The Thole Chronicles

I've moved, maybe....

2011-11-17T12:13:00.000-08:00

I'm trying this out now, so you can see whether I'm posting or not....
http://tholechronicles.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/catching-up-is-hard-to-do/

Long Time, No see

2011-08-04T10:58:00.000-07:00

So, if anyone still checks this blog, here I am again. You would have thought I would have posted frequently this summer, since I was just sitting around at home most of the time. But Gus took care of that by how he likes to come pound on the computer keyboard every time he sees me using it.....and every time he was asleep or at day care, I was too busy catching up on more important things.
Anyway, to catch up....Gus turned two almost a month ago! We had a big party with all of our family, and Kevin used his new smoker to make some excellent ribs. Here are some highlights:

John (and Jenny and Charlie) were here. Gus and John had a pretty time playing together most of the time.

Gus licking the beater with cake batter for his birthday cake!
Gus's big birthday present! It will be awhile yet til he can reach the pedal and actually drive it.

Birthday cake!

Gus got a new tricycle! (Actually two....one is smaller and will be easily transportable to grandmas' houses).

Other than Gus turning two, the summer has been pretty uneventful. I was staying home with him most days, which was pretty frustrating, especially on days where Gus deemed a nap unnecessary (which was too often). Just this week I started a new postdoc job at Wash U, and then in a few weeks I start teaching two classes (at St. Louis Community College and Maryville University), and then all hell will break loose perhaps. But I'm very grateful to be back at work, although I do miss spending as much time with my sweet little boy.
I'm sure there are lots of other interesting things that happened in the last few months, but I don't think I really took pictures of them, so who cares.

Hawaii, the condensed version

2011-05-20T12:17:00.000-07:00

Wow. That's all I can really say after my trip to Hawaii.

Here's how it all came about. My friend Lauren mentioned to me that she was going to Hawaii on May 6, and that I should come along since I didn't have a job to worry about anymore. This was such an amazing coincidence, because I was done teaching for the semester on May 5. Anyway, after much discussion and pleading, Kevin decided to let me go. Since Lauren has a cousin that lives in Kona, Hawaii (the big island), it was a cheaper way to go since we wouldn't have to pay for a place to stay.

The trip was absolutely amazing. There were so many breathtaking things to see, I took well over 600 pictures. Although I uploaded A LOT to my snapfish site (I'll post the link at the end), I decided to highlight 2-3 pictures per day and give you an idea of everything I got to do. So here we go.

Day 1 (5/9)
I arrived in Kona at 2pm via Phoenix. The airport was pretty exciting because it was all open and looked like tiki huts. I was only disappointed because they didn't give us leis when we got off the plane like they do in movies (although Lauren brought me one when she picked me up....she had arrived on 5/6)

Tiki hut Kona airport

After Lauren picked me up at the airport, and we dropped off my stuff at Scott and Keri's (our generous hosts), we headed various places for Lauren to show me a few things. We went to the old boardwalk-y part of Kona and walked through a few shops. The BEST shop was a place called Pueo Boutique.....and if you knew me you would know I would love it. Amazing handmade jewelry, clothing, purses, etc., all made on the Hawaiian islands. This is where I ended up buying my token piece of souvenir jewelry (a beautiful necklace!). Here I am sitting along the volcano rock wall along the ocean and a big banyan tree.

Day 2 (5/10)
Lauren decided to take me to some of the lava flats near Kona. Obviously the entire big island is more or less a volcano and lava, but the lava was just CRAZY. I couldn't find anything certain, but I think all the lava near Kona is from eruptions in the early 1800's. It's just weird because it's like a black wasteland all over the place. But the area of lava flats we went to goes right next to the ocean, so there are just big cliffs of lava right into the ocean.

Here I am, super excited about lava and the ocean!

Near the lava flats there were some beachy areas - this is ones of those areas.

After some much needed beach time, we went back to the boardwalk area of Kona to do some more browsing in shops. It had gotten pretty cloudy and dark, and I took this picture across part of the bay (?). The steeple is from a church built in 1820, built by the first Christian missionaries to Hawaii.

Day 3 (5/11)
We had a lot planned for Wednesday. We were going to go up the mountain to a little town called Holualoa where there are a lot of little art galleries, go to a coffee plantation tour, head to this sacred Honaunau, do some snorkeling, and end the night with a luau in Kona. We got all that done except the coffee plantation.

Honaunau was pretty cool. It was this 'city of refuge' where in the 1500's-1600's, if someone was sentenced to die for doing something wrong, they could run to this place and if they made it there, they were forgiven. The wall in this picture was built in 1550.

I don't remember what the Hawaiian name of these totem pole like things are. They were all over at Honaunau.
Then we attempted to go snorkeling at Honaunau, which according to Lauren's cousin it is one of the top 10 places to snorkel in the world. However, I have never snorkeled before, and this was bad. I think I collectively saw underwater for about 2 minutes before giving up because I was hyperventilating. I also bloodied my knee and scraped another knee and foot on some coral. Not such a good time. I was however able to snorkel at the beach the following day and figured it out.

We returned to Scott and Keri's in time to get gussied up for our luau at the Royal Kona Resort. It was generally a good time - good kalua pig, poke, and mai tais! The dancing and show was a little silly, but it was a good experience.

Me and Lauren at the luau.

Day 4 (5/12)
This was our crazy ambitious day. So hopefully I'll be brief, because we did a lot. Basically, we drove around the ENTIRE island in one day.
First we drove north, and went to see this place called Waipio Valley. I seriously think this is the most beautiful place I've ever seen. The beach there is a black sand beach, and in the valley traditional farmers grow this plant taro. I never suffered through it, but I guess this is where they first came upon land in the movie Waterworld.

Waipio Valley

We also stopped to see a few waterfalls. This is Akaka Falls.

Next, we headed to the Hawaiian Tropical Botanical Gardens. This is near Hilo, on the east side of the island - basically exactly the other side from where we were staying. This side of the island is effectively a rain forest, so I literally felt like I was in the Climatron at the botanical gardens at home, although I was walking through a 17 acre outdoor garden. AMAZING. I took an ungodly amount of pictures here, but this was one of my favorites....some weird lobster claw thing.

After that, we went to a cool park in Hilo called Lili'ukolani. But I spared you those pictures. We also ate in downtown Hilo, which is pretty cool because it is kind of older and more historical than Kona.

Finally we were headed southwest to Volcanoes National Park! When we got the visitors center, we were freezing! It was about 60 deg and drizzling on top of the volcano, and we were in tanktops and had just came from about 83 degrees. At the park, there are a number of 'craters' of exploded volcanoes to see. It was so rainy and voggy (what they call the fog on the volcano) that it was hard to see much other than some steam vents. I guess you can take helicopter rides to see active lava flow, but that wasn't in our budget. Part of the park includes an 18 mile drive down the side of the volcano to the coast. Ultimately, the road ends where lava flowed over the road sometime in the mid 80's. SO FREAKING COOL!

The end of the road.....
After hitting the volcanoes, we had to drive another 96 mile back to Kona. It was all curvy and 45 mph, and we following many-a-slowass, so it took FOREVER to get back. That was probably the day where I saw more amazing things in my life than ever before.

Day 5 (5/13)
We planned this day around going to the Kona Brewing Co for a tour. We had tried to go earlier in the week, but they were closed for an employee party. So we tried to go at 10:30 am, but ended up missing a spot because they only allow 15 people at a time. Grr. So, we went to the beach for a few hours (where I ended up getting blisters from the sun for the first time - I'm still itching like crazy and shedding skin a week later....) and aimed to get there early for the 3pm tour. We barely made it, but we did!

Here we are with the grain bins at the brewery.
The brewery is pretty small (definitely smaller than Schlafly) so it was a pretty small tour. Afterwards we got to sample some of their major types of beer (which tend to be my less favorites). So Lauren and I both stayed after the tour for samplers of our own and some pizza.

Here is my koko brown ale, Kona coffee stout, steam vent ale, and hula hefeweizen. YUM!

Day 6 (5/14)
Scott and Keri both do competitive paddle canoe racing. Saturday morning, they had a race in a town called Kawaihae, about 30 min north of Kona. Lauren and I went, along with their 7 year old daughter Sofia. They each paddled in 6-man canoes for NINE MILES. I cowered in the shade.

Here the men are lined up for their race start.

Lauren took me by a beach called Hapuna Beach which is apparently one of the most popular on the big island. Because of the lava rock everywhere, decent beaches are kind of few and far between.

Hapuna Beach

Day 7 (5/15)
This was the first day where we had 4-wheel drive access to get us to some of the other neat spots, since Scott has a truck and could finally take us. We went to this place called Kiholo, relatively close to Kona.
The beach was so cool because it ranged from white sand with black pebbles, to bigger lava rock, to even smaller black pebbles, and finally to a black sand beach that took us about 30 minutes to hike to. It was amazing. We all picked up a lot of rocks/shells that had been polished by the lava rocks with the idea we might make jewelry. We shall see.

Some of the white sand/black pebbles.

Black sand beach! So cool!!!

So that was my last day there. We did an awful lot in my 7 days and it was all amazing, and really helped me forget my unemployment for awhile. Lauren and I both left on the same flight, we flew out of Kona at 10:45 pm Sunday night and made it back to STL at 1:30 Monday afternoon.

There were a few things I didn't get to see in HI, but I feel like I had a pretty good go of it, and I certainly had an unbelievable time! I am so grateful that Lauren invited me to go along, and that Scott, Keri, and Sofia were such gracious hosts!

A Tri-Beta Visit

2011-04-20T12:30:00.001-07:00

Every once in awhile, usually once a year or so, my friend Erikka is forced to return to IL to visit her family. When this annual event occurs, we usually try to reunite our group of college roommates, the self-named Tri-Betas (minus our Portlandian friend Amanda). This year, Erikka decided to head home to celebrate her 30th birthday midwest-style. We all agreed to converge upon Katrina and Brad in Downers Grove.
And so we went.

Gus is ready for a road trip!

I cannot figure out why this is underlined now, and can't make it go away......
A highlight of the trip was meeting miss Eloise, Katrina's little girl who was born last August. Here Gus gives her the first of many cute hugs.

Aside from doing lots of eating and drinking (as usual....) we spent Saturday morning at the Morton Arboretum, which also happens to be where Katrina works. Gus enjoyed exploring the children's garden.

Miss Eloise!

Gus also enjoyed 'walking' with Erikka and daddy, who more or less just lifted him around.
Walking through a bridge in the trees with daddy

There is some weird art thing going on, where artists are working to completely cover this tree with crocheted things. Very bizarre.

After hitting the Arboretum on Saturday, we drove to Two Brothers Brewery in Warrenville. I had never heard of it before, but since Goose Island just sold out to Anheuser-Busch, it is now actually the largest craft brewery in IL. Who knew? Thankfully, Gus fell asleep on our way to the brewery, and continued his nap during part of our visit at the brewery. Any nap is better than no nap.

One of my Two Brothers brews - Ebel's weiss perhaps? Good stuff.

Naked babies!

All in all, it was a nice trip (other than discovering that Gus now refuses to sleep in a Pack-n-Play). In addition to spending time with Erikka and Katrina, we also visited our friends Ashley and Nate - Ashley is having her first baby any day now - so it was really nice to see them.
And now the question is - when will Erikka come home next year and force us to get together again?? No pressure ;)

Another Superstar Wedding!

2011-04-06T09:41:00.000-07:00

Forgive me for not posting in awhile. There's been a lot going on, between teaching, and Gus being crazy, and more teaching, I haven't had much time to think straight lately. But this past weekend, I took a break from everything to make the wedding cake for my wonderful friend Jenny Conrad as she finally married Brice Donnelly. I also had the pleasure of being in the wedding party. I don't normally recommend trying to do the cake and be in the wedding, but this time it worked out well thanks to the simplicity of the cake Jenny chose.
So here are some choice pics of Jen's big day! It was simply perfect.

Here are here placecard holders - bottles of Limonada

I loved loved loved the flowers. Jen's bouquet was all yellow, and the bridesmaids were yellow and white. I LOVE freesia!

Jen found this hairpiece thing online somewhere - so pretty!

Brice's sweet tie and simple boutonniere

Jen is ready to head down the aisle!

She decided to wear some awesome, but painful, bright yellow shoes!

The cake

Cutting the cake

Me and my oh-so-photogenic hubby

All the superstar girls

Jenny, Angie, and baby Neske

The bride and groom catch a moment together at the reception

All in all, Mr. and Mrs. Donnelly had a perfect April day for their long-awaited wedding. They put a lot of thought and energy into every aspect of their big day, and it really showed! Congrats to the newlyweds!

Jen's shower, bachelorette party, and other random things

2011-02-24T09:06:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was a busy one. All of the bridesmaids threw a shower in Highland for Jenny Conrad's upcoming wedding. I had the job of making the cake. Everything turned out for the best, despite the top layer of the cake crumbling into a million pieces when I took it out of the pan. Buttercream is amazing, in so many ways. That's all I can say about that.

All of the superstar girls and children were able to make it! Gus and Anna even shared a first kiss! (I have a picture of that on my phone, I'll have to have a blog post of phone pictures sometime but I haven't downloaded any recently). You can kind of see the two impending children in this picture too (baby girl Neske and baby boy Myers)!!

It's a little easier to see the baby bumps when there aren't kids in the way :)

Following the conclusion of the shower, many of the girls headed to St. Louis where Jen had booked us a few rooms at the Hilton at the Ballpark for the evening. We then boarded a party bus, where our driver Albert took care of us for the night.
The party bus indeed had a party going on, with Jen and Katie even dancing in the aisles!

Jen has a heart-to-heart with Albert.

Superstars that made it to the bachelorette party - hooray to preggers Ang for joining us!

Our first stop - Double D's karaoke bar. We never took a group picture, but I grabbed this one of almost everyone watching a karaoke-er.

Jen's favorite stop - Mike Talayna's Jukebox. Holy mirrors and disco balls.

Our last stop - the Library....Janeice thought buying one of these bucket drinks was a good idea. I think the fact that she held onto the bucket was the best idea.....

Me and the bride to be. I have a version of this picture that someone else took (you can see I took this one) but for some reason I always look better in the ones I take.

Our view from the hotel room in the light of morning....not too shabby!

Thankfully I didn't need too much help recovering from the bachelorette party, so I could enjoy the amazing weather on Sunday - it was 75 degrees in mid-February!!! Gus and I took a dump truck outside to enjoy the weather.

