Eleven month photo shoot at the park

Prepare yourself for cuteness overload!  Miles and I went to the park one morning this week so that I could take some pictures of him.  There were so many cute ones, I decided I'd better just post them all!

"Mom, are you sure I can't eat the woodchips?"

"Alright, alright, I'll put them down."

"Just a couple, maybe?  Please?!"

Eleven Months!

Wow, talk about terrible blogging!  I guess my back-to-school resolution needs to be blogging with a bit more frequency, huh?

Well, August was another busy month for you, Mr. Miles! 

*You continue to pull yourself up on anything and everything and have started to walk along things.  I found a great little walking toy at a garage sale and you LOVE it!  You push it across the room until you crash into something and then turn around and look at us with a huge smile as if to say, "Did you see that?!  I am pretty awesome!"

 Video of Miles walking post-bath!

*You are still sleeping great at night, but your naps are suffering a bit.  I think you're trying to transition from 2 naps to one, but that is a tricky thing apparently.  There have been a couple of times where you were so overtired and cranky that I had to finally just put you in your crib.  You cried for a little while (and made Momma feel rotten!), then fussed for a little while, then finally fell asleep and took the much-needed nap.  Hopefully this transition phase is short and we get into a good routine that works for both of us soon!  :)



*Your 'So big!' trick has become old news and if we ask you "How big is Miles?", you just look at us like we have three heads.  It seems that clapping is the new and hip baby trick and you find just about every ocassion to be worthy of applause.  Breakfast is ready?  Better clap.  Time for a bath?  Definitely clap-worthy!  Spying one of the kitties?  More clapping!  Daddy came home?  Clap!  Crawling away from a diaper change as fast you possibly can?  Not complete without stopping to look back and clap.  Usually when you randomly start clapping, I'll say "Hooray for Miles!!" and you give me a big smile, laugh, and clap some more.  So cute.

*You have 8 teeth now - 4 on top, 4 on bottom.  For some reason, you sometimes find it fun to dig those sharp little teeth into my should while I'm holding you.  Every time you do it I tell you, "No.  You don't bite Momma.  That hurts." and put you down on the floor.  Every time you immediately scrunch your face up, start to cry, and crawl over to my leg to pull yourself back up to me and then I really have to use my will power to not pick you back up immediately because you are so darn cute and pathetic.  :)

*You have added mamamama to your repertoire of sounds this month!  I swear sometimes you use it appropriately, too.  :)  You continue to chatter away and have also begun to shriek and scream.  Usually just for the sheer joy of making noise, but also to express your displeasure. 

*You are OBSESSED with the dishwasher!  If you hear it open from across the house, you will crawl as fast as your little body can go to get there.  You especially love to pull the silverware out, but will settle for anything you can reach.

*You have become a little food vulture recently.  If Daddy or I are eating anything, you make your way over and stand next to us and ask nicely demand for us to share and then proceed to complain loudly when said food is all gone.

*You started doing this hilarious huffy breathing where you snuff through your nose and curl your tongue.  You usually do it when you're excited about something, but you also use it for frustration and just for the heck of it, too.  I really, really need to get a video of it before you stop doing it because it cracks. me. up. every single time. 



*Other things you love this month:  the fireduck faucet cover in the bathtub (you usually spend the majority of your bathtime standing in front of the duck and opening and closing his hat), any sort of paper (but toilet paper and paper towel are your favorite!), being outside (nothing new), and your plastic shape sorting toy that you got from Chad and Maria (you put the pieces in, put the lid on, take the lid off, take the pieces out, repeat, repeat, repeat).

I know, I know I say it every time, but it is inconceivable to me that in 28 days you will be turning one!  All of the things in this post are the proof, though.  You're getting bigger every day.  Each day I see a little less of my little, squishy baby and a little more of a big, busy toddler and, of course, there's nothing I can do to slow it down.  I guess the best I can do is to enjoy every single second, take lots of pictures, and store as many tiny moments and memories away in my mind as I possibly can.

Happy eleven months, Bubbaroo!  We love you so, so much!

Ten Months

Ugh!  FINALLY got this one done after my computer ate the first draft...

This has been a very busy month for you - all sorts of growing and changing and learning going on!

*First, the big one:  You learned how to crawl!!  After many, many weeks of trying to figure it out, you finally did it!  It's been 3 weeks since you learned and you are already lightning quick.  It's a full time job making sure you don't get into something you shouldn't.  You follow me room to room just like a little puppy often ending up literally under my feet.  :)  When you're really on a mission crawling after something you make this funny little "Huh huh huh huh" breathing sound while you're crawling.

*Directly after learning how to crawl, you started pulling yourself up.  Now, you stand all over the place just because you can.  Hanging onto the jumparoo with one hand, balancing on the tub for your blocks, leaning against the chair, in the bathtub, on the couch (while trying to spy the kitties), on momma and daddy's legs, in your crib. 

