what a pain in the....

Another string of gorgeous days here in the south. We're loving the park near our house and Miles enjoys chillin' out in the swing. Wednesday we had to walk by 3 times before the crowd left and we could get on. Too bad there's only one baby swing in this park.
While the days are sunny, the nights have been, well, less than ideal. But I'm not talking about the weather! No Miles has started his midnight antics again. Sometimes it's 10 minutes, sometimes an hour, but he's up and at-em'. Last night he was up multiple times. Between that and Chelsea needing to go O-U-T in the middle of the night, we didn't get much sleep. Exhaustion and driving don't mix well, so we backed out of our Easter visit to Wayne's family. Very sad, because Miles really enjoys playing with his cousins. Hopefully we can still get over there soon.

We're thinking the drama is because....da.da.dum.... Miles cut his first tooth! It's his lower left and it's just barely peeking above the gum. We tried to take a picture, unsuccessfully as you can see here. Maybe when it comes in a little more!

Here comes Peter Cottontail...

tech savvy

Miles was sitting in my lap on the sofa when he glanced to the side table. His eyes got wide and he said "Oh!" then "Ah!" "Oh! Ah! Oh! Ah!"... it was as if he'd discovered his very own toy store... and he had. He's decided that his very favorite toys are the many remotes, phones, cameras, keys etc, that he notices on tables, desks and counters around the house. We tried giving him his own phone, but we quickly figured out why the age range says 18 months. The massive volume of teething drool has shorted the sound card so everything it says sounds like the Chipmunks! We also passed on a remote from an old stereo, but I still think he knows it isn't "real."

Since Miles thought the weekend meant you get up earlier, we brought him into bed for his morning feeding. When the TV came on (our alarm clock) we left it on low and Wayne put the remote on his pillow. Miles grabbed it and started playing with it. He flipped over to the VCR, changed the color contrast, muted it then turned up the volume. Then he hit #6-#0. Yes, he changed the channel to his favorie show, Higglytown Heroes. Okay, it's the only show he knows. It's what he watches from the exersaucer at 7:30 when we're getting dressed and Today starts getting too intense.

Unfortunately Wayne & I were cracking up too much to take a photo of that, but here's one from Friday when we went walking at Lakeshore.

Friday fun

They are warning of storms again this weekend. We were amazed that Miles slept right through the hailstorm Sunday evening, and even the thunder & lightning symphony at 3am. Hopefully it will be an overnight storm again so we can still go outside and avoid some seriously muddy dogs. Chelsea does love some oozing fresh mud!


With the on-again blah weather mid-week, we returned to the comfortable climate of the mall walk. We usually park by Parisian - their automatic doors are great with a stroller! They also have a glass elevator. So we start at one end and do the length of the mall, including side legs, twice. About halfway down we'll stop by the "pond" and Miles will watch the "ducks" in the water. Although I really think he's more interested in the fountains than the "quack-quack" noises mommy makes.


He's definitely a water baby. The bathtime antics with the sprayer have evolved from bitter-beer face to this little tongue tasting, to last night's full face in the spray. I held the sprayer out where he usually grabs at the water but he leaned forward, soaking himself up to his eyebrows, gulping in the water over and over again. Then he'd turn to me and giggle before going for it again. It's definitely true that presentation is everything, because he'll have nothing to do with the water I try to give him in a cup or bottle!



When we did have some nicer weather, I tried to take him outside to get an Easter picture. This one is nothing like what I ended up using, so I'll share (and I'll share the final product next weekend). He went for the hyacinths, stripped each flower from its stem and tried to stuff it in his mouth. We didn't stay there for very long!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Stay dry!

let the sun shine

Okay, so my post from Wednesday was a bit misleading. While I've not really bought anything for myself, I've finally been using those gift cards to stock up for spring for Miles. I found some cute things for the warming weather, but here's what I've got my eye on for summer!!

• I think this outfit is pretty cute, and so is this little tiger (you may think it's for the Auburn and Memphis fans in the family, but we know the color is the real draw)
• He's going to need these if we get to the beach this year, but that also means plenty of sunscreen (thanks Jen!)
• Of course he needs this shirt

Yay, spring has finally sprung! Now we get to spend lots more time outside, walking or just sitting on the porch. Miles liked watching daddy mow the yard through the front window. Then we moved to the back to enjoy the warm afternoon. We've been giving Miles frozen bananas to eat in this mesh teether. He loves them but they ooze everywhere, hence the naked baby. Today I tried green beans in it.... he didn't enjoy that as much.

random thoughts.....