Basically, he just drives the truck back and forth down the sidewalk. This is a good thing considering the amount of dog pooh in the grass.

I even convinced my anti-walking husband to go for a walk! We got Gus's new wagon (from Christmas) out on the sidewalks for the second time ever. He loves it!

Gus in his wagon!

Those are more or less my recent pictures. Other things that have been going on.... Kevin finally shaved his beard and got a haircut! I finally have back the man I married! He took some really funny pictures of his facial hair as he cut it off, I will need to get them from him and post them here because I think you'd be entertained.
Teaching is going pretty well. The weeks where I teach three nights are pretty insane, but Kevin is helping me out at home and it could be a lot worse. This week I suddenly had no voice, so I didn't lecture at my Tuesday class - which means I have three hours worth of talking to do tonight to catch up, so maybe my voice will be gone again! Now I just need to hope I can get a job one of these days. I applied for two more teaching jobs, and pretty soon I'll start talking to people about doing another postdoc (which I'd really rather not do). But I need a job!
Other big news from my world - I'm going to be an aunt again! My sister Jess and her new hubby Todd are expecting in the fall! I assume this is fair game to put out into the blogosphere, although I'm waiting for her to mention it on facebook before I finally have the status 'I'm going to be an aunt again, Hooray!'. So that's crazy exciting. And then all the pressure falls to poor Jackie ;)
That's about it. I don't lecture at all this next week, thanks to my friend Kim who is guest lecturing for my plant class. I'm going to savor every minute of not working on lectures for a week! I'm also really looking forward to watching the Oscars on Sunday with my friend Lauren - absolutely one of my most favorite things to do. Should be a good weekend!

Bathtime Craziness

2011-02-11T08:55:00.000-08:00

Lately Gus has loves to dump water on himself while he takes a bath. Usually, he just keeps pouring it on his belly over and over. This week he decided to try to dump it on his head, but instead gets a lot in his mouth (gross). Hilarity ensures. Here we also work on a few of the words he's good at, without much luck. There's also a random really wet sounding fart in there too. Enjoy.

Turning 30 and Lots of SNOW

2011-01-31T18:38:00.000-08:00

It has been a relatively crazy winter here in St. Louis. Usually we might get one or two measurable snowfalls (which is enough for me), but this year we've had four, and the fifth and biggest is brewing as we speak. Last Thursday was my 30th birthday - and we had the biggest snow yet. Everyone was predicting 6-12 inches for the area, and we ended up with right around 6 inches at our house in the city (I know mom and Jackie farther east both had more like 9 inches or so). Anyway, a lot of snow. I had a little bit of work I had to do that day as long as I could get to work, so I went in late, got it done, and headed home. I ended up meeting up with Jackie for an awesome lunch at 1111. Then as I was driving back to my house, I thought, 'hmmmm maybe I should go check out the gardens in the snow.' So that's what I did - I went to the botanical gardens and walked around taking a million pictures. This snow was especially dry and fluffy, so it stayed on the tree limbs and looked beautiful. Anyway, a few highlights from the snowy gardens.....
This is my favorite tree.
Japanese garden, teahouse bridge
the snow was especially beautiful on the crazy evergreens
zig-zag bridge
I'm very glad I went to the gardens - now I have a particularly memorable way to always remember my 30th birthday! That night, Kevin made me filets for dinner. Then the next day I was treated to Blueberry Hill for lunch by some co-workers, and then Lauren took me out to scape Bistro for dinner - amazing! Finally, Sunday my mom made my birthday dinner - fried chicken and red cake. Mmmmmm. Jessica, Jackie and I also got some sledding in at mom's that day - http://thepleasantfarm.wordpress.com.

The highlight of the weekend was my birthday party at 33 wine bar, which was orchestrated by my friend Jenny. She made me a very entertaining cake (and some delicious raspberry cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting!!)

A fair share of my near-by friends and family came out to celebrate, so I tried to take a few pictures.
Jackie and Allen....

me and Jackie

Jenny with a kind of creepy Brice in the background

we are doomed to never take a decent picture. I'm not photogenic by any means, but this guy really doesn't help.

Ang and Matt

Mike, Erin, and Lauren

me with Erin and Lauren

All in all, it was a pretty fabulous birthday.
And since it's been over, reality has set in. Starting last week, I am teaching 4 classes....a Master's level plant class for U College, an intro microbiology lab and lecture at Maryville University, and an undergrad seminar course at Wash U. Thankfully the micro classes are only every other week, so I'm only going to be insanely busy every other week. All I can say is I really hope this helps me find a job.....

A few videos

2011-01-30T18:52:00.000-08:00

It appears I can finally upload videos again. Here are just a few, nothing too exciting though.

Gus with some of his new Christmas toys:

Dancing with his new puzzle (btw these puzzles are ridiculous....You don't need to have the right piece in the right spot for the music or sound to happen.....I'm not impressed).

Gus and Lucy love to chase each other, and it often results in some of the craziest Gus laughing you've ever heard. This is far from the craziest they can get, but you'll have to settle.

A Wedding and a Belated Christmas!

2011-01-10T12:49:00.001-08:00

This weekend, my cousin Aaron got married! His mom (my aunt) had asked me if I would be interested in making the cake, and I said yes, of course! So I spent a good part of late last week preparing a cake to serve a reception for 290 (!!!). It turned out ok, I always have certain issues....but everyone seemed happy with it. So that's done with. The reception was at a really cool old warehouse space in Edwardsville, so I attempted to take 'arty' pictures where you could see some of the other cool buildings from the reception hall. My 'arty' pictures are usually failures. Alas.

One goal while we were all dressed up - a family picture. We went through the entire holiday season without taking one. So here's our best attempt. As usual, Kevin's eyes are closed.

Aaron and Emmy coming to the reception.....we had to go outside and light sparklers even though it was about 15 degrees. Brrr!

Decent picture of us. Of the attempts I had, the one that I looked best, Kevin's eyes were closed. Of course.

Brothers - Aaron and Adam

Like father, like son.

Grandma and Grandpa try to pose with John for a picture.

Random one - I finished my stocking just a little after Christmas! Kevin's is still stretched out from the bag of starburst I put in it....

Gus and Anna being cute (too bad you can't see Anna's face).

Superstar Christmas was at Janeice's house this Sunday. We had a very nice luncheon using her bridal china for the first time ever (they've been married two and a half years!). As usual, it was great to spend some time with everyone.

Two superstar baby bumps! Laura is due in late June, Ang in late May. Yay!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2011-01-03T11:18:00.000-08:00

We have had a very busy few weeks! And now I think we need a new house to fit all of Gus' new toys. But....I digress.

We started our Christmas celebrations on Christmas eve. Kevin took a shopping trip to Toys R Us late the night before, and he got Gus all kinds of stuff after I had just bought him a few things knowing he would get a lot everywhere else. Gus got a new big wagon (that I can't wait to get out of my dining room) and a big metal dump truck, among other things. Gus did ok with opening presents, but generally was distracted by the newest thing and had to be dragged back to the next present. He's a little ADD-ish, but I guess that's normal for an 18-month old right?

This is my favorite picture of Gus from the holidays. I just can't help laughing every time I see it.

Opening up a wooden train

Basket! Dad got him a Little Tykes bball hoop!

It started snowing pretty good Christmas eve morning. Kevin took this picture while I was getting ready to head to IL before the snow got any worse.

The next celebration - Christmas at grandma June's. Gus takes a break to give Satchel a hug.

Guitar! One of two he received that day....

Christmas morning - Watching Dad clear the snow from the driveway at grandma's.

All the dogs were watching Kevin too!

And another celebration - Aunt Jackie with both nephews and Great Grandma's house.

And another celebration.....Gus loves the box as a hat at Grandma Connie's house.

And the final Christmas celebration - opening present's with Dad at Great Grandma Lovekamp's house.

For New Year's Eve, we all got together at the Becker's house for crab legs! The brothers-in-law are avoiding the sisters by sitting in the living room.

Gus' favorite place is under the table in Aunt Jackie's kitchen. Gus is introducing the good spot to his cousin!

And so it was....2010 is over. All in all, it was a pretty good year. We have a happy, healthy little boy and we both have jobs for the time being. Here's hoping 2011 brings a new job for me!!

Finally, a haircut

2010-12-07T11:43:00.000-08:00

As attached as I have been to Gus's hair, I decided it was finally time to give him his first real haircut. In addition to the fact that I just wasn't cutting it because I've been in denial about him not being a baby anymore, a number of people have referred to Gus as 'she', so I figured it really must be time. Either that or I need to buy Gus some more manly clothes. But anyway. My mom cut our hair most of the time growing up, so I figured how hard could it be? So I bought a pair of barber's shears and gave Gus a sucker, and we were ready to go. Kevin took these pictures, so generally you can't see exactly what he meant to show you.

Here Gus is, ready to go.

This gives you and idea of how long it was in back.... pretty long.

Halfway done......

Rat tail - almost done!

Done, for the most part. Kevin never did take a decent picture of him after it was done, so you'll just have to wait and see for yourself. I think I did an ok job, but in hindsight it would have been a better idea to have my mom do it and me observe or something. Whatever. We'll see what happens when he needs the next haircut.

Aside from getting his first real haircut, this weekend we also went to pick out our Christmas tree. Kevin always likes to go to Daniken Tree Farm near Greenville to cut down the tree himself, so that's where we went. We were looking for a short-needled tree (I guess a fir of some sort?) but the first place they took us had almost none left, except for really big trees. So we talked to the guy that dropped us off, and he took us to another place that should have more. And there were none there at all. So we kept walking and finally found another area with some and I finally convinced Kevin to settle because Gus was frozen and it was lunch time. Then when we went to pick up the wreaths we had picked out beforehand, one was gone. All in all, we were fairly unhappy with our trip and probably won't be going back there next year. Sadly, I didn't even realize just how small our tree was until I got home later that night and saw it. It is so small it is not even funny. That just goes to show how cold and miserable it was, and how bad the selection was out there. So depressing. Nonetheless, it's a cute small tree, so it will work.

But here are Gus and Uncle Matt searching for a tree.

Here we are in front of the tree we chose. It should have been a hint when you couldn't even see the tree behind us. Alas.

So the tree is up, some of my shopping is done, and now Gus has a haircut worth of his Christmas pictures.....hopefully we can get those done soon! Also on the to-do list, figure out a picture for the Christmas card. It was so much easier when we only had Satchel to pose......

Thanksgiving, Carolina style

2010-11-30T13:48:00.000-08:00

It had been a long long time since Kevin and I had made the 12-ish hour trip to North Carolina to visit Jenny and family. So this year for Thanksgiving, I convinced Kevin we should try our first long roadtrip with Gus. And so we went! We left Tuesday morning, and made it there pretty late Tuesday night. One highlight of the trip there was Gus's first happy meal.....I'm pretty sure he just ate a few french fries because we kept giving him snacks in the car to shut him up until Kevin would stop for lunch, but oh well. He enjoyed the toy that came with the food, so it was worth it.

While we were there, the cousins enjoyed playing with each other (for the most part). There was a lot of one boy mocking the other, be it 'words' or actions, and it was pretty entertaining. I think there were no major meltdowns, so that was good. Jenny and I worked to make a decent Thanksgiving dinner....she and Charlie brined a turkey that ended up being amazing. I made rolls and a chocolate pecan pie, Jenny made dressing. These were the most important things. Everything turned out pretty well. My biggest lament - no pumpkin pie. I guess I'll have to wait for Christmas.
Jenny and I made a few shopping runs, Kevin and Charlie and John drove up to the mountains for a Christmas tree, and we ate lots of good food. But as usual, the highlight for me was tasting some new wine. We went to a place Jenny and Charlie had never been before called Flint Hill - good stuff and a neat old farmhouse!

Flint Hill grapevines

Flint Hill winery....yes we were brave to take two little boys!

The Thole's in front of Pilot Mountain (at Ragapple Lassie)

When we went to Ragapple Lassie, Jenny and Charlie watched the boys while Kevin and I did the wine tasting. Possibly my favorite part of the trip! I just love every single wine they make!

So the majority of the pictures I took out there were just of Gus and John together. They had the same coat which made for some good pictures.

Playing in the back yard

Sharing a chair

Escape!

They love their tractors (or four-wheelers, in Gus's case)

Being calm?

Enjoying their sippy cups in the recliner

We had a great time out there, although we were glad to get back home to our dogs....and I'm sure Jenny was glad to have her house back in order, and lacking a bad-languaged lump on her couch.....
So glad they'll be here to visit in just a few weeks!

Halloween, a few weeks late

2010-11-12T08:43:00.000-08:00

Last year for Halloween, Gus was the cutest little elephant ever, courtesy of the amazing costume Aunt Jackie made for him. I'm not the most creative person, so when people started asking me what Gus was going to be for Halloween this year, I figured I ask Jackie and see what she came up with. Her response - he should be a greaser! And so it was....I figured this was easy enough - white shirt, rolled up jeans, something rolled up in his shirt sleeve, hair slicked back - I could handle this. But to top it off, Jackie actually found a motorcycle jacket for Gus. This absolutely made the outfit.

I really thought Gus looked like his Grandpa Ken with his hair slicked back like this. Here he is at his day care Halloween party. He is very proud to be sitting in a big chair.All of the day care misfits. There are some gnomes (twins), an owl, a lion, a giraffe, Minnie Mouse, and maybe there were more not in this picture. I CANNOT believe these kids sit there in these chairs and are so good!

After the day care party, Gus and I headed to my mom's, where we got to see Jenny, Charlie, and John, who had flown in for the weekend! Then we headed up to the square in Highland for the big trick-or-treat thing. Here we are with Jenny and John the mechanic! Check out Gus's sweet coat! Without it, he either would have been 1. freezing, or 2. looking like he wasn't dressed up but had weird hair wearing a normal coat. Thanks Jackie!

We also briefly saw Max, who had a cute owl costume!

John really enjoyed getting candy. Here he is being a good boy, eating a Tootsie pop on his mom's laugh. This is the perfect smile!

On actual Halloween, we hit a few grandmas/aunts in the area. Then, the HPFD was having an open house, so we went there to eat hot dogs and let the boys check out the fire trucks. Here is the second incarnation of John the mechanic and Gus the greaser!

And now, a few other random pictures.
I love when Gus drives two things at once....here he has his tractor and his bulldozer.

Gus loves animals. Aunt Jess brought in a baby kitty for him to visit with!

