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!