Busy Gus

Eighteen-month-olds are busy, busy creatures....Gus has a tremendous and seemingly untiring capacity for pulling things out and making a mess and an equally enthusiastic zeal for putting things back...so that usually takes up most of our mornings...by mid-day he resorts to one of his old standbys....peek-a-boo...which he plays with anyone who's eyes he can catch for more than one blink...me, the bus driver at the traffic light, the cop in the car next to us at the stop, the secretary at the office next to ours, shopkeepers, Daddy, daddy..."watch me" he communicates with a big smile...then he'll hide...behind his hands, the fridge, the door, a hanging coat, the laundry...pauses for dramatic effect...and...reappears with a triumphant smile at having shocked you...he loves the game enough to play it anywhere, anytime under all circumstances and in two languages (Guuuguus-Dadada...in German, if you must know)

After a good game of peek-a-boo, Gus likes to practice a bit of tennis in the kitchen, usually while Momma cooks or preps dinner...here he was already a bit tuckered out from a fast game with a balloon and a whiffle ball...the rules are few...use whatever is round enough to roll and bounce and chase it around Momma's legs, the table and anything else in the way...

Here's the crowning moment of the day for Gus (a bit fuzzy, shows you how tired I am around 9 p.m.) having cornered Daddy on the couch after dinner, Gus proceeds to pull out all his old favorites (and I mean, very old, very thumbed over favorites) and have them read to him over and over...Panda Bear, Bedtime for Bunny, Pet the Bunny are a must...recently he's branched out to a few new ones like Wocket in my Pocket and even Goodnight Moon...Gus loves a good book...he loves pulling them out of his basket one by one and bringing them to the chosen reader (we secretely hope we'll be spared) my rule is that whenever Gus comes to me with a book, we sit and read. He's caught on to that way too quickly...