Happy Birthday, Gus!

*This is going to be long, so make sure you've given yourself some time to look at all the pictures and read my extended writing today :) 

Today is our sweet August's first birthday!  We celebrated on Sunday night with family and the Nichols, and although the boys are still fighting off a cold, it was a lot of fun. 

The cake I made, it's Funfetti :)

His month pictures.

The favor bags for the kids: homemade play-do, cookie cutters, and a lollipop!

The birthday boy with JP's light saber.

Gus' smash cake, about to be truly smashed!



The cake was a giant hit, he loved it!

Both boys' baby books have a place in the back that says, "A Letter From Mommy" and "A Letter From Daddy."  For George, I wrote his a few days before he turned one.  I wrote Gus' last week and decided that instead of thinking up something special to write here, I'd just share the letter with you all. 

Dear August,



Exactly one year ago today, your dad and I were on our way to the hospital. I thought you were coming and that something was terribly wrong. That car ride seemed to take forever, but thank God that you were still healthy and happy, all curled up inside me for one more week. I remember every single moment of being in labor with you. Thank you for being so kind to me by being born so quickly, because I can still visualize so clearly the first moment I saw you. I leaned forward and there you were, so small, so perfect. You were so alert and looking around. I just kept saying to you, “Hello. Hello. Hi there, little one.” Your daddy and I hit the jackpot when we were picked to be your parents.


Since that day, you have made our family so complete. It’s hard for me to remember a time that you weren’t here with us. There have definitely been some times that I have struggled to be the kind of mom that you and George deserve, and I’ve felt overwhelmed at the enormity of raising two energetic, headstrong, wild boys. But I wouldn’t change it for the world.


Some of the highlights of this year have been: spending your first two weeks home with you sleeping in my arms on the couch downstairs, wearing you close in the baby carriers, nursing you as you look at me and smile, watching your face light up when you see your daddy and big brother, calling you by dozens of random and odd-sounding nicknames (Goose, Goosie, Gusser, Gussie, Goo-Goo, Ga-Ga, Noodle, Bootchie Boo-Boo, as well as others) and being able to see so many of your “firsts” such as smiling, pulling up, crawling, walking, dancing, giving kisses, and signing “more” and “milk.”


You are such a good cuddler, Gus, and I love picking you up and having you rest your head on my shoulder. You have such beautiful, bright blue eyes that neither your dad nor I have, which makes me love them even more. I know you will be such a handsome man as you grow up. I love how happy you get when you hear my voice or when I come into your room as you wake up from a nap. You are smart and curious; you want to go where you’re not allowed, you want to touch things that you’re not supposed to, and you want to explore as much as possible from as high as possible, usually. You desperately want to play with your brother, but he’s not really interested yet. You try to play catch with him but he ignores you, so you throw the ball to me instead. You try to play cars with him (you even make the vvrrrooooom sound), but you’re not really allowed to touch those special race cars. One day the two of you will have so much fun together. I’m so glad I have two boys that I know will be playmates and friends for the rest of your lives.


Thank you so much for being my son, Gus. I am so very proud of you and all that you have learned and taught me in your first year. I am so glad that I’ve been able to be home with you all this time. When you and George are teenagers and college students and grown men with families of your own, I’ll be able to smile and say to myself, “Those boys loved to rock with me. George loved to hold my hand as we went through the car wash and Gus slept in our bed, cuddled right up next to me for almost a year.” What a wonderful life I have with the three men in my life. How blessed I am that I’m your mommy. I look forward to your second year, third year, tenth year, fortieth year, and all those in between.


I love you very, very much, August. Happy birthday, my little one.


Love,


Mommy

Our Big-Time Walker!

Here's a short video so you can see Gus in action.  This is Gus walking at Barnes & Noble.  Barnes & Noble is one of our favorite places to go, each boy could stay there all day playing with the train table and reading all the books. 

I'm pretty sure that new walkers are the most adorable creatures on Earth!

11 Months Old (3 weeks late!)

Well, he's now almost a year old, but I have to backpedal and say something about him being 11 months old :)  It might be hard for me to think back to what he was doing a month ago instead of what he's doing now, but it's close enough. 

