All We Are Saying is Give Peas a Chance . . .

The weekend was a good one. Saturday Guster made his first trip to the Minneapolis Farmer's Market on Lyndale Avenue (his previous trips were all to the Mill City Market). Gus seemed to like it -- and Dad did too. By the way, if you think that 7:30 a.m. is too early for a fully loaded bratwurst, you got another thing coming.

Sunday the family was supposed to head to Plymouth to celebrate the baptism of JoAnna and Andy's baby, Noah. But Noah was running a fever on Saturday night and Sunday morning, and because the Gus Man was recently fighting a cold of his own, and out of an abundance of caution, Dad and Gus stayed home, while Mom attended the festivities. The G-Man and Dad wore each other out playing and reading The Poky Puppy, and Gus announced that it was time for a nap. Gus took a short snooze before signaling that it was then time to eat. Dad had neglected to ready the bottle in advance, so had to scramble to heat the water, and, in the meantime divert Gus' attention. Much to Gus' chagrin, Dad had the brilliant idea of strapping the baby in the Bjorn and heading for a lap around the block. Gus hated this idea, and told me all the reasons why while I was busy bundling him into his hoodie. But Dad listened about as well as the President listened to the Baker-Hamilton report, and we ventured out into the cold, October mist. Back inside, Guster went to work on the bottle, and Dad took the opportunity to take a peek at the pregame for the Vikings-Bears match-up. But alas, Gus was quickly through, and since Emily and I have recognized that we are hopelessly addicted to t.v. (God bless the DVR), we are trying to lead Gus away from the pitfalls of the rot-box -- so once Gus was done, and turned his head towards the big black box, it was time to turn it off and head upstairs for some more playtime.

Gus and I had a good time playing for about an hour and a half, but then a little man's barking told me that he would like to take another nap. As he quickly fell asleep on my shoulder, I snuck back downstairs with him and flipped on the game. Guster stayed asleep for the duration, and the Vikings won (barely). Good stuff.

After a trip to the grocery store, it was time to continue our out of a jar gastronomical education. Sweet potatoes? In the rear-view mirror, baby! The new week kicks off with peas. Guster got his first bite of peas today -- or at least the mush that bills itself as peas. As was the case with the sweet potatoes, there was an initial grimace, followed by Gus quickly deciding that peas (not pork) was what's for dinner. I think he ate most -- if not all -- of the entire jar. He's a good eater. Sorry, once again, for an insufferably terrible pun.

Cute stuff below:

This was actually last weekend at the Egg & I. Dad loves this place, so does Grandpa A.
Hanging out.
Lounging in his velvet pjs. Gus is a Hugh Heffner in training.
Peas be with you.
And also with you.

My what big teeth you have . . .

Guster has been back off the sleeping bandwagon, as he has been battling a bit of a cold that has given him a cough and congestion of a pack-a-day smoker. But there may be another reason that the little man is having trouble sleeping -- in fact, there may be two reasons. Little and white, and razor sharp -- yep, Gus is getting his first teeth. Emily was the first to feel their sting -- or at least the first to be able to tell about it. I'm afraid that Gus' two elephant friends on his bouncy chair have been feeling them for a bit (pun, sadly, intended).

The arrival of teeth has coincided with another big event for the G-Unit. Last night we gave Gus his first non-rice cereal food. It was sweet potatoes, and the little man LOVED them. We had read that babies sometimes only eat a few bites on their first dip into the new and exciting world of flavors in a jar, but Gus dove right in -- nearly finishing an entire jar in his first sitting. At one point we thought he was done, but he hollered, so I fed him a few more spoonfulls. Unsatisfied at how slowly I reloaded the spoon, Gus grabbed the spoon and jar himself and pulled both towards his hungry mouth. This kid can eat.

Gus also took another trip to the Mill City farmer's market this weekend, and came home with his first pumpkin. As Halloween approaches, we're still trying to nail down a costume for Guster. Any suggestions?

What you all come for is below:

Guster and Dad
Puffing out those chipmunk cheeks
Mom, Dad, and two pumpkins
An armful
You have a little something . . . just above your lip . . . on your cheek, you almost got it . . .

Wait, it's almost October?

When I was a kid, I HATED when adults would talk about how time flew by. No it didn't. It seemed like eons would pass between my birthdays. Time moved slowly (especially the school year), and the days were filled with endless hours. I recall spending innumerable hours of humid Minnesota afternoons literally lying sloth-like in the Sieburg's basement.

But I get it now. The illusion of time speeding up is due to the fact that the older you get, the less idle hours you have (and more gray hairs too, and I don't think that the two are mutually exclusive!), especially when you have a kid. Emily jokes now that our lives are "Gus willing." So true. This is not a complaint mind you -- today I had the pleasure of spending most of my day within a 3 foot reach of the G-Man, and I can't think of a single thing that I would rather have been doing.

