ZOO

We went to the zoo while Grandpop was visiting. It was actually Gus' first time. It was a little hot for a lot of the animals I think. Next time we'll go on an overcast day so everybody is out and rambunctious.Reese took a camel ride. You have to be 3, so Gus will have to wait until next year. Hopefully the camels don't drown in our rain. They said the camel can go for a full year without water if it needs to, but no info about excessive water.

The boys really checked out the monkeys forever! Luckily the part where the people stand is covered, so I was happy to wait in the shade for ages.

The touch tank was pretty awesome...notice where Gus' hand is....YUM, sushi!

By the end of the day we were all pretty spent. Gus was chillin with his drink and for the first time both boys wore their hats for an entire sunny outing. We will definitely go back soon.

Birthday Party

We had a backyard barbecue to celebrate Gus' second birthday with all the grandparents. Though Gus hasn't really watched the movie yet he is very excited about Cars. He squeals when the commercial for Cars2 comes on tv and he regularly plays with Reese's matchbox style cars from the first movie. So we went with a Cars theme.

He blew out his #2 candle...

and really enjoyed eating his cake.

Gus and the Grandmas:

Gus with Reese, Daddy and the Grandpas.

What a sweet 2 year old boy!

This photo makes him look like such a big boy!!!

Reese was SUPER helpful when it came to opening presents. Luckily Gus was happy to have the assistance.

He anxiously looked on as Reese tried to get into the gift from Kyle's grandparents.

It was a mower, which Gus loves. He asks to play with it every time we go outside.

This is Reese's Spiderman dismount from the slide.

Reese begged me to build the motorcycle on the packaging of the Zoobs. Here is my completed masterpiece.

Later that night Gus got to work on his new Legos. He really enjoyed his birthday party. He is such a sweet baby. It makes this Mama sad that he is so quickly becoming a big boy.

Gus and the at-home Surgical procedure

These are the surgical tools:

This is the surgical patient:This is what was removed:

Gus got down from his high chair (with help from Dad) and instantly came running to me, pointing to his nose saying "bean, bean, bean." I chuckled and said "That's a boogie not a bean. Do you want Mommy to help you blow?"
I used the sucker thing they send home with you from the hospital for your newborn. It moved it down, but not out. So I got the Q-tip, which just pushed it further in. Then I got the flashlight and realized it was not a slimy boogie, but a solid lima bean. While I called the pediatrician to get suggestions Daddy tried the toothpick, which kind of just shredded it. Then we settled on the tweezers and successfully removed the bean just before the pediatrician called back. Phew. She thought it was big enough not to aspirate anyway. She noted that frequently parents don't notice until it starts to rot and therefore STINK.
Grody.
Good ting we discovered it right away. A rotten bean in my cute boys nose would really gross me out.

Visiting Grandpop

Grandpop arrived safely from VA for his birthday visit. Reese loves to show Gus the photos of Grandpop and remind him that Grandpop comes on the airplane. Since they have this conversation regularly Gus always remembers who my dad is and has no need for a warming up period.

So far the boys have been busy running him ragged. Hopefully he'll have enough energy left for tomorrow's birthday party!

2 year Well Baby Appointment

Gus, aka The Green Lantern, had his 2 year old well baby appointment. He weighed 25 1/2 pounds which is 15th percentile for weight. His percentile dropped from the last check up. He measured 35 inches tall or 68th percentile...a significant jump from last time. Since he suddenly has no round belly and he usually does AND he is having a hard time getting comfy the last week or so when we sit in the rocker, I suspect he just got taller all of a sudden.
he has 50+ words and understands when people speak to him and points and engages with people and whatnot. He can move and run and climb and such. So...nothing at all to report. Normal across the board. The doctor was not concerned with his weight percentile drop since he still happily eats a variety of fruits and veggies and seems to have shot up in height. We assume the next round of growth will be some weight instead of height to balance it out.
As we were finishing up he started on the "Why?" routine. The doc thought he was a little early for that. I've been thinking we were on the downward slope of the whys because it's been non-stop for a couple of months now. It's hard to judge what is typical because Reese really just had his Why? phase immediately before Gus started...so significantly later than typical I guess.
A highlight of the visit was no shots. So all in all a great report. Gus is doing everything he is supposed to and nothing he is not.

Menu Plan Monday

Even though I have been a blog slacker I do always have my menu plan on the dry erase calendar. It is my intent to keep up with regular blogging for the rest of the year. My poor Gus will look back at his 18-24 month old period and wonder why I barely have photos or info about his life. So, in an effort to stick with my plan I am back to posting the menu. I promise to have more cute photos of Reese and Gus on Tuesday.

