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!

Go, go, GO!

Here we are, a year to the week after he became mobile. Look how far we've come! From crawling to running around in mad circles. At least it's burning some of that energy! And I swear there is no candy in his diet!

He is such a fun kid to have around, so silly. I told you that he's started copying what we say. That has led to some really funny "bits". For example (I hope this translates into written form), the neighbors had a Bobcat in their yard for a few days while they were clearing for landscaping. We'd walk over and watch the "tractor" work. The other evening Wayne carried Miles over and this is the conversation that followed:
Wayne: Let's see if the tractor is still here. Hmmm.
Miles: Trak-tor. Hmmmm.
Wayne: Well, I guess it's gone. No more tractor. Sorry, buddy boy.
Miles: Hmmm. No Trak-tor. Saw-wee.
Miles: (continuing) Trak-tor? Hmmm. No trak-tor. Saw-wee.

It kills us! He does the "hmmmm" all the time now, like he's really concentrating. It's all we can do to keep from laughing!

Dirt don't hurt

Dirt seems to be the theme of this week. Now that the weather is back to fabulous, we've been spending quite a bit of time outside, but that's not the main source of all the dirt. His favorite toy du jour are the "dirty car" & the "jeep" that YaYa got him on the way to Florida. Note they are at his feet at the park? In his hands while swinging with PopPop? He takes them everywhere, even naps & eats with them. Everywhere.

The rest of the dirt is the real deal. Our bathtub has been getting some good use lately! Whether he's rolling on the patio or digging in the sand at the park, every day he seems to be a little bit dirtier. I should get used to this, right?

Lazy Sunday

So did March and April get swapped this year? I'm looking out the window on a dreary, cold, rainy Sunday afternoon. But it's a perfect afternoon for Miles to take a 4 hour nap(!). This was fantastic for me... after I prepped dinner and some other treats I got to start my book club book. Thank goodness it's a quick read, I may actually finish before Tuesday.

When we woke him he still seemed a little hazy, so he climbed into his chair and had a snack while watching his new favorite movie. He calls it "neigh" but it's about cars, trains, planes and boats. The wee one is now obsessed with all things mobile. Since we're approaching the big 20 month mark, here's a round-up of fun things Miles is doing these days:

.: Talking! Up a storm! He repeats everything, so we're having to watch the language a lot closer. Good thing he didn't repeat the "Hot Damn" he heard last weekend [you know who you are!!]. Also, daddy has taught him how to shake hands and say "I'm Miles!" It's sooooo cute. It still sounds like "I'm Ma," but we'll get there.

.: Talking up a storm does have its downside, like in church this morning. We brought books for him to read and today he started calling out "key-cat" (kitty cat) , "e-bruh" (zebra), "bye-bye" and all sorts of things during those crucial "reflective" moments. Oh well.

.: Not eating. At least not as well as he used to. He does love fruit and will eat berries, kiwi, any citrus (even unsweetened grapefruit), most melon, so I figure he's at least getting some variety of nutrition there. "Boo-berries" are is absolute favorite food. Hands down. That's Blueberries, not the awesome monster cereal, although he'd probably dig that too.

.: Smoochin'! He's quite the affectionate kid and is very liberal with the kisses and hugs for mommy & daddy. He even gave cousin Shannon a couple of smooches this weekend. She and her b'friend and my Uncle Gus and Anut Teresa stopped in for a quick visit with Miles. Uncle Gus had a blast building towers and knocking them down with Miles. The sad face Miles made when they said they were leaving was priceless. Hope we'll get to play with them next time we're back home.

That's for sure not all he's up to now, but in the interest of getting this posted, I'll break there. Here's hoping Monday is sunnier!

oh, this basket?

Brr! The Easter egg hunt in our neighborhood was filled with hats and mittens and hot cocoa. It was still fun, even though they kept pushing back the start time. Miles got a little frustrated waiting but once it started he was all smiles. He found 3 eggs! His age bracket was the 0-3 year olds, so the rest of them were like a swarm of locusts picking the field clean. But the three eggs might as well have been gold he was so happy. Oh, this wicker basket? That's not his. He kept sneaking around the corner to try and snag it!

Easter Sunday we woke up to record lows across the area. We went to the early service, which was pretty full but not overflowing like the next services were. Miles had a big time playing with the finger puppets the Easter Bunny brought. And made it through until just after communion. A pancake breakfast at Cracker Barrel with his friend Millie and her parents rounded out the morning.

Hope you all had a happy Easter and are thawing out!

Happy Easter!

This was from earlier this week when we had a practice run for the Easter Egg Hunt today. Of course today we just had some really light snow, so we're not in our cute shorts! Hope everyone has a happy Easter!