Gustav VonGustafson, we suspect, has either caught his first cold, or that he is teething. It seems a little soon for the latter, and the former seems more likely since he has now spent one month among his friends at day care. And there's a bit of a stuffy nose, so I guess it's probably a cold. In any event, the little man is a bit out of sorts, and his stuffy nose is affecting his ability, and by extension, our ability, to sleep. This evening be blew out an enormous booger on my hand, so hopefully he will breathe a bit easier.

Lack of sleep nothwithstanding, Guster remains a joy. Below are some recent photos:

Mom and Dad had this onesie made special for Gus.
Vikings fan in training.
Outside at the Cliquot Cafe.
Showing off his physique.


Hanging with Dad.

Happy Anniversary!

A man and a woman had a little baby,
Yes, they did.
They had three in the family.
And that's a magic number.



Happy Third Anniversary, Ems.

Love,

Kevin

And we're back . . .

The Superman Computer is a reality thanks to Team Susu and Sam. The computer is great. Best of all, for all the faithful followers of The Gus Stop -- it means new (and improved) Guster content.

Gus is doing great. We have fed him rice cereal a few times to get him used to eating from a spoon, and he seems to like it. Not sure that he is getting a ton of nutritional value out of the process though since about half of it ends up on his face and bib. But it's fun to do, and the kid is game.

Gus is laughing a lot more often now. Gus laughs at the other kids at daycare, at his Daddy, and lately, he will even chuckle to himself a bit as he is fading off to sleep. It's fun to hear; hopefully we'll capture it on video.

Enjoy the new pictures.

Guster's new hoodie.
Grandpa has my foot!
Gus, like his Mom, enjoys a stripey sock.

Rice cereal, GET IN MY BELLY!

Gustanado!

Once again, I apologize for my dereliction of duty, but time is not my friend these days. Furthermore, the family laptop remains unresponsive and the Superman Computer is sitting in 5 different boxes in our living room, thus, it is difficult to get new media from our cameras to The Gus Stop. By the way, that was no typo. We are really operating with two cameras these days. We have a brand spanking new camcorder to shoot live action video of the Gus Man running roughshod over his Mom and Dad. Not to sound like a total tech-square Luddite, but I cannot believe how small the new camcorder is! No hard case briefcase to carry it around in, and it doesn't even have to rest on our shoulders -- it is called and actually is a Handycam. Beautiful.

Since my last post, a new era has began. Gus is now at daycare. His first day was the day after Labor Day. Emily and I dropped him off, and I am not afraid to say that it was tough to leave the G-Man in the hands of others. Also, I swear that the staff treat parents dropping off for the first time like Roy Firestone interviewing Rod Tidwell at the end of Jerry Maguire. They know that it's going to be hard on you, and after you leave the kid in the room, they take you into the outer area where the main desk is to process paperwork and while you are sitting there, they turn the closed circuit tv to the room where your kid is . . . "See I knew you were going to do this Roy . . . but I'm not gonna cry . . . " at least until we're outside the room. Tough day for the parents.

Much easier for the Gus Man, who LOVES daycare. He is the youngest baby in his room, and he is quite enamored with all the big kids (oldest is 13 mos.), so I don't know if that bodes well for Mom and Dad. I daresay that Gus is quite popular, and has earned a reputation as a snuggler. In addition to his two teachers, apparently there are members of the administrative staff who like to sneak back to Classroom C and hold the G-Man.

Gus' teachers like him a lot too. They have given him yet another nickname -- Gustanado, which apparently is a real thing. A Gustanado is a small tornado that sometimes forms along the leading edge of a thunderstorm (I'm a Google superstar).

Anyhow -- I pledge to update more frequently, but here are some pictures of the Gustanado. Enjoy.

Gus likes to nap in our bed. Here he is waking up from one such siesta.
Yeah, those are my pasty legs that the G-Man is resting on.
Close up of a very happy guy.
Now that he can face out, the G-Unit likes the Baby Bjorn.

Labor Day

Sorry for the extended absence, but there have been some technical difficulties at The Gus Stop. The family computer that housed the Gus media machine committed seppuku. Fortunately, we were able to rescue all of the old pictures and clips of the G-Man, but we were unable to add new ones. A new computer (like the one in Superman III!) is being built by the diabolical minds of Susu and Sam, and we should be up and running again soon.

In the meantime, the papparazzi shots in this post are provided by Gus' Grandma Ueland. My family was in town this weekend for Labor Day and to catch up with the Gus Man. A very nice time was had by all. Gus was very entertained by his Grandparents, especially his Grandpa.

Perhaps in an effort to keep his favorite Aunt in town, just as we were getting ready to take Kelli to the airport, Gus unleashed a torrent of poo that spilled out all over the living room, onto Kelli, and on the floor in the kitchen. Fortunately, the cleanup was manageable (easy for me to say since Emily actually did it), and Kelli was able to get the airport in time.

Here are some pictures of the weekend:

Gus and Grandma U
Gus happy to be with Grandpa U
Grandpa U happy to be with Gus
Gus and his favorite Aunt