Big fun

The big guy is now officially two and he survived a weekend full of partying. We started Thursday with cupcakes at school and the arrival of BeeBe and PopPop. On Friday we welcomed Aunt Elizabeth, YaYa and cousins Evan and Kate. WOW, did that get the party going! We celebrated his actual birthday with pizza and cake out with the gang. Uncle Shay joined us that evening around bath time.

Saturday morning we joined the H.O.G.s at Cracker Barrel for yummy French toast, biscuits, eggs and bacon. Later that day brought B followed by the west TN crowd - Mimi, PawPaw, Uncle Kiley and Aunt Megan.

After an afternoon full of play and fun (including the family photo op) we headed to the real party. We headed over to The Little Gym where we joined a bunch of our buddies. It was a great party for Miles and for mommy too. They did everything! They even brought all all of Miles' favorite activities - including the air mat and the parachute.

After a whole lot of shaking, we adjourned for nuggets and cake. We stood back and sang while the candles flickered in front of him. He waited until the song was over then r-e-a-c-h-e-d those little fingers toward the flame. About 12 moms dove at him shrieking "NOOOOOOO!!!!!!" Crisis was averted, but he wasn't in the mood for cake anymore. Not that he needed it, he was revved up enough!


Finally we made it home to open presents. Miles had some willing helpers in his cousins Kate and Evan. they were just as excited about all his gifts! He got lots of cool trucks and books, a basketball goal and a sandbox, but so far the most played toy has been the assortment of Thomas the Train gear, specifically Lady . Even Uncle Kiley couldn't resist setting up some cool tracks and trying to wreck the trains.


All in all a hugely fun weekend for us. Thanks you so much to all our guests who traveled far to join us, and to those who survived the chaos of The Little Gym. The ear-to-ear grins were worth every yawn the next day!

GIVE HIM TWO!!!!!

The big boy is two today!! We've been working on two fingers but it's hard to hold the two on one hand up. So 1+1=2!

This morning he got a little present from mommy and daddy - Engine Emily! He's been asking for her all week but has been pretty patient.

We have family rolling in from all across the state yesterday, today and tomorrow. The big shindig with his little buddies is Saturday night. There will definitely be more to come!!

Miles' Very Important Phrases

Daddy's been teaching Miles some vital phrases... check it out..

Our family is growing even more!

Yes, you read that right. We're adding still another family member. (And no, we didn't learn that we're having twins!!)

Uncle Kiley proposed to his girlfriend, Megan! So sometime in the not so distant future, Miles will have an Aunt Megan and Wayne and I will have a new sister!



This is his version of what his plan was. I don't know the exact details yet, but I do know she said yes! He took her downtown for dinner, saying he had a 2-for-1 coupon. This would not be surprise, as Uncle Kiley is one of the most, um, fiscally conservative guys I know. But it definitely didn't foretell a romantic dinner out! Anyway, they first stopped along the riverfront where he planned on using the "car trouble" line to stop and get out. So it was sunset on the Mighty Mississipp', they are "stranded", and he drops to a knee with a ring. How romantic! He said there were a few toots from passing motorists too. They followed this with a nice dinner - without a coupon.

So congrats and best wishes! We're so happy for you guys!

Goofballs

The fun has begun. Miles loved goofing off with the PhotoBooth feature on the new Mac. Pretty silly stuff. I'm still working up the learning curve. It's hard when I've been an ingrained Windows user for over a decade, I had all the shortcuts memorized!! Now I'm trying to figure out if I've lost all the detailed categorization I've done on all 8K of my photos (most of those since Miles joined us). Got the calendar and address book in sync; got the music and playlists over, but lost all the ratings and playcounts; now gotta figure out iPhoto and how to convert Quicken. Sheesh! But we'll get there...

PS.

I totally forgot to add these cute things Miles is doing now. He has some boots - I think given by his buddy Davey - that he absolutely loves to wear. I'll get a photo uploaded as soon as everything else is set up. But he can pull them on by himself and he just clomps around the house. They are rainboots, green jungle scene with salamanders all over them. Too funny.

And the other cute thing he's started doing is saying "be right back" when he's going to do something. He'll say "Miles get tractor. Be wight back." and look at us very seriously like he's making sure we heard him. Hmmm, wonder where he picked that up??

New adventures in hi-fi

This has been a crazy week! I guess I can blame it on nesting, but we (I) decided to rearrange our house. The way it was - picture a square divided into 4 quadrants - we had the living room and office in front and the dining room and kitchen in back. Since we're not throwing any fancy dinner parties soon, we decided to swap the dining room and office. We've moved almost everything, just the table and sofa to swap now. So the dining furniture will take up the smallest room (and we'll also cram the piano in there) and the large room that connects to the patio will be office/living/playroom. It will basically be wide open space for Miles to roam. When everything is finished (HA!) I'll post a picture of the new play space. Oh, yeah, Wayne also decided to dismantle and stack the drums. So now we have an artful display of percussion towering in the playroom. We left Miles' favorite - the Hi-Hat - standing so he can sorta bang that and the low stack of drums.

