Never Ending Birthday

In addition to the joint birthday with John, Leo also had three more birthday celebrations! His second b-day was at school, where he had cupcakes and fanfare with his classmates. The third was in Houston, where he got the coolest cake ever courtesy of Grandmother and Grandpa Ron. Leo had mentioned that he would like a cake with a train and a shark. Boy, did he get that: 

 And it was delicious too!

 While in Houston he also got to ride the Hermann Park train with cousins Ellie and Charlie (and Gus, Mommy, Tia, Uncle David, Aunt Laura and Grandmother)

On his actual birthday he celebrated in his new hometown of Frisco, TX at Babe's, a chicken/country joint. Granny Jo and Popsy were there...

...and so was a chicken hat!

 He then got another cake--this time an ice cream one!

Gus had no idea why we celebrated Leo's birthday from April 14th thru April 30th. However, he is always up for a party, even if it's celebrating assistant's day. (Pickins' were slim in the balloon section of the grocery store.)

So after FOUR birthdays I'd say our Leo is officially FOUR! 

Two Friends + Two Birthdays = FOUR!!

Leo's BFF John turned four on 4/13. He was planning to have his party at the YMCA and he was nice enough to let Leo (who is turning four on 4/30) do a joint birthday with him. What a special way to spend his last birthday in his native Georgia!

The kids played basketball and soccer in the gym and then had pizza and cake in the "teen center." They had a blast and I'm sure all slept well last night. Here are some pics from our first-borns' four-year-old double birthday party:

I'm glad he can do this since, for awhile there, I thought we were going to have to call him "Goalie" for the rest of his life.

Gus has been here ten months

Gus may have a chill attitude but he’s also always on the go. He’s a crawling machine now and wants to get into everything. His first word still might be “whatever” but his first sentence will be “I want that.” He wants to grab everything and he’s not pleased unless he’s holding something (which usually goes promptly into his mouth).

Speaking of crawling, many have commented that Gus doesn’t do the “proposal scoot” or “boot scootin’ boogie” like Leo did. This is where Leo would crawl with one knee up and one knee down. Update as of this week: Gus DOES do it! He doesn’t do it all the time, but sometimes. I have yet to capture it on video but it’s very cute.

Gus is so busy racing around and trying to climb the stairs (he can get up about three steps!) that he’s not really into baby sign language or clapping or any of those communication milestones. I try to ask him if he wants more food by doing the sign and he just barks as if to say, “Of course I want more, lady! Hand it over!” So he does have his ways of communicating; they’re just sort of cave-man like.

He eats anything. However, spoon-feeding is tough because he just wants to grab the spoon and do it himself. It’s such a nuisance that consequently, he’s very advanced with finger food. (At least more than Leo was at this age…or even at Leo’s age now). When I make lunch for Gus and me when Leo’s at school, we pretty much eat the same thing. (He shares my love of sandwiches and hummus.) The only thing he doesn’t seem to like is avocado. Isn’t that weird?

If I can just brag about one more area in which Gus is advanced, I’d like to tell you about his train/car/truck playing. He already moves them just like a kid does; he chugs! When I asked Leo what he did at the YMCA playcenter today he said he and Gus played this and he and Gus played that. They can already play together thanks to Gus’ superior playing skills.

So to sum up, Gus is adorable. He smiles all the time and I feel like he’s saying, “I’m thrilled!” He’s just thrilled about everything—about toys, about climbing, about people and especially about his big brother. And we are thrilled that he’s been here ten months!

Thank you, Easter Bunny

This was a very monumental Easter for the Simcik family--

1. It was Gus' first Easter!

2. It was our last Easter in Roswell.

3. Our nine year wedding anniversary fell the day before Good Friday.

So here you'll see pics of Easter morning, our traditional anniversary pic (this time with a new family member!) and then Easter brunch with John and Etienne's families. Sorry for the lack of Gus pics but he'll be featured this week when he turns ten months old!

Me and my "Baby" Brother

To Leo, Gus is more than a brother, he's a full-on playmate. The other day Leo tried to get Gus to "hide from mommy" with him under his comforter. Gus is such a good sport that I think Leo forgets (or doesn't quite understand) that's he's a baby.

Here they are climbing the pillow mountain:

At Leo's last day at his TEDDY study, pretending he and Gus are pirates. When I took Gus to feed him, Leo said, "Don't take my baby pirate away!"

Pretending to be train workers, digging in coal, according to Leo.
Just goofing around
Playing in Fort Little Table:
I think I was wrong. It's Gus who forgets he's just a baby!