Memorial Day

Yay, a holiday! Okay, so the weekend could have been like any other, but we actually did lots of stuff. Miles got to go to a neighborhood BBQ on Friday night and stay up past bedtime. He had fun playing with their new puppy and the big kids. Another night Wayne & I got a babysitter so we could go to dinner... all the way next door. It was lots of fun and we learned that our neighbors are expecting their 1st child in December.

Miles will be glad to have a new buddy close by, even if he/she is 2 1/2 years younger. He got to meet two new baby boys this weekend - Landon and Connor. They came to play and brought their parents for a little revelry with old friends. I had so much fun getting to hang out with my girlfriends from back in the day. It's so wild thinking about how much we've changed and grown together over the last, oh, 14 years. Fourteen!!





Here's Miles this week getting dirty with his girlfriends from Moms & Tots. Wonder if they'll still be hanging out in 14 years? And how is it that they were all digging in the sand, but Miles is the only one covered in dirt?

Buhr Hunt!

The last day of school!!! His class celebrated by going on a bear hunt. Now I've heard different versions of the bear hunt, but the song they sing has them going through a candy factory, a peanut butter river and a jello swamp.


Of course the "last day" is only until next Thursday when summer session starts. Miles will stay in the 1 year old room for the summer, but almost everyone else from his class will move on to the 2 year old room. Hopefully that change won't be too traumatic next week. He loves all his buddies, talks about them every day: Coop-er, Jen-NA, Ha-sen (Harrison), Eh-Kay-Line (Emma Caroline). But EEE-Lie (Eli) will stay with him through the summer, so he & Miles will get to be the BMOC for a little while. In the fall they'll move to the 2 year old room with the rest of the buddies.

the very big awesome weekend

Miles's birthday isn't until August, but if we'd had a cupcake with a candle in it, he may have mistaken this past weekend for the big #2. Here's the rundown:

the Farmers' Market
a great big flamingo
3 fountains
an ice cream cone
an excavator
a park with b-i-g hills
2 buses
a choo choo train starting up "Tooot-tooooooot!!"
lots of ducks and big huge catfish

I not sure if I can remember when we did everything, it all runs together now, but here goes. Saturday we tried to go to the main library but it didn't open early enough so we swung over to the Farmers' Market to check out the action. Miles wasn't interested in the booths and we weren't shopping, so we just explored the area and found a few fountains to look at. Beside the big "pool" fountain near KUB, Miles said "IN, IN!". Uh-oh. Too bad it was a little chilly that morning. We kept Miles moving, killing time until lunch. Then he spotted them --- the fountains spouting up from the sidewalk. I literally had to hold him back or we would have had one drenched and shivering boy. Fortunately we found a big garden-art pink flamingo to mess with until the lunch bell rang.

That evening we caved in to some ice cream cravings and hit our local 31. He has greatly improved his "I-sss keeem" eating skills, alternating between a spoon and licking the cone. He got strawberry and was very pleased to discover whole "stwaw-bu-behwies" hidden within.

Let's see, what's next? Oh yes, leaving BR we passed a construction site, so we pulled off to check out the excavators and dump trucks. They were all resting for the weekend, so we'll have to check again during the week to see them in action.

Sunday just before lunch we went to our park to play. Miles is getting the hang of sitting in the big swings, but his favorite part was hiking up and down the hills. We were all for the exercise and he was inspired by the buses parked in the lots above.

After a great nap we went down to the river for dinner. Our friend Haley, whose husband Mike passed away 3 weeks after their wedding in 2005, has found love again. She'll marry a British bloke, Kevin, this September. Dinner was for him to meet all of Mike's buddies in Knoxville.

We went downtown a little early to play on the waterfront and as luck would have it the Three Rivers Rambler was set to depart in minutes!! We listened for the engine to fire up then Miles stood and waved as the mighty engine, 4 cars and a caboose chugged away.

Toward the end of dinner Miles needed to get out of his chair for a bit. We wandered down to the water where a crowd had gathered to feed the ducks. A nice family shared some bread with Miles and he loved tossing the pieces to the ducks. On corner floated in front of us for a minute untouched. Then all of a sudden from the depths came a gigantic fish who swallowed it whole. Miles had a huge smile on his face the rest of the evening.