Here he is after naptime playing with his new favorite bedtime distraction. Really, who could resist 10 minutes of music with lights, bubble and fishies swimming about? And two fun spinny things?

We've being doing our daily walks at the mall since it has been somewhat cold and windy this week. Amazingly I've been able to resist buying anything except a $6 sweater from Gap and some tea. But I'm not sure how good I'll be when we get some new stores in a few months. Thank goodness it will be warm so we'll be walking outside!

And how about these cuties! Miles (today) and his daddy (from Dec. 1974). I definitely see the resemblance, do you?

water baby

Bath time is just about the best time of the day. Miles loves getting naked for the bath. In fact, getting naked and the bath are our stall tactics to avoid any late evening melt-downs before bed. We've started bathing him in the kitchen sink since he outgrew the little baby tub. Putting him in the real tub is killer on the knees and back! Anyway, he has his little ducky and a couple other small floaties but his favorite "toy" is the sprayer. Months ago he started by staring at it, then he'd swat at the stream, now he's pulling at the nozzle to get it near his face. When we rinse his cheeks and chin he makes this funny "bitter beer" face. Guess we'll need to get one of these sprayers for when he's too big for the sink.


Miles got to meet Kate this weekend. Kate is 6 weeks old and I can't believe I've really forgotten what it was like to hold someone so small. I know Miles weighed eight pounds not that long ago but she seemed so little! Anyway, she's got a head full of black hair like her daddy. In fact, they had a picture of her daddy as a baby and wow! what a resemblance. Miles got to play on the floor with lots of "new" toys. Not wanting to lose his center-of-attention status, he rolled onto his belly and started to push up onto his knees!!!!

He is ready to be mobile and not much will stand in the way of this determined kid. Last night after we put him down, we listened on the monitor as he rolled around. Then all of a sudden this loud rrrrrrrkkkkkkkk sound started and it happened three or four more times. What in the world happened? Oh Miles had just worked his way to the top of the bed where his aquarium is attached and he was spinning the crab. From his belly he had pushed up on one arm so he could reach the spinners with the other. He did start the music on his own too! Unfortunately the aquarium is attached to the short side of the bed, so when he was done he was crammed up against the slats which he didn't like. But he went on to sleep after we straightened him out.

woof woof

7 months old and such a big boy. Miles is starting the phase of turning into a toddler. He's started doing several new "big boy" things and he's so excited about it. The first one mommy & daddy aren't so excited about. He's started waking at night. Sometimes it's at 9pm, sometimes it's at 3am, but pretty much every night he wakes up and it takes about an hour for him to fall back to sleep. None of the old tricks work anymore - bouncing, swaying , rocking, feeding, singing, pacifying - he really just wants to play. Although last night he did finally calm down when I placed him on his belly in bed and rubbed his back for a while. Then I stopped and stood there. Then I veeery slooowly backed out of the door. He did cry out one more time, but that was it until 7am.

The next exciting thing is that he's feeding himself finger food! Well, sort of. He's had his first tast of the veggie puffs - these little cereal-like puffs of sweet potatoes. I place one on his tray and he scoops it up. Sometimes he gets a great pincher and pops it right in his mouth. Other times it's a scoop into his palm and it sticks there until it falls to the floor (and some happy pups waiting beneath). When he does get it in his mouth, he grins so big as he mashes it with his gums. Yummy!

Speaking of his puppys, Miles is a HUGE fan of Apollo & Chelsea. They make him laugh and he just wants to pet them. We're trying to keep him from pinching them, and so far there has been no ear pulling. Miles's cousins call puppies "woof woof" so that's what we've been calling them. And Miles has picked up on that. When he's watching them and I say "woof woof" he'll make a little "fff" sound. Yeah, so his first words will probably not be mama or dada, but woof woof. Oh well.



This is getting long, so I'll save the rest for later. I will share this photo of me with my mom, aunt and grandparents sometime in 1976 (you'd never guess it was the 70s, huh?). I've been working on Miles's baby scrapbook and put in photos of his great grandparents. I'm almost done (see the page below) just missing some photos of his paternal great grands. Hope to find them and finish soon!




(Thanks to Raven for both of my new hobbies... blogging & scrapbooking!)

30 weeks

I just received a newsletter titled "Your 30-week-old." Can it really be 30 weeks? 210 days? Almost 7 months? My how time flies. We can hardly remember life before this kid came screaming into our world. Of course he's still screaming today, but for a different reason. He's soooooo close to getting his first tooth. This morning his gums look so puffy and swollen. I swear I see the white beneath the surface, but I think I've seen that for days, so who knows. I just hope his pain is over soon. At least for these first few teeth. So hopefully some exciting news will be here soon!

