Que Sarah Sarah

This past weekend we had the good fortune to have a visit from one of our favorite people -- somebody we don't see as often as we like -- Sarah!

We also grilled out for the first time at our Garden Party -- which intentionally sounds festive to disguise the fact that it really was an event whereby Emily's family helped us with yard work. As you can see below, we got a lot accomplished and had a lot of fun.

We hope that Sarah enjoyed her time with us. We look forward to seeing her again soon!

Sarah came into town bearing delicious gifts.

Guster at the Mill City Market trying an egg roll.

Poolside with Sarah . . .

And Mom!

Susu and Grandma A hard at work.

Sam gettin' it done.

Gus knows he could help if we'd give him a chance.

But he'll settle for some more pool fun.

I win!

Father's Day 2008

We are a bit behind on the posts, so I decided it was time to once again break into the Gus Stop and give Kevin some relief from all the blogging. (That's not sarcasm. Seriously, people. We've been busy enjoying summer in MN - you never know when it could snow again so you have to get outside while the gettin's good!) This past Father's Day was technically the second one for Kevin, but the first one he will easily remember as a result of not being so sleep-deprived. Gus did a little shopping and planning to make it a Father's Day to remember.

We started out the day with chocolate croissants and a tie from Gus. That may seem like too obvious a choice for Father's Day but Kevin really can't have enough ties.

Gus is telling it like it is.


After breakfast we headed to the Science Museum to check out the Star Wars exhibit. It was pretty cool and I can't believe I didn't get a better picture of my boys with Darth Vader. We were too shy to keep asking for more pictures - he was one scary dude brandishing a light saber like that.

Taking Gus for a ride.

Grilling out at Grandma & Grandpa Adriaens'.


A fun day was had by all and we think Kevin is one of the best Dads around. Happy Father's Day to all you daddys out there!

Aimee Mann Was Wrong . . .

One isn't the loneliest number -- as evidenced by the great turnout for Guster's first birthday celebration. It was a packed house and a good time was had by all. Emily gets a lion's share of the credit for the food. I have to take the blame for the party hats. A special thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Ueland, a.ka., the Decorations Committee. Thanks also to everybody who came and helped make Gus' first birthday a special one.

Pictures of the festivities below:

Grandma Ueland's Craftsmanship

Cupcake Pops

Aunt Kelli helping with the setup

Guster cakes

Nice Spread

The G-Man helping with the decorations

Blowing up balloons

Getting favors ready for the guests

Mom, Guster and Dad

Party hats all around
This one speaks for itself

Oliver, Brad, Rachel, and Brody

Jess, Ella, and Dan Are those for me?
Brody helping with the unwrapping

Checking out the presents
Guster about to attack with love
Hugs
Still holding on
Time to let go, Guster
Here comes the cake
Everybody's watching
Checking it out
Pretty good stuff
Wearing it

New Ride and New Pajamas

Even in Minnesota Spring has to come sometime. Although this year, there have certainly been moments where I thought, like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, that Winter just wasn't going to end. Like when we got 8" of snow on March 31st. Or when I woke up on April 7th to big fat snowflakes outside our window. But now most of the snow is melted and the weather is taking a turn toward higher temperatures. I think we even had some rain the other day.

With Spring upon us, Gus has decided that it's time to stop kicking the tires, and to take his new jogging stroller for a spin. I think that Guster likes it. This past Saturday Gus and I went running with Steve around Lake Harriet, and Gus kept up a constant stream of chatter the whole way. I am pretty sure that he was telling me to go faster.

In addition to the new ride, Gus got some new pajamas for Easter. Since he's nearing 1, we thought it was time for him to get some two-piece PJs going. As you can see from the pictures below, The G-Man loves his new superhero pjs.

Go Wild!

Tire pressure seems good.

This seems to check out ok.

Bundled up and ready to go!

Lovin' the new look.

Hammin' it up. Comin' after the Mamarazzi.
Ready for my close up.

To sleep . . . to dream . . .

It's hard to believe, but in a little over a month, Gus will turn 1. I just can't get my head around it. I still remember vividly the first day back from the hospital. Emily and I sat in the living room with days-old Guster, and I remember thinking, "holy schnikes, what now?" Fortunately there wasn't too much time to think about things, as infant Gus proved to be quite the task-master:

Now it's time for me to sleep. But not in my crib. Not in the bassinet. No, not the car seat! On you. On your chest.

Now it's time to eat. Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Good God, where is the food?!

Ok, now it's time to sleep again. Really? The crib, huh? You really think so? Yeah, that's what I though. Lie back and be still, please.

And so on. To be sure the first month clearly hinted at what our biggest challenge of the first year would be. Sleep would be the war. Where, when, and for how long would be the battles.

WHERE
As faithful readers of this blog know, Guster was not a fan of any sleeping destination that wasn't:

A. Mommy's chest
or
B. Daddy's chest

which was all fine and good when he weighed a mere 8 pounds. But as Gus grew, so did our backaches. And so the first battle was waged. We tried to get him to sleep anywhere -- his crib, his car seat, the bassinet, the stroller bassinet, the papa-san swing borrowed from our friends -- and nothing worked. I used to joke at the time -- "Brand new crib, $500 on MasterCard. Stroller, $500 on MasterCard. Swing, $100 on MasterCard. Having a baby boy that won't sleep anywhere but your chest -- priceless."

Eventually Gus relented, and started sleeping in his crib.

WHEN
Ah, bedtime. After some trial and error, we've eschewed a strict bedtime in favor of a range -- Gus goes to sleep for the night between 7:30 and 8:00.

FOR HOW LONG
The sleep war equivalent of The Battle of the Bulge. Every time we thought we were winning, something would throw us for a loop. He actually started sleeping through the night relatively early, but then he got his first winter-long cold, and later developed his first ear infection which made sleeping through the night difficult. Recovered, he would get back on routine, but the wake up time would get progressively earlier. 6:00am, 5:50, 5:35, 5:15, 5:00, 4:40! Just as mysteriously, Gus would reset the clock to something later, like 5:40am. On good nights he either wouldn't get up at all or would wake only once during the night. On bad nights, mom and dad would see every hour from 11:00pm to 5:00am. Not good times.

As my guest blogger wrote in the last post, Gus seemed to go on a sleep strike while I was in Europe. The strike did not cease when I got back and after a few bad nights and with Gus' first birthday looming in the distance, I made the case for the secret weapon: "Tough love." Others know it by a name that includes a certain verb that involves tears and a word that means the opposite of in, but I choose to define the term with love. To borrow a phrase from a song from dad's favorite band -- we were going to "Attack with love." My reluctance to talk tears here doesn't mean that no tears were shed when we unveiled the Tough Love. No, tears were shed, and while most were from the G-Man, I can't say all of them were. But after 30 minutes or so, the brave little boy put himself back to sleep. And slept until 6:30am. The next night there was less than 5 minutes of crying, and again Gus awoke around 6:30am.

We couldn't be prouder of the little man, and I am happy to say that as Gus closes in on cake-smashing day, the battle -- and the war -- appear to have been won.

Check out the little man below:

Gettin' into trouble
G on the floor, U in hand
Where's that S?
Uh-oh. Caught.
Put in the the pie-hole
Nice hair
Standing tall (28")
Sitting with Dad.