Here are some of the Gunn highlight pics of the past few weeks:
We call this series, 'El Poco Loco'.
This one is titled, 'Somber Mardi Gra Pirate on Drums'
And this one, 'The Reverent Lazy Susan Rider'. 
As soon as I caught him taking a spin on the dining room table, he immediately started saying a prayer.
So, instead of punishing, I took pictures.
I am determined to learn how to read music this year and play this thing like a pro. Renae already is getting her chops back.
Today was Gunnar's very first swimming class.
I'd been really looking forward to it up until about 2 weeks ago when Gunn decided that he no longer liked baths.
In fact it's not that he doesn't like baths, he HATES them and screams and holds onto your shirt like a clawless cat with his hands and his toes trying to wriggle his way out of getting in the tub whenever the word 'bath' is mentioned. I'm not quite sure how this phobia developed. We totally stopped water boarding him at 6 months so, who knows, right?
Showers, on the other hand, he loves. Almost every morning either Chris or I will be washing our face in the shower only to feel a small hand on the back of our leg while a little voice says, "hi!" The first couple times it happened I almost slipped and fell on top of him (just imagine the 911 call for that). Now it's just a struggle trying to keep him out of it whenever one of us is in it. Home Depot doesn't sell locks for shower doors. Also, Gunnar prefers to shower fully clothed.
Anyway, I was afraid swimming lessons would be at best a total screaming fest and at worst a complete waste of money. Chris came along with us as our FHE activity for the week and to document the event.
Things started off a little rocky...
The pool, which was supposed to be 85 degrees was somewhere around 75 degrees and no toy could make that one better.
But after a few minutes, things got better...
Arnold, the swimming instructor, was very impressed with Gunnar's kicking and splashing abilities.
Blowing bubbles proved to be a little more confusing though. He sucked in a face full the first time he tried it. But after that he picked it up pretty quickly.
Which is good because we've already signed him up for a toddler water polo team in the spring.
And of course, by the time class was over, Gunnar did not want to leave. Mostly because he was totally freezing and it happened to be slightly warmer inside the pool instead of out of it. The poor kid was totally shivering!
I think the blue in his lips and finger tips really brought out his eyes though...
Anyway, until next Monday. So far so good!
Almost every morning around 7:30 am, Gunnar and I have a dance party together in the dining room.
I'm not sure where Gunn picked up these moves...
I'm guessing it's a combination of living in our diverse neighborhood here in Harlem and having his mother as his only dance partner.
Sorry son.
I guess this would be the virtual equivalent of not taking down my Christmas tree til February. For that I apologize.
Our holidays were pretty great though. My entire family (sans Elder Jordan) were all together over Christmas.
It snowed about 4 feet while we were there so we spent A LOT of time together. We all ended up getting the flu so it felt a little like an old fashioned quarantine - but in a good way.
Gunnar was more nice than naughty this year and got a lot of presents, the majority of which make loud, repetitive noises. Those ones are unfortunately his favorite.
Gunnar also got a lot of sugar or as my sister Rhonda calls it, "white death," over the Christmas Holiday. He exercised a lot of self restraint though. See?
Rhon and her fiance, Eitan (or as the tarheels of Darrington call him, "Acorn") came down from Hawaii and were cold the entire time. But they hung loose. Eitan even let my brother Aaron pull him behind the truck on a snowboard...yikes.
Gunnar immediately took a major liking to his beautiful, intelligent cousin Josephine and followed her every move. He also learned the word "mine" that week.
He stole more than a few of cousin Ashlyn and cousin Max's (not pictured) toys. I have a feeling sharing and putting down the bottle are going to be Gunn's big New Year's Resolutions for '09.
He's growing up so fast.
After spending a week in the arctic tundra, we flew down to tropical LA for a visit with Chris' family.
Our Peruvian sister-in-law, Zuly, made us a delicious dinner and in return, Gunnar destroyed some of her property. When he does things like this, we call him 'Aiden'. Not to offend anyone with that name. It just kind of suits him when he "toddlers-out" on us.
He's usually pretty good though.
One of the highlights of the trip was a trip to the park. That and eating In-N-Out twice. The lighting was great and Chris got some amazing pictures.
So, I think we're going to just skip the whole $15,000 NYC preschool thing and just put Gunnar in the Big Apple Circus.
We had a great time visiting family but when it was time to go we were all pretty ready to go home.
Anyway, Happy Belated Holidays/Goodbye 2008.