• Starting on Christmas Day, Gus started taking some steps on his own.  Within the week, it was 5-6 steps at a time, and now he literally walks all around the house with a big smile on his face. 

•  Gus now has 5 teeth.  His top two teeth have a big gap in them and they make us laugh :)

•  By 11 months, Gus started imitating some of our usual actions like talking on the phone.  Luckily, he doesn't know how to operate the iPhone yet and find his favorite movies like George does, but it probably won't be long!

•  Here's Gus rooting for the Broncos!

•  There was a very small window in Gus' existance where he enjoyed eating baby food from a spoon, maybe 2-3 weeks.  Now he refuses to eat anything that I "serve" him and will hit the spoon out of my hand.  The alternative is just giving him food to feed himself, however messy the results end up being!

•  This picture is just from a couple days ago, but I love it so I'm including it.  Now that he walks, Gus has become a world-class ninja at times, being so quiet and sneaky that you don't even notice when he grabs a bottle of salad dressing from the open fridge, takes it into the next room while you're cooking dinner, and takes a balsamic vinaigrette bath.

Now that his first year is almost over, I am feeling lots of nostalgia for both my boys' babyhoods.  When I think of George as he turned one, he seemed so much older than Gus does, which makes me happy because Gus still seems like such a baby to me.  I know that my nursing and rocking to sleep won't last forever, so I'm making a point to really cherish it each time and stay in the glider for as long as I can, long after he's asleep, just to soak it all in.  We love this boy so so much, he makes us smile all day long and we are so blessed to have him!

p.s. I also wrote a Christmas post so you can read that one next - two posts in one day!  I'm making up for lost blogging time :)

Better Late Than Never: Christmas 2011

Our computer is finally back!  It isn't fixed (that's a long story), but it works and I can finally get caught up on the blog.  We had a great Christmas with George and Gus.  George was 100% into Santa and got very good at saying, "I want Santa to bring me that!" to almost every toy he could find.  Here are a ton of pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas day.

 This is George's letter to Santa.  He asked for a Fireman Sam firehouse. 

 Santa is good at reading all kinds of writing :)

 As always, we spent Christmas Eve at Kelly's for Wagilia, the traditional Polish dinner.  Here are the boys getting ready for church first.

 At Kelly's:

 I would love to say that Wagilia was a lot of fun and the boys were so well-behaved, but that was just not the case.  George was so hyped up over Santa coming and the candy cane he had eaten after church just made him completely nuts.  It was probably a record for George as far as time-outs, warnings, bribes, threats, you name it.  Ugh.  I could say that it's just because he's three, but there were four other three year olds there who were very well behaved and didn't make their parents want to throw them outside in the snow :)  Plus, it ended up being past Gus' bedtime so he was overtired and cranky and only wanted to be held so Sean and I didn't get to really enjoy the delicious dinner that Kelly had worked so hard on or enjoy any of the adult conversations. Oh well, next year will be better!

Gus did enjoy the mushroom soup!

Some good old-fashioned cousin wrestling.

 Each year some elves bring all the kids some new jammies while we're at church.  How stinking cute is this?!

 Here's what Santa brought: Fireman Sam's firehouse, a sled and a push toy for Gus, and a Holly Shiftwell with wings for George (a character from Cars 2).

 After we opened presents and stockings at our house, we headed to my parents' house to do the same.  This is Gus' gift from my mom and dad: an Evel Kneivel bike helmet.  Now that he's a walking, climbing maniac, it's all the more fitting :)

 Christmas was a beautiful day in Denver so we all went sledding after breakfast.  So. much. fun!! 

 Willis Case Golf Course is a great place to take pictures, it has such beautiful views!!

 Unless I'm in the picture of course, then the highway is in the background :)

 George loved being outside, although he only tried sledding once.  He cried at the bottom and refused to do it again.  But he ran and rolled and jumped and threw snowballs the entire time. 

We were all very blessed with a wonderful Christmas with family. 

Updates soon!

I just wanted to write a quick note to say that yes, I have tons of pictures from Christmas but our computer is away being fixed again. So I have no way to get my pictures from camera to share with anyone... Hopefully by the end of the week.

Happy New Year!