Homecoming

A fall homecoming weekend, what could sound better? Lots of friends in town (check); football (um, sort of check); crisp, cool sweater weather... FALSE! Thankfully we were spared the flooding from the torrential downpour that swept the area, but our plans for the day were shot.

But before all that started, Miles had a reunion of sorts. His friend Davey turns 3 this year and we celebrated with him. Davey's party last year was Miles's very first playdate!













The party was very different this year. Last year, Miles & Aiden spent much of the party asleep in their carseats. This year, it was constant motion, walking, crawling, falling, exploring, playing with toys, eating cake, checking out everything everywhere. Jen's mom has a variety of roosters in her kitchen and Miles found a really cool one with a metal tail that he could make music with.

The downpour started Saturday and though we were optimistic early, my plans to make it to the game officially went down the drain when Wayne went out to get us some lunch. Both ways out to the main drag were flooding pretty deep at that point and there wasn't much sign of it letting up. (Sorry Ashley... glad you and the Auburn fan had a good time anyway!)

Thankfully, Brandi, Dave, Maddie and Brennan came by early (you know us parents, up early on Saturday!) so Miles got to play with some "big kids" for a while. They taught him how to build a fort and enjoyed playing with his "baby" toys. Brandi said that was because their own "baby" toys were being phased out.



Now the week has started beautifully! Our neighbor said her rain gauge read 7.5", so I think we made up for the drought this summer. Didn't help my summer "garden" but should hlp me get a good start for fall/spring! I have a garage full of mums, pansies and spring bulbs so need to take advantage of the sunshine and soft earth and get them planted.

Last but not least a few Happy Birthdays to Stephanie monday and also to Grandpa Don today!

a weekend in pictures

Grandmommy Alice turned 90 on Friday, so Miles and I crossed the state to celebrate. He didn't join us at dinner, but spent the day Saturday entertaining his nonagenarian nana. Here are two of her grandkids (me & my brother) toasting her longevity.
While entertaining Alice, Miles also played with BeeBe & PopPop. PopPop had a really cool car to ride around the yard.
Later that night Miles entertained lots of family from my mom's side. Aunt Connie had come in from Texas, so of course there was a party! Miles got to see his other nonagenarian grandma (yes he has two at 90! will he live to 110?), 3 great aunts, 1 great uncle, Mimi & Grandpa, uncle Kiley & Megan and cousin Hunter. Whew! He knew he was the center of attention and stayed up an hour past bedtime to cheer for the Vols against Florida.
Alas, uncle Kiley was the only college football fan of the family proudly wearing his colors on Sunday.
We made the drive over all in one day, which was long but not so bad. On the way back, however it was better to stop and have playtime with his cousins for a couple of nights. Last time we were there he wasn't quite walking yet, so it was a real treat to see them interact. Kate still tried to make Miles her baby-doll and buckle him into her carseat. But eventually they worked out a division of chores. Miles happily took over vacuuming!!
Our visit was lots of fun. Kate and Evan successfully exhausted Miles so he zoned out or slept the entire drive back. And he took 2 long naps today. Yay!

ready for fall

It's still officially a week away, but today was a promising preview of the fantastic fall to come. I didn't plan Miles's outfit well and he ended up sporting a gator all day, grrrr. I didn't even notice until I saw a lunch special of "gator wraps" posted on the sidewalk. We had lunch at Tomato Head with our friend Elise, and afterward Miles wandered Market Square, chasing pigeons and gazing longingly at the fountains squirting up from the sidewalk. Sadly, right after I snapped this shot in front of Bliss, he took a header on the sidewalk. Thankfully it was just a little scrape, no blood, no purple protrusion. But it ended the lunch date pretty fast (sorry, Elise!!).

Tomorrow he and I are off to Memphis (while the rest of the state convenes here!) for my grandmother's 90th birthday dinner. This is Miles's 2nd great-grandma to achieve such a milestone this year and he's happy to celebrate. Happy Birthday Grandmommy Alice!

the hurricane

Miles is a goofball. For real. He's silly and giggly and walks around with a can of peaches. Or sometimes tuna, just depends which one is eye level. Yesterday he started rockin' out to The Scorpions while we were eating lunch. And for your most updated Miles to English translation entry:
BAH = pacifier, banana, berries, bed, milk, Barbara Ann, outside
FFFff = puffs, phones, fan
Ah = vacuum, hat
And by the way, if you could super-zoom on this pic you would see not one tooth coming in up top but THREE, yes three at one time. Awesome!

Today we went for haircut #2. Miles played it like a cool kid the whole time. I mean, he is a pro now. We sat him up on the booster and he slung his arm across the back of the chair like he was driving a big ol' Caddy and left it there. "hey baby, wanna ride?" Then he got all James Dean-cool on her and just stared off into the mirror. Maybe he liked her leopard print smock. She was a tad more hip than the last stylist we saw.

After, while I'd liked to have strolled up the sidewalk for a nice cold 'rita we headed the other direction for some family fun at BN. I grabbed a book thinking I could do a little pipe-dreaming but should have known better. He was for a short time completely entranced by the Thomas the Train table and the two cuties with curly brown hair. But he soon realized he was in his own practically private section of the book store and it was filled with things for him!! He discovered the Boynton section and pulled it all to the floor. Then he saw all the stuffed animals but thankfully passed on by. I finally steered him to the storytime area with the platform and a mini Hundred Acre Wood tableau where we wore out the rest of the day until dinner.

big boy

Here's the latest page I did for his baby book. Wow, what a year! 

let's go go GO!

After writing about such a fun event as a birthday, the everyday stuff seems too ordinary to blog. How can Miles just being his goofy, cute self compare with cupcake smashed up his nose? It may be mundane but such is life. Wait, who am I kidding?

Mundane? HA! Farthest thing from it!

If I felt lazy and didn't walk all summer in the heat, Miles is helping me make up those missed steps now. He is all over the place. Here and there, here and there. I can follow his little path of disaster from the toy baskets to the book shelf to the cabinet of canned food.

I can also audibly follow him: the tinkle of piano keys, the rat-a-tat of the drum, and various toys vocalizing "hi I'm farmer Tad," "Lightning is ready", "purple cow," and a cacophony of barnyard noises. Thankfully the house is childproofed enough so everything is his or I don't care if he messes with it. He's usually in the food cabinet, pulling out his snack-size peaches and mandarin oranges. He carried around some oranges for about 30 minutes yesterday.


I know that two occurrences don't make a trend, but I suspect that the morning nap is starting to go away. While he's still ready to crash at 8:30am after breakfast and some wandering, that nap has only lasted an hour the past few days. Barely enough time for me to eat, shower, dress and e-mail! (and do laundry and dishes and pick-up and sweep...) Today since he was up we went to the park behind dad's office. It used to be run down about 10 years ago, but they've cleaned it up and there are great bike paths and tennis courts. [The one bad area is the stream running beside it with a prominent "Avoid Physical Contact" posted. Too many SSOs, I guess.] The play area is really cool. There are two big jungle gym things that look like a pirate ship and a castle. So we did some swinging and some sliding and some general walking around. Then off to a messy lunch with dad at Moe's! Yum!