This past weekend, I wanted to enjoy the nice weather despite being able to pull my husband off the couch. So Gus and I went to the gardens for a stroll. Here are a few of him with the sheep.

Gus just had pictures taken at day care too. They were pretty good, but they weren't cheap and I figured that I'll be getting Christmas pictures taken in about a month. So I didn't buy any (sorry Jenny). But I'll take the pictures from the proofs and keep it in the scrapbook as his first school pictures! If anyone sees this and just dies because I didn't order any, I think I theoretically still could.

Gus has recently been a lot more noisy. He still doesn't say much that makes much sense beyond mom, dad, and the occasional tractor. But when he makes noises he is moving his tongue around a lot more making new sounds. So last night we were playing with his little people barn. He knows what all the animals are (except maybe the sheep?). But when I was talking about the cow, he said cow, and kept saying it I think because he was tickled he was able to say it. He was also saying ooooo when I was saying moo. Pretty damn cute! So maybe some more real words will be coming soon!
He's also been a lot more picky about food lately. Usually he LOVES bananas and yogurt, and I can only get him to eat about two bites of banana, and he completely refuses the yogurt. I'm not sure if Halloween candy ruined him, or if it's just his age. We have had a few candy-related tantrums though in the past two weeks. Kind of funny, kind of annoying. I just have to keep moving the candy so he doesn't know where it is and doesn't see the bag and start pointing and whining.
Not much else exciting is going on. This week was busy because I was guest lecturing for my friend who is a professor at Webster University - it was enough work to do that I didn't get much regular work done. But I got to teach introductory biology for the first time, which was a great opportunity and experience. This week I also went to see Joshua Radin at the Pageant with Jackie. He was ok, but I don't love the stuff on his new album and that's what he played the most. But the opener, Good Old War, was amazing! I loved them, and actually just bought their most recent album, and it is great stuff! Highly recommended....
Today just might be the last day it's in the 70s before it cools off for good. The weather has been amazing this week - I just wish I could have had a hookey day to enjoy it! Just one more full week of work, and then we'll be off to North Carolina for Thanksgiving! Can't wait!

Pumpkins and buggies and horses, oh my!

2010-10-26T13:53:00.002-07:00

As most of you probably know, Kevin never really wants to do anything. So when he mentioned he wanted to go up to the Amish country in Illinois to visit the Great Pumpkin Patch, of course I said sure. And so we went. It was a relatively short visit - we went to the pumpkin patch, walked around awhile and bought some pumpkins. Then we drove into Arthur assuming we'd find somewhere to eat (we found one place that closed the second we were done eating). Then we visited a few little shops and were on our way back home. I tried to talk him into going up to Chambana for some Papa Dels, but no luck.
Kevin said next year he'd be ok with just going to Eckert's.
Anyway, here are some highlights.

Gus's response when seeing his first horse and buggy:

I think he has this funny smile because it was kind of windy. I wish he was looking at me.

Checking out all the pumpkins. He didn't try to pick up any for some reason.

Ok, maybe it looks like he's trying to pick this one up.

With dad after the pumpkin selections.

2010-10-26T13:53:00.001-07:00

I'm a Horrible Mother

2010-10-19T13:27:00.000-07:00

So I realized the other day that I hadn't taken a picture of my kid since September 12. Ouch, that was a long time ago. In the meantime, I guess stuff happened. We even went to two weddings in one day. I took ONE picture....and it didn't include any of the brides or grooms, or my kid, or me. Here it is:
Kevin and Matt, his cousin Amy, and Aunt Mary at his cousin Jeff's wedding.

Anyway, I hope to get a bit better about taking pictures. So I tried to take a few this weekend.

This is Gus playing with his tractor - it was mine when I was little and mom sent it home with me. It scares me because he likes to try to pick it up, and it's heavy and solid metal. I'm sure our heart pine floors already have a few dents from it.

Like father, like son. Gus can't open his eyes for pictures either.

Playing on the couch with dada.

Gus has a box of triangular crayons from his Aunt Jess. Thankfully he doesn't really know what they are yet, but he's obsessed with them.

Playing on the couch with the dogs. And my iPhone.

So there you go, a few pictures. Gus had his 15 month checkup recently....if I remember correctly, he was 27 lb, 32 inches tall, both of which were 75th percentile. He had his lead levels rechecked because they were borderline at his 12 month checkup, but they were fine (phew....).
He is attempting to say more words. I've heard Lucy, tractor, banana and a few others, but almost everything he says sounds like 'ba'. He loves playing with the dogs....Satchel has become less tolerant of him, while Lucy has become more tolerant. Yesterday I stayed home with him because he had a fever, and he learned first how to use Satchel as a step while climbing up the back of the couch to the windowsill....then he was able to get up there without Satchel. THEN he decided to simply lunge forward while sitting on the windowsill. This kid is frighteningly fearless.....
Other than news about Gus, I think everyone knows I don't have a job after April? My boss is leaving St. Louis and so I won't be able to work for him anymore. Unfortunately his timing was bad as far as applying for teaching jobs, but so far I have a couple things figured out for the spring....I have a course to teach for Wash U's U College (plant physiology and biochemistry) and one lecture, two labs to teach for Maryville University (microbiology). I'm hoping my boss will let me change my hours to around 30 and keep benefits through the spring, but we'll see. And beyond the spring, I have no idea what will happen.
Only a few things I can think of for Kevin....he's pleasantly surprised with how well the Rams are doing so far this year, which is a little disappointing for me because it means every Sunday revolves around him watching the football game. And Blues hockey has started which further compromises our tv schedule. But the biggest most important thing - Kevin has one chicken now laying eggs! He is beyond proud! We found the first egg last weekend, and since then that chicken is now up to about an egg a day. So it won't be long until we're sharing eggs with people! The other two chickens are the giant chickens, and they still aren't mature for a few more months.
So there you go. I'll do my best to take more pictures in the coming weeks! These might include a family visit to Amish country, Halloween with cousin John, and (gasp) perhaps a real haircut soon?

Some new-ish videos

2010-10-08T11:03:00.000-07:00

I put some new videos on youtube....so if this link works....
http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?feature=mhum

if it doesn't, just search for jmpgarnet.....

iPhone Pictures

2010-09-23T08:29:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's impossible to have your camera there when something interesting happens. But thankfully sometimes my phone is close enough....

Here are some recent random highlights.

Miss Anna June antagonizing Gus while the girls eat at Zapata's

Gus and Lucy playing on the bed....Gus is laughing like a maniac.

Cousins in grandpa's big blue tractor

Practicing sitting in the wagon before the wedding

Passed out cold literally minutes before the wedding started....it's a good thing Gus is almost always happy when he is woken up!

Chef Boyardee night.

Gus can now reach every countertop in my kitchen. He saw this peach and decided to eat it. I was sad, I no longer had a peach to eat for lunch the next day.

Going for a walk down our street.

Absentee Blogger

2010-09-23T07:51:00.000-07:00

Wow, a lot has been going on. And I've been too busy/lazy to blog about it. Sorry. Here is my attempt to catch up.

First and foremost, my seester Jessica got married over labor day weekend! It was an amazing and beautiful day and I'm so glad I could be a part of it. Somehow I didn't manage to get a good picture of the newlyweds actually looking at me, but here is their first dance. Congrats Jess and Todd!!

Mr. Gus was one of three ring bearers. He was super spiffy in his vest and tie.

Cousins!!

Seesters and mom!

Me and Jess at the Marx Bros. stop before the reception.

While Kevin, Gus and I were all looking our nicest, there was a total fail in terms of a decent family picture. I wasn't even attempting one here, Kevin just decided to join in. It was more entertaining than the actual failed attempts. Alas, the curse of being grotesquely non-photogenic.

There were tons of other wedding pictures. If you didn't see my snapfish album, and all the other albums on facebook, then you're just missing out. It was a great wedding!

The best part of the wedding was that Jenny, Charlie and John were home for a few days. Gus and I spent a lot of time at the farm with the family, and we did a lot of walking around and exploring. Here Gus is checking out one of the cows.

Gus is obsessed with any kind of animal and always wants to hug them. Jenny is trying to stop him from squeezing the baby kitties to death.

The weekend after the wedding, we were back at the Latzer homestead for Harvest Days. Kevin always takes his dad's old Minneapolis Moline out there for the antique tractor show, and this year was no different. Our friends Erin, Mike, and Max also went out there to check out the tractors.....here Gus and Max are hanging out on the tractor.

Family picture.

Aaaaand, most recently was the highlight of our September - the annual Schlafly Hop in the City. After a week of gorgeous weather with highs around 80 every day, the day of the Hop had to be 90 degrees. On top of the crazy hotness, I think they had way more people there than ever before. So it was a little disappointing. But the Dirt Cheap Chicken made an appearance, which marked the only use of my camera that day. Sigh.

Many many other things have been going on. I've been fighting with a stupid experiment in the lab for the last few weeks - something I've done plenty of times before and is simply not working without explanation. I'm about to give up for the time being.

In addition to keeping my eye open for jobs and trying to do the job I do have, I got my first freelance writing job - writing a short press release for an engineer at Wash U. Hopefully it will be online soon....nothing too exciting, but it was fun. I'm also TA-ing a class this fall at Wash U - a freshman seminar called Problem Based Learning where I run a discussion of about 6 students. Well, after the first class, about 50% of the students dropped. So for my second class, I had TWO STUDENTS that were supposed to discuss stuff for 2 hours. HAH! And then, after that class, one of my two students emailed me that she was dropping! So they took my one student and put him with another TA for these first couple weeks and I haven't had to teach. Starting next week, the groups rotate to new TAs, so I will be teaching again then. Hopefully everything goes ok, and it was just my random group of students that dropped and not a reflection on me. I'm also guest lecturing for a plant development class on monday (about stomatal and root hair differentiation - woohoo!), so hopefully that will go well and be a good experience.

The next exciting events coming up are my cousin Amy's wedding and Kevin's cousin Jeff's wedding. Unfortunately they are the same day, so we'll be splitting our time between the two weddings. Other than that, there isn't much coming up that is too exciting.

Coming soon - chicken pictures, a video of Gus blowing kisses (if I'm lucky), and who knows what else.....

My Montreal Blog, At Last.....

2010-08-16T14:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been so long. I was in Montreal for a week, and then I got back and have been spending all of my time loving my Gussie.
Anyway, about my trip. I went to Montreal for the annual meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists. I stayed with my friends and lab neighbors Heather and Valentina, and met up most of the week with my friend Aaron from U of I...along with a handful of other random people that were there for the meeting. Heather took care of booking the flights and hotel, and we got an awesome 5 star hotel that was right next to the convention center - sweet! Here it is, the InterContinental.
They had really nice flowers in the lobby all of the time. I was particularly thrilled by these Amaryllis - I have NEVER seen them as a cut flower. Crazy!

Our hotel was about a 10 minute walk from Old Montreal, which dates back to some time....like late 1700's or maybe 1800's? Anyway, old. Montreal is on the St. Lawrence River so it has always been an important trading place since it connects the Atlantic with the Great Lakes. Old Montreal is pretty cool....I've never been to Europe but they say that Montreal is as European as it gets being on this continent. I knew they spoke French there, but I was surprised at how much French there was. We certainly went to lots of restaurants with only French on the menu. Ironically, my only problem with communicating with someone was at McDonald's. But anyway, the old part of the city was really cool - all cobblestones and old stone buildings.....all the restaurants with lots of outdoor seating. Really, really neat. Here's just a random picture of street signs with some old stone walls.

This is looking down the street in Old Montreal. Maybe not the best picture but it's always hard to tell seeing the small version when I pick which one to upload. Deal with it.

So Montreal hosted the Olympics in 1976. They built this crazy stadium, and of course I don't remember the details, but I think it was by far the most expensive stadium ever built, and it took them more than 20 years to pay it off. It has a retractable roof but it has never really worked right. The Expos played there before they moved to DC, but I think nothing really happens there now.

We got to go to the Jardin Botanique (Botanical Gardens) for free with our conference badge. Heather and I took a quick trip up there. I thought the water lily gardens were really weird - very modern and 60's ish. I noticed a lot of 'newer' things in Montreal seemed like this, I guess because they were built either for the World Expo in 67 or the Olympics in 76?
Japanese Garden
Chinese Garden
Overall the Botanical Gardens there were very nice. But I'm waaaaay spoiled by the one here - it truly is one of the best in the world.

Here is a view of the convention center where I spent most of my time. It was built in the early 2000's, and was pretty cool as far as a convention center goes. Love the colorful glass!

Montreal is named such because of Mount Royal - a 'mountain' that is right by the city (or rather that the city has now sprawled around). I 'climbed' (a bunch of stairs....) to this overlook. A beautiful view of the city with the River in the background.

The chalet at the overlook on Mount Royal.

As I mentioned, there was a World Expo in Montreal in 1967 (I guess this is like a world's fair?). They built 2 small islands in the river and had random junk out there, including this thing - called the Biosphere - a geodesic dome which was built by famed crazy man Buckminster Fuller. I didn't make it to the island to see it for real, I could just see it from the port. Still pretty cool.

Another weird Expo 67 thing - called Habitat 67

POUTINE, finally! Apparently Montreal is famous for inventing this dish - french fries covered with brown gravy and cheese curds. I waited almost the entire week to finally try this, at a restaurant called Montreal Poutine, no less. Pretty good stuff, but I particularly enjoyed the burger and my Blanche de Chambly (the beer, yum!). I think the tap room now has poutine if I decide I need to clog up my arteries any further....

My roomies for the trip - Valentina and Heather

It was a nice trip. I particularly enjoyed the weather (maybe 80 each day!!! and cool at night!). However, I got back to St. Louis to find that I need a new job - my boss is leaving St. Louis soon for a job in Louisville KY. I have NO IDEA what I am going to do, but I'm sure something will work out. And I've got about 6 months to figure it out, I think (I avoided my boss last week to find out for sure. I promise I'll talk to him tomorrow).
While I was gone, Gus got much better at walking. Here's a couple movies - youtube links again cause Blogspot sucks. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfuOxkt6XCc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-6i4u1-G2g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x78oX8YR6gQ

Live From Montreal....

