Max's first haircut: don't quit your day job, daddy

Dad gave Max his first haircut today despite fierce resistance from mommy.  Grampa Gutoski will undoubtedly be very happy.

Max sat obediently watching his puppet show on TV while I snipped away.  Occasionally he would grow more interested in what I was doing than what the puppets on TV were doing, at which times cutting his hair became impossible and I had to wait until the TV had regained his interest to continue.  We didn't get any pictures of the actual cutting -- it was a delicate enough maneuver without the added worry of photography.

Not too bad, if I do say so myself.  Perhaps I won't quit my day job (whatever that is).

It's a girl! Say hello to Anne, Max's first Gutoski cousin (now with pic)

Sue gave birth this morning at 2:30am.  "Gulliver," as she was prone to call her fetus, is female and has been renamed Anne.  Mother and baby are both doing well.  Tom and Jean arrived in Ottawa at 4am, just in time to catch a first glimpse at the baby.  I have it on more than one account that she's perfect.  Max now has a Gutoski cousin to go along with his eight James cousins.  Congratulations!

Farting on grampa's lap

It's been a slow news week here at Gutoski-James.  Max is walking farther and better with each day.  Sue's due date is only two days away!  Can't wait to meet Gulliver.  Here's a cute new video of Max and grampa.

Max officially walks for the first time

Max took four steps today, completely unprompted and unaided.  Indeed, Sandi is the only person who witnessed the entire episode from start to finish.  The rest of us caught the last couple steps, alerted by Sandi's raucous hooting.

He started from a seated position and for no apparent reason stood up all by himself and walked until he fell.  Everyone clapped and cheered.  Max looked around bewildered and wondering what all the fuss was about.

Max's chauffeur service, babies in a chariot, Merlin on a swing

Teela arrived in Waterloo today with her little boy Merlin and baby girl Viola in tow.  Gramma and grampa James also arrived today, but we don't have any pictures of them yet.  Don't worry, there's more to come.

Max greeted his cousins by treating each of them to a ride in his new chauffeur service:

Max-powered locomotion.

Merlin-powered locomotion.  Half a second after this picture was taken, Max was flat on his face and Merlin had left him in his dust.

Our evening dog walk lent itself to some disgustingly cute pictures of Max and Viola crammed into a chariot:

Hey.  You're touching my side of the seat.

That bright light that looks like the sun is actually a halo.

And finally, Merlin was super-smiley on the tree swing:

Hey dad, we should move to Canada!

He also had a great time riding upon grampa Lee's shoulders.  His feet got a little cold by the end of the walk though.

More photos are here.

Hot sun, bright snow, cool sunglasses

The sun was bright during our morning walk today.  The white snow shone bright and Greta, Max, and I all wore sunglasses to filter the photons and add to our coolness.  Max's sunglasses were a swank xmas gift from gramma Gutoski.

Too cool for school.

Look us in the eyes and say that.

Unfortunately, our beautiful visage of coolness quickly disintegrated.  I don't know how long Max's sunglasses were down around his mouth, but he didn't complain.

Dad, these shades taste awful.

Incredibly, those shades are protected by patent in the US.  That's right, some company enjoys the exclusive right to sell sunglasses with a velcro head band in the US.  Let the good times roll.

Shaky and Hailey sure did enjoy their bright, sunny walk.

This is all I live for.

More photos are here.

No means NO!

Gus and I have recently aspired to teach Max the word no.  Until recently, we never used the 'N word' and got by simply by making everything with in his reach 'yes'.  Then we traveled to Bloomington.  This highlighted two things for us....first of all, when travelling, many things are no and we had no ability to convey this to Max.  Second, Viola knew the word no...so Max was obviously old enough to learn it.  And so we set out to teach our son the word no.

The good news is that Max quickly learned the word.  In fact, it is the first word he has learned to say and he happily talks away to himself, "no no no no no", as he goes about his day. Needless to say, this does not make us look like very good parents.   Unfortunately, Max's definition of the word no appears to be "all fun things are called nos."  The plus side of this is that he lets you know when he is up to something bad by loudly declaring "no!" from the other room.  And so when you rush to the bathroom to see him with his sights set on the toilet moving full speed ahead, you sternly proclaim "Max, that's---"  and he finishes happily, "NO!"

It seems we may need to start time out.

Dr. Don saves the day

A recent visit to Gus's Aunt and uncle nearly ended in tragedy, when Max slipped on their coffee table and broke open his head.  Fortunately, Gus's uncle Don is a doctor and had top notch operating equipment right on site.   We did surgery right there in the kitchen.  Don worked quickly to patch up Max's head while he screamed in the background and the rest of us desperately sang baa baa black sheep.  If it were not for uncle Don's quick work, our poor baby boy might have suffered permanent brain damage.  But thanks to Dr. Don, you can see that Max is still functioning at his normal exceptional level.

For a few more pictures check out https://picasaweb.google.com/james.greta/HeadWound?authkey=Gv1sRgCP7rlZP2-P-NVw#

Puttin' on a show at gramma and grampa's

Due to illness, Tom and Jean decided not to visit Sue and Jeff in Ottawa this weekend for fear of infecting a very pregnant lady.  Their illness was contracted from Greta, myself, and or Max via Teela, Peff, Merlin, and Viola.  It doesn't really matter though.  Gramma and grampa also have sick coworkers.  So if they didn't catch it from us they would have caught it from them.  'Tis the season for the plague.

Max and his parents visited gramma and grampa Gutoski today to keep them company and nurse them back to health.  He put on a great show for the camera, too.

He also learned how oxen feel as they round a mill over and over and over...