Gus eating

Here are some videos of Mr. Gus. I finally figured out my computer and the videos. The first one is of Gus feeding himself. Usually once he gets the food in his mouth, he swallows. However, in this video he saw me with the camera and with the grin so he decided to perform. I just think the hand eye coordination for the little kid is awesome. Of course, when food in involved, Gus can do anything.

The second video is of Gus waving. Isn't he adorable?



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Gus, the traveling baby.

So much has happened since my last blog. Gus and I have been moving and shaking from one side of the country to the other. We went camping twice and made a trip to Virginia for the wedding of good friends Kent and Katie. Along the way we met up with old friends and Gus had plenty of babies to learn from.

First, we went on our second camping trip but first real one. It was just my dad, me, and Gus. Grandma stayed home with the old dog. Gus went swimming. Gus went hiking. He even stayed up for the camp fire.

That is Gus asleep while I hiked

Gus and I then trekked to Virginia for a tour around the state and to meet up with old friends. I lost my camera the day of the wedding and did not get any shots :( But I had a blast at Kent and Katie's wedding. Thanks to Heather for babysitting, I was able to enjoy my time at the wedding without worrying about Gus having a good time too.

We flew into National Airport where Emily greeted us. After spending the day with her and Geoff, we rented a car and headed to ole Cville.




In Cville, Gus had the opportunity to meet his Granddaddy for the first time. From the picture, it is hard to tell who loved who more?

Thanks to Grant and Erin, Gus and I had a place to stay that was fully equipped for baby-mania. They have an awesome baby girl named Chloe. Chloe is a couple of months older than Gus, so she showed him the ropes. Of course we had to do the obligatory naked babies in the bathtub picture:

I had to also meet up with my dear friend Theresa Love. We went out to dinner and then went back to her house for some good bonding. Gus loves her husband Chuck. In general, Gus loves tall men with booming voices. Here is a picture of Gus with T Love's daughter Mckenzie.


As I said earlier, I lost my camera for awhile so there are pictures I wish I had taken. I got to hang out with my Hokie friends like Chris Geiman (Uncle Geiman!!), Dave Johnson, and of course the couple we traveled across the country for. We got to meet up with Alison and her daughter Marley. Marley is 1 year old and she had some majorly cool toys that she shared with Gus.It was nice to visit with Heather (Gus got to stay in Heather's baby's nursery. . . thanks Avery for not getting out of your mom's bed yet!). Heather and Blain hung with Gus and were impressed by how much food that boy can eat. Since my breast milk I had left from April went bad, Gus had his first taste of formula. According to Heather, it went down like he had been drinking it his whole life.

Which brings me to my next point. Gus is pretty slow at many milestones. He only started turning over at 6 months. He refuses to "creep" or try to crawl. He can sit, but that is about it. However, Gus EXCELS at eating. It is almost scary how much he can throw down. I will try to post a picture of the boy feeding himself. Yes, he feeds himself now, too. It is a good thing that I am not a neat freak because a 6 month old feeding himself is a scary sight.

Back to our camping trips. Again, Pop-pop Gus and I went camping yesterday. This time, Gus refused to sleep and kept us up all night. It might be his last trip for awhile due to sleep deprivation.




I wanted to post pictures of Gus feeding himself and his new skill -the wave. I am still having trouble with the whole video thing so look for it as a separate post!

Gus is 6 months!

My little Gus is 6 months old now! It is amazing how fast (slow) time flies by. I can't believe the achievements he has made in this short little time. When he was only a few days and weeks old, I was worried that he:

1) was blind because he would not look at me
2) that he didn't know he had hands because he wouldn't use them
3) that he was going to sleep in my bed forever because he would not sleep in his own bed
4) that he would stop breathing any minute (this worry was brought on by the incident in which he did stop breathing and had to be hospitalized so I don't feel to bad about it)
5) that he would never take a nap . . . WAIT! He still doesn't
6)that he would not rollover

I think I get the worry-gene from my dad. I am thankful that Gus finally started rolling over. I was beginning to think if he stayed on that path, I would have to come to college with him just to roll him over. He also has started to sit on his own for long period of times.

For Gus's 6 month birthday, we had a little party in the yard. Our neighbors came and we ate cake and ice cream.

I c


Gus also loves to look at himself in the mirror. I guess this is common amongst infants. To be honest, I think he doesn't understand that it is himself, but he thinks it is one great looking baby. I see him smiling and saying to himself, "That baby is GORGEOUS!"


Finally, we went to the pediatrician today for his 6 month check-up. Dr. David thinks Gus is a very happy child who is hitting all of his milestones. In fact, Dr. David was not even upset that Gus fell off his growth chart. His current stats are :

Weight: 15pounds 1.2 ounces (10-25%)
Height: 27 1/2 inches (75-90%)

If you remember, Gus was following the 50% curve for weight, and now he has dropped off the curve. I still exclusively breastfeed him along with some supplementation of solid foods. Because I feel like my milk supply is down and now in light of Gus not gaining weight at the same rate, I was ready to throw in the towel and to start using formula. Dr. David had a lengthy conversation with me about how breastfed babies don't always follow along the chart like they should. He asserts that Gus will probably even drop to the 3% for weight before finally catching up at 2 years and this is NORMAL. He recommend that I make no changes because he is happy and healthy. I found this to be a relief and will forge on as I have. The only change I will make is I will make his food fattier by adding olive oils and butter. Lucky baby. I am to report back to the pediatricians in 6 weeks for a re-weigh. I will keep you posted!

