I love me some starbucks, says Gus

Gus loves Daddy's Starbuck's mug.

This form of entertainment will last quite awhile.
He shakes around so much I couldn't get a focused shot!
Too bad you can't hear the squeals of laughter.

SUPER BABY

For Reese's birthday I found this super hero cape I thought he would love. Well he has refused to wear it until this weekend.Now he thinks it is super cool as long as Daddy flings him around like he's flying.

Gus got in on the action too and really liked it.Gus thought it was pretty funny to fly.

It was very difficult to get a decent photo while everyone was in crazy motion!

Gus is 10 months old

This is what happens when Daddy tries to take a shower. You'd think the man ran away forever. Seriously, it is pathetic. But this boy is also not a fan of being in the shower and we can't always wait for nap time you know? He is a fan of trying to grab and slobber on my camera. Just ignore my ridiculous baby talking at him.

I can not believe our sweet boy is 10 months old already! It has gone by so incredibly fast. Seriously faster than it seemed with Reese. Gus is a lightening fast crawler now. He is trying really hard to pull himself up to his feet but so far is only able to get to his knees. He frequently sits on his knees with his hands up to me to be picked up. It always reminds me of Platoon. He is super sweet. He loves whatever his brother is playing with. Of course, Reese is quick to rescue any of his toys and shriek "NO EAT!" He is enjoying trying table foods each day and is quite a good eater. So far he does not enjoy any green baby food, but was happy to chomp on a real asparagus spear. He is definitely a Mama's boy most of the time, but is definitely getting more attached to Daddy (when it suits him of course). Is very interested in checking out new faces. Of course he gets lots of oohs and ahhs when we are out in public. Every time we are out someone (or 2) stops us to talk to the cute boy. He drops he head and lifts his eyes to check them out. He is one sweet boy. We love him so much!

The Boys

Kyle REALLY wanted to see Avatar at the theater, but I didn't really care. We agreed the house budget could buy Avatar on Bluray if we did NOT got to the theater. So he waited and with great anticipation we finally watched Avatar at home. The boys are enthralled. Okay so maybe not Gus so much.

Here is a closer look.

He fell asleep sitting up playing with the phone. It was too cute. He had a terrible snotty cold and sacked out way earlier than normal.

Eating

Gus loves to eat. This week we really started eating "table foods" also known as what we are eating.So far he's eaten chicken tetrazini, minus the chicken and spaghetti with meatballs. He got the noodles with a scant amount of sauce because I just don't want red sauce to stain his pretty new high chair yet! He got a half of a meatball too.Today he had teriyaki chicken cut super small with brown rice and peas that I smashed with a fork. He's a little sick of the flash in his eyes.
Reese couldn't really care less about most of the food. He's just excited to get his sticker bribe for eating. Here he is showing off his Hulk and Spiderman stickers.

1st School Project

Reese had to do his first school project--a poster board house with his story. Family, favorite toys, food, color, etc. He doesn't really have a favorite color yet or food, so his is family and what he likes to do.Here he is pointing out his name starts with the letter "R"

He is sharing with his teacher who everyone in his family is. Of course he whispers so she has to tell the class. Then we have a show of hands who also has a baby brother, etc etc.

He's pretty proud of his presentation. Now the poster will hang in his class for the rest of the year.

Menu Plan Monday

While I haven't posted a meal plan for awhile I have actually been monthly planning for awhile. We have a dry erase calendar on the fridge. On the bottom of each day I jot the meal I intend to make. As the calendar fills up I can swap meals around to different days as needed to work with our schedule. It's been working out pretty well. I like that it kind of reminds me of meals I may forget we want to have and it prevents too much repetition since I can see the whole month at once. I like having it written down where I will see it frequently, but also having flexibility. So this week:

MONDAY: chicken enchiladas and mexican style rice (I use the recipe on the back of the Old El Paso Green Enchilada Sauce)
TUESDAY: spaghetti and meatballs with garden salad
WEDNESDAY: Chicken Teriyaki (on the grill), brown rice, peas
THURSDAY: Fajitas--carne asada, onions, red bell peppers, homemade guac/sour cream
FRIDAY: sloppy joes
SATURDAY: homemade pizza
SUNDAY: pork chops (hopefully on the grill), brussel sprouts, roasted potatoes

Need some menu ideas? Check out Organizing Junkie!

