Sit Gus Bottom

Here it is, Gus' first sentence: "Sit Gus Bottom." It means he wants you to help him sit in a chair or the couch or lately, a bar stool. I took this video a week ago and since then he says it more clearly (although I still don't think anyone would know what he was saying without a translator). 

In fact, now he says "I sit Gus Bottom" so it makes a little more sense. He'll say it over and over again until you help him into the chair. It's pretty cute. 

And speaking of pretty cute, here is a variation on his sentence: "Shake Gus Bottom." Enjoy! 

Pretty Funny

Over the weekend David, Laura, Ellie and Charlie came to visit: 

Leo says to Ellie, "Isn't my mommy pretty?" 

Ellie says, "Yes she is...but I'm prettier." 

Hey, she just calls it like she sees it! Here is Ellie, the fairest of them all. 

And here are all the pretty cousins (Charlie, Leo, Gus and Ellie), riding a horse at La Hacienda Ranch. 

Gettin' Our Business Done

Mornings were getting too hectic around here. I mean, if it's hard to get out the door for 9am preschool, how will we ever get out the door for before the rooster when it comes time for elementary school? 

We needed a system. 

(Now you're gonna want to get your Pinterest buttons ready because this is PRETTY clever.) 

We call the things Leo has to do in the morning "his business." He has to "get his business done before he can have fun." There's even a little song to it. He has to go potty, put on his shoes and socks and brush his teeth. Once he completes those tasks he can watch the iPad until it's time to go to school. How fast he gets his business done determines how much iPad time he has. 

One day I asked him to do a couple extra things--put his sticker on his sticker chart, do a worksheet from school plus his three items of business. I needed to blow dry my hair so I couldn't remind him before every step. Instead, I drew it in a cute little to do list: 

I'm no artist but Leo got the picture. He LOVED it because he got to mark an "X" each time he finished a task. (He prefers X's to check marks because of the pirate connection, obviously.) So lately Leo's been getting his business done in record time! 

Gus is really happy about that, as you can see. Or really, he's just excited to be at Marble Slab. 

I do have something to say about Gus with regards to getting his business done. He is OBSESSED with brushing his teeth. He wants to do it about six times a day. He reaches towards his toothbrush (a new spin brush!) and says, "Ah Buh Tee" which means "I Brush Teeth" (not that anyone but his mommy would understand that). He cries when we take it away.

You might think this means Gus has awesome oral hygiene. It does not. I refer you to the sentence above that says "He is OBSESSED with brushing his teeth." I didn't say he was obsessed with having ME brush his teeth. He basically just sucks on the toothbrush. If it weren't for the spinning action, I don't think one of his teeth would get cleaned. But I like to think, that after six times a day, for five minutes each time, at least four are getting brushed. Right?

I don't have time to fight with him about it. I have crafty to-do lists to draw!

Leo and Gus' New Year's Resolutions

Dress up as a cowboy at least once a week. Now that we're in Texas, we want to fit in. 

Play basketball while wearing footed pajamas; it helps me to slide on the court.

Decorate this house finally, starting with mommy and daddy's closet.

Wear my new clothes and try to act surprised when hoards of people compliment me on how good I look.

Also, try to get daddy to dress like us as much as possible.

Climb onto the barstool by myself--check. Work on not falling off. 

Bake. Sample. Repeat.

Cuddle and/or wrestle with each other.

Get more sleep.

Happy 2013!
Love,
Leo and Gus

Pirate Passion

Many years from now when I look back at all the phases the boys went through--balls, trains, cars, dinosaurs, soccer, video games, skate boards, guitars, girls--I think the weirdest one will be pirates. Currently Leo is all pirates all the time. And coincidentally enough, the McDonald's by our house is pirate-themed. In the picture above Leo is posing with pirate Ronald; he played there today while wearing his new pirate sweater. He'd be wearing his pirate hat as well but I left it in the car.

It started with Jake and the Neverland Pirates, an innocent Disney show. So at first he was just into Jake and Jake happened to be a pirate. He didn't even say all the phrases right: "Ahoy, Maybe!" But somewhere along the way it morphed into an obsession with all things pirate-related. He watched a pirate movie, went to a pirate museum, has a toy pirate ship, constantly does a pirate puzzle, plays with all his toy pirates (including the cast of Jake and Pirates of the Caribbean), puts pirate stickers on everything, wears his pirate hat and uses pirate lingo in regular conversation. (Betcha didn't know that "Frosty" is an insult as in "You Frosty Mommy!")

Today he held "Pirate School" in which we had to listen to a lecture on different kinds of skulls and crossbones.  Apparently some are scary and some are not. At the end Leo said, "Any questions?" And Frank asked, "How do I know the difference between crossbones and an X?" They then had a spirited debate about this.

Three more funny pirate notes:

• He likes to go to Petsmart to look at the fish because some of them have pirate-themed tanks. 
• When we do the pirate puzzle, we have to talk like pirates: "Arggh, that piece goes over there" and "Shiver me timbers, if I put that piece under that one I'm gonna have to walk the plank!" 
• He calls his Jack Sparrow pirate Johnny Depp. (No idea who taught him that!) 

While I think this is an odd phase, I hope it sticks at least until he turns five. Target has super cute pirate-themed birthday stuff and that McDonald's has a very affordable party package. Ahoy, Maybe!