We leave for Iowa Friday morning!

Mommy and Gus, cuddling while we blog :)

Gus playing with his ExcerSaucer while mommy types.

Gus is awfully lucky. This morning daddy stayed home with him because Sandy (daycare provider) had to be with her father for some hospital tests. We hope everything is okay. But daddy and Gus got to get some good quality time in before we go to Iowa without daddy.

This week we started feeding Gus cereal in the morning (just like mommy and daddy... well sort of!) and level 1 and 2 baby foods for supper, and of course several bottles of breastmilk in combination and throughout the day. Tonight he tried sweet potatoes for the first time and it was adorable. He L O V E D them. He would open his mouth for the next bite almost immediately after I put the one before it in! I had to find out what all the excitement was about so I tried them, and I must admit, they were the best of the baby foods I've tasted so far. Surprisingly sweet. But then again, I love sweet potatoes.

Earlier today, mommy and Gus picked up a few groceries for daddy and did a little shopping at Legends. Mommy needed some new sweat pants and some hair products... anyone got any suggestions for the post-baby-hair-falling-out problem??? I bought some special shampoo today and have been doubling the prenatal vitamins, but I am going to be bald soon! I am afraid to blow dry my hair! :-{

...We are getting very excited for this weekend; daddy even is I think- he is going to hang out with some guys from work while we are gone. It will be nice for him to get some friend time in, as Gus has been pretty consuming for both of us lately (although we love every minute of it!). Gus is getting excited to see Kennedy and hopefully some of his Dillavou side cousins too. He also misses his grandma's very much and can't wait to see them either. Mommy will hopefully get the chance to see a few of her friends while she is back, but also misses her family. Mommy is really excited to see if Aunt Lindsey is showing yet!!!

We are hoping to leave very early on Friday morning, so that we can see Papa Randy before he goes to bed. Well, not sure if I will post before we leave on Friday, but I am sure to have tons of pics for you when I get back on Sunday!

5 Months Old

Mr. Tough Guy.

Arica and Brody (they have a blog too) at the flag football game tonight. Brody's daddy and Gus' daddy play on the same team and work at the YMCA together.

Brody and Gus.

Gus' belly meat.

Gus standing. Who knows? Pretty soon he may just skip over the other stuff and start walking. Who needs to crawl anyway?!?!

He really likes to sit and look at the TV. He always seems like he is amazed at the new perspective that being just a few more inches off the ground presents.

Gus is officially Five Months Old (well, as of tomorrow [Monday} anyway) and we can hardly believe how quickly time has flown by. Each day he changes and grows and starts doing brand new exciting things. Here are a list of Gus' accomplishments and attitudes: He can smile basically on command. He has rice cereal, squash and carrots under his belt. He loves to stand with help, and sit independently in the tri-pod position (for 20-30 seconds anyway). He enjoys grabbing onto his toes and chewing on his (or mommy or daddy's!) fingers. He laughs out loud all the time and likes to grunt and grrr... at us. His favorite toys are his colorful links, his frog chew blanket and his vibrating bouncey chair (recently he likes to tear off the velcro Giraffe and throw it on the ground). He can palm a soft ball and his favorite person in the world to listen to or look at is his daddy. He still has no hair or teeth. He likes bathtime, where he can splash and kick his legs.

This week will hopefully go by quickly, as mommy and Gus are excited to head back to Iowa on Friday. We get to see many people on both the McCollom and Dillavou side. Daddy has to work so he has to stay in KC all alone. We will miss him very very much. And I am sure he will miss us (especially Gussie!).

Oh, and keep voting for your favorite Halloween costume... looks so far like the Lobster is in the lead (thanks Rach, I have no idea how to make that costume!)...

Just doin' my toe touches!

Grrr... at the Camera

So Gus loves to Grrrr... He has this scratchy little adorable noise that he makes all the time. Sometimes it is followed by high pitched little sighs, and we think it is pretty darn cute.

Go Go 3000

So... I assigned a group project to my students where they were to develop a product that would enhance interpersonal communication in some way and then sell it to us as an infomercial. One of the groups today created a funny video, which they dowloaded to YouTube, and I thought I would share it with you :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYv5MlWQAbk

Enjoy! It is supposed to be "glasses" that you wear that help you not see distractions around you so that you can focus better :)

Vote again please!

