What a surprise! We received this from the director at daycare...watch out Mick Jagger!
Hi Jennifer,
How are you and Mark? It is a while since we spoke and I just wanted to know if you have any concerns and hoping that you are having a great experience in the toddler room.
Yesterday during my monthly meeting with the music teacher we discussed the children individual musical goals and objectives, their progress and our next step at home and school. Gus was one of the children discussed. She wanted me to let you know that Gus is very interested in the musical instruments she plays, and he try to play the keyboard every time she comes in . He follow direction very well for his age and accurately repeat the beat with his instruments or the words to a song. She believe that it will be beneficial for him to participate in additional musical experiences outside of school. It appears that we have another Mozart in out midst, this is a definite sign of intelligence. If you need any musical program suggestions for Gus I will be happy to assist. Have a great day!
Happy First Birthday my dear boy Gus! Wow, we made it! What a year it has been. We have all been through so much from watching you develop and grow to enjoying your charming personality, it has been a pure joy.
You experienced more in your first year than I did in 20. You went on several plane rides to Texas and Florida. You have traveled and have been on a plane, boat, car, truck and train. You have swum in pools, lakes and dangled your feet in the ocean. You have dined at over 20 different restaurants not bad for someone who really does not eat! You have experienced life and been exposed to all that your Dad and I enjoy doing, and you did this with a smile.
Each day we get to know you and see your personality we grow fonder and fonder. You are a real charmer, you know when and who to charm. This gives your dad and I such a giggle. You could be raging pissed off and if some pretty young girl comes into the room you are all smiles. You save your fussies for dad and I only. It is pretty funny. You flirt with the girls at daycare, you make new friends in church, and wherever we go you seem to attract people with your winning smile.
I am not with you each day so I rely on the girls at daycare and your daycare evaluation for a lot of information. We recently had another evaluation and we saved a copy for you, they call you their social butterfly they even said that you are flirtatious and charming. I had no idea these were innate qualities but this is not something you learned this is something you were born with. It absolutely amazes me. Your dad and I are not like this, we do not have these qualities, but when we see you using them it makes us smile!
Speaking of smiling, no matter how disappointed I am, how upset I am, how mad I am or how hurt I am-One look at you and one big hug immediately puts a smile on my face. It is my absolute favorite part about being a mother, in the last 365 days I have smiled each and everyday! I owe that to you. You always know how to make me feel better and you always remind as to what is truly important. You hug and kiss me at the exact moment I need them. You can sense this and it astounds me. Mommy’s little Angel, you are sweet, kind and have brought so much joy into our hearts and lives.
So yes this letter is a love fest, but one thing currently that I do not love is your recent eating habits. Quite frankly Gus you are a pain in the ass to fed. You hate to eat, you spit your food out, you rub it all over your face, you throw food on the floor and there is not much you like to eat. Hence, you are a little peanut! I have tried every food known to man, I think sitting and eating interrupts what you like to do best and that is play and be active. Eating cramps your style and it pisses you off. You hate to be confined to your highchair. You whimper, wine and because it is so uncharacteristic of how you normally act your dad and I scratch our heads and cannot figure out what has you so angry. The only time you eat well is when we dine out. We think it is because there is so much going on in the restaurants that it keeps you entertained. You are very lucky that mom gets a discount at Lettuce restaurant or else you would never eat!
You have taken a few steps and you are standing on your own freely, you still are not so confident walking and speed crawling is your preferred method of travel but you are very close. I bet any day now you will start doing laps around our house.
I re-read my first post, the story of your birth. I cried and probably will shed tears each and every time I read it. My plan is to read that every birthday of yours. It was an intense day but worth every minute. My favorite part of that day was that even though my blood pressure was way low and I was having major contractions and really not doing well, you remained calm and cool in my belly. Your heart-rate was so steady it puzzled the doctors. There were two blue lines on the monitor and your heart rate NEVER went above or below those two lines. Now that I know you, it was your way of telling me everything was going to be OK. I had some anxiety but you, you remained calm. Again this might sound strange but you have this amazing sense of being there for me-It is my promise to you that I will always be there for you in return. Our bond was strong even from your first breath. Augustus William Bell-I am so proud to be your mother and I thank God everyday for blessing me with such an amazing old soul!
