Sunday, November 29, 2015

Thanksgiving 2015

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We went to Joplin to see Scott's family at Aunt Sally and uncle Dan's house. It was a big crowd with 11 kids! Audrey had a blast playing with her cousins and Gus had fun seeing everyone too. They both did really well in the car (2.5 hours!). On the way, Audrey was a bit restless and Gus slept the entire time. On the way home, they both fell asleep!



Gus doing "Poor Old Horsey" with Aunt Crystal

Friday, November 20, 2015

Audrey's 5th Birthday!

We just celebrated Audrey's birthday and I can't believe she is five years old! They really do grow up way too fast.We had a great weekend celebrating. On Friday, we had a day of fun with Mama, Dada and Audrey like we did last year. I think we'll make it an annual tradition. This year we went to Scheel's to ride the Ferris wheel which she loved! We all rode it together twice. She also bowled while we were there and did a great job! She loved the giant aquarium. Then we went to Panera for lunch, then to Prairie Fire museum. Then we picked up Gus from school and all went to Salty Iguana for dinner.

Started the day off right with her favorite breakfast - two long johns from John's

Loved the aquarium

A pro at bowling!

Practicing shooting with Dada




She loved the bearded dragon - "He's so cute!"

She assembled this praying mantis

At the horse exhibit at Prairie Fire


Then the next day, we had a party with her friends. We invited everyone from her class at school, plus cousins plus a few friends. We had 19 kids come. We had it at Rainbow Play Systems and everyone had a blast! Audrey especially loved the trampoline and playing with all of her friends. The theme was Hello Kitty. Happy birthday, baby girl! I hope we made up feel special because you are to us!













Monday, November 16, 2015

Gus is Ten Months Old!

Gus is ten months old! He has changed a lot this month. But he's also had a bit of a rough time because he has picked up every random illness at school. It started with a stomach bug, then roseola and ended the month with hand foot and mouth disease - yikes! Luckily he is resilient and heals quickly. Although he has been a bit fussier than usual due to this, he is still surprisingly happy. Such a jolly little fellow!


Right after bath time - ready for bed!
The biggest development this month has been crawling! He still doesn't crawl on his knees but he army crawls on his tummy everywhere! He is into everything! He loves to try to grab any cords he can find, loves to play with the door stoppers and is constantly trying to grab the dogs.
New hat - so dapper!

Trying so hard to crawl on his knees!

Loves playing with Audrey
He is also starting to talk more and more. He says Dada, Mama, Baba, but still not sure that he associates any of these with what they really mean yet. He also loves to scream really loud and loves it when you do it back to him. We think he has said Audrey a few times...sounds like Audie...but still not sure. You can tell he really wants to - he has a lot he wants to tell us!

Audrey continues to be so sweet and loving with him. She always wants to play on the floor with him. She shows him how to do puzzles, they read books and he just loves every minute. The other morning I was with Gus in the hall and we were going to get Audrey as she was calling for us. He heard her voice and his face just lit up. Best buds!

Sleep has continued to be a struggle, especially since he has been sick. He still gets up once or twice a night to eat. He's had a few good nights of sleeping close to 10 hours, so we know he can do it, but still seems to want to eat at night. Since he is so small, I'm still indulging him, but hoping he will grow out of it quickly! He has started taking longer naps on the weekends and sometimes even at school, so hopefully he is turning a corner!

Eating food has gotten a little bit better too. He likes his purees and yogurt, he seems to prefer blueberry. We've also been encouraging him to feed himself and he is trying. We've given him puffs, teething crackers and yogurt melts. He doesn't love any of them, but likes to pick them up and pretend to put them in his mouth, then usually drops them on the floor. He also tried avocados and he seems to like them. Tonight he was even grabbing the spoon and putting it in his mouth - such a big boy!