Lots and lots and lots of posts, scroll way down to catch up!

Happy Halloween (say that in a robot voice)!

For three months, Gus has held steady with the desire to be a robot for Halloween. The following reveals "Gusbot 2.5" who is, according to Gus "a friendly robot who says 'meep meep." He has gotten a lot of milage out his mama-made costume so far, wearing trick-or-treating on Columbus' beggar's night Thursday (the first picture is of Gus going up to his first house all on his own. He said trick-or-treat and thank you, then sat with the lady on her stoop for a while to watch the other kids), then to a friend's house for a harvest dinner on Friday, then today for "Spooky Science" day at the science museum. At the science museum, our friendly robot did experiments, rode the space capsule, and got his face painted. He does look a bit like David Bowie in a space outfit, it's true.

Meet Naan and Chicken Joe

We all know Gus loves animals and aquariums, but it was only recently that he started asking for a pet of his own. One weekend, he very seriously asked for either "a yellow cat or little fish in a tank." After a family meeting, we took a trip to the pet store and came home with two betta fish. Gus set up their tank almost entirely on his own, and named his new buddies (entirely on his own, and who knows where he got these names) "Naan and Chicken Joe." He takes excellent care of them, and often reads to them, "holding their fins through the tank, like this, because they can't come out."

Late Summer in Review

Hey! So, we're still here, and we still take pictures of our kid! Who is two and a half years old! He is nearly 40" tall, talks and sings all day long, has multiple imaginary friends, and loves trains, dancing, drawing, inventing things out of recycling materials, and is obsessed with jigsaw puzzles, chess games, and 'They Might Be Giants' songs about science. We had a busy end of our summer, and below are pictures with captions. We took a trip to Minneapolis, went on a open van safari trip on the plains of Ohio, spent a 'Day Out With Thomas,' saw the Toldeo Zoo, and took some dance lessons. Part of the reason for our hiatus has been due to a big change in the family--Mary Ann, after a year of a medical science post-bacc, was accepted and started Ohio State University's Pediatric Nurse Practitioner program in the graduate school of nursing. She's been in classes and on hospital rotation since September. Enjoy!

A rare mama and Gus portrait--Mary Ann usually wields the camera and everyone forgets to get their picture.

Gus doing the hokey pokey in dance class.





The above are pictures from our trip to Minneapolis. Gus LOVED the airplane ride, and we got to see Allen and Jenny (we all went to an aquarium), and Uncle Josh. Uncle Josh and Gus had a bachelor's night while Matt, Mary Ann, Allen, and Jenny went out to a fancy UND Theatre Department reunion downtown.


A late summer trip to the zoo (one of many, actually). Family portrait on a zoo boat.



Our trip to Ohio's 'The Wilds' a huge nature preserve where west African animals have a gazillion acres to hide from the open air bus that rides us around. We saw a lot of scenery, glimpses of animal butts, and the very un-shy rhinos.




We had a LOT of fun going to a historical railway station to meet the real Thomas the Train. There were lots of activities, the train ride through town, and the total thrill of watching Gus be "star struck" meeting the real Thomas. Mama so did not have to pull out the Kleenex watching Gus' face when Gus saw Thomas roll down the rails for the first time.



The Toldeo Zoo was super fun--we met up with our friend from Bowling Green. We now think we should visit all the zoos in Ohio. Two down, two to go! The Toldeo zoo reminded us of the Brooklyn Zoo.