Eleven months! I get all choked up thinking that is has almost been a year. I am not sure why I am so emotional about you turning 1 but I am. It is like this big achievement or something, but one whether I like it or not you will attain. This month like last month was about travel. In the span of two weeks we went to Texas and Florida. Both trips were to see your grandparents and cousins. They enjoyed seeing you and you really enjoyed seeing them. I think you get your love of travel from your dad. I never really did much traveling until we he and i met and now I think I have the bug too. Maybe you and I can discover the world together! Maybe we are a few years away from going to Europe or another country but I think it is important to your Dad and me that you get exposed to as much culture as possible.
Both trips south did not call for as warm of weather and we would have hoped for. Florida was cold! We did however get one day at the pool and one day at the beach. You thoroughly enjoyed both. See the video and photos of you below. Seeing you experience things for the first time is my absolute favorite thing to do. You get so happy being around new people and seeing new things. I only wish as adults we could see life like this. You never take for granted all the beautiful things that the world has to offer. It has been my favorite part about becoming a parent. Seeing the world through your eyes has opened up my eyes to what is truly important.
Milestones: Well we are sort at a stand still here. You are walking around everything and pushing your push toy but do not yet have the confidence to do this on your own. I think it will be soon. You continue to be super efficient at crawling. Actually you are amazing at it, so why would you walk? You are what they call a speed crawler. At daycare they put on your report card “Practiced Speed Crawling Today.” You have two good buddies at daycare, Noah and Jackson. The three musketeers! The girls tell me that all three of you hang out and laugh together. When you are on the move you are a bit quicker so you stop and wait for them to catch up with you. The girls crack up at watching the three of you together. Watch out though because both Noah and Jackson have taken steps on their own so once they are walking they will pass you up. I think that is when you will decide that this walking thing is worth it.
This last month you celebrated Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day today. You got a new drum with some musical instruments. You love to make music, hear music and dance. It just makes you happy.
Next letter you will receive from me will be for your first birthday in the form of a birthday book. I have really enjoyed writing these letters to you and will continue to do so on a annual basis. Gus what I have learned in this first year is that you are a kind, caring, old soul. One of the mom’s at daycare said to me that you were an old soul and I agree. You have a laugh and smile that warms people hearts. Throughout your life I hope you will continue to greet people with your smile and laughter and never underestimate the power of that.
Wow you are 10 months! You have a personality, a voice, an opinion and a real presence in our household. You are not that little baby we are always tending too, but rather a little boy that likes to make his presence known. I know I have mentioned in previous letters that you have a nice laid back easy going personality like your Daddy. Wrong! Kiddo you definitely are my child. You go a mile a minute, you love people, you wear your emotions on your sleeve and you have a very loud laugh! You do have a ton of your dad in you just not the laid back part. You prefer a routine and like things done a certain way, that is all Daddy. Most of all I have realized you are your own person, you have now developed that. You are GUS!
Daily activities include pointing, babbling, clapping, singing, dancing, crying, screaming, crawling, standing and trying to walk. We are exhausted! We took another trip to Texas to see your Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. You are so lucky because you have big families on both sides. Mommy had some anxiety for the plane rides, but you were great both trips. We also drove for a 4 hour car ride to New Braunfels and you were relatively good in the car too! We spent the weekend at a lake house and you got some quality time with the Bell family. You and your cousins played, laughed and exhausted all the adults. Your new baby cousin Finn resembles you! I am so curious to see when he gets bigger if you still will resemble each other. We had a great time and hope to see your grandparents again for your birthday!