2010-07-30T19:46:00.001-07:00

So I made it to Montreal. So far, the city and my hotel seem very nice. I am here with my friends Heather and Valentina who are in the lab next to mine. We explored tonight in the Old City and it was very cool....obviously I've never been to Europe but it seemed very European. And I knew this was a very French place, but it's even more French than I imagined....I'm a little intimidated, but certainly I'll get used to it in the next week.
HOWEVER.....
I am very sorry to report that I forgot the cord to hook up my camera to my computer. I guess at this point it doesn't matter because it also seems wifi might be harder to come by than I expected. I just assumed there would be free wifi at the hotel, but there is not. Right now we caved and paid $15 for 24 hours of internet...and I'm not sure what will happen after that. I'm just praying the convention center has wifi and somehow I can make that work. Also it seems I'm not smart enough to make the wifi work on my phone....these are the drawbacks of letting your more tech-savvy husband take care of such details.
ANYWAY.....
If I have time and have the internet and have anything worth posting without pictures, I'll be back. If not, I'll be sure to put the picture highlights up next week.
Wish me luck!

Taking Pictures Ain't Easy

2010-07-27T19:58:00.001-07:00

This Saturday, I decided to try to take some pictures of Gus that could be potential 'first birthday' pictures, simply because there weren't a lot to choose from after the family photo shoot over the 4th of July weekend. But a few other pictures first.....

Gus and Jackie playing with sunglasses
Gus loves Tunes the Tiger (and his dada)
Gus loves to sit on the couch and play with the curtains. Here he was actually sitting on Satchel and bouncing up and down.....very funny.
Ok, now for my attempt at being a photographer. Gus and I went to the botanical gardens looking for photo opportunities.....
But this is what most things ended up looking like.....
Here are a few of the cuter ones.......

So I'm not sure if I'll just go with the best one the photographer had? Or go with the one three above this one (cropped as a portrait)? What do you think? Yea, probably the photographer's.....

I leave for Montreal Friday morning. I'm very nervous about leaving Gus for so long, especially when I won't be able to call or text anytime (it's very expensive to call 'internationally'!!!). But thankfully my iPhone is working again thanks to parts from my boss's old phone.....so hopefully I can skype for free or something.....wish me luck. And wish Kevin luck, he'll probably need it....

I Forgot......

2010-07-23T07:27:00.000-07:00

I am not sure what is up with this stupid blog that it won't let me upload videos anymore. I haven't yet tried with my new computer, so maybe it is hardware related? Something to try this weekend I guess.
Anyway, I forgot to include Gus's stats from his one year checkup in my last post. He was 24 lb 7 oz which was the 75th percentile, and he was 30 inches tall (which I think they measured wrong because he was squirmy) which is the 50th percentile.
I also forgot to mention that Gus is walking! Kind of, at least. He took his first steps at day care the day after his birthday. When I got there to pick him up, he was standing at a table playing. He turned and stood there and you could tell he was really thinking about it, and then he took about 8 steps! So since then he's walking a bit here and there.....but I only finally got it on video yesterday!
Here's the youtube link to a short bit of him walking....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCxKbSAxsek

and here's one of him using an empty wrapping paper roll as a horn (a trick his dad taught him).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U08VruPmOI8

Busy, Busy, Busy

2010-07-20T12:41:00.001-07:00

Wow, there has been A LOT going on. I swear to you, for the past 3 weeks I have had maybe two free evenings. Anyway, I'll try to catch you up.

Gus finally got to try out his birthday swing set a couple days after his birthday. He doesn't look too enthused.
My wonderful friend Emily turned 30! For her birthday, we went to Fast Eddie's - a famous bar and grill place in Alton that I had yet to experience so I was very excited!

The girls at Fast Eddie's. I enjoyed many of 'the coldest beers in town' and a 1/2 lb Fat Eddie Burger. Yum!

Then, Gus had another birthday party. Here he is while people are singing to him.

He had more fun playing with the plate....although he ate plenty of cake and icing too!

Sitting in daddy's old rocking chair

Waiting for dad to get one of his new toys out of the box!

Then, last week was spent playing LOTS of softball catch-up, making up some rained-out games. Two more to make up then we finally start the playoffs. Friday I went to Lilith Fair with a good number of my good friends. It was brutally hot and sunny, but there was a breeze that saved us. We saw lots of fabulous artists, including Ingrid Michaelson and Sarah McLachlan. I LOVED Ingrid and can't wait to see her again.....sadly she almost never plays in STL. And so I wait.....

THEN, the Eyrich's have been in town! On Saturday they came over to play for awhile. Spencer enjoyed playing with Gus's new Legos.

Emma did not enjoy Lucy's company.

Gus went crazy when Spencer went outside and they laughed at each other through the glass.

Saturday was also Kevin and my sixth wedding anniversary. Grandma June came to take Gus for the night, and we went to Onesto for dinner. It was wonderful! We thought we might go see a movie, but after a bottle of wine with dinner we were less interested in a movie. Instead, we went downtown to check out the City Gardens at night.....I had heard the lighting was really interesting. Indeed, it was nice.
Sunday I spent an hour picking green beans. My back and legs still hurt today from this. So if you want some beans, I can hook you up! We are also knee-deep in eggplant, cucumbers, and the green peppers and tomatoes are just getting started.
Meanwhile, my blessed iPhone stopped working. I guess it's probably related to when I washed it however long ago - maybe some moisture inside slowly corroded a connection or something? But as of right now I'm using Kevin's old Razor.....so sad. I can tell when I have voicemail, but at the moment I can't figure out how to listen to it.....such fun. BUT, I have a new laptop! So that is exciting. Now I just need to figure out how to skype with Jenny and John.....

Mr. Gus is ONE!

2010-07-08T09:15:00.001-07:00

One year ago (yesterday), August John Thole decided he was coming, scheduled or not. I had a C-section scheduled for the afternoon of July 7th, but little Gus decided he wanted to be born a little earlier than that.... My water broke in the morning and my C-section ended up being about an hour or so early (I think? It's crazy how you forget these things). And now, a year later, my sweet little boy is a year old.

This weekend was crazy busy. Jenny and her family were home to celebrate for Jessica's bridal shower, Gus's first birthday, and otherwise take advantage of the holiday weekend. Saturday evening, after Jess's shower was over, everyone came to St. Louis for Gus's birthday party. Kevin made two recipes of BBQ ribs for the festivities.....I think he did this so people could taste both and vote for their favorites, since I like a different recipe than he likes. So I guess he got more votes for his favorite recipe, which means mine might be out of the rotation. So sad.....

Despite the heat, we sat outside....sadly I don't have room in my little house for 15 people. But I think everyone survived. Here's one table of our guests:

And here's the other table. Of course Kevin isn't looking at the camera.....just as well, since his eyes would have been closed.

Even though Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Plocher couldn't make it to the party, Great Grandma still made Gus's birthday cake! It was perfect, and Gus loved it! This was while we were singing Happy Birthday.

On top of the cake was a clown, which became Gus's personal cake. I'm not sure how much cake he actually ate (he mostly ate the icing) but he seemed to enjoy it.

Then it was time to open presents. Here is Gus's first present from Aunt Jess, some Mega Legos with firetruck related pieces. He loves it!

Aunt Jackie got Gussie a pair of sunglasses. I think he's taking them off in this picture....they certainly didn't stay on long. We'll work on that.

Mr. Gus got all kinds of great presents, but showing you pictures of all of them would be very boring. Our house is still a bit of a mess from them all. Gus did great at the party though. I put him to bed around 9pm, and he fell asleep while taking his bottle like he usually does. But as soon as I laid him down, he popped right back up and was jumping up and down in his crib. TOO MUCH SUGAR!!!
We are so grateful that everyone could make Gus's first birthday so special!

This is just a random picture from this weekend of Gus playing the piano. He recently discovered it and likes it very much.

Sunday Kevin wanted to go to the air show downtown. Considering Kevin doesn't usually like to go places, I was glad to go with him. It was pretty nice out - a perfect breeze! Gus enjoyed being outside and seeing all the people.

The afternoon of July 4th we went to Janeice's parents for some pool time. Gus had been swimming before with Aunt Jess, but I had never taken him. He seemed to like splashing in the water. You can see my awesome sunburn from the airshow. I'll need to work on that before Jess's wedding and the strapless bridesmaid dress.....

Gus loves the noodles!

One of the best parts of the weekend was Gus getting to spend time with his cousin John. The last time John was here, Gus was barely mobile. So now it was nice to see them interact a little more. Here I think John is explaining to Gus how the sink works in the fake kitchen.

There are fire trucks galore at grandma's house, and the boys were taking turns/fighting over which ones to play with. Here's one that makes a lot of noise.

We had a very exciting and exhausting weekend! But it was so nice to spend time with the family, and especially to see Jenny and Charlie and John. Thankfully they'll be back in less than two months for Jess's wedding!

Since yesterday was Gus's actual birthday, we had to give him a present. Here he is climbing on it before he realizes he's supposed to open it.

Almost there......

It took Dad 5 minutes to get it out of the box, but then it was time to play! Gus claps in approval of his new toy.

We (and by we I mean Kevin) also got Gus a swing set. I wanted to take pictures of him with it yesterday but forgot. Gus took cupcakes to day care for his birthday. Then last night we went to the gardens to celebrate with Grandma June, and my friends Jen, Sarah, and Keith. Gus had yet another cupcake! It was a fabulous first birthday for Gus!

And one more celebration to go......

The chickens are free, and Gus went to his first Cards game!

2010-06-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

After months and months and I don't want to know how much money spent, Kevin is finally done with the chicken coop! Here is the finished product. Sorry for the sun blaring behind it.
So now that the coop is finally done, Kevin was ready to move the chickens out into their permanent home. We decided to have a 'coop warming' party on Saturday to celebrate them moving up! But Kevin decided to move the chickens out earlier in the day instead of waiting for the party. So here is the chickens in their old home.....

And here they are in their new home.....a little confused.
And if you wondered, Kevin has named the chickens....they are General Tso, Kung Pao, and Hunan. Which one is which, I couldn't tell you.
I didn't take any pictures at the coop warming party so I don't have any to show you. Lots of people already had other plans, so it was kind of a small crowd. It was also hot outside so I'm sure a lot of people didn't want to hang out in our yard for that reason. Kevin had ordered a pony keg of Schlafly hefeweizen for the party, and some of it didn't get drank and was thrown away.....So sad! Our only other option would have been to spend more than $5 a day to keep it iced until we drank it all. Oh well. But we still had a nice time, and I think people enjoyed coming to see the chickens and the coop after all the talking about it we've done.

Monday morning, I checked my work email, and there was an email from Friday afternoon that they had leftover free tickets to Monday's Cardinals game. I quickly emailed the person and asked if there were tickets left...and low and behold, there were two. So I called Kevin to see if he was up to the challenge of taking Gus to see the Cards for the first time. And he was! Thankfully the weather was nice, and Gus still (barely) fits in the Baby Bjorn. So off we went.
Here's the best version of the family picture at Gus's first baseball game. The guy I knew that I asked to take a picture didn't exactly know how to try to get Gus to look at the camera, but oh well.
Gus was very good the whole time. Here he is contemplating the last play. And is it just me, or do i look a little Lovekamp-y in this picture? Kind of a scary angle....
The sky looked pretty so I took this picture. You can see the grass on the field is a little beat up from the previous week's Eagles/Dixie Chicks show.
Me trying to take another family picture. I hate when Gus has the Nuk in pictures, but I was too entertained by Kevin's face.
All in all, the game was a good experience. We left at the top of the 7th...Gus was getting a little fussy, but wasn't bad at all....I think we more or less left because we could. The game had been a boring one, and I think we were down 5-3 when we left, but the Cards had a good comeback in the bottom of the ninth. We missed a good one, but I think we were all glad to be home at a decent time. AND I'm going back to another game tomorrow night anyway with ALL of my sisters (and all of my brothers-in-law) but Kevin is sitting this one out. Oh well, who knew.

The empty Schlafly keg is sitting in the kitchen until Kevin returns it. Gus found it, and he likes it.
And this was Gus after my softball game yesterday....he passed out on the way home and then Kevin held him for a little while. Definitely looks like Kevin here. (And look at all that drool! His next two teeth are almost in....)
Who knows what the next post will be about? Gus's first birthday? Or Jessica's bridal shower? Or Gus playing with his cousin John? There's a lot going on in the next few days....

Video, finally

2010-06-24T10:52:00.000-07:00

So for the last two weeks I've been trying to upload a video of Gus laughing where you can check out his teeth really well. I even made a wordpress blog to see if I could upload it to there (it seems uploading video to wordpress doesn't work unless you pay money?). Anyway, I finally just got a youtube account, and so here's a link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3qE6BdmVJQ
I know smarter people have youtube videos within their blog posts, but I'm not that smart. So deal with it. I guess if I can't post a video in the future, I'll do the same thing.

A relatively successful trip....

2010-06-22T12:23:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Kevin and I took a kind of vacation. We were going to head up to the suburbs to reunite with my college roomies, and I convinced Kevin to take two extra days off to go up and spend a night in Chicago. Kevin said that was fine, as long as I booked a good hotel room. Well, I decided to use Priceline because my sister has had luck with that in Chicago. Anyway, I was less lucky, but I'll get to that.
Thursday morning we were on our way. We had plans to stop in Bloomington-Normal to have lunch with my friend Laura and her family and to see her new house. It was a perfect lunch, and Gus got a chance to eat and play and be out of his carseat for a bit. Then we were on our way to the city, hoping to get there before rush hour. Unfortunately, we hit either an accident or construction (we never figured it out) and it took us an hour to go 2 miles at one point, which meant we hit the city right at 4pm. Nightmare. Anyway, we eventually made it to our hotel and got checked in.
Our hotel was in a nice neighborhood, called the Gold Coast. As fate would have it, it was a block away from where my cousin Amy lived for 5 years until a month ago....figures. It was a neat old building (built in 1926) but left much to be desired. Just pretty shabby overall. The added touch was that as soon as we checked in, I went to the bathroom and the toilet didn't flush. Awesome.
Regardless of our hotel and getting there a little late, we continued on with our (my) plans for the evening. We took the train downtown to Millenium Park. I love this place but Kevin was unimpressed.
Here's our only family photo from the trip.
Kevin being unimpressed by the bean
Regardless, I still love the bean! My favorite piece of public art, perhaps....
So we walked through Millenium Park, and discovered a walkway to the new Modern Wing at the Art Institute - my other planned stop for the evening.
We lucked out because the Art Institute is free after 5pm on Thursdays. So that was nice because it saved us $36, but it was crazy busy as you might expect. So we just saw a few things there and checked out the new building before we headed on to dinner. Here's Gus and his classic smile along with Dad at the Art Institute.
Waiting for the train to go to dinner

So, I love pizza. And I love Chicago style pizza. So I asked my friend Shannon for a recommendation, and her favorite was Gino's East. So that's where we headed for dinner. When we got close, we realized there was a giant line.....I had no idea this place was such an institution. Gus was starving, so while we waited in line I gave him a banana and made a giant mess. We finally got a table and ordered, and then Gus had a dirty diaper, which of course was on his clothes. So he got his clothes changed. Then I gave him his dinner, which he promptly threw up everywhere. It was a fun time. Despite all this drama, the pizza was AWESOME. We enjoyed it with a pitcher of Goose Island 312, so life was good. So back to the hotel we went.

