What's up, Gus?

We've been having such a good time over in our little neck of the woods lately, I haven't had time to write!  Well, we'll say that's what's happened, and ignore my very strong tendency to laziness and procrastination. ;)

play-dough time!

In all honesty, Gus has been a riot recently. We do have our moments of him not letting me move more than 6 inches away from his side (he likes to grab my hand, direct me to where I should be, and point to the exact spot on the floor where I should sit), but for the most part we have been having a lot of fun together. He loves to do anything that Jon and I do, so we take care of the baby doll a lot, feeding her, changing her diaper, cleaning her up. He will clean anything, actually. The moment he finds a scrap of cloth, he sets about scrubbing things down. I keep thinking about giving him a real cleaning cloth so he can help me with do the housework, but he is a bit erratic about what he cleans; he jumps from scrubbing the table, to the bottom of the shoes, to his hands, feet and face in the space of a minute.

playing with the balls and rainbow on the stairs

His brain seems to move just as quickly. Jon and I will  be talking and mention something--say a train--briefly, and Gus is off like a light to find his train and bring it to us. And he always knows where is toys are squirrelled away. Except for one bouncy ball that he loves to play with. The ball is clear with coloured stars suspended inside it, and we are forever losing that thing. Balls are one of his favourite toy at the moment. He's been throwing them down the stairs, bouncing them out in the back yard, and rolling them under the rainbow tunnels. The train and bus get plenty of time through the tunnels as well.

at the park

As always, Gus is still loving his animals. He seems to go through phases of what is his favourite. So for a week or two all I heard about was the chickens, then the cat, and now the pigs. He likes to look for these animals outside (well, we haven't found any pigs yet), play with the little animal toys and stuffed animals, and flip through books, searching for his favourite animals. He knows exactly which books have the animals he is looking for, and it seems like he even knows what page they are on!  (I was wondering the other day, what is the fascination of opening up the same book a hundred times in a row, always to flip to and stare at the same picture? I'd love to know what is going on in his brain!)

playing with ducks, distracted by an airplane

Gus is a real chatterbox at the moment, as well. I swear he learns new words every day, but, since he can only pronounce about half of any given word, and often with an incorrect sound thrown in, I am not sure that too many people can actually understand what he is saying. He can say a load of animal names and sounds, and mostly correctly! Cartoon-like animals can be tough, really, and I don't blame him when he thinks a drawing of a skunk is a dog or a Tigger stuffed animal is a monkey. He also loves vehicles of all sorts, so he can say (versions of) plane, car, truck, bus, and choo choo train.


Bedtime is one of our favourite times of the day at the moment. We usually have to read about fifty books, and it often takes longer than I would otherwise wish, but Gus makes up for it by giving Jon and me loads of hugs and kisses before finally settling down to sleep. Delaying tactic? Maybe. But also pretty much the sweetest thing in the world.

this way, Pa!