Family on Miles' 2nd Birthday

Just shy of 2

It's Monday and on Thursday my boy will be 2 years old. It's such a bittersweet time as I know that next birthday I'll be able to understand everything he says and this birthday is really the end of babyhood.
Here are some little memories I don't want to forget.
When he first started to try to say Bella's name about a month ago he would say "bla-bla". Now he says Bella well and is always trying to get her to follow commands. It's like a little general going "sit Bella" "off Bella" "come Bella" and she just kind of rolls her eyes and plays along until she's sick of it.
10/14 Miles trying to say bottle says bol-ottle.
10/15 - changing his diaper and he just starts counting and counts to 10. Prior to that he said 2 for everything. He would count 10 things and go two, two, two, two....
He has been sleeping in his crib for about 2 weeks now right next to our bed. He likes to sleep with blanket which he calls blank-Kent.
He is currently doing the co-op once a week, gymnastics once a week and a mommy and me dance class once a week. Swim just ended last week and we need to find a new class with a good teacher during the mornings.
He is a very well behaved child considering his age. He does try to test limits but he usually accepts a time out pretty well and is able to tell me what he got the time out for.
He's not great at playing by himself, he is very sociable and usually wants another kid to play with or for me to play with him. I feel like a failure sometimes when I feel that I am not providing enough play time for him or am not patient enough in wanting to play for hours with him. I'm trying to find a balance where he can play alone sometimes but I think part of this problem is me. I feel that he will be independent so soon especially if he goes off to preschool soon as we have been talking about. I just want to hold him, hold him and keep him close. He is as close to perfection as anything I have ever seen.
He is so loving and in tune with those around him. Every morning he wakes up and smiles and identifies us all. "mama, dada, bella, miles" round and round about 3 or 4 times. Like he's doing a headcount and it pleases him that we are all there. And Norris better not leave for work without telling him and giving him a proper goodbye. It does not sit well with him if that happens.
And so far he's honest. The other day he accidentally bit his friend and the kid was crying and Miles blurted out " I bit. I sorry" with a horrified expression on his face and spent a lot of time hugging his friend and checking his finger.
On Thursday we have a party for him with a bouncy castle. I hope he has fun and I hope I can step back and enjoy it as lately I have been letting little bumps become huge mountains for me. And I feel guilty for that too. Miles is up from nap.

New interests

Picture of Liam Picture of Mountains

Dead bug

Loves his shoes

Picture of forest

Enjoying nature

Recently Norris and I realized that Miles has outgrown a lot of his toys and needs the next step up. He has a newfound interest in computers, cameras, phones. He has started grabbing my camera whenever it's out and walking around taking pictures of things that are interesting to him. I find his perspective on what is interesting fascinating - as any mom would. Also what I like is how much of his field of vision is interested in small things or things close to the ground. Clearly he is small and I love having these pics to show me what he sees and how he percieves the world.

First Day of Co-op

This morning Miles went off to a playgroup without me. I guess it's kind of like his first day of school. I created the coop with 5 friends where we all take turns hosting with one assistant so that the kids get to learn how to play with others and have fun without mommy. I expected that he would be fretful but he was perfectly happy when I left and didn't even cry like he does when the babysitter comes. Probably because it's the first time and he doesn't know what to expect. I have been feeling for a while now that he's ready for some independent play but not really with strangers. He knows all these kids and the moms so I feel it is as gently a transition to more independence as I can provide him. I'm happy that I was able to create this and think it will be good for him. I'm kind of sad that he's ready to do this and is really getting to be not a baby anymore.

Wily Miley

So we let Miles go outside and play with his sink this morning since it gets over 100 degrees by 9am. So he's out there playing away and we're in the kitchen half looking at him. Then Norris notices that my new issue of Vanity Fair is taking a bath in the sink. He goes over and Miles sees him looking at the drowning Vanity Fair and says "uh oh." Uh Oh. Like "hmmm...who did this mess" uh oh. Like he's on the same side as Norris trying to figure out this puzzle. We try to not laugh but it's really hard.

And the other day Norris was driving and made a sudden stop and Little Back Seat Driver goes "Woah!"

21 months

21 months old today! Next 21 birthday I'm gonna party like this again!

Yeah!

Norris and Miles too cool for school flying first class to Cancun for Alfred's wedding.

View from hotel room. He's painted like a tiger and he keeps pointing to the ocean saying "pool! pool!". Vegas babies don't know better.

Made this t-shirt for Norris for Father's day.

Pure joy.

It's amazing to me how lame I can be. The poor child will never know what happened when he was 20 months old, what he did or looked like. So to make up for it I can at least post his 21 month update on time. Looking at the 19 month photos it is remarkable how quickly he has changed. His hair has gotten coarser and lighter colored and his skin darker. Partly it may be due to just getting older but a good part has to do with having at least one or two, sometimes four pool playdates a week in the roasting hot Vegas sun. Sunscreen is no match.

Miles and River cooling off in a sink. Don't ask how they both got in there without head injury.

Miles and River demanding entry into the house.

Today we went to a pool playdate and he saw his friends Lorelei, Liam, Nathan and Zac and had a good time as always. Then we came home and were talking about the playdate - by which I mean I talk and he usually just says yes or no.

Conversation went like this:
me: did you have a good time at the pool today?

miles: yep

me: did you like playing with Liam?

miles: yes

me: did you have fun with Lorelei?

miles: yep

me: and Zac and Nathan, you had fun with them too?

miles: yep

me: who is your best friend?

miles: Bella.