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!!

Mini Me

First off, have to share this picture of Miles's souvenir from Italy. For those of you keeping track, I've added our two days in Tuscany to the blog. Only 3 days in Rome left!








Last Friday our parent educator, Jackie, came to play with Miles. She's part of this fantastic program from Knox County called Birth to Kindergarten. Once a month she visits us, brings a book and teaches me some activities I can do with Miles to maximize whatever developmental stage he's hitting then. So now at 18 months the focus is on imagination and pretend play. I hadn't realized, but he has already been doing some pretend play. Other ideas were letting him help with dusting, sweeping, picking up toys, reading to his bears. The aspect of pretend he's really picking up on is copying mama and daddy. He loves wearing my sunglasses now and see him carrying wipes? At least he hasn't started going through diapers on his bears like cousin Kate!


And this morning I showed him how to step into daddy's shoes. He can't get around in them yet, but he had some laughs looking in the mirror.

We went to his eighteen month checkup this morning and he's weighing in just a hair under 30 pounds and 32.5 inches tall. It wasn't a pleasant exam since Miles remembers the visit last month. Thank goodness we don't have to check back until he turns 2!

No means no

A little sample of Miles's favorite word right now. All the time.

"Do you want dinner?" "Noooo."
"Wanna go read a story?" "NOE" (long O sound)
"Bath time!" "NOOOOOOOO!"

But it sounds so sweet when he says it!

Can we bring some food next time?

Finally we had a day that was warm and sunny enough to go outside. We took a wagon ride down to the park and had it all to ourselves. We hit the usual slides and swings, then Miles noticed the tunnels. What a hoot! They're attached to tires in the ground so they kind of sway and bounce when you crawl through them. Talk about giggle-inducing!

As we made our way back to the slides, Miles decided it was time for a Bears' Picnic. He went over to the wagon and grabbed his blanket, spread it out and took a brief rest. While I sat there, he made a few more trips to get both bears and his water. It's too bad he found the puddle and sat in it or we'd have enjoyed afternoon tea for a while. Of course today it's back to drab and cold. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long to get back out to the park.

That's gonna leave a mark

I know I said Miles felt like he grew 5 inches when we got home, but I don't think I'm far off. We've had to retire lots of footie pjs and some other clothes that just don't fit the big boy anymore. He learned a few new tricks while we were away too. He's quite a climber now, in fact that's how he got that lovely bump on his forehead. He climbed onto the little plastic picnic table and tumbled off. His favorite climb tactic is "King of the Chair" - climb all the way to the top, stand up and giggle. I also busted him crawling along the hearth. He hasn't yet tried to climb out of the crib (that I know), but I'm preemptively getting the crib-tent and installing it this weekend. He'll love that!

Another change we noticed is that instead of saying "dada" he has started saying "da DEEEEE". It's super cute and I know Wayne loves it. I've heard "ma MEEE" a few time too, but usually I just answer to "aiiiiiiigh".

Miles went to the beautiful Kate's 1st birthday on Tuesday night. Mommy didn't get to go since I'd run a fever that day. I think it was just the lack of sleep and travel wearing me down but I went to the MD anyway. They did the strep and flu swabs which both were negative. Must've worked on my subconscious because Wednesday I felt much better.

I've been working on gettig the Italy pictures online, but shutterfly is being a little beastie for me. But I have started a separate blog [link at right] with the stories of our travel and a few photos. It may take me a while to get through the whole trip, but we'll get there!

We're baaack!

Oh wow, was that a long journey home. We had a fantastic trip and I'll will post a link to pictures when I get them up. Miles did well with his grandparents this week. YaYa said that by Friday he was starting to ask about us more, and liked to look at our pictures. We were looking at his every day too!

When we got home he was already asleep. We woke him to get a hug and he teared up a little (so did mommy - maybe even daddy!) but then we just hugged and kissed and told him we were home. He went right back to sleep. He felt like he'd gained 10 pounds and 5 inches in height! The above picture is from the day we left - check out his cool new quilt from my dear friend Stephanie. Below is this morning.

He popped up at 6:30 and was so excited to see us! We played and ate breakfast and talked about school today. While I'd love to be playing with him all day, I'm taking advantage of his school day to do laundry, nap, go to the grocery, and oh yeah, blog. Today is the Valentine's party for the Tues/Thursday class. Thank goodness I planned ahead and had his cards ready. At breakfast I told him about the party and seeing his friends. So when he got out of his chair he immediately went to get his coat and went to the door. Well okaaay!

As I said, I will post pictures and maybe even blog our trip journal for anyone who is interested soon. but for now, about that nap....