Love your pals,
Los Peterson
So, I don't know why but for some reason neither Chris nor I have been especially good bloggers lately. We want to blog. We read your blogs. We have blog-worthy or at least semi-blog-worthy material happening in our lives. But we just seem to be having some difficulty blogging ourselves. . . lately.
That said, here's a little post. This, however is by no means a promise to do better.
This is a Gunnar wink.
P.S. Gunnar likes to touch his bellybutton all the time but especially when he eats and while he's running around the house.
A couple days ago Gunnar put on my headband and ran into the music room to play drums. Too much VH1 Classic I guess.
Gunnar thinks the Nativity set is a new toy we got just for him.
I caught him chewing on baby Jesus' head a couple days ago but now he's a lot more gentle. He'll even say "baby Jesus" and makes sure to put him in his 'crib' for a nap when he's done playing.
Both Chris and I wish Gunnar would be more like Jesus in this way. He HATES naptime.
Try to write more soon :)
Here are the only noteworthy things that happened to us during my most recent blogging hiatus. There are only seven:
7.) We went to SLC for a week on business. Sorry family and friends who live there for not visiting. It's not because we don't like you. It's because we didn't rent a car and we barely had time to sleep let alone venture outside of the hotel/convention center/RiteAid 5 block radius. Here we are the the hotel playground and/or stairs.
6.) Gunnar, who was sent to the earth to destroy it (starting first with our apartment) erased hundreds and hundreds of our geneaology photos from our computer's hard drive. AHHHH!!! Both Chris and I were pretty devastated. It's hard when babies ruin things because it's really your fault not theirs. So when you get mad, you're really getting mad at yourself. Fortunately, through the power of Apple's Time Machine, Chris was able to recover all of them.
5.) I lost my wallet waaaaaaaaay uptown near the Bronx last week and didn't realize it until the next morning. So, I canceled all my credit cards and felt grateful at the fact that I had been too lazy to put my drivers license back after showing it to security at the airport. Still, it's an icky feeling to loose ones wallet and in certain parts of this city it's easy to think that maybe instead of being lost, it was stolen. And if that's the case, then it's easy to want to loose a little faith in the goodness of people. But before I could do that a nice young man called us to return it. Wow. All that was missing was the cash. Hey, it is New York.
4.) Chris, Gunnar and I all went to the Children's Museum for a 'family date' followed by a yummy and caloric trip to the Shake Shack.
Mmmm. Ketchup covered Cheerios.
3.) Jeffery R. Holland came to NYC and held a special conference just for our stake today.
2.) Gunnar has a favorite new hiding place. The first time he hid here I had no idea where he was. I ran up and down are apartment 3 times screaming his name and was about 2 minutes shy of escalating into total hysteria and/or calling 911 when he popped open the cupboard door and said, "Hi."
1.) We've decided to stay here in NYC for Thanksgiving and go to WA and CA for Christmas and New Years. That means I'm cooking this week . . . oh boy.
I only mix politics with religion, work, friendships AND marriage with extreme discretion. I mean, who wants to get into an argument about tax cuts on your way to Sunday school? Things can get a little hairy sometimes. People are passionate about politics these days and dare I say, more educated on the issues than in elections past. Plus we have record voter registration all over the country! About time!!! Honestly, I don't care who you vote for today - I'm just glad you voted. (You did vote right?!! RIGHT?!!!)
Okay. Permit me a moment on the soap box . . .
It frustrates me when people don't vote. I'm not trying to attack you if you didn't or don't plan to. Well, okay - maybe I am. It's just that we are so incredibly fortunate to live in a democracy where EVERYONE is allowed the opportunity to voice their opinion and cast their own ballot without fear of persecution - or worse. When we don't take advantage of our freedoms, rights and priviledges, we belittle the sacrifices and injustices of others and are poor stewards of the gifts and responsibilities we've been given. The whole world is looking at us today. We each really need to do our part. VOTE.
Stepping down now . . .
Chris and Gunn and I are leaving town today so we 'absenteed' our ballots this time. I decided who I was going to vote for a few months ago but Chris didn't know up until yesterday. For awhile I thought we might end up canceling each others' votes out (ha ha) but surprisingly - and after much discussion, deliberation and even argument on occassion, we ended up casting our ballots for the same ticket.
Who, you might be asking, did we vote for?
Well, in an attempt to preserve the peace and harmony in our friendships with YOU, we will not be disclosing who our votes were for. Feel free to guess. If you're right we might tell you. One hint though: we are both registered as Independent.
Good luck and happy voting today!
