A GIANT first post of 2008!

WE'RE BACK!

And what a fun and exciting trip to New England we had!
Gus met so many wonderful new friends and family, and he had so many new experiences over the holidays.

One major new experience for Gus were the appearance of his first two teeth.
When we left Chapel Hill, he had none. Within his first few days up north, two promptly arrived.
Below is a photo of Gus with his parents marveling at those teeth:

Gus decided to go on a sleep strike while we were there. Fortunately, one thing we found that could always calm him down was playing music.

Here is a photo of Gus enjoying his dad's guitar playing:

Gus met a lot of new friends. Here is his friend, Millie, with her dad, Stephen, showing Gus one of her fancy tricks:

Here's Millie's brother, George, showing us one of his tricks:

And here's photographic proof of what close friends George and Gus are:

Another new friend of Gus's, Wyatt, and his dad, Chris, enjoyed getting a good look at Gus and his new ugly doll (generously given to him by Wyatt's family):

And Gus finally got to meet his friends in Maine, Asher, and his dog, Otter. As you can see, Gus was very relaxed around them:

While in Maine, Gus witnessed his dad's unbounded (and quite messy) love for lobster:

He saw how beautiful snow can be:

And he enjoyed Asher's exersaucer:

As I mentioned, Gus also got to see almost all of his New England family.
They are crazy about him.

Here he is with his Aunt Lynn:

And to show just how popular Gus was with his family, here are his great grandmother Letoile, his great Aunt Marilyn, his grandmother, and his dad all staring with awe at his impressive grabbing skills:

And here he is with his other great grandmother O'Brien:

And finally, here he is with some of the O'Brien men--his dad, grandpop, and two of his great uncles, Vinny and Johnny:


So there you have it. What a wonderful Christmas and New Year we had in New England!