Me Do It

We ended up having a really fun evening tonight. I was kind of worried about the after-school witching hour since last Thursday he had a complete meltdown on me. I meant to write about it but just never did. It was like deja vu, except that the first time didn't happen to me. We had to swing by the grocery for, like, 3 things before going home. He refused to get in a normal cart so I tried putting him in the humongous car-cart. This thing is obnoxiously large, but it does have a nice pivot wheel in the middle. While it supposedly lets you turn completely around in the aisle, I usually get stuck perpendicularly and feel like Austin Powers in the golf cart.

Anyway, I put him in that cart and he threw a fit because there was no steering wheel. OMG. So I figured I'd just lug the 30 lb. sack of potatoes around and grab bananas, Chick'n nuggets and pretzels. Ha! After we grabbed bananas I spied a stack of baskets and thought I could let Miles walk. He proceeded to flop himself down on the ground in front of the lobster tank and demand "peel banana!" Argh! I carried him on down to the frozen section and thankfully the aisle was empty. I set Miles and the basket down and went to search for his nuggets. Mistake. He pulled a banana from the bunch and started ramming it in my leg "peel! peel!" I told him we had to go buy it first and he threw himself back on the ground wailing. Since I'm apprenticing with the master, I calmly walked away down the aisle. He scrambled after me. As soon as I looked back at him (and caught the smirk on his face) he was back down on the floor!! Booger. Thank goodness Shrek saved us, even though he doesn't have a clue who Shrek is. The big endcap was distracting enough to let me scoop him up and get to the checkout. Whew.

So I worried about how he'd be this afternoon, but we figured out the best game ever. Water Miles!!! As soon as he saw the water spraying he said "me do it." Oh, the big boy. He had a blast spraying himself, daddy, the flowers and the tomato plant we've got going. And he totally bought it when the water "ran out." Sneaky daddy turned the knob just in time for bed!

One of his big words now is "HAVE," which in Miles-speak means "gimme." I pick something up and he is suddenly right at my feet saying "have? have?". Bedtime is another battle of wills right now, with Miles stalling using ever trick in the book. He wants to kiss everything in the room, sing songs, have every toy in the room, but the clincher is when he calls out "ma-meeEEE? Hug?" Ouch, how can you say no to that?

reporting for duty

The problem with waiting (slacking) so long between posts is that soooo much happens, it's hard to figure out where to start. Or stop. But any stuff that happened over the last week and a half was swept aside by the birth of Miles's cousin, Ellie! (So, they're actually 2nd cousins, but who's counting?) She kept her mama waiting 7 days past her due date, but made it easy on Tiffany when she finally did appear. Tiffany called me to share the news while Miles was napping, so when I went to get him I said, "Miles, Ellie's here!!!" (we've been praying for Ellie at bedtime, so he knows the name.) He walked out of his room, looked around & said, "Ellie? Ellie?" I had to explain that she wasn't actually HERE in the house, but here in the world!!

CONGRATULATIONS TIFFANY & LEE

WELCOME ELLIE!!

It was business as usual for us yesterday. For this week's playgroup, we went to the newly reopened kids area at the museum. There were drawing stations, books, and paintings that you could dress up & "step" into. But the coolest thing of all was the Lite-Brite wall! I admit I was a little concerned with 3 toddlers jabbing acrylic spears through a holey wall, but they got the hang of it and had lots of fun. Miles wanted to swim in the bucket of pegs, but settled on diving into the ottoman. He did take off in full sprint to the hallway about 5 times, so mommy got a workout yesterday, too!

We're #1! (or the post with TMI)

Miles had a big Saturday evening this weekend. Here he is cheering on the horses in the Kentucky Derby. He wasn't too sure what was happening as they got in the gates, but he rocked his way along with them to the finish. Why is he not wearing pants, you ask? Ah ha, exciting news!


Just before the race Miles pee peed on the potty for the very first time! We were playing in the living room when he stood up and started saying pee pee and took off down the hall. Lately whenever he says "pee pee" I go sit him on the potty fully clothed, just to get the hang of it. So when he took off down the hall, I knew something was up. I stripped him down and set him up there and ..... PEE PEE! I don't know if he realized what happened, but we started giving high 5s and 10s and knuckles all around. Such a big moment. So then we came out and watched the horses run before he turned it in for the evening.

