Tiny Papa

Gus takes very good care of his baby. You might have noticed in other pictures Matt carrying Gus in a carrier that ties to his body--and Gus has been trying to use Daddy's carrier to hold his baby, and it wasn't working well. So Mama made Gus a Gus and Baby-sized carrier, and Gus is very, very thrilled.

He's saying "Baby cold."

Later, I heard funny chattering in the next room and this is what I found--Gus reading to Baby. And also . . .

nursing his baby! Which isn't so much Papa-duty, but I'm sure it was the nicest thing he could think to do for Baby.

Park--28 degrees

Most early mornings, Gus and Mama go to the park--in all weather. Recently, it was 28 degrees, but we bundled up, had the park to ourselves, and got to crunch frozen dirt and play with puddle ice.
Even the statues were cold and had their coats on.

The big reason we can't miss the park--Gus has to see "his" birds. There's a pond pump on to keep a little area from freezing so these migratory birds have a place to rest--some stay all winter.

He sits and watches them, holding very still so they get close. Sometimes he brings greens to share.

Through the tears he is saying "bye-bye birds." Every time we have to go, we treat the birds to this little drama.

But the consolation is the tots playground. Which he had to himself because all the reasonable mamas and babies were warm inside drinking cocoa.

Admire how Gus' hair is coming in and then scroll down for lots of posts!

Drawing

Gus is very into drawing. Especially with pens and pencils--it seems like every scrap of paper (and a few non-paper things, oops) are covered in his drawings. He will point to his little scribbles and tell us what they are: "bus," "meow, meow," "mama," "baby." He tries very hard to hold the pen or pencil like mama or papa.

First day of Christmas

The day after Thanksgiving, we went back to the zoo at night. During the holiday season, the zoo is open until 10 p.m. and they have every stick and shrub lit up and hot chocolate carts and little bonfires to warm yourself by (and masses of people). It all feels a little like you're getting away with something, being there in the dark. Obviously, a lot of the animals are sleeping, but they open the big aquarium and have all the lights off except for the ones in the water (spooky when the shark swims by), and the nocturnal house is CRAZY. Bats everywhere, nighttime mammals going nuts. Also, they decorate some of the exhibits, which Gus found charming. After we got home, our newly nocturnal toddler also went a little crazy--dancing until he couldn't dance any more.

Happy Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving, we were to have visitors, but they could not make it. So we had a bit of an orphan Thanksgiving and went to the zoo--which was COMPLETELY empty. I love the blue light that had settled over the place--you could hear the animals all across the park. Since there were no people, it was like an animal party; when we would go to an exhibit, the animals would come right up to us to observe the strange people. It was SO COLD so we went to the indoor Gorilla house, and all the Gorillas came up to the glass to look at Gus--especially the mama Gorillas who had baby Gorillas. Gus got to watch the zookeeper bring them bottles of juice, which he was so tickled with, and now talks all the time of the gorillas who drink juice.

Sorting, categorizing

Gus has been working away on sorting and making categories of things--not something we even thought to steer him towards, so thank goodness babies are smart enough to learn what they need to know without their clueless parents. Gus has always been one for puzzles and fine motor stuff and working out little problems, as you can see.
Here, he made stacks of each kind of duplo.

Here is a careful arrangement (tableau, perhaps) of animals in a barn that he took some time with, arranging and rearranging different combinations. I predict drama with the addition of polar bears.

Forks. This is what happens when you don't install cabinet and drawer locks.

He likes making forts. Here, he has barricaded himself into a kitchen corner with chairs (including his highchair). Obviously, he was pretty pleased with himself. He read here for quite some time.

Here he is sorting buttons from Mama's button tin. He is so very careful and engaged with this activity--putting buttons in little piles according to, usually, bigness and smallness, but also texture and other, less ascertained (by us) categories. Also, just moving them from one pile or container to another is fun. "But won't he eat them/choke one them/put them up his nose?" Well, the thing is, that's just not Gus--though we do supervise obviously.