We are rounding up on a year that you have been part of our lives. I still look at you with utter amazement; it is so fun to see you learn new things.
I sometimes feel like the minute I say you do something you stop. For example, you were sleeping for 10-12 hours a night and now you are in this phase where you want to wake up a 4 am. You want a bottle and you want to start your day. Sometimes we can get you to go back asleep and sometimes not. Anyway we are trying to break you of this habit. Also, you are a little guy, only 10% for weight. I am trying my best to fatten you up but you are on some sort of an eating strike. Every now and again you eat great, but for the most part you are just pissed off that we confined you to a high chair. You have better things to do like crawling laps back and forth down our hallway. You want to be active and on the move at all times. I introduced the sippy cup at 5 months and have tried a couple different brands you still do not like it. I so want you to start drinking Cow’s Milk as soon as you turn one, and I want to give it to you in the sippy cup. But you are not having it. I want to break you from the bottle as soon as I can.
We are also hanging on to your pacifier, you are getting those top two teeth and the pacifier helps put pressure on your gums. But I fear you are getting too dependent and breaking you of this could be a nightmare.
OK, so I am going to admit this for the first time. I have some guilt for not being with you daily as your development is in full speed. Mommy loves her job and has always loved to work. But I do feel I miss out on seeing you grow and develop! You are changing at lightening speeds and I do not want to miss a single minute. I know those first steps are near and I hope I am there to see them. On the other hand, I do believe you get the best of me, I cherish the time we do have together. I would never want to take that for granted. Someday you will have a passion for something and I hope you are as fortunate as I am to find a career that helps you express it. If anything that is one life lesson you learn from me. Follow your heart and follow your passion.
Our Baby Boy is getting big! You are nine months old and officially you have been out of the womb as long as you were in. I can tell you that the last nine months have gone by so much faster than the nine you spent in my belly!
We are enjoying every minute of your development. You seem to be doing new things each day. We received this email from Mrs. Cummings, the director at daycare.
Your son Gus is moving all over the room. He is doing great. I will like your permission to have him interact daily with other children in infant one, who are at or above his developmental level. Infant one will provide him with more space and activities to stimulate all developmental areas, while providing him with opportunities to stand and walk. The teachers in infant one will observe Gus's behavior, which will determine when he is ready to make a complete transition over. When he is awake he will spend all of his time interacting in infant one and only return to his original room for nap time. I will also like your permission for Gus to participate in music classes in the Toddler classroom at the beginning of March. The music teacher comes in every Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. and the toddlers participates in a very interactive class. If you agree, I will like him to begin participating in structured and unstructured activities in infant one beginning this week. Have a great evening.
Thank You
Mrs. Cummings
So of course this made Dad and I very excited for you and we agreed! What we did not expect was that after one day you made the full transition to Infant One. The next thing we knew all your stuff was moved and you are now in that room. Most kids do not move into that room until 10 months, but since you are a crawling manic, you need some room to do so and this room is much bigger! It was sort of bitter sweet for mommy because I became quite fond of all your girlfriends (caregivers) in the Infant room. You loved Ms. Cheryl, Ms Veronica, Ms Ana and Ms. Tammy! Well this is the way life is kiddo, change happens and you need to embrace it (or maybe that is just a reminder for me). Daddy and I thought you would take a couple of weeks to get transitioned but when I came to pick you up they called you the social butterfly and you took to the new room like flies on ….oops this should be “G” rated, I mean bees on honey. It helped that some of your old buddies were in there like Maya, Devin, Jake and Abby (your secret love).
One thing that we knew from the time you were 4 months old was that your physical development was awesome. I think you may start to walk soon. You are pulling yourself up on everything and you can now transfer from one thing to another. You love to pull up on the couch and then cross over to the cube. I caught you standing straight up on your own holding nothing the other day. Once you realized what you were doing you plopped down and started crying. It was a little scary. I think once you get over that fear-look out world Gus is going to start walking!