Yesterday we took a trip to the grocery for some dinner as well as a distracting trip outside the house. The weather has cooled off again so we can't do our usual late afternoon walk around the neighborhood. He gets to sit in the cart basket now and really likes being able to look around. His Ya Ya got him this really cool cart cover that buckles him in and covers all those grimy handles. So we strolled through the fruits and vegtables and the bakery (yum!) and the butcher's area. He liked the lobsters in the tank, even though they weren't very active.



Then when we got home, daddy thought it would be fun to show Miles the drums! Rather than sit at the kit, he brought one to Miles. We definitely need some plastic sticks as the wooden ones get splintered very quickly. Miles shows great promise in the art of drumming. But we'll probably need to practice with pots and pans for a while before graduating to the real thing.

The little ham

Our son is a comedian. He has been finding all sorts of ways to crack us (and himself) up. On our walks he squeals and laughs at everything he sees. He discovered he can blow raspberries with a mouth full of peas. The devilish grin that follows makes me think he knows the mess he's making. His puppies love it though, they come to clean up the spray. Then of course he giggles when his puppies lick his hands. He knows his cute little grin charms the pants off of just about everyone. And he's figured out all sorts of tricks to do with his pacifier, including fitting it completely in his mouth.

Whirlwind weekend

Miles has just returned from a five day tour of Tennessee. First we went to visit cousins Evan & Kate. Miles had so much fun and is in total admiration of his older cousins. In true slumber-party style, none wanted to go to bed, they wanted to stay up and party! Not that we had much choice, but the moms let them.

After a couple of days there, we moved on to visit more grandparents and attend a wedding. The days of travel started to wear on Miles and his napping schedule got way off. It also didn't help that his, um, digestive system was a little wacked too. A nice dinner of prunes fixed that Friday evening but he still felt like getting up at 3am and not going back to sleep for an hour. So much for all that peaceful sleep.


On Saturday Miles got to meet my friends Stephanie & Justin who were in for the wedding too. We met at world famous Huey's but alas didn't get to have a burger since we were having a later lunch with Miles's Mimi & Grandpa, his great aunt Kathy, great grandma and Uncle Kyle and Kyle's girlfriend Megan.



I don't think the family scared Megan, at least I hope we didn't! Miles sure did his best to charm her. After lunch he was bouncing in the jumper and would spin around and stop to look at her. Then he would take off laughing, bouncing around again. What a flirt!

Hush little baby...

Sunday night goes down in history as Miles's first time to sleep completely through the night!! He went to bed around 6:45 and we didn't hear a peep until just before 7am. Of course we were awake at 4:30, 5, 6:15 thinking is he okay? should we check on him? something's wrong.... but no, a happy boy greeted us when we went to look at 7. The next night we did have a peep at 4:30, but he went right back to sleep when we gave him his pacifier. In addition to his marvelous night sleeping, he took 3 naps today 1:30, :45 and 1:30 long!!! What a peaceful sleeper he is. Spunky, his stuffed puppy, is his buddy. I think Apollo would be his sleeping buddy if he could figure out how to get in the crib!!

It's always more fun to share with everyone

This afternoon Miles paid a visit to Miss Karley. They had fun playing with the Little People Noah's Ark. Miles enjoyed gnawing on one of the giraffes and Karley had fun trying to take it from him. Karley's already a walker, so Miles had to impress with his highly advanced sitting skills, and some rolling on the floor laughing. It worked and they have a date for a walk together on Monday!! 

daddy & me

(note the peas all over his shirt)

Hungry hungry hippo

I find it hard to believe that this kid weighs just 16 pounds. That pediatrician scale must be off. He eats constantly!!! He still has his milk every 3 hours, and an hour after that he eats cereal and fruit or veggies. I've started giving him the entire jar of baby food, which is about 4 oz. Add in the 1/4 cup of cereal and it's not a small meal! Tonight after peas he grabbed the bowl and I thought he was just going to bang it on the tray or throw it on the floor. No, he started licking around the edge of the bowl. To get more. He would lick some then pull it away to look where more was, turn it and lick again. So funny! Of course everything he was wearing is pea-green, but it was just so cute!!!

YaYa & B!

We enjoyed a quick visit from YaYa & B today! Miles showed off his sitting skills and his dexterity with blocks, pacifier, rings, trucks, and other little toy he could get in his hands. He's getting better about rotating onto his stomach so he doesn't fall on his face when reaching for things. YaYa put him down for two naps and before the 2nd he entertained her with his entire vocal repertoire - including the "say it, don't spray it" thwbbbt noises. Too funny.  

