Miles got a new room! I guess it's his big pre-birthday present. We realized the former "guest" room was a few feet larger than his nursery and would give him better space to play. And since it was the only room in the house that we'd
never painted, it was due for a facelift. We had these shelves put in to store all his toys and books and painted it two shades of bright blue. I realize I didn't take a picture of the color, so I'll have to update this later. But he's been having a great time crawling around and playing with everything. The wide open room is perfect for pushing a
diaper box!!
He's been having lots of fun playing with this big bear that his Mimi's Mama gave him. He'll crawl right over and snuggle up. (He's almost walking... he can do it holding onto the tip of my finger, so he's close, just needs to get bold enough to let go completely). He likes to say "behr" too! In fact, his vocabulary is full of "B" words. It probably takes a mama or dada's ear to distinguish but he says "bay-bay" (baby), "bah-te" (bottle), "buh-buh" (bye bye), and "baye" (Wayne - one of the Higglytown characters). He also has some cute sound effects. When he sees his Sesame Street
pop-up toy he makes a throat clearing noise like Ernie's laugh and when we read "Goodnight, Gorilla" he snores.
Since the entire house is his playground now, I don't really know why I keep the playmat down in the den. We're never in there anymore. If we try to sit there, it's merely a launching pad for racing to the front door, dumping boxes of blocks or heading for the kitchen. I'd like to say his favorite stuff in the kitchen is everything I've collected in his very own cabinet but I'd be lying. No, his favorite desitnation in the kitchen is the dog bowl area. They only eat at night, so it's not an issue of him eating their food or messing with chow time, but the water bowl is there too. In this heat it would be inhumane to close off their water all day!! So after many a repeated "no!" (mostly without tears) he's starting to look at me like "I'm gonna do it, aren't you supposed to say no?" Maybe if I add more enticing things to his cabinet?
But what could be cooler than this awesome purple colander/hat? In a humorous side story, my husband told me that he and his friend,
Lee, used to think they were pretty funny when they wore pots on their heads. Of course they were 25 at the time, not 1. Nice one, sweetie. I'm surprised you didn't try to impress me with that on a date.
Ah, the big event has come and gone. The first birthday party was a smashing success and I think mommy and daddy have finally recovered. Miles ate up the attention of six doting grandparents while trying to play with his cousins, whatever they were doing. Evan had several jam sessions on the drums, and Miles was his cymbal-taping sidekick. Kate was the go-go dancer! And not wanting to leave Kate out, Miles was very content to play dolls, pushing her baby stroller all over the house. Of course he did prefer to tip it over and spin the wheels a little too.
Presents? What presents? Although there was a den full of exciting boxes and tissue paper, Miles preferred to toddle around the house and play with other things. So mommy got the very willing cousins to help open all his fun gifts. He got lots of great books, clothes and some trains and cars to keep him going. After some yummy burgers and hot dogs, the birthday cupcake appeared! This time he knew exactly what to do (not that he hesitated much on the 1st one!) and he tore right in. 
