Monkey see, monkey do!

As you all probably remember, baby Gus wasn't so thrilled about giving up his "baby" title last fall when Max came home to us. My previously angelic, little boy turned into a mean, jealous monster overnight. The first couple of months were brutal. I am not exaggerating when I say that, every morning, Gus would say to Max, "That's not you Mami, Max. That's not you Mami." And, for the first few months, I couldn't hold Max without Gussy saying, "Hold you, Mama. Max down. Gussy hold you, Mama." And then there was the hitting and pushing. Ugh, don't even get me started on that. I couldn't leave them in the same room together for two minutes without something like that happening.

So, now that Max has been home for almost six months (can you believe it?!), I thought I'd update y'all on how things are going between brothers. I am happy to say that the situation has improved day-by-day and it continues to get better. He's starting to embrace his "big brother" role and likes helping Max do things occasionally. He finally admits that I'm Max's mama, too, but, at least once a day, he still tells me to put Max down and to hold him instead. For instance, last weekend, we (along with the rest of the people that live within a 60 mile radius) went to our brand-new Ikea. Tons of people, difficult to navigate, and, naturally, neither of my boys would let me put them down without a screaming fit. So, this is how we rolled that day:



Before Max came home, all the moms that I know with boys close in age warned me that they would be best friends and worst enemies for the next 18 years. Well, I didn't expect it to start so soon! Lots of times now, I’ll look over and see Gus kissing Max on the head and saying, “You’re so sweet, little brother.” Then, as fast as I can say, “What a good brother you are, Gussy,” he is yelling at Max for some reason. “Mama, I don’t like Max look at me. STOP LOOKIN’ AT ME, MAAAAXXXXX!” (It's still an improvement, so I’ll take it!) Two months ago, if Gus saw Max wearing a shirt that Gussy liked, Gus would yell, "I want that shirt. Gussy's shirt! My shirt!" while promptly trying to rip it off of Max's little body. Now, I've actually heard him say, "Max, I love your pirate shirt." I'm telling you...it's a miracle! Most of the time, these days (as you can see below), Gussy putting his hand(s) around Max's neck is a loving and not threatening gesture!



Despite all of his toddler misbehaving and sibling rivalry, Gussy is still the sweetest, cuddliest, funniest little thing on Earth! For every thing he does to frustrate me, he does five things that make me laugh out loud and just want to squeeze him up. He uses the following words or phrases all the time (sometimes in the right context and sometimes not-so-much):

- Disgusting (pronounced “Dis-gusk-sking”)
- Ridiculous (“Uh-diculous”)
- Mama, what are you talking about? (“Mama, wha-choo talkin’ abouuuuuuut?”)
- Max, that’s not a good choice (“Maaaaax, dat’s nodda good sh-oice!” That’s what they tell them at Gussy’s school when they get “in trouble.”)
- Max, inside voice, please! (“Maaaaaax, inside boice, please!” but he yells it, very clearly not using his own inside "boice!")
- Whenever he wants to convey a large quantity, he just repeats the same number over and over again. For example, "Mama, Doc got out and ran in the neighborhood three, three, three times." Or, "Squirelly the Sh-ipmunk is in time out. I spank him four, four, four times."

Every morning for a month, Gus would insist on wearing his black Chuck Taylor shoes, which he pronounces "Shuck Tay-lows." Then, all of a sudden, he decided he wanted to wear the same shoes as Max everyday, which brings me to the very cutest thing about the boys right now. Whenever they are not fighting, they are busy trying to be mirror images of one another. If Gus says, "Pleeeease, Mama," Max says, "Eeeeee, Mama." If Gus says, "Thank you," Max says, "Kay-koo." If raises his arms in the air, jumps around, and says "Yay!," Max does the exact same thing, not having a clue why they are celebrating!

Here are the boys at lunch after church a couple of weeks ago. Gus kept picking up long noodles from his plate, dangling them over his mouth, and saying, "It's a big, big, big puh-sketti" (see below).



And, Max would immediately follow with "Ih, ih, ih" (which I can only assume is his best attempt at "big, big, big puh-sketti") and dangle his own, like so:



The imitation goes both ways. We still let Max drink out of a bottle in the mornings and, lately, Gussy has been asking for a "bah-bah," too. And, when Max gets attention from me for saying a new word, Gussy starts up with the baby talk, too.

By the way, he has been super-loving and sweet with Catalina lately. When he sees her after school, he always smiles so big and runs to hug her. Sometimes he’ll put his arm around her waist or over her shoulder when they are walking together. Also, he asks to sleep with her most nights, which we wouldn’t mind except that Catalina gets used to it and then she doesn’t want to sleep by herself on the nights when Gus sleeps with us or (rarely) in his big boy bed.

Okay, please indulge me one more cute story about my Gussy...one day last week, he was leaving the room that I was in and said, “Mama, I be right back. I don’t want nuffin’ bad tuh happen tuh you.” I thought that I had misunderstood, so I asked, “You don’t want anything bad to happen to me?” He said, “Yea, no scary stuff, no dishwasher, no nuffin’. I be right back.” I laughed out loud. (When he says “dishwasher,” he means “carwash.” I drove through one a few months ago and he was scared to death and now everytime we get gas he says, “Mama, I don’t wanna go in the dishwasher.” I guess that was the only example of something bad or scary that he could think of!)

Okay, that was a long one. I've got lots more to update you on - Mother's Day, Max's baptism, swimming lessons - so I'll try to do that soon. Love!