*(I'm whispering this one and knocking on wood at the same time!)  You have started sleeping better this month.  After we got settled in the new house, we decided it was finally time to order you a crib.  Well, it arrived and we got it all set up and figured we would let you at least sleep in there for the first 2-3 hour stretch of the night.  You surprised us and slept for 5 hours the first night, then 6 or 7 hours the next few nights.  Awesome!  So, now we have a pretty good routine down.  You nurse and then go to bed in your crib at about 7:00, I get you up and nurse you again before I go to bed around 9:30 or 10:00, then you get up again around 5:00 or 6:00 and come in bed with us. 

*You learned a new trick this month and love to show us all that you are: SO BIG!!  You get a big smile on your face every time we ask you "How big is Miles?" and stretch yourself out as far as you can go.  Your hands must be touching every time you do this and you always suck your little tummy.  Cracks us up every time.  :)

*You are still a big fan of eating and you have discovered that if you throw your food over the side of your chair the kitties will come over to check it out.  You LOVE the kitties, so lots of food goes overboard.

*You are making lots of sounds now.  Your standard "Ahhhhhhhhhh" sound is still your favorite, but you say dadadada, babababa, and yayayaya now.  I keep lobbying for mamamama, but no such luck.

*You have seven teeth - three on top, four on the bottom.  They are quite sharp and I have to be careful if I'm sitting around without socks and shoes on.  More than once you've snuck up on me and decided to use my toes for teething toys - that hurts!! 

*Your hair is starting to really come in!  It's still kind of hard to tell in pictures, but it is there.  It's especially noticeable when it's wet.

You are so much fun right now and changing every day.  I keep reminding Daddy (and myself) of this poem:

Cleaning and scrubbing will wait 'til tomorrow,

but children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.

So, quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep.

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

~Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

Happy 10 months, Miles-y!  We love you so, so much!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

We had a busy week! 

My mom had back surgery at Meriter on Tuesday.  Devon came to our place that afternoon and then we all headed down to the hospital after I was done at Weight Watchers.  Mom was still pretty out of it from the anesthesia, but she did manage to demand a Rocky's breadstick and part of one of the Banana-Berry Muffins I made, despite still being on a clear liquids diet.

On Wednesday morning Devon, Miles, and I packed up in the morning and made a run out to Deerfield to drop off some food for my friend Kelly, her husband, Scott, and their new little guy, Oliver.  He is so tiny and sweet!  :)  Then we headed back to Madison and met Abbie and Josie for lunch at The Mermaid Cafe.  After we were done there, we went back to the hospital for a couple of hours and Miles entertained my mom for awhile before they both got tired and cranky.  On the way home, we stopped at Target and did a bit of shopping.  Devon brought the first sweet corn of the season with her on Tuesday, so we got home and had that for supper along with some swiss chard chips.  Yum!  I also made a cherry pie with the fresh Door County cherries that I found at the market last weekend.  SO delicious. 

Bill had to work again on Thursday, so Miles and I went to a few garage sales, then headed back down to the hospital.  Bill met us there after he was done with work so that he could take Miles home while I went to my Holistic Mom's meeting.  My dad stayed at our place that night since my mom was being discharged Friday morning.

Friday kind of got away from us a bit.  Bill did get to go golfing though, so that was good.  Today we worked on projects around the house.  Bill did all the touch up painting that has been bugging him and I finally hemmed the stupid curtains.  (They're Ikea curtains and just have an iron-on strip to hem them, but it was still a pain in the neck because they weren't all the same length and I had to keep adjusting how much I hemmed them.)  Bill also started working on putting the hardware on the cabinets in the bathroom and I got started on the mountain of laundry that was taking over our closet. 

As for Miles, he had been enjoying a lot of naked time this week.  For some reason he has been pooping more than ever the last 3 weeks, despite starting an iron supplement and us feeding him all sorts of high iron foods.  We were all worried that he would be constipated, but that is definitely not the case.  He had 6 poopy diapers on Friday alone and his poor little butt was so red!  So, he has been having naked time and lots of tub time to try to help that problem.

He was NOT very impressed that Daddy wouldn't let him go downstairs with him.

A Day at the Park

Last Monday Bill and I decided we'd better take advantage of the short break in the miserably humid weather and get outdoors with Miles for a day.  We packed up the stroller and some water and drove down to Olin-Turville Park in Madison.  We spent the afternoon just hanging out, playing on the playground, and sitting in some shade watching the boats on the water.  Miles was loving every second of it (as he usually does while we're outside) and it was a really nice day.  Bonus:  I got a couple of pictures that I really love!  :)



Swinging with Momma
(And, no, that's not all drool on his shirt!  He was practicing with his sippy cup.)



Snuggles with Daddy



Miles taking it all in



I <3 this one!



This one KILLS me!  I LOVE it!  :)
I was sitting behind him saying "Miles, look at Momma" and this is what I got.  Ha!



Momma and baby feet



Aaaaand, we're done!