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Practice run for this weekend
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Luckily, I am smart enough to buy a toddler-escape-proof crib. Gus must stay in his bed until I get up to rescue him. If you read my first blogs in Gus' infant stage, I obsessed over him not sleeping. My kid has turned to a sleep master. I am spoiled now! On weekends I sleep till 8am which is practically unheard of in my circle of friends who are mom's to toddlers.

I love weekends when I can sleep-in and then go fetch my little monkey and bring him back to bed with me. This is a picture of a weekend morning fun-fest with mommy and Gus!

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Gus loves his pumpkin! He likes to check on it, hold it, and fondle it every day.
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Trying a new way to blog. From my phone! Stay tuned to see how well technology and I get along

Pumpkins

Today Gus is 21 months old. I can't believe how much older he is looking. He doesn't even look like a baby anymore. Gus just looks like a little boy. He tries to act like a big boy, too

Gus also is talking more. He has several words now including Momma (my favorite!), Pop-pop, up ball, teeth, and the old faithful, HOT! I didn't want to add more American Signs to his repertoire, but since he is taking so long to learn how to speak, I feel it almost necessary to prevent utter frustration to both mom and toddler. He can point up and down, sign for more, milk, water, bananas, cookies. And now, he can sign for "help." This has been crucial. I also think it is pretty cool that he understands an abstract word like help.

Finally, Gus is doing really well in school. I love the fact that his school keeps the kids outside as much as they can. This usually comprises of a couple of hours in the morning and the afternoon. Due to the cooler weather, this time will decrease each day. However, I was told to bring in snow boots and pants because they do take them out in the snow as well.

Bruiser AND Bully

Just in the last couple of weeks, Gus has finally started picking up some words! For 20 months, he only said "hot". I've heard from many people that 1) this is normal for a boy and 2) "Connie, once he starts, you'll wish he would stop." Even my pediatrician wanted me to come back in unless he had at least 3 words by the end of August. Well, here it is the first week of October and he can say "out", "Pah!" (which is how he says "up" so I hope this counts!) and my favorite, "ma ma ma ma ma".

Gus is in school now. It is an actual preschool and they have a room for Toddlers. This is affectionately referred to as Toddieland. Gus loves all of his new friends. Unfortunately, Gus shows his love in not so nice ways. Okay, I admit it. My kid is a bully. If a kid has something that belongs to Gus, he pushes the kid down in order to get his toy back. If a kid has a toy that Gus was recently playing with, he pushes the kid down to get the toy. If a kid is playing with any toy that Gus wants to have no matter who the toy belongs to, Gus pushes the kid down. Remember, Gus is like 100% for height, so he has some force in his pushes. While I am glad that my boy is not a biter, I think there is equal shame in having a "pusher" for a kid. Nobody wants to have their kid play with a mean bully. Then, the teachers at Toddieland decided to teach Gus gentle hugs. Gus was all over the gentle hugs. Except he'd run up to the little kid with such enthusiasm and excitement that he'd end up giving the little kids a chest bump. And since Gus is twice the size, the kid would end up in the next room. I don't think that Gus is actually mean, I think he just is, well, a toddler. I'm hoping we can teach Gus to be more gentle!

I'm having a great time spending the weekend with Gus. Here he is playing in my yard and at the playground, showing off his Hokie Gear.

Bruiser

As Gus gets older, he acts more like a boy. He's rough and tough and falls a lot. He's already had to get his lip glued together a few months ago. I guess they glue instead of suturing. That was "Gus vs. Door Frame".

For the sequel "Gus vs. the Deck" he caused major panic and trauma to his poor Momma. His cousins were visiting for the weekend so they got to bear witness to this accident. As did my next door neighbor who was outside with me when it happened. Gus misstepped off the deck backwards and bumped his chin. I picked him up and he had a little blood coming out of his mouth. Well, Connie the super nurse had witnessed Gus biting his tongue only a couple of weeks ago. That time, it stopped bleeding within minutes. This time, the blood started spewing everywhere. Heidi ran to get me a towel and she came back with this horrified look on her face. Blood was everywhere! I finally got him into the house and he had swallowed so much blood he started puking blood up.

This is about when super nurse Connie panicked. Logically, it made sense that the tongue is vascular and bleeds easily and a lot. It made sense since he had a big hole in his tongue that it was bleeding hard for a reason. And it made sense that he was swallowing so much blood and the stomach is sensitive to the blood so the person will throw it up. Finally, I knew that they do not put sutures in tongues (or glue for that matter) because tongues heal very fast. Yes, it all seemed to logical. Except I was the mom and this was my baby and it all was happening so fast. I shamefully admit that I called the pediatrician. The pediatrician told me what I already knew. She prescribed Gus to eat Popsicles until it stopped bleeding. Heidi was nice enough to go buy some Popsicles. Gus at about 5 of those little mini ones which stopped the bleeding quite nicely. Eli is such a good cousin, he took the medicine as well and at Popsicles right along side baby Gus.

Hanging out in Pop Pop's van

Playing on the playground

Nearly amputated tongue the day after