6 months

Okay tomorrow is officially the 6 month b'day, but no guarantees of blogging, so this will have to do. Six months. I know "they" say kids grow up so fast, but wow. Just in the 2 months I went back to work I feel that I missed some major milestones. Six months means sitting up with just the slightest wobble, but a face-plant if he reaches too far afield. Eating - and what an appetite he has! We have rice cereal, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, peaches, bananas and pears in the repertoire. Did you know there is baby food targeted at the latino market? Mango, papaya & guava sound pretty good to me! Next we'll be trying the pureed meats... hmmm.... I guess he might like it. He's also the expert at several toys. He LOVES his gumball machine and here he's playing with his activity table from YaYa & B. He already has some favorite books, mainly anything by Boynton & some Veggie Tales. Oh and his new favorite snuggly is, what else, his puppy.

Tonight Mimi & Grandpa were back through town, so that meant date night!!! We hit a favorite, Chez Guevara (nee La Paz), for 'ritas & tacos al carbon. Yummy! Maybe we DO need to find a regular sitter. Any takers? I know we have a couple of friends who need the practice..... :)

Blocks

Miles mostly enjoys gnawing on the blocks, but today he copied me when I tapped the block on the bucket. We've been having a good time at home together, although today he looked at me as if to say "isn't the weekend over yet?".

Yes the weekend is over. We had a very busy day starting with Miles's 6 month pediatrician visit today which meant 2 shots, BAM BAM, one in each thigh. What a bloodcurdling scream that got! But we came home and ate some cereal and bananas (both of us!) then he took a decent nap. After a walk and playing with just about every toy in the den he was still ready for bed at 6pm. SIX pm. True, he is usually asleep well before 7, but 6 just seemed soooo much earlier. I guess I should enjoy this time. We can watch the movie Wayne rented and get to bed early. Yeah right.

A snowy day with Mimi & Grandpa

Mimi & Grandpa beat the snow to come visit Miles for his 6 month birthday.
We had a decent snowfall and some even stuck to the ground this time! But we're staying warm inside, playing with blocks and taking naps.

SAHM w/DS: day 1

For those not in the parenting website circle, that's Stay At Home Mom w/ Dear Son. Although it really wasn't a full day one as Miles went to daycare so mommy could go to the eye dr, run some errands, that sort of thing. And he'll go again tomorrow because he just naps so darn well there!! 2.5 hours this afternoon!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let that carry over to time home with mommy.

After daycare we spent the afternoon walking and swinging in the park near our home. This was the first "big" swing and he dug it. We also tried the slide. Hope to do this pretty often but doubt we'll have many more days like today for a while. It was gorgeous - 60s and sunny - but cold front is coming with ice and snow. We'll see, since last weekend was supposed to be ice and snow and it barely did anything.

blizzard?

It's the big one! Or at least the biggest one Knoxvegas has seen in a while. Snow has been falling since the middle of Friday night, but unfortunately, nothing is sticking!! It's supposed to continue through the weekend, even Monday, so who knows. But this will have to stand officially as "Miles's 1st Snow." You CAN see the flakes in the photo, right?

Oh, say can you zzzzz.......

Superbowl XL = Superbowl I for Miles, almost. He really liked Stevie Wonder's pregame performance but only made it about halfway through Aretha & Aaron singing the national anthem.

Here he is this afternoon enjoying some pre-pregame green beans with Erin & Josh. Not as big a fan of green beans as he is of sweet potatoes, but he wasn't saying no!!

Oh and we tried bananas today. Wayne got to change the poopie diaper and sang Gwen's "this poop is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S!!" the whole time.

The fan club

Miles had a visit from his "aunts" Ashley & Elise today. Ashley became a real Aunt in December, congrats to her brother Chipper.

Thanks for playing, aunties!


P.S. The outfit is for his valentine's photo. He's not usually that formal on Saturday morning! 

Drop it like it's hot

Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. Today I resigned from my position with DeRoyal after working there for almost 8 years. Besides elementary school, that's the longest I've ever been with one "institution" and it was a tough decision to make. Wayne and I had been discussing it for, well, right at 5 months! After two months back, we've realized that having me stay at home with Miles is the best thing for our family.

It's definitely hard to leave. I work with great people and the work was always challenging. I know I've grown so much with them and developed professionally in ways I never could have at any other place.

So a little introspective tonight. Now I have two weeks to wrap everything and pass the torch. But, wow, am I gonna love being with this guy all the time!!