This is Gus trying to bite my face at Gino's East....it's his new favorite thing to do.
Friday morning, we woke up and went to breakfast at a little cafe in Amy's old building. Good food! Then it was my plan to walk around the Gold Coast area to see some of the cool old houses, and then up through Lincoln Park and the zoo and maybe along the shore of the lake a bit. Kevin said he didn't really want to walk anywhere, and I said Gus and I would go by ourselves. So we meandered through the park. Half of the zoo was closed for construction and I wasn't overly impressed with what I did see, but hey, it was free. Then I went to the Conservatory which was pretty cool considering I like plants and all. Here is Gus and the conservatory:

This was right inside the main door of the conservatory - very nice!

After Gus and I walked, we went back and checked out of the hotel. Then we drove a few miles north to see my friend Shannon's relatively new condo - very nice place! After that, we went with Shannon to the Goose Island Clyborne Pub, basically the Goose Island equivalent of the Tap Room. Shannon and I both chose to try flights of beers, while Kevin got a 'Hefe-Hawks-win' - the name of their hefeweizen which was named in a contest. The beer was good, the food was good, everything was good.
Here is my flight. Yum!
After Goose Island, we decided to get the hell out of dodge. It was nearly 2 and we thought we'd beat the traffic. WRONG! It took us about an hour and a half to drive the 20 miles to Downers Grove where Katrina and Brad live. CRAZY!!!!
Unfortunately not all of my pictures have uploaded from my camera to my computer yet (we have this wireless photo card but for some reason only some uploaded and I'm too lazy to manually do it right now) but here is a picture of Gus playing with the truck Erikka gave him for his first birthday - it's his first birthday present ever!
But after we got to Katrina's Friday, we waited for Anna and Erikka to arrive and then we ordered pizza and sat around. Saturday we went to the Downer's Grove farmers market, and then it was Katrina's shower. It was by far the fanciest shower I've ever been to - at a restaurant with a 3 course meal! Hopefully one of the other girls will send me the picture of us all dressed up at the shower..... Kevin and Brad went to a microbrewery and drank for the 4 hours we were at the shower, and then that evening we grilled brats for dinner and sat around some more. Sunday we headed home after we got everything together in the morning - Kevin wanted to get some work done at home. But the chicken coop is finally almost done - it better be done in time for the chickens to be released at the coop warming party saturday!
So all in all, it was a good trip. I don't believe I'm ever going back to Chicago with Kevin again, so if anyone else wants to go, let me know ;) Gus was soooo good, and so flexible to having a modified schedule every day based on what we were doing. I'm so lucky to have such a good little boy!

Mmmm beer, followed by laughs and toofers

2010-06-16T08:22:00.000-07:00

Kevin and I went to the St. Louis Brewers Heritage Beer Festival on Friday. Kevin was actually the one that wanted to go, and typically if he wants to go anywhere I try to go along with it. There were 14 local breweries and more than 60 types of beer! So here we are ready to try it all.

They had a HUGE tent, and just one really long row of tables, and the beers were arranged by style. I was disappointed, because I would have preferred to try all the beers from each brewery at a time.....but oh well. Here you can kind of see how long the tent was. Crazy big!
All in all, I think we tried about half of the beers, and found a few we really liked!

While mom and dad drank beer all night, Gus spent his first night at Aunt Jackie and Uncle Allen's. I guess he was good. Jackie was tickled that the only poopy diaper was while she was gone, so Allen changed it. Haha. After picking Gus up on Saturday, we headed to mom's for the afternoon, and eventually went to the Schweizerfest parade. Unfortunately it started raining when the parade was supposed to start, so I had to entertain Gus in the car for awhile while we waited. Not fun. But here he is playing with the steering wheel.

Eventually the parade did start, but it wasn't long before it started raining again. So we stood in the rain for awhile, but we gave up before most of the floats even came by. Oh well, we tried.

I had a video that currently won't upload....so I'll try again later.

BALL!

2010-06-09T10:40:00.000-07:00

Gus has been obsessed with his Illini basketball recently. I also think he tries to say 'ball' (apparently he also tries to say 'bubbles' at day care, where they play with bubbles a lot). But he loves to bounce it and chase after it. Here he's even wearing an Illinois outfit and playing with his ball.
Gus also loves to stand up and look out the front door. Here, he and both dogs are checking things out. You can see I quit trying to snap this 12 month size outfit that doesn't fit him....

Gus also loves pulling on Lucy's tail. It's hilarious because she's jumpy, so as soon as he pulls on it, she jumps up and runs off, making Gus laugh.....then Gus usually follows her to get at least one more tail pull out of it before he starts doing something else.

I haven't taken pictures of Gus and Kevin lately, so I thought I would. Gus was being PERFECT but Kevin wasn't cooperating. The one picture I finally got with Kevin looking and his eyes open, Gus wasn't as cute. But look at this kid!

He recently had his messiest lunch ever. I think he was rebelling because I was giving him baby food I was trying to get rid of, and he's more used to regular food now. So he kept grabbing the spoon and smearing the food all over. I think this was the first time I had to give him a bath after he ate because he was that dirty.... He's also generally been making this face lately. Maybe he just discovered his lips?

Sunday my friend Lindzy came over with her son Joey. Joey is 9 months old, but I'm pretty sure he'll be walking before Gus. He also has a crazy lot of hair! But they enjoyed tearing my kitchen apart.

And, as promised, here are the ugly chicklings.

And here's a movie of Gus playing with his ball.

Gus is a jabbermouth

2010-06-05T06:20:00.000-07:00

I had been wanting to make a movie of Gus being talkative, but he always stops when I get the camera out. So here he was talking and playing and then went on to play with Satchel, so it's a little long. But cute, of course, cute.

And then there were three.....

2010-06-02T09:17:00.001-07:00

I'm very sad to tell you that one of the chickens passed away this weekend. Kevin has no idea what happened.....but he was downstairs and he heard this awful noise, and when he walked over to the box they are in, one just keeled over. So now we're down to three. I keep meaning to take a picture of them with my camera but then I forget. But right now they are pretty ugly - kind of in an awkward teenage stage I guess. Sometime I'll remember a picture though.
Kevin worked very hard this weekend to get the chicken coop finished. Finally by Monday evening he was ready to move it to its permanent home (and I finally could have my patio back!!!). So his brother came over, and Travis, who was in town visiting Agnes, also offered to help. However, the three of them were still having a hard time moving it. So the neighbor came over and helped too. It was a pretty comical process, but I didn't think to get my camera til they were almost done. So here they are, nearly to the final resting place against the fence. We're planning to have a 'coop warming party' in a couple of weeks when the chickens move outside. Should be a good time.
Other than Kevin working really hard on stuff at home, we were otherwise busy as well, but I forgot to take any pictures. We had grandma's birthday party and fish fry, and another day Gus and I went to Lafayette Square Park with Lauren, Erin, and Max for a walk. We spent Monday at home except for a trip to Tower Grove Park with Old Man Satchel, who managed to walk for about 20 minutes (although then he needed me to lift him back into and out of the car....).

I have a few pictures from the previous weekend though. Gus and I went to the Botanical Gardens for awhile and I took a few good pictures of this cute kid.

Then this picture is from grandma's house - Gus was looking outside at all the cats and dogs. He's in his diaper because it was about 90 degrees outside and mom and dad hadn't yet turned on their AC. HOT!
Coming soon, hopefully....a video of Gus the jabbermouth. He talks SO LOUD and SO MUCH! But it seems usually by the time I get the video camera out and he sees it, he shuts up. So that gives you something to look forward to.....

Randomness

2010-05-20T09:17:00.000-07:00

I don't know much really, but I have some good pictures to share. Last weekend Erin, Mike, Max, and Lauren came over for dinner. It was particularly entertaining because Gus and Max had on the same shirt! So we tried to take a few twinkie pictures.

Max meets one of the baby chicks

Gus's first taste of brownie!

Max and Gus wreak havoc with the dog water

Gus has been particularly entertaining with the dogs lately. Here he is giving Satchel some love.

He LOVES Lucy - she just makes him crack up constantly. He is still brave enough to climb on her, but she usually jumps away immediately which of course makes him laugh more!

Another recent favorite - crawling over the top of Satchel (and other things as you'll see in the video). I guess Lucy doesn't sit still long enough for him to crawl over her though.

I often let Gus play with whatever he can find in the kitchen while I try to do dishes or cook. The other day he was somehow able to get the blue pyrex bowl out of my stack of bowls (see them on the right), as well as the pastry blender out of the basket next to the bowls. He loves making noise with anything, so this was just entertaining because he was smacking the pastry blender on the bowl. Future chef, perhaps?

And now, Gus's most recent trick - he loves to crawl over the wood ledge thing under our coffee table. The first few times he did it he ended up hurting himself, but now he crawls over it like a pro! One less thing to dust, I guess.....

They're here!

2010-05-13T10:32:00.000-07:00

Grrrr, I hate this blog. Anyway, the chickens are here! They arrived in the mail on Tuesday. There was just a small cardboard box on the doorstep, and here they are! They were shipped as one day old chicks, so I guess in this picture they are two day old. So very cute! Lucy was very confused while they were sitting on the kitchen counter.....she couldn't see them, so she was going crazy hearing their 'chirp chirp' and not knowing what was going on! Kevin came home early from work to take care of the chicks, and put them in their home for the next few weeks - a big rubbermaid tub with food, water, and a heat lamp. The two yellow chicks are Delawares and the brown/black ones are 'Jersey Giants'. I think they will be inside for a month or so, then they can move into the chicken coop Kevin is getting close to finishing.

Here's a picture of their current home:

This weekend was my first mother's day! Friday night we celebrated with June (and Matt), Saturday I went wine tasting with mom and Jess in Augusta (you can see Jessica's blog for pictures of that....), and spent the evening with grandma Plocher, then sunday we went to grandma Lovekamp's. It was very busy, but is always nice to see family!

Here is Gus crawling towards me in grandma Lovekamp's backyard - he has a very funny look on his face.
Trying to take a decent picture of me and my baby on Mother's Day....I seriously think I'm the least photogenic person in the world!

And finally a couple of videos. First a short one so you can see the cute chicks, and then one of Gus....he was being really jabbery so I wanted to take of movie of him talking, but then he quit after I got out the camera. He is still cute in it though.

We're on the mend....

2010-05-04T12:57:00.001-07:00

So I still can't figure out how to write before pictures on here. As soon as I have time, this blog is moving to wordpress..... Anyway, there was a random picture of Gus in the bathtub for you.

I am happy to report that everyone in the Thole family is finally on the mend. Kevin can hear again, thanks to his ear specialist puncturing his ear drums and suctioning out all of the fluid. It was a week ago today that he had this done, and it seems he's fine now, so hopefully that won't be a problem again. I think it's a pain how he normally can't hear me well, so this was a new level of painful as far as communication goes. We more or less just didn't talk for 2 weeks.
Gus went back to the doctor last week too, and he still had an ear infection. So now he's on new antibiotic....and sleeping better again, so hopefully he will be better soon.
I also had a respiratory infection, but I think I'm recovered. My biggest problem has been just aching from playing softball - we had two games in the last 5 days and I HURT! I am just old and out of shape, but hopefully playing softball will help.
So here are a few pictures.

Gus randomly crawled into Lucy's crate. It was very cute, but then he couldn't figure out how to get out, poor kid.

The day that Kevin could hear again, he decided to go buy Gus a new toy - I guess just because he was so happy to hear again. So this is Gus's new toy. He likes it, but it slides across the rug when he leans against it, so I need to figure out how to fix that.

Smiley Gus

Funny face while drooling on/biting the coffee table

Gus LOVES the dogs. He often crawls up to them squealing, and he loves petting them. This picture is out of focus, but you can see how happy Gus is to be playing with Lucy.

Sunday evening we had friends over, so we were trying to keep Gus up a little late to avoid sending our guests home early. He played on the floor for awhile, but then got a little tired and decided to collapse just like Satchel.

Not much else going on. I'm very grateful to Jessica for giving me some memory cards that work in my old camera so I can keep taking pictures! We mailed in my broken camera to see if what was broken might be under warranty (obviously I didn't tell them I dropped it)....so hopefully we'll hear something soon!

A couple of videos

2010-04-27T10:07:00.000-07:00

These are mostly for you Jenny, since most of the other people that read this aren't interested in videos of Gus not really doing anything. Hopefully you can hear Gus's blabbering over the tv. And in the one video where I start saying 'Eeew gross' that is to try to get Gus to smile - it's something Jackie does.

Stormy Saturday

2010-04-27T09:32:00.000-07:00

I tried to post this Saturday, but the internet wasn't cooperating. Anyway, it's just a video of what the yard looked like with the part of the tree down.

Spring is Sprung! And....my camera is broken :(

2010-04-21T12:25:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm going to have to get rid of this blogger blog soon cause it's really annoying me. I uploaded pictures first cause that's what I always had to do first, and now it won't let me type above the first picture. Well, I'm not gonna mess with it now.
This weekend, I had the luck of getting two free tickets to the Schlafly Repeal of Prohibition festival from Jen and Brice. After securing Uncle Matt as a babysitter for Gus (hooray!), Jackie and I went to the Bottleworks to meet up with Jen and Brice. This was very similar to the Hop in the City, except there were far fewer Schlafly beers, and there were three visiting breweries from Michigan. So I had fun tasting all the new beers, and maybe only had one or two Schlafly pours all afternoon. But we had a good time.
As I mentioned before, my camera is messed up. From time to time, I can get the lens to come out and it takes pictures, but I didn't realize that they are blurry on the left-hand side. And at this point I can't get the lens to come out again. So I'm going to take it to a camera repair place on my way home and see what they tell me.....
Anyway, later in the afternoon we saw two random guys from Highland, and apparently at some point we thought it was a good idea to take a picture with this guy, Dustin Luber. But we had a very good time.

