OH AITCH EYE OH

Big changes at Rumpos Inc.! After a beautiful and productive six years by the sea, Matt (inspired by Gus), decided to accept an offer to get his PhD at the Ohio State University. An amazing program with lots of resources, Matt is excited to be able to use his knowledge of ancient Greek for more than confusing Mary Ann when he has taught Gus completely different names and phrases for common household items and events. More updates on the rest of the trio to come! Goodbye little house on the peninsula. We will so miss our friends and beaches.

Seventeen Months! (about a month late)

Blueberries anyone?

Adorable Baby Donkey Sez: Scroll down for lots of posts!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately! There's lots going on at the House of Gus, which will be revealed, here, in time. Meanwhile, catch up a bit below!

9 to 5

Gus comes to work with Mama at the office sometimes. He tackles complex office equipment, like clipboards and sticky labels, then does a little filing.

Fruit and Vegetables

Who needs toys when there is corn to shuck and bananas to peel? And note, the arrangement of banana peels on his head was his own doing and not staged--hair envy?

County Fair

From top:
*Baaa!
*Oink! (that's a shadow on his head, not a bonk)
*His favorite--the dog agility trials
*That baby donkey had the softest fur we've ever felt.
*Hair! (smeared with sunscreen because these redheads burn fast)

Sixteen Months!

Gus is very tall and has a big head according to percentile charts. He has green hazel eyes and what tiny bits of hair he has (though it is, it seems, "coming in") is a bright orange tangerine. He has a variation in his right zygomaticus major muscle (dimple). He has a large and hilarious toddler vocabulary of words, signs, and sound effects--focused mainly on animals. He is obsessed with dogs and finds them everywhere (at the Seattle Art Museum recently, at an exhibit about artists who inspired the impressionists, Gus was looking at a large, busy, pointillist painting. Suddenly, he became excited and pointed to a blur in the lower right-hand corner and said "woof!" Amongst a 3'x4' busy painting that focused on people in an expansive outdoor setting, he found the painter's afterthought--eight painted dots representing, roughly, a dog). His favorite activities are what we are doing--he loves to sweep the floors, walk the dog (and stuffed animals on leashes), brush his teeth and comb his hair, sit next to us while we read and read a book of his own, help in the kitchen by stirring and dumping, "play chess" by moving around the pieces, carefully, on the board. He is a loving baby who is gentle with the dog, still loves nursing, and likes nothing more than to see and be held by our friends. Best year and a third ever!