Then today just before lunch he was outside with Wayne and said pee pee again. Wayne brought him in, stripped him down and sat him on the potty. And again... PEE PEE! (Oh the things that excite our lives these days, right?) He sat on it a few more times today, but nothing happened. Still, 2 times when we weren't really trying is fantastic!!

Funny highlight: one of the nonproductive times he did let out a little toot. So we said, "toot, that's good, we toot/poop on the potty too" etc. And Miles said, "Toot! Mi-wus [Miles] toot. A-pa-bos [Apollo] toot. Daddy... TOOT." The "Daddy toot" got a laugh, so he repeated it a few times. Thankfully he spared mommy from the accusation of tootness. What a silly! So today as a "good job, big boy" we shared smoothies at Ben & Jerry. Miles really dug the Strawberry Kiwi, so much that mommy almost didn't get any!

Back to sweetness

Miles awoke refreshed and so did mommy. It probably helped both of us that Miles had school, so we had something to get excited about (and mommy got a free afternoon after working at daddy's office in the morning). Miles LOVES his teachers. When I pick him up he usually runs right past me to go say good-bye to Ms. Anna and the babies. Ms. Anna splits time between the 1 yr olds and the babies and Miles just adores her. He gets to stay in the 1 year old room through the summer, so he'll finally be a "big kid" in class. I should say "old kid" because while he's one of the youngest in the room, he's almost the biggest in size! Hopefully he won't bully any of the new walkers when they move onto his turf this summer. If he ever gets to take all of these trucks to school, he would surely share them all, right? I talked him out of taking all of these yesterday!


Miles has his first job! He is taking care of the dog across the street while its mommy is out of town. We went over to meet Shadow yesterday (that's PopPop holding Shadow). He's an older dog, but seems like a puppy since he's so much smaller than "Pa-bos & Chessie". Miles gets the double fun of seeing a puppy AND a tractor - look in the distance behind him, it's the riding mower! Last night Miles fell asleep saying "check Shadow, check Shadow" since we promised we could go back after he woke up. I even heard a few "Shaaa-doooo" calls. What a smoosheroo!!

Dear almost-two-year-old Miles,

Sweetie pie. How could this face ever make mommy grit her teeth as she wipes "ho-hee" (honey) and "noo-GAT" (nugget) crumbs off the dining room chairs? or as she scrapes from the cracks of linoleum the smushed peas that you tossed one by one with the "pop!....pop!....pop!" accompanying sound effect? or as she props you on her knee at a bathroom sink that's too tall for the stool to wash your hands for the kajillionth time in 30 minutes after you wanted to practice "peepee" on the potty? (I know, that's really a good thing, right?) or as we listen to your new favorite song for the 12th time in a row on the way to your playdate? (although it isn't that bad of a song, I'd just like to hear something else once in a while!) or as she cleans up dog vomit from the hardwood floors? Okay so maybe that's not your fault.

But I guess that's why they call it the twos (sorry, Elton). I've been warned of what's coming. It's just too bad that you've already figured out that we think you're pretty darn cute even when you're a stinker. So all you have to do is flash those puppy dog eyes and say "al luh te tu" (I love you too!!) and all is forgiven. Almost. Tonight when you shoved mommy with your foot and hit her a few times, well, bedtime came pretty fast, didn't it?

Love you so much!
Mama


Whew! Venting feels good! Thankfully most of that stuff happened in the last 45 minutes before daddy got home, so it was just percolating. Most of the time Miles is 100% sweetheart. He's come up with some pretty funny games recently. Like last night he was able to recline the La-Z-Boy all the way back and began to rock it up and down. He was laughing so hard at his fun new game. Then he just stretched out and watched the end of his movie. Oh, and we taught him to say "help, please" when he's frustrated, so we don't get a lot of "AAaaaaaaaaa!" So now we get a whole bunch of "hep, peas? hep, peas?" TOO sweet! And he's (usually) such a snuggle bear at bedtime. He loves squirming under the "cuh-buhs" (covers) of the big boy bed and pretending to sleep. Sorry we had to skip that step tonight, buddy. Tomorrow will be better!