He's loyal like his daddy, keep the friendships in the family.

And about a week or two ago I made this pasta dish with veggies, ground turkey and cheese. And he takes a bite at dinner and spontaneously says "mmmm. Good!"

Already a charmer, giving out compliments in a most sincere way.

He can totally get over on you, really smooth like. The other night I'm putting him to bed and he wants to read books before bed. We used to do this but I cut it out completely because it grew into let's read every single book we own. But this night I thought, well what's the harm, we can read one. No, we read about 7. I finally put my foot down because I realized he was stalling going to bed. So I said "no more, bed time, books tomorrow". He threw himself on his pillow and wailed pitifully for about 2 minutes "boooooooks! boooooooooks! boooooooks!" I felt like a book burning Nazi but I held firm - and tried to not laugh because his acting is not very good. Then I guess he realized he was getting nowhere with the books angle so he looks up, clear as a bell, not a tear on the face, gives me a sweet little look and makes the sign for "milk" with his little head cocked to the side as if to say "surely you can't deny your only child milk". So I said no milk and again it was "miiiiiiilk!, miiiiiiilk! miiiiiilk!" for a few minutes then he curled up next to me, patted my face and drifted off to sleep.

He is an expert climber and has great balance. He can actually stand on a basketball and balance unassisted if you hold the ball pretty still. I wish we lived in Hawaii because I think with his love of water and great balance he would love surfing.

He can turn on my iphone, scroll to the 3rd page where his apps are and pick the one he wants to play, turn it on and play the baby video game. I think it's a sign of his genius. Norris think's it's a sign that iphones are really just toys.

He can and does turn on the tv, get the remote and change the channels. Sometimes it will be on the wrong setting and he will bring it to us but he can also do it himself about half the time.

He's starting to get a crush on Dora the Explorer. I've got my eye on her and her magical backpack. You should see the smile on his face when she comes on TV. It has been pointed out to me that I do bear somewhat of a resemblance to Dora so perhaps that's why he likes her so much. I've still got my eye on her though, cute as she is!

The not so good:

He is beginning to be posessed by the "mine!" demon. Sharing is getting more and more difficult and even the other night in his sleep he just started yelling "mine! mine! mine! mine!".

He is snack crazy. He wants snacks all the time. He will eat fruits as snacks but also he somehow learned the word "cookie" - probably from that damn Cookie Monster. And we will hear a chant of "cookie! cookie! cookie!" from a little voice in front of the pantry. Luckily so far cookies equal gold fish crackers and those little graham cracker bunnies. But a friend brought over cupcakes from one of those amazing cupcake stores and he almost instantaneously began saying "cup-cup!, cup-cup!" and pointing longingly at the white box.

He is practically obsessed with TV. If we are home he turns it on and wants a cartoon channel on. If I turn it off, he turns it back on as soon as he notices it's off. The TV was on all day and I found out Michael Jackson had died by text from a friend. The world could be blowing up and unless they report it on Sprout I will not know.

Oh but to end on what is wonderful about Miles - his latest thing is to get up in the morning and give me a kiss, then Norris a kiss then Bella a kiss, then me again, then Norris, then Bella. So expressive of his affection for his family and so absolutely charming - these days go by too quickly.

19 Months - No Way!

19 Months is in some ways a blah uncelebrated birthday. You start the slide down to 2 years and a lot of families start thinking about baby #2 as you are starting to not look or act so babyish any more. Your baby fat is almost all gone, your walking is awesome, even running.

In Miles' case add to the accomplishments of 19 months that he can actually jump now. He leaves the earth with ease and regularity. And is taking jumping to new levels, trying to jump out of highchairs and off of toys.

Talking has picked up some but and his big accomplishment is a short but heartfelt 2 word sentence that is used all the time all day long - No way! Sometimes it's a sweet no way and other times it's a no way that comes from the depths of his soul it's intonations conveying that he will probably stop breathing if made to comply with whatever it is he's responding no way to.

Sometimes I don't know why something will upset him so dramatically. A simple "Do you want some applesauce?" can produce a most pitifully tearful "No Way!". My guess is that because he can't speak yet he gets really frustrated when I offer something he wasn't thinking of.

This month it's finally gotten hot out here and so going for walks and hikes have mostly stopped. We went to Mandalay Bay to the Shark Aquarium with his friend Liam and he was a little scared of the big sharks swimming by. We saw Nicole Richie there with her husband and kid. She's small, like the size of a 9 year old small.

We also went to the Secret Garden at the Mirage and saw the dolphins and a couple gay white lions dry humping.

During the day Miles spends a good bit of time just hanging out in the back yard with Bella playing and on this day he ended up naked in his pool.

See the picture of a ton of pacifiers in a dirty corner...what's that you wonder? Well we were cleaning the house one day and it was time for his nap and we couldn't find any pacifiers anywhere and he totally needs one to go to sleep. Searched high and low, not one. I actually left and went to the grocery store and bought a couple new ones so he could take his nap. A few days later Norris, desperate again for a pacifier thought he would actually move our massive and heavy bed as he saw one behind the headboard. Well there's a storage space under our bed and he lifted the bed part up to try to reach behind the headboard without moving the bed and lo and behold, our little squirrel was stashing pacifiers down a hole on the side of the bed.

And finally as you have already noticed he got his first professional haircut this month. The hair was getting way to shaggy and I didn't have the heart to give him the low cut he really needed for the summer. The pics are on my iphone and if I can get them off I will post them soon as they are quite a dramatic before and after.