Dear Gus,
This has been a very big year! First of all we moved from our condo in the city to a house in Evanston in August. The move brought on a lot of “new” things for us all. For you mainly it consisted of new room, new school, new neighbors, new friends and new backyard. You handled the transition beautifully. You immediately made new friends and adjusted to your new school. Your new teachers even commented on how easy it was. You NEVER, not even once asked about our condo or your other school. That is your personality; you adjust pretty well to change. Change is inevitable in life so I consider that to be a great quality.
The holidays this year were so fun. You really got into everything about Christmas from the story of baby Jesus to Santa to presents. You loved putting up the Christmas tree and hanging the ornaments. We hosted Christmas with the Leber family this year and you got really excited to show everyone your new house and room. It was fun to watch. Santa paid us a visit on Christmas Eve before he went to deliver his presents to the world. You had a very good question when you met him and that was “Where are your reindeer?” It was precious and made us all smile. The next morning Santa brought you just what you asked for, a drum set and a T-Rex. Those gifts just about sum up what you are into and that is music and dinosaurs!
We went to Texas for New Years and celebrated with the Bells. You had a blast visiting. You were so much fun on the plane. Only one bad thing, you got sick with strep and ear infection but you bounced back quickly. It was a nice trip.
Hannah and Papa came in town to visit and to celebrate your 3rd Birthday. We had two parties, one for your friends and one for the family. First your Dinosaur themed friend party…we invited everyone in your class and some close friends. Mommy sent dinosaur invites that read “You are invited to a Dinobration featuring GUSausaurus.” We had a prehistoric dinosaur egg hunt, a dinosaur piñata and enjoy lunch and cake. We rented a place right off of Kamen Park with a playground next door. The weather held out and you were able to play with your friends and run around. It was so much fun.
Then at around 3pm. The family came over to our house. We had about 30 people and enjoyed once again BBQ from Smoque. You played with Jimmy and Karly in your room and enjoyed being around all your cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles. With two parties as you can imagine there were a lot of gifts. You are enjoying them and we are cleaning out your toys to make room for the new stuff. You are so lucky to have so many wonderful and generous people in your life.
In general you are still very funny. You get humor and I laugh so hard when I hear you laugh at all the funny parts of movies and shows. You like to be happy and most of the time you are. You do however whine a bit and Dad and I are going to put a stop to that. There is no worse noise than to hear that whining.
You are about 75% potty trained. This was not as easy as we thought it would be. If one more person talks about how easy it was for them, I think I will scream. You get it some of the time, but if you are playing, watching TV or doing something that you do not want to be interrupted you do not care and will have an accident. We are working on it and your are getting better everyday.
We just went for your 3 year doctor visit. You were hysterical. You had Dr. Luu laughing out loud. When we got there you ran down the hall and screamed “Dr Luu, where are you? It Gussy!” Everyone in the whole office heard and was roaring with laughter. When we finally got to the exam room, you insisted on showing everyone your “Woody’ underwear. Then Dr. Luu came in and you gave her a big hug!!! She melted. Then you told her the names of all your dinosaurs. She started asking me questions and you would answer. For example…Dr. Luu: How is his speech? Gus: My speech is great! Dr. Luu: Does he speak in sentences and does he know a lot of words? Gus: I know a lot of words…banana, dinosaur, drums, cat, dog. Dr. Luu: (laughing) OK then, he is good on that front. She gave you a lecture on listening and having accidents and told you the importance of both. You responded well. When we left you told me how much you like her. It was an overall good experience (except for the urine sample, but that is a whole other blog post).
As always THANK YOU for being in our lives, and thank you for the joy you bring our family. We love you so much and enjoy each year we have with you. You are special to us and we are committed to being the best parents we can be.
All my love,
Mommy
P.S. As promised for each birthday I will read the story of your birth. This year it was not as painful but I still cried!!!! I love you!