I Like to Move it, Move it

This boy is EVERYWHERE!and he has crazy hair.Gus is crawling all over now. He follows us if we leave the room and if notices something interesting he'll stop to investigate. Reese is very unhappy that Gus must rip down the train tracks every single time he passes by.
He leaves a path of destruction in his wake.

"My work here is done. I'm moving on."

Growing Garden

Woo hoo check out our garden! It seems like they have grown so fast! It's only been about 3 weeks. Those ginormous sprouts...okay they are actual plants now...are green beans. It's still getting pretty cold at night so we won't plant for awhile yet. I was planning to plant them outside in late May but I don't know if those beans can wait that long! We have to make an anti-cat plan first to keep them from trying to poop in my garden. Any ideas?

Zucchini Pasta Bake

I needed to use up the last of my fresh zucchini before it died. I found a couple different things online that looked good. I finally settled on one from the $5 Dinner Mom (her site is stuck in loading so this is just the site, not the recipe) but modified it suit our tastes...and I wasn't necessarily trying to make it for less than $5. It turned out so good we are definitely keeping it in the regular rotation.

8 oz whole wheat pasta (I normally use the whole box, but you need to use 8 oz or double the rest or you just won't have enough sauce)
Turkey Keilbasa cut into bite sized pieces
1-2 Tbls Olive Oil
1 can diced tomatoes do not drain
1 cup diced zucchini (I used 3 small zucchini because that's what I had)
1 red bell pepper diced
1 can of mushrooms (I threw this in because I switched to fresh mushrooms as a rule, but had one can left about to expire)
1 Tbls italian seasoning
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp onion powder (I used a palmful of dried onion flakes)
1 cup shredded parmesean

1. Cook pasta according to package, drain, set aside.
2. Brown keilbasa, set aside
3. Cook zucchini and peppers in olive oil about 5 minutes; add tomatoes, mushrooms and seasonings. Add meat, stir to combine. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer about 10 minutes.
4. Remove from heat, stir in cooked pasta.
5. Place in a baking dish, sprinkle wish shredded parmesean.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

I have a 5 qt pan that has a huge diameter and very low sides (maybe 2 1/2 inches tall by 14 or so inches across). I used this as my skillet and then put it in the oven so it was a 2 pot meal (second pot to boil the pasta.)


YUM!!!

Tub Thumping

"I get knocked down, but I get up again..." This is Gus' new theme song.

And can you see him frantically thumping the side of the tub? He is pulling himself up onto his knees all over the house. He can't quite make it to his feet. He gets to one foot and one knee but when he tries to hoist up he ends up sitting on his bottom.He came charging into the bathroom and was hoisting himself up the side of the tub before I even realized what happened. He is lightening fast these days. He has zero interest in any of his toys anymore. The same toys that were endlessly fascinating a few short weeks ago when he would sit on a blanket in the living room and play by himself. Now he must be where we are. He follows like a rocket if anyone leaves the room. You would not believe how fast he can get into Reese's room.
Reese was splashing like crazy in the tub tonight.
Gus was all too happy to get drenched.

9 month Comparison

So now that Gus is closing in on 10 months I've finally compiled our 9month comparison stats. There is just never enough time! I think I'll do this again at one year, but I'll collect everyone else's in advance of Gus' birthday.

