even MORE sugar

I seriously have not taken a photo since we've been home from the beach. So here's one where we actually went to the beach and tried to walk around. It was the last day as we were leaving! If you want more of this, I've updated his photo page in Shutterfly ===> the link to the right.

Miles has really been working up the sweetnes factor lately. I keep thinking "oh, if I only had the camera!" but of course, I don't. Although some moments would be hard to capture on "film". They will probably be too hard to capture in written word, but I'll give it a shot:

When we get Miles ready for bed, he has his bath to wash off all the dirt and dinner from the day. Then we go sit on the twin bed in his room to diaper and pajama up. Lately he will crawl up to the pillows, lie down and put his feet under the covers. He'll even pretend to sleep. But he still gets carted over to the crib for the real night-night.

The other night when he lay on the pillow, I lay down on one side and Wayne squeezed in on the other. We were giving Miles goodnight kisses and it turned into a smoochfest - mwa, mwa, mwa, mwa - we both laid on the kisses all over his face. When we leaned back and took a breather, Miles looked at us, slid one arm beneath each of our necks, and hugged us back in for more. It was the sweetest. thing. in. the. world. Smoosh!!

with sugar on top

When Wayne gets home from work every day, we all pack up and go for a walk. Miles gets to ride in the wagon and the dogs have fun scouting squirrels and other walkers. Afterward, it's daddy & Miles time. They go to his room and play play play. Miles even shuts the door on me when I come check in! But tonight he wandered out and found me checking e-mail, eating a popsicle.

He climbed in my lap and wanted a lick. And another. And another. And then just took the rest. We put him in his booster so he wouldn't make a total mess. When he finished he started saying "mo, mo" and signing "More". We stalled because, well, it was bedtime. But then he pulled out the big guns. He said "please". Three times. It was more like "Peeaaase," and sounded a lot like "cheese." You could see his brain working, "Mommy says it's the magic word, and when I say it she gives me what I want." Thank goodness distraction worked and we got moving along to bath time. It's going to get hard to say no to that sweet face! (but don't worry, I'm sure I'll manage.)

[Picture is from the beach trip.]

Spring Break

Since I'm sure you are more interested in pictures than reading my explanations, I'll let the pictures speak their thousand words. I may add a few anyway, tho!



Here are the cousins, figuring out how to all have fun together. That would be by chasing each other around squealing, then doing football drills: step-step-step-step, drop to the floor!








Beach = Ice Cream Parlor, so we made a trip every afternoon. Miles liked it and made the required mess, but we didn't make it through without tears. He must have thought I would take his, because he wouldn't let me near it to help him keep the sherbet on the cone.
















Evan & Kate are experts, having been to this ice cream parlor before. Evan chose Superman ice cream and Kate chose Dora the Explorer (actually raspberry truffle swirl, but anything with pink swirls would do in a pinch).













After ice cream we stopped at the park where the fountains shoot up from the sidewalk. Again, Evan & Kate were old pros and Miles had to warm up to it. He never got soaked but he was curious and had fun laughing with/at his cousins.













This was the only time we got them all to sit still for a second. We're still a few years away from a good group photo op!











Dinner on the drive home = Cracker Barrel. Too bad that's a Georgia rocker Miles is sitting in. It's pretty cute otherwise!

Where are the beach pictures you ask? We didn't get out in the sun all that much. The water was still a little cool! And since the condo was beachfront, we enjoyed the waves, boat and bird watching from the comfort of our patio and windows.

pooped

Home at last... we had a fun time, but the three wee ones sure can wear a mommy (or two - & a YaYa) out.

I will be sure to share some pictures and tales as soon as I can sort through the 400+ pictures from the trip. But for now, I'll share the scene from Valdosta last night. Elizabeth & I had Miles & Kate sleeping with us. It took Miles about 20 minutes to settle down and pass out. Kate wasn't cooperating so Elizabeth stepped out, thinking she would calm down with just me in audience. It still took an extra half hour but she fell asleep.

As I waited for her to drift off, I could only think of a similar scene some 25 years ago. We weren't quite so young, but I had joined my cousin Tiffany, Aunt Connie and Uncle Dave for a trip to the 'nooga. Nothing like a little Fat Man's Squeeze to get a couple of 6/7 year old girls giggly. Now I can sympathize with Connie and Dave as they endured us jumping on the beds, cheering and laughing until who knows what hour. Of course they probably never expected the same thing to happen 15 years later, but 20/21 year old girls on a cruise with the fam can get pretty silly too. But that's another story.....