The weather was beautiful this weekend and I would have loved to work out in the yard, but I'll have to organize another Gus-watcher to get some new plants in. But here's a blurry picture of one of my flower beds - my spirea is going crazy, and I even have poppies blooming. It's crazy!

Kevin didn't work on it this past weekend, but the weekend before he started building his chicken coop. It is much larger and much more elaborate than I was expecting. He still doesn't know where in the yard he will put it, but at the moment he has built it too heavy to move off the patio. So we'll have to have some kind of dinner party so we have people to help move it when he's ready.

This is my favorite dog, Satchel. For some reason this picture isn't blurry at all. Hmmm. He was very much enjoying the sun and the grass.

And I would probably get in trouble if I didn't post a picture of the kid too. Here is Gus in his high-chair seat thing....he is looking so big! This was the first day he wore real shoes too, and they are Vans similar to ones like his dad has! Btw this is Gus's Cheerio-eating face.

So I guess I'll be cameraless for awhile. Unfortunately, I have also found that the camera on my iPhone doesn't work, seemingly the only casualty of going through the washing machine. I guess I can try using my Flip video camera, I know you can get still images from movies somehow. We shall see......

Some Videos

2010-04-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of videos.

First, Gus's current favorite toy (other than non-toys that he shouldn't have like cords, candles, and DVDs) is his choo choo....and he just learned how to roll it around on its wheels.
The second video is a bit of Gus stealing Lucy's bone and Lucy stealing it back.

Easter and some other stuff

2010-04-14T09:02:00.000-07:00

Sorry, things have been very busy lately. Gus started getting sick almost two weeks ago, and finally went to the doctor last week for his nine month check up and we found out he had a double ear infection. All things considered, he wasn't acting all that bad, mostly just not eating or sleeping well. Since he's been on antibiotics, he's been getting better and finally slept all night again last night, but he has a fever again, so I might get to take him to the doctor tomorrow if it isn't gone by this evening.
At his nine month checkup, he weighed 21.75 lb, and was 28.5 inches long. They never told me and I never asked about percentiles, but I'd guess he's big-ish.
Gus has been getting into A LOT lately. He started trying to eat the dog food just the other day, and last night he even hovered on the floor right by Satchel trying to steal some. I tried to take a picture but it didn't turn out very good (I dropped my camera and it's still working but something isn't quite right....).
The worst thing that happened to me with Gus being sick was that he threw up all over me, which caused me to throw my clothes into the wash right away, and my iPhone was in my pocket. Miraculously, it still works. I just discovered that the camera isn't working though, but I need to try turning my phone off and back on again.
Also, on top of Gus being sick, he got me sick. I coughed all last week but didn't feel too bad....then this week I had coughed enough that all the muscles in my back ache. So I finally went to a doctor monday, and hopefully I'm on the mend (still really hurting today, but I have stuff that has to be done!). Then Kevin came home sick from work yesterday with an earache, and he's going to the doctor in a couple of hours, so hopefully soon we'll all be better!

Anyway, some pictures.

Erin and Max and me and Gus at the church egg hunt (even though mom told me not to bring Gus, haha)

Gus's attendance prize were some bunny ears. And this is his I'm-showing-you-my-teeth smile

Gus was more interested in the other kid than in the bunnies

Gus didn't feel too good on Easter, but I had to get a picture of his Easter outfit and his new Easter socks (that will only fit for a tiny bit longer)

Poor sick Gussie is out for the count.

Gus's new favorite game is to steal the bone from Lucy.....

....and taunt her with it.

And some pictures from the Botanical Gardens, where we went with mom this weekend....

Gus has the cutest smile!

I've Been Remiss.....

2010-03-30T09:01:00.000-07:00

.....in posting pictures lately. Here are just a few.

Gus wearing an extra cute cardigan, during his almost-crawling phase.

Eating puffs, making one of his funny faces

Using Satchel as a stand-up helper

Climbing into my lap while I've got the camera

Eating puffs with Great Grandma

Gus found this giant plastic Easter bunny at Aunt Sue's - he crawled up to it and stood up with it numerous times during the day

Teeth, crawling, and some hair!

2010-03-23T09:50:00.000-07:00

Wow, a lot has been going on! Work has been crazy busy (I've even been working on the weekends, which is something I almost never do!), and Gus is getting more and more mobile. He has been crawling backwards for a few weeks now, and then Friday night he crawled forwards for the first time that I've witnessed. He always crawls towards something he shouldn't have....the first time it was telephone cords. But he's getting better and better. He has been pulling himself up to standing on things for awhile now too....he's a brave, crazy boy! Gus also got his first tooth the other weekend, and I think the second tooth should break skin any day. And he finally has a head full of hair growing. It is so much lighter than the beautiful dark hair he used to have, but I will live.
I have other pictures to post too, but no time right now.....so here's a video of Gus's early crawling moves. He always crawls until he's just close enough to lay on the ground and reach for what he wants, which you'll see here. Enjoy!

Gus is getting ready to crawl....

2010-03-01T13:55:00.000-08:00

So movies haven't been working on here very well lately, for whatever reason. So please let me know if you have problems seeing them, cause I'll just start a blog elsewhere where things work reliably.
I have a short video of Gus up on his hands and knees rocking back and forth - I assume this will lead to crawling soon. Yikes!
Gus also started laughing kind of weird sometimes. It's hard to explain, but here he is doing it a little bit.
The videos might be in the opposite order, but it will be obvious which is which.....

Just a few pictures....

2010-02-24T09:15:00.000-08:00

Just so you know I didn't forget about my blog, I thought I'd post a few pictures. Not much has been going on and I haven't taken many pictures lately in general. In fact, the only thing I can think of that we've done recently is we went to Quincy for Kevin's cousin Dena's wedding reception. So that was Gus's longest car trip (he did great!) and his first overnight at a hotel, so exciting! Unfortunately I never took a family picture while we were dressed up. Shame on me. Other than that, Gus is getting closer and closer to trying to crawl. I'll have to take a movie of him soon on his hands and knees rocking back and forth! But here are some recent pictures.

Gus was playing on the floor while I was doing something in the kitchen - when i walked back in Lucy was laying right by him and Gus was petting her. I'm sure I missed a few face licks too....

Gus passed out sitting by dad on the couch

Super smiley in the bouncer!

Gus and Grandma June at Dena's reception

Dad putting a Fussy Gussy to sleep at the reception

A nice picture of my favorite dog :)

Bouncing and Puffs!

2010-02-04T08:27:00.000-08:00

I know these aren't the most exciting videos ever, but remember Gus is only (almost) 7 months old and doesn't do all that much.
In the first video....he has been bouncing in my lap a lot lately. I'm not sure if one of the exersaucers at day care bounces or where this came from? So I tried the doorway bouncy thing from Jenny again, and now he goes to town bouncing. (Before now when I would put him in this, he just stood there relatively bored).
In the second video....I gave Gus his first Gerber puffs this past weekend. He made horrible faces and kind of gagged on them. I tried them again last night, and he keeps making horrible faces, but then opens his mouth cause he wants to eat another. We also experimented with him trying to grab them and put them in his mouth himself, but he'll have to work on that. Enjoy!

Party in the Desert

2010-02-02T14:12:00.001-08:00

Hooray for some warmer weather! Gus and I just returned from a visit to Phoenix to see Mandy and her family. I figured there was no better time than January to head to the sunny desert. Thankfully, all the crazy rain happened in Phoenix the week before we went, so while we were there it was about 70 and sunny every day. Not too shabby! Gus survived his first plane ride pretty well, and slept almost the entire way. He also slept pretty well there (although he half woke up every morning at 5:30, I could always make him sleep until at least after 6).
Mandy hosted us out at her beautiful new house in Gilbert, about 30 miles outside of Phoenix. Gilbert seemed kind of strange because everything was really new (less than 10 years, I would guess) and looked the same. Then sprinkled among this was some farms. Literally there would be horses and cows on a block with giant new houses. Very strange! I have some highlights from pictures below, or you can see them all on my snapfish page:
http://www5.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3783548014/a=103663773_103663773/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

The Eyrich family at the Phoenix zoo

Me and Gus with some saguaro cacti at a park near Mandy's house

Me and Gus on top of South Mountain, which is just south (I know, shocking) of downtown Phoenix, so you can see it above and just to the right of us. You can just drive to the top, so it was very convenient....I wasn't sure I was ready to hike with the baby bjorn. There were cacti all the way up the mountain!

Spencer and Gus playing. Spencer was almost ALWAYS in Gus's face if they both were awake. I think Gus was a little lost last night without someone to constantly entertain him!

The kids at Tempe Town Lake

Cool cacti and some big red rocks at the Phoenix zoo

The ultimate zoo habitat - the zoo has the bighorn sheep out on these giant rocks. So cool! The red rocks at the stl zoo pale in comparison....

Dad, this one is for you. If you can see past the reflection of my shirt, I took a picture of a field. They have these parallel mounds of dirt, and Mandy said they flood the fields instead of regularly watering them, and the dirt somehow contains water without washing stuff away. Mandy said they even grow corn there, crazy! Just very different looking than fields at home. I guess this is alfalfa?

Let's try this again

2010-01-22T07:02:00.000-08:00

Apparently the 'splish splash' video played for awhile, but then stopped working. Instead of editing the other post, I'm just re-posting this. Hopefully this works for you, Jess!

2010-01-19T13:42:00.000-08:00

I finally took a lot of pictures the last few days, so here are some highlights.

Playing with dad

Gus's first sippy cup. I walked into the room, handed it to him, and he immediately grabbed it and started chewing. He's done minimal drinking from it so far, but still he's doing good.

Gus and dad

Here he's actually drinking out of the sippy cup

naked baby! grabbed his nuk.....

Gus's signature smile

Splish Splash

2010-01-18T11:18:00.000-08:00

Last night was Gus's first bath sitting in the water - before now he was laying on a sling-type thing. But he enjoyed this quite a lot.

I took a lot of pictures this weekend too, so I'll put some of those up soon too.

Gus's 6 month checkup

2010-01-14T07:29:00.000-08:00

I haven't taken many pictures lately, but I figure a blog post without a picture is just no fun. So here is Gus eating peas for the first time last night.

Yesterday was Gus's 6 month check up at the doctor. He is weighing in at 19 lb 10 oz, which was either 80th or 85th percentile. Kevin was concerned that he wasn't gaining enough weight, since he was in the 90th percentile for his last visit......oh Kevin. He is 26.5 inches long too. So all in all a pretty big kid. For me, the most important part of this doctor's visit was talking about all the food sensitivities Gus seems to have. I may or may not have written about how I thought he had a reaction to formula when I mixed it with cereal? And also, some vegetables - squash for sure and maybe sweet potatoes and carrots, give him a rash. Anyway, she generally thought we should wait another month before trying the yellow veggies again...so now we're sticking to peas and green beans. We're also supposed to start him on meat, which I think seems weird.

In other news, the class I was supposed to teach as part of Wash U's University College is officially canceled. No one was registered for it, so they cut it completely. I'm both sad and relieved. I expect I'll still get the opportunity to teach sooner or later, but I was looking forward to getting it sooner. Although I was indeed anxious about how I was going to do that, my regular job, and take care of Gus without losing my mind. So I guess I'll have awhile til I'll need to figure out how to do all those things.

Kevin has been back to work a week and a half now. He's been a working fool - leaving the house before 7am and not coming back til after 8. Last night he didn't even get to see Gus before he went to bed. Maybe that will teach him to come home at a decent time.....

Happy New Year!!!

2010-01-05T12:32:00.000-08:00

Wow, a lot has been going on. We got a new camera right before Christmas, which was perfect. Thanks June! We've been very busy doing things for the last two weeks, and I couldn't put up pictures of everything, but you can check them out on my snapfish page:
http://www5.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3531109014/a=103663773_103663773/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Anyway, Gus has been doing great. He's almost figured out how to sit up by himself. He has completely figured out the rolling over thing....anytime I lay him down I come back and he's on his tummy. He almost never rolls back to his back though..... Kevin has been working on trying to teach Gus to crawl. Good luck with that, Kevy. He's 6 months old in two days! Crazy! He doesn't go to the doctor til next week though, so I'll surely report back then how big he is. All I know is he's big enough that my arms hurt when I hold him too long!
Anyway, here are some highlights from Christmas. The pictures ended up in a weird order and i didn't feel like fixing them. But first, a video of Gus trying to open his first Christmas present.

Gus with all of his presents from Christmas at our house. Kevin went to Toys R Us BY HIMSELF and bought him two toys - I had just bought him shoes and one small toy. Very funny.

John and Gus in their sweater vests

John loves Satchel! He kept walking around mom's house saying something that sounded like 'Sasha'....so cute!

Gus playing with one of his new toys

See, Gus got the present open on his own (this is the one from the video)!!

Now, it's back to work in the new year. Kevin went back to work at ESS yesterday, so hopefully that goes well. I'm working on a million different things in the lab, most of which haven't been working. I also start teaching 3 weeks from yesterday - YIKES!!!!!

Update on the thief

2009-12-18T08:22:00.001-08:00

Crystal Bennett. That is the girl's name. Using her fingerprints, WUPD was able to find her in a criminal database, because of course she's stolen stuff before. And quickly, they were able to discover she had pawned a Flip video camera the same day mine was stolen. Thankfully Kevin was able to find the serial number of my Flip from looking at the videos on my computer, and we could prove it was mine. So last Friday, I went with the cop to the pawnshop to get my Flip. Of course, nothing is ever easy, and we couldn't get it without some legal notarized document. Or I could pay $30 for it.....um, no. So the plan was to go back on Monday with the document to get it.
Monday afternoon the detective finally called to tell me he was going home sick, but had just come home from the police station in the city where he talked with Ms. Bennett, because she had turned herself in. She wasn't very cooperative apparently, and the detective wasn't in a good mood because he was sick. Among other things, he seized her clothes because she happened to be wearing the same thing she had on on the day she stole stuff at the med school and was caught on a surveillance camera. Hilarious! She said she had a lawyer and wouldn't talk about anything til he was there. Anyway, finally yesterday the detective called me and said we could go back to the pawn shop. So we went. This time there were a number of people in there, who knows....maybe some of them were selling stolen stuff too. But they looked at us like they were crapping their pants, presumably because of the cop and not because we were white, but that was part of it too in this part of town. But we were in and out of there with my Flip in less than 2 minutes. The detective told me I should give up any hope of ever getting my digital camera back, so hopefully this weekend we can get a new one. He told me that once this finally goes to trial, that I will be invited to the sentencing and I can ask for money for my camera, and will probably get it. So I look forward to that.....
In the meantime, still no pictures. We used up all the memory on the memory cards of my ghetto camera which I can't delete pictures from - which was why I bought a new camera - to take the christmas card picture. So hopefully you've gotten that or will get it soon! And videos to come soon....maybe I can get Gus laughing at someone barking soon.....

