Birthdays!

Three birthdays to celebrate!

Happy birthday to Gus's great-uncle Leo!

Too bad you have a family member who spent 10 years working for a company that creates photo editing software...


Happy birthday to Gus's cousin Sophie! It won't be long before the little guy catches you in weight -- you better push him around while you can.


Happy birthday to cousin Bjorn! Do you feel older? You're not getting any younger. Make a wish. 28 and holding...

Engagement

Congratulations to Bjorn and Meg! We're happy to hear that you two kids are engaged -- didn't see that one coming. We know you two are perfect for each other and will be very happy.


Sorry for the editing in the picture below but it's what we do. Don't go and sue us!

Out for a walk

It was nice out this evening so we went for a little stroll around the neighborhood after dinner. The trail system in our little city will definitely be missed.

We'll also miss our little home we've lived in for the last five years. So far we've had two showings. Last night we went out for a bite to eat while the agent was showing it and today Allison received a call at 1:45 asking if it would be okay to show the place at 2:00 -- not exactly a great advance warning. She was able to gather the Gus-man up and scoot out of the house in time though. At least there's some interest in our little home.

Well, here's the main attraction -- pictures of our little guy.

Official weigh-in

Gus went to the doctor today because I was worried he had an ear infection. Turns out his ears are just fine and he is healthy. He may be teething or just crabby.

His official weight @ 5 months, 2 weeks = 17 lbs 9 oz

I packed Ross' baby book already or else I would compare their weights and make this blog entry a little more entertaining. I'll try to add something interesting by mentioning a tidbit of info that I got today from my mom - she said I was walking when I weighed 18 lbs. She didn't say when I started walking but I'm just guessing it wasn't at 5 months, 2 weeks!

Not a fan of the veggies

We struck out with peas last week so this week we thought we'd give carrots a try. He made the most entertaining faces yet.

We are still alive

We've been bad bloggers lately but we are still alive! It has been one big whirlwind every since we made the decision to move. We planned a house hunting trip to Fargo last weekend but it was canceled because I-94 was closed due to blizzard conditions. Um, what are getting ourselves into?! A blizzard in late April...that could happen anywhere, right?

But we promise to get back to what's important and exciting - Gus. I just took about 100 photos off my camera so it is my goal this week to do some posting!

In the meantime, here's a picture of what we can expect the next couple of Aprils now that we are relocating.

Breaking news

We are moving!

Unless something major happens to our plans in the next couple of weeks, we are on target to relocate back to the great state of North Dakota within 1 month. Fargo, to be exact.

We are very excited to finally do something we've discussed trying for many years. We knew we wanted to be closer to family after we had children and now that Gus is here we thought now might be a good time to investigate the possibility. Plus, the fact that I was laid off this winter and was on the job hunt anyway was also a contributing factor to our decision. We're going for it!

So are we going to live off the land? Be Josh and Christy's maid & butler? No, although those would all be fun jobs, I am happy to say I've found a great position at a marketing & tech company called Sundog and Ross is in the process of finding his dream job as we speak. He will be able to spend more quality time job hunting once we get there. With his experience and skills he will undoubtedly find something he likes and the company that gets him will be lucky!

We hope to find a temporary home within the next couple of weeks and are keeping our fingers crossed for the speedy sale of our current home.

This decision wasn't easy because we have such wonderful friends and family here. We keep reminding ourselves it is only a short 3-hour trip and we've been making the drive for years so why stop now? Home will just be on the flip-side.

Mostly, we are looking forward to being much closer to our loving families and dear ND friends. We are very excited! Anytime you happen to be in the Fargo area and need to a place to stay just give us a call.

Sit! Good Gus

We pumped him up beforehand and sure enough, when Ross let go, he sat pretty tall for about 10 seconds.

Checking his balance.....


Nothing to it!


Shortly after this shot he toppled over but was OK.

Fun with a wide-angle lens

We had the windows open all day so we could enjoy the great outdoors while doing some spring cleaning inside. While digging around I stumbled upon a fun little lens at the bottom of some camera equipment so naturally Gus agreed to be my model.


Here he is really exploring the space that is his room.


His serious pose.


Trying to boost himself up and over to escape from his crib.

His favorite snack.


Quite the long kid - wonder where he gets that.

A bike ride to the park

Sunday was a beautiful day so we decided to pack up Gus and head out on a bike ride.




We made a couple stops along the way. Of course I had to keep checking to make sure he hadn't tipped over or his head wasn't flopping around.