Next week: Gus is working on his beauty queen wave. I will try to perfect it for the next blog.

Recent Videos

These are recent videos of Mr. Gus. One is of his new trick of rolling over. The second is Gus eating. Look at that mouth!

Finally, Milestones to report!

What a busy couple of weeks Gus has had. First, we had a blast on the 4th of July. I worked the night before, but after 2 hours of sleep, I was up and ready to celebrate! First, I dressed Gus in his Independence Day outfit. A friend gave this to me from her child's left over clothes. I remember back in March thinking "I will dress this in Gus on 4th of July!" And I did. We went for a walk and I bought him a little patriotic wheel thing. Then we went to a picnic where a neighbor of mine fed him a cookie! The sugar high that this boy had was unbelievable! You will be happy to know that Gus is a happy drunk. He laughed and giggled until he finally fell asleep. Here we are posing in front of the old Indian. I look good for being sleep deprived.

We meant to go for a hike the next day after the 4th of July. I found a really nice secluded mountain area. Then I got him all ready, but it turns out it was too muddy to hike. But doesn't he look adorable in his Kelty backpack?

Gus still makes his way to the pool most days of the week. This is a picture our old neighbors the Kady's took. They came out to visit us and we had a great time. Gus loves the water and loves swimming. I have tried to teach him that you CANNOT swim and suck on your toes at the same time.

This past weekend, we went on Gus's first camping trip. First we went to a small town that had this beer fest. My parents have been going to this even forever. You pay $25 and they give you a glass. Then you walk around the park to the different vendors where they fill your glass as many times as you wish with their micro beers. Again, it was on a Saturday and the night before I worked. Again, on 2 hours of sleep I tried to rally as best as I could. Here is Gus with Grandma and Pop pop at the festival.

Let's just say that Gus is not ready for camping. He was awake every two hours crying. I finally got up with him at 6 am and drove him down a bumpy road just to get him to go back to sleep. It was even more rough for Momma considering how sleep deprived I was. Sadly, I could not rally the second day. While Mommy rested, Gus went swimming (you know he loves it!) with Pop pop, Mr. Bob, his Uncle, Aunt, and cousins.

Finally, Gus has had some real milestones. First of all he is cutting not one but TWO teeth! Poor baby boy. He is very stoic and hardly ever cries over it. They are the two bottom teeth. I tried to get pictures but they are so little so far and he is not very compliant with me taking the pictures. Second, and most important, I can happily report that Gus can officially roll over! Yes way! He goes from tummy to back like he's been doing it his whole life. I will try to upload the video onto this blog post when I can figure out how to do it.


Next week: Gus's 6 month doctor visit! NOT MORE SHOTS!

Gus's Nursery

I chose a farm theme. A nice lady who owns this antique shop finds us nice things for Gus's room. I love the pictures she came up with. The are from 1952 and I just think they are adorable.





Gus and I went to the park where we watched other children do the things children do. Then Gus played on the blanket Grandma made and he swung in the swing.

Motor mouth

This baby talks about a mile a minute. It is so fun to see how he imitates the way we talk. One day I am going to make a video of it because it is so hilarious. While Gus's verbal skills are off the charts, he is still refusing to do what babies his age are suppose to do. Specifically, he won't roll over. One excuse is he is a product of the anti-SIDS generation. While I give Gus plenty of tummy time, he doesn't spend as much time as I did on my tummy because he sleeps on his back. The books say that it is easier to roll tummy to back then back to tummy. Gus just doesn't roll. The reason I think he won't do it is out of pure laziness. Why roll when his mom will do it for him? Especially if he screams loud enough. Besides, he likes being on his back.

I also encourage Gus to sit. The way babies learn to sit (or as I have read) is by sitting with legs apart and putting his hands in front of him in a sort-of tripod stance. This would of course require Gus to pay attention to sitting rather than going after his toys. As he nose dives for the toy, he face plants and that is the end of the "learning how to sit" lesson!

Let's talk about what Gus excels at. . .eating. And, he is not picky. Remember the Life cereal commercials with Mikey? "Give it to Mikey. He eats anything". That is how Gus is. He will eat anything from bland rice cereal to sweet peaches to gnarly looking green beans. And I can't shovel it in fast enough. He grunts and moans as he waits for his next bite. The grunting is funny. The moaning and whining is the start of a bad habit!

Another good thing is Gus is completely weaned off the burrito wrap when he sleeps. No more mommy worrying about her son turning over in his swaddle wrap and smothering himself. I love to sneak in and watch him sleep. He is so peaceful and sweet. I am still working on his nursery, but by the next post, I will have a picture ready.

We miss our Amy-bean. We miss our friends. But good news! We are coming back for a visit the last week of July. Please let me now if you want to hang out with us! We're coming home, baby.