Feeling a little violated

2009-12-09T08:43:00.000-08:00

I had expected my next blog post would be filled with cute family pictures. We took some good ones over the weekend, first when we cut down our Christmas tree, and then when we took Gus to walk on the new I64 before it opened to traffic. They were good pictures too!
Probably everyone knows by now that my purse got stolen Monday from Wash U. A girl was just wandering around and in and out of labs, and unfortunately she saw my purse. Lauren, a tech in the lab, saw the girl walk out of the lab and she confronted her because she didn't belong. The girl had a story, of course, about how she was looking for someone that was supposed to tutor her. She even used the phone in the lab, supposedly trying to contact this person. Lauren could tell the number she dialed wasn't real though, because she could hear beeping on the other end. So as soon as this girl wandered off, Lauren called the campus police. Lauren had also closed and locked the office where we keep our stuff immediately while she tried to follow the girl to see where she went. Anyway, so a little bit later, I see Lauren talking with the cop and describing this girl (orange coat, purple braids....how inconspicuous...) and I went to borrow someone else's keys to open up the office because mine and Lauren's keys were locked in. And of course, I opened the door and saw my purse was gone. I had recently switched purses, otherwise Lauren would have known this girl was carrying my purse while she was confronting her. So at this point, I'm talking to the cop describing my purse and its contents, when I get a call on my cell phone (this all is happening in about 15 minutes), and its a Wash U number so I tell the cop I'm going to take the call. It was someone from engineering - they had found my purse in a stairwell across campus. So the cop and I went over there to get my purse. It was mostly intact - she had left my wallet, and had only taken the cash and even the change, but she had also taken my digital camera and my flip video camera. So anyway, I'm grateful that I got this much back. I'm also grateful that she didn't take my breastpump (she probably didn't know it was worth more than my camera, haha), and that I had my phone in my pocket, and that my laptop wasn't there. I would be a little more lost without those things. I'm also grateful that the Wash U police are actually investigating this. They came to our lab and got fingerprints off the phone (as well as off the phone from another person's office where she used the phone, I guess she was wandering suspiciously and they let her use their phone too). They also have her on a security camera at the med school and Lauren is sure its her. And Lauren worked with the cops to come up with a composite sketch. This is all pretty awesome and impressive, considering in the city if your car gets stolen they don't even investigate. So I hope they at least have enough information on this girl that they can catch her, even though my cameras have probably long been sold to buy drugs.
If its possible, I think Kevin is even more upset about this than I am. He was really proud of the pictures we took on the highway, and it was even his idea to go out there that day to take pictures. So he's scouting craigslist and even talking about going to pawn shops to see if he can find my stuff back. I don't think there's much hope, but I guess you never know.
So there you go. No pictures for awhile. Hopefully we can borrow someone's camera soon though because we need to take the picture for our Christmas card. In the two evenings since I've been cameraless, its been depressing, because Gus is always doing things that I think about getting the camera out for. So sad.

Quite an experience

2009-12-02T07:42:00.000-08:00

Last night Kevin and I took Gus to get his Christmas pictures taken. I was a little nervous about it, just because Gus is always so happy and smiley, I figured the one time we paid someone to take pictures of him that he would be crabby. But everything went more or less ok. The biggest problem was that his outfit was black and gray, and the only shoes he has are brown. Last year for John's Christmas pics, Jenny just had socks on him, and everyone gave her a lot of grief for that. But I decided to just go with the socks and deal with it. Anyway, the photographer was pretty weird (I guess that's a given). We tried putting Gus in a couple chairs, but he always stretched his legs out straight and kind of leaned over. They even had the exact same chair that was in John's picture last year. They also put him in a box like he was a present, but again he just wanted to stretch his legs straight, and the round box looked more like an oval. So the 'Christmas-themed' pictures were all just a little weird. Anyway, here's the ones I ended up ordering...and thankfully the shoe/sock debate ended up not being a problem! Unfortunately Gus was a little drooly in the portrait picture, but its still decent.
And thanks mom for the cute outfit!!!!!

Baby Burrito, Part II

2009-11-23T12:33:00.000-08:00

Gus still does the cute stretch from time to time in the mornings when I undo his burrito. Today he was sleeping late, so I had to wake him up so I could get going to work....so I was ready for it :)
I didn't realize how shadowy the video was til now. Oh well.

Good timing

2009-11-18T08:06:00.000-08:00

This isn't the most exciting video, I was just pleased that I caught it so easily. Gus was hanging out on the floor, and rolling from side to side, so I figured I'd get out the video recorder just in case he decided to roll over. And 30 seconds later, he did! Pardon the loud tv in the background....Kevin was watching tv....
And I should mention this is only the second time I've witnessed him roll from back to front, and the 4th time total he has done so. The first two times he was in his crib in the morning.

Busy busy busy

2009-11-17T14:20:00.000-08:00

We've been busy! I'll try to recap the most interesting things we've been up to.

Gus was baptized on the 8th at my family's church in Grantfork. It was a nice service, and Carole (the organist) had some special music for us, so it was really nice.

us and Gus's godparents (Jackie and Allen)
\

My mom made Gus's outfit.....the bottom part of it was made from leftover fabric from my wedding dress. It was so cute and perfect!

Grandma Plocher (aka great grandma) made Gus's cake - so cute!

I played hookey from work one afternoon last week and we went to the zoo. This is the only picture I took. This is a statue, but for some reason everyone kept asking me if it was a real elephant?

Gus had his 4 month checkup last week - he weighs 17lb 3oz (90th percentile!!!!) and is 25.5 inches long. He's huge! We started trying to give him rice cereal....so far not going so well. But we'll keep trying.

This weekend we had a playdate with my friend Lindzy's little boy, Joey. He was born Sept 4, so he's about 2 months younger than Gus. He has the cutest hair ever!!!

Gus and Joey hanging out

Gus has also started rolling lately, both front to back and back to front. Here, I had put out a blanket for Gus to do tummy time on, and then Satchel laid on it right away. So I put Gus on his belly right next to Satchel, but he almost immediately started rolling over.....

The end result.....

Gus is still loving the exersaucer!!

There's lots of other stuff going on, but its time to hit the road and try to beat the worst of the traffic in the rain.....

Halloween, etc

2009-11-04T12:54:00.000-08:00

Oy, its been a busy few weeks. Sorry I haven't posted in awhile....I was at two scientific meetings that went for eight straight days, during which I wasn't on my computer at all....then this weekend Jenny and family came to town. So I haven't had much downtime. On top of all that, I've had the longest lasting cold ever which is finally taking its toll on me. But anyway, here's some pictures. A video of Gus in his exersaucer coming soon.....

Smiley Gus

Uncle Kevin and John

At City Garden

Grandma trying to help John jump hard enough to make these bells ring (like a keyboard in the ground, kind of....)

Gus passed out on our bed with Lucy (and his cow blanket)

Gus the elephant, minus the elephant head.....I just think this is a good picture of me, which never happens.

Gus the elephant in all his glory!! Aunt Jackie made him the most amazing costume ever!

Jenny and bumblebee John

Gus smiling again!

Charlie with the cousins

Bad Timing

2009-10-15T13:20:00.000-07:00

I'll start out with the not-so-depressing stuff.
This weekend we went on a private tour and tasting at the Schlafly Tap Room. It was pretty cool, just because it was small and very casual. One thing we learned is that when a Schlafly worker gets married, their wedding present is to get to brew something special for the wedding. I guess a guy that got married last year made a beer everyone liked so much they're bringing it back this year. It was one we got to taste - IBA - India Brown Ale....very very good! But anyway, the majority of the tour was in the basement, which was cool since its such an old building. We got to taste one beer straight from the finishing tank, and then we had 5 others to taste (which they kept refilling during our 25 minutes of tasting!!) and they gave us cheese and sausage. Score!!

Here is Kevin and his unsightly beard with one of Schlafly's oak casks they use for conditioning.

I just thought this was funny.

They took a picture of all of us, but they haven't emailed it to me yet. So sad. Otherwise, Jen took one, so maybe I can get that eventually. But the tour was really cool, I'm grateful to June for getting it for us!

Here are a few random pictures of Gus.
Being cute last Sunday

Wearing his Illinois shirt once again triggering a loss....what is wrong with Illinois football this year?

Passed out....

This was just a funny one of Kevin and Lucy - she jumped up on his lap while he was sitting down. She was probably looking for food in the grotesque beard.

On to the bad news. Almost everyone that reads this probably already knows, but I'm saying it here to preface the next pictures. Kevin got laid off Monday, which obviously sucks. I'm just hoping and praying this means he'll end up with a job he likes better for which he's compensated appropriately, instead of getting paid crap for all the work he does. His boss laid off half the company, and Kevin's pretty sure the company in general is going to be over with soon based on their complete lack of cash flow in the last 6 months or so. I guess its possible his boss will call him next week wanting to hire him back (he's been doing this with other people for months) but Kevin hopes more than anything he'll find something else by then. So yea, scared to death about making ends meet, but I'm trying to be positive and take things day by day....
But the BEST THING EVER about all this? Kevin decided he had to shave! HOORAY!!!!!!
So when I was driving to work Tuesday morning, Kevin first texted me this picture:

Followed shortly by a picture of a pile of his hair in the sink (which I'm sparing you), and then this picture:

Kevin really looks good there. But anyway, the beard is gone. So relieved. He seemed serious about growing a handlebar mustache, and I swear I would not have gone out in public with him looking like that..... Today he was supposedly going to get a haircut (in Highland, since he refuses to go anywhere else) so now he looks presentable for the interviews which I hope to God are coming soon.....

So that's what's going on.....

Three months old!

2009-10-07T07:14:00.000-07:00

Gus is three months old today! It's pretty hard to believe.....
Anyway, last night Kevin was playing with Gus and they were having a pretty entertaining conversation. I only caught the end of it, but still kind of funny.

The weirdest egglplants ever

2009-10-05T10:14:00.000-07:00

We finally had a relatively unbusy weekend. Although I start to panic when I don't have plans, it was kind of nice to not have much to do. I got some long-needed cleaning done, baked cookies, went for walks, and got a bit of knitting done (although this sweater seems to be taking forever). I also did some yard work and picked some stuff in the garden. We've still got about 8 eggplants that are trying to get bigger in the cooler weather. But I found the weirdest eggplant ever....and then I found another one! Has anyone ever seen anything like this?!?

See dad, we have some hops.

I also spent the weekend inventorying Gus's 3-6 month size clothes, since he needs to dress warmer now, and since a lot of the 0-3 month stuff doesn't fit anymore. I was worried he didn't have enough pants or long sleeves, but I think he'll be more than fine (mostly thanks to Jenny loaning us John's clothes). Gus continues to be entertaining, but I have the hardest time taking pictures of him being cute, because when I put a camera in his face, this is what he looks like:

This weekend we dug into his toys for the first time, and we found he likes this rattle. We have to put it in his hand, but then he holds onto it forever.

Saturday we went to Arnold for Angie and Matt's open house. Gus got to spend some time with his friend Anna :)

I don't know anything.....

2009-09-30T14:24:00.000-07:00

But here are a few pictures....

Gus talking and smiling

2009-09-25T19:18:00.000-07:00

Man, uploading videos takes forever. I edited this (finally figured it out) so it was shorter, so hopefully there's still enough cute smiles and noises.
I had to take the movie from a weird angle....when the camera is in Gus's face directly, he just stops doing what he was doing and stares at the camera (I think he does so briefly in the middle of this one).
As I promised, Jenny.....now you must reciprocate with more pictures or movies of your kid!

Hop in the City!

2009-09-21T14:06:00.001-07:00

The highlight of my fall has now come and gone. This weekend was the annual Hop in the City at the Schlafly Tap Room. This was either the 6th or 7th year Kevin and I have gone....I guess I need to count the glasses in our cabinet to see how many its been. But we always have a great time. This year was no exception! We went along with Lauren and her sister Shawn and one of Shawn's friends, and Jen and her friend Katie met up with us a bit later. Good times were had by all (I think). My favorite tastes were the Pumpkin Ale (always...), Cask conditioned American IPA, and Biere de Garde. Kevin said he was going to taste all 43 beers, but he kept coming up with exceptions (like....'I'm not tasting the ones that they sell in bottles' and 'I'm not tasting any of the dark beers'.....can you say cheater?). But anyway, we had a good time while Grandma June took care of Gus. There were certainly people there with babies (even one that had to only be a couple weeks old !!!!!!).....people are stupid.

The Southwick girls

Me and Kevin

Jen had a very good time! Too bad this picture is blurry.....

Kevin took this picture. I guess he saw this guy was going to try to get in it, so he waited til he was posed like he was supposed to be. Dammit Kevin, this would have been a good one of me and Jen!

Sunday was Kevin's brother's birthday, so we went to his mom's house for dinner. Then we went to Breese to visit Kevin's grandma, and this was the first time she saw Gus. I really liked Gus's outfit, but I forgot to take any pictures of just him.

Four generations

This morning Gus went to the doctor for his 10 week checkup (almost a week late - he'll be 11 weeks tomorrow). He weighs 14 lb 5 oz, and is 24.5 inches tall....everything was in the 75th percentile. He's officially supposed to be out of size 1 diapers.....but we have a few more to use up at home and at day care before we open up the packages of size 2!!!

Things have been crazy busy for me at work. I've been running back and forth a lot between Wash U and the Danforth Center....this is good for passing the time quickly, but not conducive to pumping.....but I'm managing. I also decided to apply for a post doc fellowship that's due next Thursday (!!!!) and there's a meeting I have to go to this week that I have to make a poster for. A bit too much to do, but I guess that's better than doing nothing! I'm certainly glad to be getting back into the swing of things at work though.

I did finally get a couple good videos of Gus taking/smiling...so I either have to figure out how to edit them so they're shorter, or see if they'll upload faster at work than they do at home. We'll see.