This weekend Miles had two 2 year old birthday parties, but we only went to one, Millie's. Braden had a fever Friday, so we figured we'd let him recover. Although Miles was so worn out from Millie's, I don't know if he'd have made it very long. She had a bounce house and cute froggy cupcakes to go with her froggy theme. Miles had a blast, and now the countdown is on for his own 2nd birthday!

The last bit of excitement is that we've moved to the dark side of computing. Actually it's the the sleek, brushed aluminum side and so far I'm doing fine! We got an iMac! We'd ordered one over the tax free weekend and lo and behold 5 days later Steve Jobs presents a brand-spankin' new model. I called them and they happily shipped me the newer, faster, sleeker, shinier AND cheaper model, which arrived today. So I'm in the midst of transfering my life over to iLife (hah hah), hopefully without a hitch. Thank goodness for external hard drives! Anyway, it will take up residence in the new playroom, and it's so nice, there is literally a screen, keyboard and a cord, none of all that other junk that ends up taking over the desk. Anyway, off to move my music.... I'll let you know how it goes!!

The Three Musketeers

Thanks so much to everyone for your well-wishes. We've had several wishes for a girl from the peanut gallery, so stay tuned for that news, possibly next week. I'm starting to feel much better as the 2nd trimester approaches. I did go get a few cute maternity things this week, so I'm enjoying the new wardrobe options!

Got back from a late "weekend" visit to YaYa & B's yesterday. Miles didn't have school so we thought it would be nice to have extra help to let Miles play with them and with his cousins. He had a HUGE time playing with all of them. The day we left we told him when he woke that we were going and he pestered me all morning long "Go YaYa B's? Go YaYa B's?" until we finally skipped lunch and left early.

He always has fun with the cousins, but this time when he saw Evan he took off shrieking "EVANEVANEVANEVAN" spinning, running and laughing. The kid was excited! He knows that all the trucks and trains at YaYa's were Evan's and couldn't wait to see them.
They still played more side-by-side, with Miles assembling Thomas tracks next to Evan's big train track. Miles got to sit inside Evan's track and watch it go around, which was huge. Then he accidentally sat on it and derailed it, which I think upset him more than Evan!

It was blazing hot there, so sprinkler time was on the agenda. Miles wore Kate's pink Crocs and B "suffered" through the 3 different sprinklers, the hose and finally a bucket full of water. All were soaked and ready for a cool treat when the time came.




Now I hear him waking from his first nap in the big boy bed. I figured we'd start with naps and work up to nighttime over the next few months. He was down 2.5 hours, so a good start!

In Training

Miles is working on a new life-skill....

BEING A GREAT BIG BROTHER!!

He'll become a big brother sometime around February 24, 2008 if things go as expected. We're very excited, well at least Wayne & I are. We've told Miles he'll be a big brother, but I don't know that he gets it yet. We do know that he likes babies, and he's had lots of fun with the younger girls in his class this summer. We'll just have to see how he does when one is in the room next door!! (a baby, I mean. We don't know yet what the sex is, but will find out in the next couple of months)

I've been feeling fine. Sleepy of course, more than last time, but I guess that goes with the territory of chasing a toddler. I've been more nauseated this time but have been able to eat enough. Crackers and soup help! Already starting to retire some clothes that don't fit anymore... maybe by this time next year I'll be back in them? HA!! Our next appointment is on the 14th, so we'll have more news then. Keep us in your prayers in the meantime.

Home ownership = Excitement!

Ah, the gloriously fun things you get to spend money on as a homeowner - like asphalt resurfacing!!! We finally got our driveway resurfaced this week. It's been needed for a while, and became more urgent after Miles required stitches when he fell on it last winter. So in one afternoon we got a nice, smooth, black surface AND we got rid of the bonus sandbox that came with the house. It was a built in eyesore/litter box from day one. Now we can landscape a bit at the end of the drive and have a lovely view! And there is more parking, but more important, more room for Miles to ride his trike!

Speaking of cutie-pie, we just got home from his last day in the 1-year-old room at school. After a little break he'll start next week in a new room with new teachers! He knows most of his classmates already, so hopefully that will ease the transition.

Today when I picked him up we had a conversation that went a little like this:
ME: Can we stop at the grocery store, Miles?
Miles: House!
ME: But we need milk, crackers, apples....
Miles: No go-cee store. House.
ME: Really quick!!
Miles: No! House! Play mini-loader!

AHA!! He wanted to get home to play with his new toy!! Yaya was here for a couple of nights and they made a trip to Toys R Us. Miles picked out a Roberto & his loader, I believe prompted by all the equipment on the driveway yesterday!!