Sliding Alone

Gus likes to do everything daddy does. You can see even at the end of this clip he copies Dad. He is so funny. This weekend he started saying more words, like 'hot' 'out' and 'car' and he put two words together twice, "Dada No!" and "Hi Dada." And when he plays with his toy car on the floor he makes a "vrooom" sound now. It took him awhile to be interested in talking, but these last few weeks he has really started saying more words than make sense to us. His walking is getting better and better too. He definitely walks more than he crawls.

Pool and Golf

Friday morning, before it got too hot, Gus and I played outside in his baby pool and on his slide. He still isn't sure about sitting in the pool, but doesn't mind splashing along the side of it.

Very thirsty!

Posing like the Super Model that he is.

So big!

Hot and sweaty, just before we went inside for lunch.

Daddy teaching Gus how to golf on Saturday night. This was the first time we had really tried with him, and although he has no idea how to do it, he is interested in playing with the balls, clubs and pin. In fact, we had to bring them inside and leave them out because he keeps wanting to bring them to every room with him.

Gus putting the ball on the tee for daddy.

Playing baseball with the golf club and ball. Daddy would throw it and Gus would hit it- no he is not a super baby, Josh just has good aim :)

This week the weather should be more tolerable, mostly in the upper 80s. What a relief! This week will hopefully go by quickly as we are heading back to Iowa Thursday for the 4th of July holiday. We love Clear Lake in the summer, especially on the Fourth, and look forward to seeing all of you soon!

Beatin' the Heat

Messy, but yummy! Gus's first totally unassisted Popsicle.

Popsicles are a great way to cool off with a 'heat index figured in' temperature of 116 degrees, or 98 degrees actual temperature. It has been in the upper 90s all week, with no sign of a dropping temperature until next week, when it should be in the upper 80s.

Gus is back!

On Friday night we went out to eat and stayed in a hotel in West Des Moines to celebrate Josh's 28th birthday. We had a few drinks with Lisa and Jared. Here is pic of us at the bar.

Sweet shades! This pic was at my cousin Jason's wedding reception in Ames on Saturday night.

Too cool.

Kennedy and her Nick :)

Me and Parker, my new little snuggle bug.

Kennedy with her 'tattoos.'

Us. Finally, a newer picture for our blog header. Josh is really sick of the Royals inspired Statue of Liberty picture I have been using the last few months. It is just so hard to get a decent one of us three. We'll see if I can upload it correctly...

Grandma McCollom and her grandsons present at the wedding.

Grandma McCollom and all the grandchildren present at the wedding.

Papa Randy and his grandsons. We took my parents out to eat on Sunday in Ames for Father's Day/their 30th Anniversary next week. A great time to take advantage of a photo opp.

Papa, Nama and their grandchildren.

Grandma and her favorite granddaughter.

Kennedy was such a pout face!


Uncle Josh and Parker, now 3 months old.



The original McCollom Klan and our new additions, minus the husbands :)

On a side note, it is so nice to have my Gussie back home in KC! I missed him so much last week, but he did an amazing job of being a good little boy with both sets of grandparents. Thank you so much to Paulette, Pat, Sue and Randy for taking care of our little man for us last week. We appreciate you all more than you can imagine.

I miss my Gussie!

Well, it has been more than 36 hours without my little man, the longest I've gone ever, and I miss him tremendously. I have looked at his pictures and videos on the blog about a hundred times, so I now appreciate my blog as many of you do, who don't get to see your little buddy Gus very often. Even just typing up the post makes me feel a huge lump in my throat and heavily weighs on my heart :(

But... I have gotten some updates and he is doing well. Sleeping fine, eating like a foal (still a little too young for the horse metaphor but you get the point), crawling and walking everywhere, tearing apart Nama Paulette's cupboards, etc. His normal self. He did see our family picture hanging on the wall at the Dillavou home last night and got a little upset, but overall he seems to be adjusting fine. Tonight he goes to my parents house for a night, then with my parents to my grandparents house Friday night, and then I get him back Saturday morning.

Josh and I are trying to keep busy. I shopped yesterday afternoon without Gus, which was actually kind of nice- I could stay very focused, take my time, and actually did not feel rushed at all. We went to a Royals game last night, this afternoon I am going to work on some landscaping in our front yard, we are going to a movie tonight, staying in a hotel tomorrow night for Josh's Bday (thanks Pat and Paulette!), a wedding and another hotel stay Saturday night, so we do have a lot going on to occupy our minds. The strangest thing for me with Gus not being here is that I can pick up the house, and it STAYS picked up- something I do miss very much from our previous life (you know, the one without kids). That though, is the only nice thing I can think of about my little baby boy being away for several days.

His First Ride

On Friday morning, Gus and I met my friend Amy and her two kids Kaylyn and Caleb (he is only 6 weeks old, so he opted out from the picture). It was my first time meeting Caleb, and I forgot how small they are at first! Holding him made me miss my newest little nephew Parker (who I can't wait to see this coming weekend!). We went to a local mall, one I had never been to before called the Great Plains Mall in Olathe, KS. It was pretty old, but there were lots of family friendly little stores, like Monkey Bizness, where the above picture was taken, and an arcade, below. A great, cheap place to take kids. Gus will really enjoy it when he is a little older.