Gus 15 pounds 6 ounces; 27 1/4 inches (9 months and 5 days)

Reese 15 pounds, 27 inches (9 months and 13 days)

hmmm......so Gus is a teeny tiny bit bigger than Reese without accounting for the 11 weeks prematurity. Of course Reese was formula fed preemie formula..the normal mix PLUS 3/4 of a scoop, so he was always on mega calories. As a point of reference Kyle was 15 pounds, 27 inches at 4 months. Yes my children took an extra 5 months to reach that size...I think my hubby was an elephant!

Reese was crawling a bit later than Gus, but not by too much. I really think they look pretty similar:

This is another shot of Reese at 9ish months.

This is me, at less than 9 months. At the time I started typing this post this was the only photo I had of me and since it's a cute one I'm going to leave it in. :)

SO how do our 9 month stats compare? I was going to show photos to see if you could guess who's who, but seriously the 70s are hard to miss.

1. Kyle: 21 pounds 1 oz. 30 3/4 inches at 9 1/2 months
2. Heather: 15 pounds 13 oz. 28 inches at 8 1/2 months
3. my brother Travis: 23 pounds 30 inches at 8 3/4 months
4. my brother Dylan: 21 1/2 pounds 28 inches at 9 1/2 months
5. Reese: 15 pounds 27 inches at 9 1/2 months
6. Gus: 15 pounds 6 oz. 27 1/4 inches at 9 months

Surprisingly Dylan was heavier than Kyle. But Dylan was close to 3 inches shorter...I guess that explains why he was looked like a butterball, seriously he had enough meat to feed a small country. It does alarm me slightly that I was heavier and longer than both of my children at a younger age. I really hope my sons are not shrimpy. I did what I could to offset my shorty genes. I was hoping Kyle's height genes would be a little stronger.

These have nothing to do with 9 months but I'm throwing them in for comparison.

Travis at 3 1/2 months

Dylan at 4 months and Travis 2+
When I'm holding the photos in my hands the pumpkin looks similar to Reese and Dylan looks similar to Gus. But on the computer they both look similar to Gus to me.
But really I think Reese and Gus look very similar to each other and not too much like Kyle or I at the same age.

Cool Dudes

Reese got sunglasses in his Easter basket from Kyle's mom. He is actually wearing them pretty regularly. He spent about 3 hours outside building a shed and wore these most of the time.

He also had Gus try them on.

Then they resumed their regularly scheduled play activities: Gus happily complying with whatever Reese thrusts upon him.

EASTER!

Easter morning we woke up to discover that Reese is now able to climb into his chair unassisted. (He uses his Argington chair at our high-top kitchen table.) This is what he found from the Easter bunny:

Reese is really happy with his Step 1 books. He repeats most of the story since it's broken down into nice easy sentences. I'm really happy I decided to get some of these. I think they'll help with speech development a lot.
Surprisingly he was waiting patiently before eating anything. He was pretty happy to get the go ahead on the m&ms.
Then we headed outside to hunt for treat filled eggs.
These Buzz Lightyear eggs were Reese's favorite.
He was very happy to discover that all the eggs were filled with treats.
Then we headed out to Fujiyama's Japanese Steak House for dinner with Granddad and Gigi (Kyle's parents) and Mimi (my mom) and Uncle Dylan. It was YUMMY! Since both grandmas had to work on Easter Sunday we decided it was easier to just go out to eat and it was a hit. We will definitely go back...next time sans baby.

Dyeing the Eggs

This is the first year Reese has dyed Easter eggs. Last year I didn't think he was really coordinated enough to do it, so it would really be us and he wouldn't care. But this year he really got into it!Gus was pretty interested too. We nearly had a few accidents with the dye filled bowls until he was distracted with an undyed egg.

Reese really liked doing it. It was hard to convince him to leave the egg in the water long enough to pick up some decent color, so we had a couple "pastels." This yellow came out really vibrant though.

Reese was pretty pleased with his egg collection. After two bites he determined they weren't very tasty though. I guess he'll stick to scrambled.