Dad had a big birthday this month and later this year mom will celebrate a big birthday too. One thing we reflected on this new year is that life goes by fast and with you in our lives it makes us realize that we need to slow down and enjoy life. Before we know it you will be a teenager! All the little things you do enrich our lives so much. From waving hello and goodbye to blowing mommy kisses, you touch our hearts everyday and remind us of what is important! I am so proud of you Gus and pray and hope that we give you the tools and confidence that you will need to be a happy person.
Happy 8-8/12 month Birthday! Mommy was a bit busy this month so this letter is a little late. But I have so much to write about! My first bit of news is that not only are you crawling you are doing so at record speeds! Once you got the hang of this you took off. This has made Mom and Dad very nervous. We have to watch you like a hawk! Even the girls at Daycare commented to me on how they constantly have to have an eye on you. You now can tuck your butt under and blast off down our hallway.
All this crawling around makes you extremely hungry and you have taken to eating us out of house and home. We feed you 3 full meals a day and you have several snacks in between. Cheerios and Cherry Puffs are your absolute favorite! I started to make your food for you. At first this seemed very intimidating for mommy but once I got started it was very easy. You have enjoyed homemade sweet potatoes, acorn squash, butternut squash, green beans, zucchini, black beans, broccoli, asparagus, apples and pears. I still buy some fruits and things to send to daycare. The food is so good, I have caught daddy finishing off your applesauce. You are starting to really like proteins and are now eating chicken, turkey, lentils etc. I am proud to say that you are our son and like your food just as much as mommy and daddy do. We took you to Osteria and fed you veal meatballs and you were nuts over them! I really enjoy introducing new flavors to you there are so much more to come!!!!
Another new development is your relationship with Roxie has grown. At first when you started crawling she was terrified of you. If you motioned towards her she would run away. Now she has gotten used to it and thinks you want to play and likes to interact with you. She will let you pet her, crawl under her and this morning you were rubbing her belly with Daddy. It was so fun to watch.
You celebrated your first Christmas! You enjoyed every minute of it. We took you to see Santa at the Mall which was quite the experience. One hour and half later you were able to sit on his lap. You did not cry once! Daddy became a true believer in Santa this year. When Santa called you over he said “Come over here Gus! Augustus Woodrow” Both Mommy and Daddy had a look of shock on our faces, we never told Santa your full name and we could not believe he pulled the name from Lonesome Dove, which is exactly who you (Augustus part) were named after. Needless to say Daddy and Santa bonded and both reveled in their love of Lonesome Dove. Santa said he always wanted to name his son Augustus, but he and Mrs. Claus never had a boy. You smiled big on his lap. See the picture below.
On Christmas Eve you woke up with a very special gift, your very first tooth! Yep it finally came through, all that drooling and crankiness had a reason. That night we went to Mimi and Papas and my whole family was there. You hung in there like a trooper and stayed up 4 hours past your normal bedtime. Santa came and you sat on his lap, however you were more interested in the bows and wrapping paper but it was still fun. Everyone was so generous with gifts! On Christmas morning you opened your stocking to find some little gifts from Santa. Then we skyped with the Bell family on our computer. We were able to see everyone via the web camera and we opened presents together. It was super fun! We had a very special holiday with you and will never forget it.
This month we had our first evaluation at Daycare. Mommy and Daddy we so proud afterwards! They said that you are a very social child, that normally kids are your age can interact with other kids for short periods of time, but you want to interact for longer periods of time. Gus, physically you amaze us. They said you are so strong and are even pulling yourself up and your legs are super strong so standing is not a problem. You are very good at recognizing people and you can even say Mama and Dada to the right person.We need to work on getting you to hold a bottle, using the sippy cup and work on those fine motor skills.
You are currently learning how to give kisses and you love to hug. So a big hug and kiss to my Gusser! I love you so much!
in out midst, this is a definite sign of intelligence. If you need any musical program suggestions for Gus I will be happy to assist. Have a great day!