On his first ride ever! Although he was a little timid most of the time, he is clapping in this one.

Gus had some organic pizza with me (darn low carb diet!) but he surprisingly loved it. We had a little pizza party while daddy was at the Royals game on Friday night.

Josh took some hilarious pictures of Gus this weekend! Here are just a few of his many faces... Our little supermodel.

In the summer on the weekends there is live music at Legends Shopping Center near our house so we have been walking around there on Saturday evenings. It was warm so Gus got to enjoy the water fountains.

Last night Gus was a little tornado. Although his eyes are closed in this one, I love his two front teeth sticking out! By the way, the only teeth he fully has right now :) His bottoms are just barely peeking out, but haven't done much in the last several weeks.

We have lovingly started calling him "The Beeve."

Playing Outside

What a silly face! I wonder what he is thinking here.

Poor Buster, just peering through the window, silently begging to come out to play with his buddy Gus.

He makes this gesture then he is trying to indicate 'where' or 'how.' It is a common one around the house lately.

Gus's occasional evening sitter when both daddy and mommy have to work late, Shannan, took these adorable pictures of Gus this week. I am glad she goes a little camera crazy around him, cause sometimes I feel kinda silly taking all the pictures that I do. At least I'm not the only one!

This weekend we are going to hang out as a family, as the next several weekends are pretty busy with weddings, holidays, baby showers, and visits. Josh went to a Royals game last night with a bunch of friends from the YMCA, I stayed home with Gus. We will go to church tonight, other than that, it should be a low key weekend.

Tuesday Gus goes back to Iowa for four nights, two with each set of grandparents, as our daycare provide is taking her vacation. I am going to miss him soooo very much... !!!! I don't even want to think about how much I am going to miss my little man. I spend so much time with him during the day when my classes end at 11 am, that I will probably go crazy without him being here. I think I will even miss his throwing tantrums when I won't let him do what he wants to do, dropping food and his cup on the floor hundreds of times each meal, 'rearranging' the cupboards for me on a daily basis, squirming violently when I am just trying to change his diaper, chasing Buster continuously throughout the house, insisting on helping me switch laundry by pulling out items from the dryer just as fast as I put them in, crying when he occasionally wakes up in the middle of the night, cuddling with me before he falls back asleep, laughing when I fake sneeze, says mama when he wants my attention, gives me kisses- many times without my even asking, dances to the music of his toys, the way my heart melts when I watch him be brave enough to walk across the room, how proud I feel when he waves, gives me high fives, or starts to say words... Oh I better stop. Let's just say that I am really really truly going to miss Gus next week. The good, and the bad :)

FINALLY meeting Preston and the Wedding

Preston loved bouncing in a toy car at my parents house before the wedding.

Preston enjoying his distance from Gus, who terrorized him much of their time together :)

Preston's face looks a bit worried in this picture. Just leave me alone Gus!

Tearing apart mommy's purse at the wedding. One way we kept him busy.

Tom, Jack, Josh and Scott in the hotel room before the reception. They enjoyed themselves quite a bit on Saturday night.

We FINALLY got to meet Preston! We have not been able to coordinate schedules until this weekend, but Josh, Gus and I all finally got to meet little (or shall I say not so little!) Preston. He is oh so absolutely adorable! He weighs more than a pound more than Gus, and is several months younger, but that did not stop Gus from picking on him. For some reason Gus wanted to pinch Preston's nose, poor little guy. Preston was pretty apprehensive around Gus from that point on. I only wish we could have seen Amanda too, hopefully soon!

We went to a wedding on Saturday afternoon, with Gus, and a reception in the evening, without Gus. Gus was not so great at the wedding. He talked, screamed, wouldn't hold still, took his khaki pants completely off, tore everything out of my purse several times, and ate a whole bag of yogurt melts (which in hindsight was maybe not the best idea, as they do contain some natural sugars!). Luckily.... he went to Zach and Tami's house after the actual wedding so that mommy and daddy could have some fun with friends at the reception and stay at the hotel. Thanks so much Dillavou's for watching him, we appreciate it! It was good practice for when Gus goes to Iowa next week for four whole nights by himself- I am going to go crazy without my little man, but it will be good for him. Daddy and I have a lot of fun things planned to keep us busy and our minds occupied.

Tagged

Josh, Brad, Jared and Tom

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An acquaintance and fellow blogger, Jen, tagged me recently. This means I get to post an old pic from a random folder.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are the rules...
1. Open the 4th picture folder on your computer.
2. Open the 4th picture and post it on your blog.
3. Explain the picture.
4. Tag 4 people to do the same
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So in the picture above... well I am not technically in the picture, but I did take the picture. This is March 2008, when I was about 8 months pregnant, and it was the day before St. Patrick's Day. Some of Josh's friends and their wives, and my friend Kate, came to KC for visit. This picture is from a bar at the Power and Light District in KC. We were out very late, they were all pretty inebriated, and I vowed after this evening that it was the last night I was going out while I was pregnant.

I am Tagging, and Please Don't Disappoint...
Katie: http://candkthomson.blogspot.com/
Jessica: http://thepedigos.blogspot.com/
Arica: http://patrickarica.blogspot.com/
Lindsey: http://varnernews.blogspot.com/