Sorry... I just noticed that I spelled the word "Halloween" wrong in Gus' costume poll, and there is no way I could look at that several times a day for the next three weeks if there were a typo in it, so I redid the poll. If you voted yesterday, you will want to vote again :) Thanks!

My First Unassisted Baba!

Gus is getting so much better at dexterity. Lately he has been grabbing onto bottles (and mommy when she is nursing) and guiding the feeding himself. Sunday night I decided to let go of the bottle and see what would happen. And he did pretty good. He lost balance at times, but with a little help, was able to hold the bottle mostly himself. Such a smart boy!

Cute as Pumpkin Pie

So I played photographer again. This weekend Josh and I tried to get a good one of Gus for the header of our blog (Do you like the new autumn look??).

He was fascinated with the colorful (plastic..shhh...) leaves.

We had better luck getting smiles inside the house. He just doesn't like it when the wind or sun hits his face outdoors. He is such a baby. No pun intended ;)

And, of course, his tongue kept sneaking out throughout our picture session Sunday evening. I couldn't get mad though, it was just too funny!

Look at those pretty blue eyes. This is one of the only pics we've ever taken of Gus that has not needed red-eye enhancement. He was content after his baba on Sunday afternoon. But a little hypnotic in behavior.

"You are getting very sleepy..."

"And even more sleepy..."

And...he's out.

But once he woke up, he started playing with his tongue again. He stuck it out at us all weekend. It was hilarious!

He looks so much like Josh in this one, it is scary. If you could see Josh's baby pictures you would completely agree.

And yet another one from this day. As I posted last night, these were from after our walk on Saturday morning.

Hey Good Lookin'!

This picture is one of my favorites.

So, it's official. Gus is adorable. I am such a mommy, but I cannot honestly decide which pictures to post and which not to... I know they get a little redundant sometimes. But, Gus is so cute in all of them, and each one shows a different face that he makes. And he is discovering new facial expressions every day! I probably think this is way more exciting than you do, I have recently discovered that the things that make you excited and create anticipation in your life change quite a bit after you become a parent. The anticipation over Gus trying new baby foods and wondering if and when he is going to poop basically account for a majority of my thought processes each day. And I hear that it only keeps getting better.

Over the weekend, he discovered his tongue and his toes. And he is actually about an inch away from being able to touch his tongue to his toes :) Which I am thrilled about becuase that is a milestone he should soon be reaching. Also, we have been concerned that he hasn't been rolling from back to front or front to back, but this weekend he did it! I laid him on his tummy on a blanket on the living room floor and left to go to the kitchen for a minute. When I returned he had had flipped to his back! Way to go little man!

Our Little Pumpkin

My first squash! And boy was it yummy! I gobbled it up real good. Later this week I get to try carrots, which were my mommy's favorite when she was a little baby :)

I was oh so smiley after my walk outside with mommy Saturday morning! Mommy was a little bit camera crazy...

I just wanted to get a few pics up for you from the weekend... I will be updating this post Monday afternoon, so check back later for more pics and news from the Dillavou's!

October Already

Daddy dressed Gus in his warm, snuggly, 12 month Hawkeye sweatshirt yesterday, and oh boy, did he look adorable. Here he is helping me do laundry yesterday.

Gus just fell asleep for a nap after his baba a few minutes ago. Today he is wearing his super cute puppy outfit from Tom and Tracy; they sure have spoiled our little man!

It is hard to believe that it is October already. Where did the summer go? I heard a radio DJ tell KC to, "officially say good bye to summer," and I got a little sad. I gave birth to beautiful little Gus in the Spring, so an entire season has passed. Unbelievable. We are still deciding what Gus will be for Halloween. Got any ideas?

Well, this week is going by quickly as usual, and it is already nearly the weekend. We don't have anything planned, but can hopefully get a few things caught up around the house. It seems like all I do anymore is try to get 'caught up,' I am never getting anything done 'in advance' anymore. Welcome to mommyhood, right?

I will have an update after the weekend. Love and miss you all~