MONDAY: tortellini and peas --- 2yr well baby appt.
TUESDAY: Trader Joe's Chipotle Flat Iron Steak, homemade steak fries, broccoli/cauliflower/carrot medley
WEDNESDAY: Pork Loin, scalloped potatoes, lima beans (Gus' new favorite)
THURSDAY: Burgers on the grill, baked beans, broccoli
FRIDAY: Spicy Napa Cabbage with Soba noodles and pork stir fry (leftover from the loin) from the Food Matters cookbook
SATURDAY: GUS' BBQ BIRTHDAY Guy Fieri Tri tip from Costco (hopefully it's good), Macaroni Salad, Baked Beans and PW's Iced Coffee

You can get ideas from other people at Organizing Junkie.

TWO!

Gus is TWO years old today! He is growing so fast. Five more pounds and he'll catch up to Reese. He says a zillion words, loves cars and trucks, motorcycles, trains, puzzles, Little People, superhero suits and especially playing outside. Of course he also wants to play whatever Reese is playing.

This was way back on Day One.

He's wearing his cow suit at about 3 months old.

Cute cue ball at 6 months.

One year old!

At 18 months old he went to his first Children's museum visit.

Sit and spin at about 21 months.

Right before going to bed for the very first time as a two year old.
I can't believe this sweet boy has been here two years already. Gus is so sweet and cuddly and becoming just a little bit ornery too. We sure do love this boy.

Mukilteo Lighthouse

Over the Memorial Day weekend we visited the Mukilteo Lighthouse. The Coast Guard gave the lighthouse to the city about 10 years ago. Now a group of volunteers mans the lighthouse on weekends and holidays so you can tour the grounds and lighthouse.

This is the lighthouse building. There is also the keeper's home currently being used for storage of archives and the assistant keeper's home which is now the gift shop. The gift shop also houses a historical time line of the lighthouse.

It's a "short" lighthouse, so it was easy for Reese and Gus to climb the stairs to the top. Here's Gus and Daddy out on the landing.

In the background are Whidbey and Camano Islands.

This is the lens currently in use. It has an itty bitty 50 watt bulb. All the reflective mirrors are what make the light bright enough for boats to see.

This is an old lens circa 1895 that was salvaged from a fire. Once upon a time they put candles in the center.

Then we checked out the beach. This rock came home with us.
Reese would have liked to throw every single rock on the beach in the water, but then there would be nothing under us since the "beach" is really nothing but rocks.
He toned down the enthusiasm a bit and then chose very specific rocks to throw.
We watched the ferry pull out for Clinton, Whidbey Island.
It turned out to be a really nice sunny and warm day. The boys had a blast running all around the beach. We learned a lot of info about lighthouses. Did you realize lighthouses all have a unique signature of light? Mukilteo is 2 seconds lit up, 3 second pause. They also all have unique daymarks. It's how they look in the daylight so you can tell your position from sea. One of the few other lighthouses I've visited has a very distinct daymark. They have a cool passport program that gives you stamps in your passport and patches for visiting lighthouses. I am excited to do it when the boys are a little older. We had a really fun day!

IMAGINE!

We went to IMAGINE! Children's Museum in Everett last weekend. It is AWESOME! We totally want to move up there so we can go everyday! Seriously, it was that cool. There was so much we couldn't do everything. The rooftop is an outdoor play area.

ALL the boys enjoyed the dinosaur bone area. There's a huge dino skeleton as well as smaller bones on the ground covered in rubber mulch for excavating.

They really enjoyed digging out the bones.

Gus enjoyed collecting all the shovels best though. I'm hoping this is an effort to clean up, not be a hoarder.

Inside the bank vault is an area with steel plate money thing. You use money shaped paper to make a dollar bill rub.

There's a giant sized connect 4 style game using big coins.

They have a cool black light glow room. All the building shapes are transparent neon acrylic. It also has a big "light brite" style wall. Super cool.

This is Reese on the screen. The colors change as you move around. We spent a lot of time jumping around like Spiderman in this room.

This is the front half of a real bus. You can walk up the stairs and drop in your fare. The driver's seat has all the controls and a working microphone so Reese could instruct his passengers to "move on back."

We spent the bulk of our time up on the rooftop. It has about 7 or 8 slides on the playground.

The boys tried out the big musical instrument area.

Reese got into it a little bit more than Gus.

Reese took off up this climbing wall like a pro. I think this may have been his highlight.

Gus really liked the slides best.

We will definitely be going back. I wish it was a little bit closer. We are considering buying a membership, but there's no way to know if Kyle will work in Everett again, so...how much will we use it? 80 miles is pretty far for a play day at a place that closes at 5pm. Perhaps if we ever become morning people we could get there in a timely fashion. :)