He was fine the whole time. He loved it.

(Note: notice he now sits in the middle seat, appropriate for only 1 child. Ross figured out how to switch it around.)

We decided to stop at the park. It was full of kids running around and screaming so Gus was immediately curious.

He was trying to figure out how to jump to the next stool in the shot below.


The good thing about having a macho huge dad is that every kid on the playground immediately slides down the slide or crawls down the ladder when they see Ross on his way up.


Looks like it's time to either pull up the socks or get some shoes.

No arguments from Gus on the pulling up of the socks. He was gawking at the wild kids who were running all over the place and loving every minute of it.

On the way back to his stroller he was cracking up because being outside is seriously fun.



On the way back I had Ross stop again so I could check on Gus (I'm working on my crazy-mom tendencies....trying to remember that he will be OK!). This is what happened when we stopped the bike.

Peas

We've been introducing a new food each week to Gus. He's been eating cereal, applesauce, sweet potatoes, and peaches like a champ. Since it's been about a week since he's had anything new we decided to try peas last night. He wasn't a fan. Gus was a little over-dramatic with the faces and the whole body shudders. He only was willing to try two bites. I just wish we would have had the video camera out for that one.

Needless to say, we decided to put the peas on hold for awhile. Instead, he had some pears mixed in with his cereal this morning which went over much better. I think he can't wait until he gets a little older and gets to real cereal. Gus still remembers his great aunt Patty saying something about having a wide selection to choose from at her house.

It's pretty dreary here today but it's supposed to be nice tomorrow. Maybe we'll get a chance to go out for a family bike ride -- we can't wait.

Have a good weekend!

Bath time

5 months old

Gus is officially 5 months old today. To celebrate this milestone he spent the week doing the following:

Relaxing with his dad.


Sitting up to the table in a highchair for the first time while out for lunch.


Kicking butt and taking names.


Replenishing.


Not smiling for the camera on purpose because he was sick of getting his picture taken.


Playing his drum from Uncle Brett and chillin'.


Driving.

I know what you're thinking...Britney Spears for a mother...but for the record, we were not moving. The keys weren't even in the ignition. We were just sitting.

New stroller

We usually leave Costco with our regular old items such as bottled water, pork chops, cheese, and Honey Nut Cheerios, but this time we found a steal of a deal and had to bring this gem home.
We've been looking for a stroller/jogger that doubles as a pull-behind trailer for our bikes for quite some time. He likes it already and has only experienced it in the garage going .05 mph so imagine how excited he will be when we actually take him for a stroll down the sidewalk.

Growing

We thought we'd do an unofficial weigh-in and measurement after dinner tonight. Allison stepped on the scale without the little guy and then back on while holding our little tike. After performing the mathematical calculations between the two weights we determined that Gus is now approximately 17 pounds. Next, it was time to see how tall he was. The G-man didn't want to unbend his right leg but when he eventually did he stretched the tape to 26.5 inches.

Just think, he'll probably be another 5 feet taller and 200 pounds heavier in another 16 years.

After we weighed Gus we decided to see how much I weighed. Allison stepped on the scale by herself and then stepped back on the scale while holding me. We determined that I'm approximately 245 pounds.

The Riverdance

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Because you are valued readers of this website, we are offering a discount on the highly anticipated performance of the Riverdance on May 17-18. Gus will be performing at the Minneapolis Convention Center in a few short weeks and is sure to dazzle the crowd. We would like to thank the readers of this blog by offering a limited time offer of 20% off the price of admission. Act fast because this performance is sure to sell out. Be sure to enter the promotion code magicbabyfeet when ordering.

Here is short sample of the dazzling performance you will see. Enjoy.

There's a first time for everything

On Saturday the weather here in MN was finally nice enough for us to be outside without a full-blown snow suit and mittens so we took advantage of it. Gus was super confused as you can see by the look on his face in all of these photos.

He was wondering why the heck we were all sitting in this cold, bright room just looking at each other.




I can't explain why Ross looks so confused. Yes, the winter was long and all, but I'm pretty sure he knew we were outside.


And while Gus was experiencing his first time outside, we thought we'd let him try jumping on his own for the first time, too. Our god daughter, Carter, will be 2 in a couple weeks so she's long outgrown her jumper. She loaned it to Gus until he can do the jumping on his own.

He is still practicing so we'll wait to video tape him until he's a jumping maniac.