Another random video

2009-09-16T13:45:00.000-07:00

I had one video I was trying to upload forever without luck. So I just tried to upload this to see if it works. I intend to get a video soon of Gus really smiling and jabbering....but you just get this boring one for now.

Helping the Cards Win

2009-09-15T07:39:00.000-07:00

Not much interesting to share. But here's a few pictures.

Gus and his friend Max (6 months old this week)....their arms are linked up - very cute!

Close up of their cute faces!

With the Minnie at the power show

With Dad on Grandpa Thole's tractor

I went to the Cards game on Monday, so I thought it was a good time for Gus to wear his Cards onesie for the first time. I think it helped the Cards out of their (brief) losing streak!

Getting back to work

2009-09-08T14:09:00.002-07:00

This is the fourth time I've tried to do this post....my stupid old computer keeps shutting off for an unknown reason. So I'm not sure how much I'll write.....

Last week was my first week back to work, and Gus's first week at day care. Everything is going well so far for both of us. The day care people like Gus because all he does is sleep. He's been sleeping really well at night too (about 7.5 hours at a time) so we certainly can't complain!!! Work for me has been fine....I eased myself back in last week but this week will be mostly full days. I'm grateful for the lists I made telling me what I needed to do when I came back to work, but its still a little overwhelming. I'll catch up eventually.
I've been really bad about taking pictures of Gus lately. He's smiling a lot more often, and he's discovered his tongue, so I have a few new pictures of that.

He was so excited and smiley here he almost looks like he's cheering :)

Hanging out with dad

I'm so cute when I smile

Here's my tongue!!

Jackie and Allen closed on their house in Glen Carbon on Friday, so we spent a good amount of the weekend at their house helping out. Sunday everyone helped with painting the bedroom and living room, and Monday the new laminate floor went in the living room. They'll probably start moving this weekend. Gus will be so sad when Aunt Jackie moves back to Illinois!

Mom painting in the bedroom

Dad painting in the living room

All the guys at work painting

Kevin gets started on the flooring

All done! Just a few more trim pieces needed....

Not much else going on. I'm done with the two baby blankets I was making for my friend Heather's twin boys (and I got them done before the babies came - woohoo!) so now I'm working on a sweater. Things go so much more slowly now with Gus around, but hopefully I'll finish this short sleeved fall sweater before its too cold to wear. We shall see.....

Time is running out!

2009-08-24T07:16:00.000-07:00

I can't believe this is my last week at home! There were so many things I had wanted to do that are obviously not going to happen, but I guess that's ok.
The weather has been blissful here lately (highs in the upper 70s to low 80s!!), so Gus and I have been getting out for some nice walks. Friday we went downtown to check out the new City Garden. Its this new sculpture garden that opened last month, and it was really cool. There were a lot of people there, especially people with kids playing in this one fountain and splash plaza. Its just good to see people downtown that aren't working or going to a Cards game. Here are some of the pictures I took there:

Saturday Gus got to meet Anna June, who is exactly 3 weeks older than Gus. Emily and I went with the kids to a Mexican restaurant for lunch, and then for a walk in Troy park. Here are the kids in their car seats:

Last week also was Gus's 6 week pediatrician appointment. He was 11 lb 14 oz (75 percentile) and 23.5 inches long (90 percentile). He got 3 shots and an oral vaccine, and he did very well with that. He needs to go back again at 10 weeks, I had no idea they had to go so friggin often!

We have a very busy week this week. Today I have to go to campus to meet with a guy that organizes courses for Wash U's U College - I'm going to teach a plant physiology class this spring thanks to my friend Mary who used to teach it and recommended me to replace her. So that will be interesting. Tomorrow I have to go to Wash U to do some moss work, so mom is coming over to watch Gus. Wednesday we have $4 tickets to the Cards game with Jackie and Allen, and Thursday I'm going to the 'Garden Nights' deal at the botanical gardens before they're over.....I guess they have a winery that offers tastings and then I think there's music too or something. So that sounds fun. Friday through Sunday are still open I think, so there will be at least some opportunities for downtime before I have to go back to work next Monday. Its just crazy how fast the time has passed!

Time to feed the kid, and then we're going to enjoy the last day of nice weather and take a nice long walk in Tower Grove Park.

Smiles, great-godmothers and the brewery

2009-08-17T08:10:00.001-07:00

First of all, my dogs are cute.

Gus has started smiling relatively often! I still haven't captured it with my camera, but have gotten a few blurry pictures with my phone. He has dimples just like daddy.

Gus and his friend Satchel

Other than that, Gus has been pretty busy. On Friday, we went on the Anheuser Busch brewery tour with Lauren, Erin, Mike, Max, and Mike's parents.

Baby's first brewery tour...

Collars up :) Mike and Max (and Erin) were all dressed preppy for the day

Erin, Lauren and I

We also headed to Illinois for the day Saturday. Gus got to meet some more of Kevin's family....aunts, uncles, and cousins....and got to meet Kevin's godmother for the first time. Then we went to Grantfork for the homecoming parade, and Gus also got to meet my godmother along with lots of people from church that were excited to see him.

Not much on the calendar for this week except for doctors appointments for both me and Gus.....I'm anxious to see how much he weighs now! Only two more weeks til I have to go back to work....

A few new pictures

2009-08-12T06:15:00.000-07:00

Gus and I have been busy getting out and around. He's been to both Wash U and the Danforth Center to meet everyone. He also made it to the last two wednesday night concerts at the gardens - my favorite St. Louis summer event. We've also started making regular use of the stroller. So far I've attempted to walk both dogs (separately) while pushing the stroller, and both dogs are annoying in opposite ways. Satchel is so slow and needs to be pulled a lot, while Lucy is ridiculous and basically pulled us. I can't decide whether to keep alternating dogs when walking or give up on them.....I would think Lucy has to get better at walking, right?
Gus has also started using his bouncy seat and his activity mat more often. Yesterday we gave 'tummy time' a try as well....Gus moved his head around but was pretty mad after about 5 minutes. Today we're heading to my mom's house to print out baby announcements, finally, so you can look forward to that. I have to wait for the gas people to come and inspect something though, and they're coming between 7:30 and noon.....please come sooner than later!
Oh, and both dogs barfed last night. Yay. I wonder what they got into....

Bouncy seat

At the gardens with dad

Wearing the cute Arabidopsis shirt Agnes made

on the activity mat

Busy Weekend

2009-08-05T08:37:00.000-07:00

We've all had a busy few days. Jenny, Charlie, and John flew in on Thursday, which was also John's first birthday. That evening we had dinner at our house - ribs, potatoes, and peach cobbler made from home-grown peaches....delicious.

Gus is wide awake to meet his cousin, aunt, and uncle

The Wilkins family

On Friday, Jenny, Charlie, John, and mom came over to St. Louis. In the morning we went to Tower Grove Park and walked around a little bit. I love that place.

Sisters and cousins

Gus doesn't mind riding in his stroller.

After TGP, we had lunch at Bread Co. Gus had his first poop-out-of-the-diaper-in-public incident, so that was fun. Then we went back to my house so John could take a nap. He ended up napping for almost 3 hours, so we didn't make it anywhere else. But it was nice hanging out with everyone.

On Saturday, we headed to Salem IL for my cousin's wedding. Gus got to meet my mom's side of the family for the first time, including Great Grandma Lovekamp. He was pretty good all afternoon and evening, so I guess everything went well.

Aunt Jenny and Gus. Kevin decided to get into this picture too for some reason. Why can he never smile for a picture when I want him in the picture??

Cousins. I think John is pointing at Gus in almost every picture they are in together.

John is so cute! His eyes are so pretty!

Sunday we went to June's and had lunch with her and Matt for her birthday, which was Saturday. Gus got to go to 9th Street Cafe for the third time (I think its the only restaurant he's ever been to in Highland). Then we spent some time at June's house before heading to my mom's for John's first birthday party.

I made John a sweater for his birthday that will hopefully fit this winter.

Singing Happy Birthday to John

Nothing much happened on Monday. Gus and I went over to my mom's house, and we all went to Edwardsville for a little shopping with Grandma Lovekamp. Jenny and Charlie didn't leave til yesterday, but I had work to do at home. So I stayed home and made a cake for a baby shower, and I canned tomatoes - 10 quarts and 1 pint - not too shabby for a city garden!!! I'm sure there will be more to come though!

Baby Burrito

2009-07-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

Let's see if this works....

Mom and dad gave us a flip video camera so we can capture everything Gus does. Obviously, newborns don't do a whole lot that is worth taking video of....so we've had the camera for more than a week and I didn't even try it out. But I finally realized I could try to capture the cutest thing Gus does do. We swaddle him at night, so whenever I undo the velcro to get him out, he always stretches his arms out really cute. Here it is, if it works....

A week with lots of firsts

2009-07-27T05:52:00.001-07:00

I'm sorry, I've been lazy about posting anything this week. In general I haven't taken as many pictures, because obviously Gus doesn't do too much, so I could take pictures of is really his cute clothes every day.
But we had a busy week. Gus went to the doctor for his 2 week appt, at the time he was up to 9 lb 7.5 oz, so by now I'd guess he's hitting 10 lbs. Mom came to go to the pediatrician with us, and we also went to the mall where Gus got to ride in his stroller for the first time. I also had to go to the doctor this week; she thought my incision looked good so now I just have to go back in another 4 weeks and I should be completely back to normal by then (I hope). Jessica came to go to that appointment with us, and we went to the mall too and Gus and I used the BabyBjorn for the first time. I realized after the fact that might not have been the best idea for my incision because it hurt a bit more the next day, but not too bad. So maybe I'm not using that again for another week or so.
Let's see, what else..... Gus's umbilical cord fell off early last week, so now he's got a normal belly button. He got his first real bath as a result. He also had his first bottle, which went just fine. Saturday, Kevin, Jessica, Gus and I went to the cactus show at the gardens, and Kevin tried out the BabyBjorn (and I'm sad I didn't get a picture).....I think he enjoyed carrying Gus around. Yesterday we went to Illinois to take Gus to meet Erin, and her friends had organized a welcome home party.
I'm sure lots of other things happened too, but I can't remember. But here are a few pictures from the last week.

I'm knitting again, but Gus has been fussy during the day unless he's being held....this is the compromise.

Wide eyed in a cute outfit

First bath - he seemed to enjoy it after getting past the initial confusion

All cleaned up!

At Erin's party - Emma held Gus for awhile (until her arms were tired, about 2 minutes....)

This week will surely be exciting, because Jenny, Charlie and John are coming! Only 3 more days until Gus can meet his aunt, uncle, and cousin!

Getting Out a Bit

2009-07-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

We've had a very nice few days. Friday was our 5th wedding anniversary (I know, can you believe it?), so June was nice enough to come over and watch Gus while we went out to dinner. I was thrilled to do my hair for the first time in quite awhile, and I wore shoes that were not flip flops for the first time in maybe 6 weeks.

A family picture while mom and dad look decent.....

Saturday was nice because a number of people stopped by to visit. Jessica and Todd came over for awhile, then Budde was here for a couple of hours, and later Jen and Brice stopped by too on their way out to dinner and a concert. Visitors make the day go by so much more quickly!

Yesterday, we took Gus on his first trip to Illinois where he went to Grandma and Grandpa's house, and to Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Plocher's house. He was very well behaved, until we were trying to take pictures, of course.

With Great Grandma and Grandpa

With Grandma and Grandpa

A decent picture of Kevin and I (with Gus) - these don't happen too often!

Passed out in dad's arms. He had on the cutest outfit for the trip!!

So now its Monday and Kevin is back at work. I guess these 6 weeks I have left will go crazy fast, but halfway through the first day it feels pretty slow. So far I watched a movie (He's Just Not That Into You), now I'm doing this, then I think I'll read for awhile (The Hour I First Believed, by Wally Lamb). Sooner or later I can get some knitting going, but I don't have yarn for either of the two things that I have in mind. I'm really looking forward to going to the doctor on Thursday, when I should be cleared to drive (I'm confident I could drive now, but I figure giving it a few more days til I'm officially given the ok doesn't hurt). In the meantime I'll just start counting the days til Jenny, Charlie, and John are home - 10!!!

A few more pictures

2009-07-16T16:17:00.000-07:00

Not much to report. We're all doing great. Kevin has been home all week cooking and cleaning and helping me out (for the most part), and my mom and June have been here a few times to help out as well. On Tuesday I went to Target with my mom really quick....my sister had told me all the dwell studio clothes were on sale, so Kevin, Gus and I ventured out to Babies R Us. Its nice to leave the house but I definitely get tired really easily. Anyway, here are a few pictures from the past few days.

Relaxing with dad - 1 week old

First picture with Satchel

Aunt Jenny made Gus a really cute elephant - here are a couple of pictures of Gus with his new toy

Settling In

2009-07-13T12:50:00.000-07:00

We're on day 3 of being at home. Everything is going pretty great so far. Our two nights have been pretty good, very little crying and very good eating. In the last 24 hours he's starting really peeing all over, so hopefully soon we'll figure out how to keep that under control. Both Kevin and I have been peed on now, so at least we're equal.
We went to the pediatrician this morning, and the doctor said "my only suggestion is that you keep doing what you're doing" so I guess that's good. Gus's weight had been down to 8lb 3oz before we left the hospital (after being 9lb 1oz at birth) and today he was 8lb 8.5oz and the doctor seemed pretty happy with that.
The dogs have been really good. Lucy is almost so good it seems like someone flipped a switch and made her behave, except for momentary lapses of being like she normally is. So I'm very grateful for that.
Not much else exciting going on, as you can imagine. I'm feeling pretty good and getting around pretty well. The doctor said I should be limited to going up and down stairs, but in my house that's difficult since we just have the one bathroom upstairs.....so I just take it really slow and it seems fine. My feet seem to be back to normal size, but my hands are still really swollen and numb. My right hand actually feels consistently more numb than it had been feeling, which is a pain. It really hurts when I'm holding Gus in the same position for a long time while I feed him. So I'm actually wearing my wrist splints right now to see if it helps (I've only ever worn them at night).
Here are a couple cute pictures of my sweet little boy:

Daddy and Gus with the dogs. Lucy is using Satchel's head as a pillow....this is funny because they rarely would be on the couch at the same time, but now they're on there together all the time.

Gus comfortably napping yesterday with his legs crossed funny. Lucy was sniffing around the Pack-n-play checking him out.

A cute squished-up face :)