We did not force this on him

We thought he would like a new toy made for a kid, not a baby. And we were right. Gus loves his new bball hoop. Once he got the hang of it he was really into it, clapping for himself when he made it and if he missed, crying out, as if in pain. I hope those crying spells were because he needed a nap and that's he's not really already competitive at the ripe old age of 15 months.



Here's what it actually looked like:




And, happening simultaneously in Gus' imagination:

Exhaustion has set in

After Mike, Michelle and Gabby left for the weekend, Gus was played out. Plus, he had a mild fever so he was in the mood for cuddling. Earlier in the day Ross held him during his entire nap.

This kid is long!

She's the sweetest baby

Mike, Michelle, and sweet Gabby were in town this weekend and we loved every second of it. Gabby is so precious and such a sweet little dainty girl who we love to oogle over. We tried to get Gus to give her a kiss but he wasn't going to do it, no way.

This gaze was as close as he was going to get.


On second thought, he decided to get just a little closer. The one finger touch to the forehead was as far as he would go.

But she was fun to look at anyway. And the highlight of this moment was when I got him to say "hi baby".


I could have sat for hours and read to them both. I felt like Santa with kiddos on each knee.


To my disappointment, story time only lasted for about 3 minutes. Notice the dirty look Gus shot to Gabby when she started to cry on pg 3.

Michelle, Gab, Gus and I.



Gabby just smiles and smiles then every couple seconds, lets out a petite little giggle that makes anyone in earshot smile, for sure.


Gus and Mike discussing bath time.


Here's a couple shots of our precious god daughter, Gabby. Somebody get her an agent!

2 Parties: Pizza & Housewarming

First up, Gus's pizza party with his fellow daycare classmates and providers. It was at Happy Joe's which meant Ross loved it just as much, if not more, than Gus did. Who am I kidding, I did too. Taco pizza is delicious.

This is the closest we got to getting a class photo. From left to right: Ava, Gus, his teacher Jill, Peyton, and Erik. A fight over the basketball broke out moments after this photo was taken. Also, Gus is 1 & 2 months younger than 3 of these kids but stands about a head taller. It has begun!

Gus & Erik wish we would have given them game tokens.

The pizza party was fun but the real fun was the welcome-to-Fargo party at the beautiful home of our new neighbors, Dan & Anne. We go way back to pre-child days with Dan & Anne so it will be nice to be in the same city again. They have Charlie (2.5 years old) and will welcome another little guy in just a couple months.

Gus borrowed Charlie's basketball hoop. He also played hockey with Charlie but he needs way more practice at that to compete with Charlie the next time we get together.

Yogurt is invigorating

Gus gets very excited when I let him eat non-kid's branded yogurt. I think it makes him feel very grown-up.

Give it up for live cultures and probiotics! Hooray!

We are still working on the new potty-chair so that's why he's without pants in these shots. It has nothing to do with how excited he gets to eat yogurt.


After he's done with the yogurt, I have to sneak the cup into the sink for a quick rinse because he always wants to play with it for the rest of the afternoon.

Every parents worst nightmare

It has come true.

Gus loves the song Who Let The Dogs Out.....and he knows how to operate an iPod.

2028 olympiads, watch out

Gus had his first swimming lesson today. He's got a killer front float. As new parents, we're already thinking Olympics, 2028.

The lesson plan for a 14-month old:
- Sing 'The Wheels on the Bus' (Ross loved this part)
- Blow bubbles
- Front float
- Back float
- Kicking
- Jump into the pool from the edge, into the arms of the parent
- Sing 'Speedboat, speedboat' and swim in circles with your mom/dad

Gus did pretty good on all of them except the last part because he doesn't know how to jump yet.


This facial expression is a laugh, not a cry. It's hard to tell so I thought I should confirm that one.



Here's Gus saying, 'no, YOU mommy. You the man. And I love swimming'.

Too random to title

I tried to think of a great title for this series of photos but after 5 minutes of writer's block, I decided this posting is far too random to title, so it will remain untitled.

Here's what Gus did this weekend:

He got to try out the table. He still likes his high chair for snack-time and the occasional breakfast.


He makes this new face at least once per hour.


He had more fun putting the markers back into the box than he did coloring on the paper.


His second favorite part of this coloring activity was stacking all 8 of the markers on top of each other.



He loves Hornbachers, our local grocery store, because he gets to ride in the car while we shop. These carts are nice but dangerous to navigate. Ross needs to push because I run into everything.


Sunday evening we had Asian-fusion/Iron Chef Fargo night. Beef wok (Ross) is on the left, Chicken wok (Josh) is on the right.

It was delicious and fun to see 2 huge men huddled over the stove-top just a cooking away.

Superbowl Party

We spent the evening at our neighbor's house eating too much football food, making bets, chasing Gus, and watching all the other kids run around like maniacs. I think we watched a couple minutes of the game, too.

Here's Ally and Gus playing a kitchen/cooking game. They were using real water which made the game even more fun.

Here's Riley feeding Gus the water. He must have thought this was super fun because he doesn't drink water that nice and neat when I give him a drink.

These kids were prepared for the 3D show at halftime. They had their glasses on at the end of the 1st quarter just so they wouldn't miss it.



We left a little early and made it home in time to watch the last couple minutes of the game. It ended up being a great game. But we missed all the commercials so we'll have to download the funniest ones sometime this week. I heard the eTrade babies were funny.

Apple grapple

Because we've mentioned this in a previous post, you already know that Gus is into apples. He really gets at the apple from every different angle.