Gus shows off his skills

I'm learning to love shopping malls with the kids.  It seems that these indoor playgrounds are all the rage these days, and it sure makes running some errands easy when I can let the boys out of the stroller to stretch their limbs for a bit.  While Arjen was off making friends with the other toddlers on this particular rainy day, Gus decided he wanted to step up his game, no pun intended.

New family photos

Well, I was disappointed with the last round of professional photos I had done for the boys, so I decided I'd test my own skill as family photographer.  Good thing for fancy cameras and seasonally appropriate backdrops.  These pics of the boys were taken at Little Farmer in Fond du Lac, WI, where we went with Tracy, Aden and Adalin to pick out our pumpkins, or "punk punk" as Arjen is calling them.

Gus, 7 months

Arjen, 2 years

And then of course there's this years family photo, well, the one I'm not saving for the Christmas card.  :)

On the Move!

I knew this moment was coming.  Gus has been getting himself up on all fours for a few weeks now, and just last week figured out how to get himself into a sitting position.  He's been scooting himself backwards and rolling all over the place, and yesterday, I saw the first consecutive crawling "steps", one, two, before he collapsed onto his belly.  But today, it's official!  Gus can crawl.  Just a few days shy of 7 1/2 months old.  The kid is on a mission to catch up with that big brother I think.  It'll probably take another day or two, or maybe a week or two, before he realizes that crawling is in fact more efficient and faster than roll-sit-roll-sit-scoot-roll, etc, etc.  But watch for yourself, Gus can crawl! 

Happy 2nd Birthday Arjen!

Two years ago today, I woke up, got ready to go to work, but rather than go to work, I found myself checking into the maternity ER, on my way to my first birth day.

Arjen, 1 day old

One year ago today, I was five months pregnant, Arjen was on the verge of walking independently, and we were fairly good at using baby signs for communication.

Today, I woke up to "Hi Mommy!  Hi Mommy!" over the monitor, along with the peanut gallery in the pack n play in the corner of our room.  Somewhere over the past 2 years, my little premie, who scared the tears out of me that day, has turned into this incredible little toddler; one who dotes on, then pounces on, his little brother; one who can make me laugh and also make me want to scream at the top of my lungs; one who makes me forget he's only just 2, then reminds me he's only just 2.

A rare moment these days, when I am actually able to get a true "cheese!" 

The Birthday Boy, crusing around in his new ride

So Arjen is now two years old. Can someone please explain to me how TWO WHOLE YEARS just passed me by???  He walks.  He runs.  He jumps! He glides around on his little strider bike like it's nobody's business.  He draws.  He eats his food with a spoon/fork (and still his hands and whole body at times).  He can be bossy and demanding.  He loooves his "ding-dings" (and yes, I am realizing we need to rename motorcycles so that any sentence involving "your ding ding" is not met with questioning looks from passersby).  He knows that he needs to put his bag thru the xray at the airport.  He knows how to navigate his way thru an iPod/iPad/iPhone (yes, all three, and he knows which is which).  He loves planes, trains, and automobiles.  He loves his brother.  He loves his Dada.  He loves his Mommy (yup, somewhere in the past few weeks I became "Mommy").  He sings!  He loves the water.  He speaks...in three to four word sentences.

Basically, he still amazes us.  But what kind of parents would we be if we didn't think our kid was the best there is??

Happy Birthday Arjen!!!

Happy seven months Gus Gus!!

I realize I'm sounding like a broken record (a phrase my kids may
never understand I'm also realizing!), but where does the time go?!?
Gus is seven months old today, a day that he and I get to spend
together, just the two of us. Almost feels like I'm on vacation!

This progression of photos pretty much sums up what Gus is up to these days:

- still a ham, flashing the home for his future pearly whites to
anyone who returns the favor. No actual teeth yet, although I imagine
they can't be far away.

- he is a bit of a rolly polly, and can travel across an entire room
simply by rolling

- now that he knows he can get from one place to another, he is
working on figuring out this crawling business. He gets up onto all
fours, but only has one direction: reverse. That's the one thing that
consistently irks him (like in the last picture..."I want that iPad,
but it keeps getting further away!!")

- he's tolerating a big brother who always wants to play with him, to
a fault of causing tears half he time because he'll knock Gus over, or
grab him too hard. I swear I'm now starting to see the beginning of
"but he started it!"

- we've started Gus on "solid" food now, which is gradually coming
along. For all the drooling he does over our food, and trying to grab
our plates and drinks, he doesn't quite understand the
open-mouth-insert-spoon thing just yet.

- and as I sit here typing this up (four hours after I started it!),
still in my pajamas because this cutie pie has decided to completely
throw off anything I wanted to attempt doing today, I am grateful that
he can also now entertain himself while sitting playing with a floor
full of toys. :)

Next post...Arjen turns two!! Sweet. Holy. Moly.

There's no place like home...

...especially when you're homeless! Good thing these kids are pretty
happy at any ol' park, any ol' time. Enjoyed a sunny SoCal morning at
shiffer park in Costa Mesa today, while Andrew was at work just down
the road in Irvine.

Does this make us bad parents?

Maybe it was the fatigue from traveling, the beer at dinner, or just the sheer value of free entertainment. Just please don't judge us for finding it hilarious that our son kept falling when we got on the people mover at the airport. He'd almost figured it out by the time I got the video rolling, and that was after we'd already looped back around a second time, just for the sake of entertainment. :)