The time has come, the walrus said.....

to hit the BEACH!!

We're on our way tomorrow, making the trip in two 1/2 day drives. Hopefully daddy won't miss us too much (and vice versa). We'll be sure to post a big update full of fun pictures when we return.

xo,
mama & miles

but what if I needed that hour?

Whew! I thought I'd never get a chance to sit down and blog again! But it's a good problem to have, we've been busy, busy, busy. For starters, last week was GORGEOUS. Any chance we had we were outside in the yard or at the park. We even played out on the patio despite the sediment of winter still covering the chairs (we weren't sitting in them!).

Miles loves to be outside. He's says "ou-side, OU-SIDE!!" all the time and will go and slap his hand on the door just so I know what he really means. We've tried lots of new slides and even tried "spider" swinging on a real swing. That's where he sits in my lap facing me and I hold on around his back. It's easy to forget about the laundry and dishes and toys everywhere at home when you're swinging under a bright blue sky with your little boy.

The winds died down by then end of the week so we could get out and play unencumbered by silly hats. We checked daily to see how many daffodils had bloomed in our yard. Miles liked to count them once he got past trying to take a bite of them.

He's still into wearing my sunglasses and has started sporting a little attitude with it too. I need to get him some of his own since he'll wear them now. He'll need to keep them on next week when we go on spring break!! Yes, we are actually going to the beach for spring break this year. Wayne's sister's in-laws have a place at the beach so she, YaYa and I are taking the three kiddos down for a few days. Should be lots of fun. We've rented a minivan so we can all pile in together, and Wayne bought a car DVD player that we can keep on hand just in case But we're hoping sleep, sing-alongs and the presence of cousins will make it a smooth ride (HA!)

The final wear-out of the weekend was an all day Karley-party. Well, sort of. We started the morning with her 2nd birthday party, a story book and tea party. Miles wasn't te only boy there, Karley's cousin Will brought the trucks. After cupcakes and presents we went home for a quick nap. Oh wait, first we dragged Miles kicking and screaming out of Karley's new Cozy Coupe, then we went home for a nap. After naptime, Daddy and Miles got to go back to play with Karley & Will while the mommies went to a baby shower for Karley's soon-to-be sibling. Needless to say, he's been sleeping very well!!

Ham and chee-eese

I have pictures from this week I'm working on posting, but when I taped this at dinner I had to get it on the blog first.

Daddy has apparently been teaching Miles some important phrases, and I think this may be his first sentence. Listen closely and see if you hear what I hear...



P.S. Yes he does love his daddy too. He was just a little busy with his Frosted Mini Wheats. :)

Frogs and snails and puppy dog tails

I wasn't holding on to any idealized image of my child as a "baby" anymore. I've known for a while that the nights of rocking and cuddling are gone. No more days lazing on a blanket in the den, swatting at toys. But all of a sudden I'm getting this feeling that he's not even a toddler anymore. He's a full blown little kid! I know he's still a toddler (I realize that with every stinky diaper I change) but we've entered the "little boy" stage. Last Friday we made our first sofa cushion fort in the den. It wasn't very elaborate, and he preferred to walk on top of the sheet more than under it, but it was a fort all the same. I tried to prop it up with a center pole broomstick, but that turned into a weapon too quickly.

Then Friday afternoon we met our friends Lori & Aiden at a new park with slides geared toward toddlers. Wow! The boys could climb and slide entirely on their own. There were still a few tricky opening for older kids up high, but we stood beneath them there. It's a good thing we didn't have to scramble after them. Aiden is a quick one, and Lori is 8 months pregnant with #2.

The boys started running out on the walking trail so we worked our way around. They found all the mud puddles and sticks along the way and almost veered off into the swamp to catch frogs, but we reined them back in.

Back at the ranch, Miles has been completely enamored with Apollo & Chelsea, or as he calls them, Papo and Chelchi. Our favorite is when he calls Chelsea in the high pitched scream "Cheeeeeeeaal-chiii" as we do when trying to get her back inside. They have been fantastic with him, really amazing. I guess they figure wearing hats, having blankets thrown on you and being patted very enthusiastically are worth the Goldfish, hot dogs, chicken and yougurt cups they get to lick clean.

Speaking of boys, congrats to my dear friend Stacey and her hubby John. They welcomed Landon Allen at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 6th. He weighs 7lbs 1 oz. and stretches to 21 and a half inches long. Now I need to convince her to start a blog!!