splashes..."

Big news: Gus became a thumb sucker on this trip!
Tybee is close to Savannah so we had dinner there one night. Leo said, "Savannah is a silly place!" (He came to this conclusion after seeing cars driving on the trolley tracks.)

The condo we stayed in had a great pool!

Gus in his happy place
Ready for a day at the beach!

Sunrise view from our condo:

Guys, get off your computers so we can hit the beach!

Carpooling and Kicking with Leo

September has brought a lot of new activities for Leo: he started preschool AND soccer.

He goes to a Presbyterian church for preschool. (Sorry, Catholic church. Your tuition was higher and you lacked the carpool line this lazy mom desired.) Leo's buddies John and Dawson also go to this preschool but they are in the three-day class. Leo is in the four-day class because he is gifted. Just kidding. He's in the four-day class because that's all we could get into since the three-day class was booked. But it's working out great. Dawson's mommy kindly takes Leo to school each morning that Dawson goes. They go in the carpool line which is a lot of fun. Then I pick Leo up at 1:00 and he chats the whole way home about his adventures. Here are some things he's told me:

--He was "The Weatherman" last week. His job was to look out the window and then announce to the class what the weather was like.

--He would like to be the "flag holder" one day.

--When the flag holder holds the flag they say the pledge. I only know this because he started saying something that was the same cadence as the pledge and then Dawson's mommy confirmed it.

--Someone named Ellie had a birthday and they had cupcakes.

--He sits on a star that says "L-E-O" for story time. His class' name is "The Stars."

--They have story time every day and they sing some song about how they should be quiet.

--Ms. Amanda, his teacher, calls pee-pee "tinkle."

--At first he wouldn't eat his snack because it was on a paper towel but then he did. He even throws his paper towel away. (His teacher actually told me that.)

--He didn't get to play in the Diego house one day. It wasn't his turn. He had to do another activity. (Seriously, he said "activity.")

On an unrelated note, (well, sort of related to the "tinkle" comment), Leo now pees standing up. And not only that, he just goes into the bathroom by himself, lifts the seat, pulls down his pants and goes! It's so funny to see him do that. I did so good training Frank to put the seat down and now I'll need to train Leo too. Or maybe I should just accept that I'm outnumbered!

Now, for his other first--soccer. Leo is in a sports class again but this one is outdoors and it's four weeks of soccer and four weeks of t-ball. Leo does okay with the soccer skills but he sometimes has trouble following directions. For instance, for one "activity," they were supposed to dribble a soccer ball from one side of the field to another. Leo just stood there looking very confused. The coach had to keep saying, "Leo, kick the ball!" after all the other kids were already back to the other side. Oh, well. Maybe we'll have better luck with t-ball!

Here are some pics from the last couple of weeks:

The cutest part about soccer is how he wears those high socks and shin guards!

The only "first day of preschool" pic I have is this one and it's not even the real first day!
Leo zonked out after a rough day at preschool. I love how he's sleeping on his stuffed Chicken. (She-Liz, that is the chicken you gave him!")

Leo took this picture of me! I think he is a budding photographer. (Well, there was another one with fingers in front of the screen.)

If you look closely, you can see that Gus' shirt says "Gus." We are having a bit of a cool front so Gus is sporting pants for the first time in his life!

Here's Gus and me on our "date night." Frank and Leo went to the Braves game and Gus and I stayed in. It was so lovely!

Call the Guiness Book of World Records. Leo ate 17 mini pancakes one morning! (Oh, and that's syrup in the coffee mug.)

Gus has been here three months

It seems like just yesterday our little Gus was born. But really it was like 90 yesterdays ago! While Leo still seems to require more of our time and attention, Gus is content to take a back-seat to his older, more demanding brother. I'm not sure yet if this is an age thing or a personality thing. Probably both.

Little Gus is just so content. Did I say that last month? He's not jolly. He's not angry. He's just content.

But he does smile a lot more now! When he sees a new face he gives a big grin. And then before you know it, it's gone. He even laughs every now and then. Leo was belly laughing at nine weeks old. We haven't gotten that from Gus yet. Then again, we also haven't had a crying spell that we can't squash with Gus either, and we had plenty of those with Leo!

Two things they have in common: Gus is still spitting up a ton, maybe even more than Leo did! He's actually on medication and even that's not helping. Poor guy. Poor us. Poor all of our clothes and furniture! The good news is he's not upset about it. Just me. I hate spit up! There, I said it!

And the other thing they have in common is that they are both AWESOME night sleepers. I sometimes feel guilty telling people that because I rarely encounter babies who sleep through the night as quickly as my boys. But then I think about Leo and his terrible napping and Gus and his terrible spit up and I don't feel so bad. I mean, I should get something good, right?

Gus goes to sleep between 8 and 9 and we don't hear from him until after 7am. Sometimes after 8. Okay, today he did wake me up at 5am but that hardly ever happens. And I just gave him a little snack and he went right back to sleep. (By the way, breastfeeding is so much better with all these multi-media devices--Blackberry, iPad, etc. I didn't have all this stuff when Leo was a baby!)

During the day, he's more wakeful. It used to be that when we took him in the car, especially right after eating, he would fall right asleep. Now he stays up. He's got things to do, people to see.

Leo is still "aggressive with love" towards Gus. I cannot seem to get him to be gentle. Just yesterday Gus was propped up on the Boppy and Leo was kindly tickling his feet and saying, "Hey, Gussy Gussy." The next thing I know, Leo's got Gus by the ankles and is starting to drag him across the rug!

But did Gus freak out? Nope. Just me.

I think now that Gus is three months he's not considered a newborn anymore. He's officially a baby. And we love everything about him--his fleeting smile, his rolls, his chins, his long eyelashes, his demeanor, his fuzzy hair and even his chronic sour milk smell!

God Bless Gus

Labor Day weekend we welcomed Gus into the Catholic Club. Whereas I had to go through months of classes to be in the club, Gus is now a "cradle Catholic." We were so happy that our family came to celebrate with us: My parents, Frank's parents, My sister ("Tia"), and Aunt Julie and Uncle Doug, who also served as Gus' Godparents! We got to meet their son, Franklin, for the first time. He is just a 2.5 months older than Gus so they will be close cousins. The only people missing were Uncle David, Aunt Laura and Cousin Ellie. But they had a good excuse; they are expecting another close cousin of Gus and Franklin's in the next few weeks. (Side note: I will be that baby's Godmother!)

Here is the whole group at Gus' baptism:

Proud Godparents and parents with a confused Gus: "What is this Catholic thing and why am I wearing a dress?"

With cousin Franklin!

Franklin, Leo and Gus--future longhorns. You're outnumbered, Aggie/Bear Ellie!