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.

My boy likes to party all the time paaarty alll the tiiiimmmmeeeeee!

So last Friday we had a little water party for some of Miles' friends to come over and hang out with him. We had a pool shaped like a whale, a sink that pumped water like a real sink and this dinky little circle that had sprinkles come out all around. I figured with the amount of kids coming over that it would give them all room to play. Wrong. They all adored the thing with the sprinkles coming out and it looked like Cancun at Spring Break up in there. Wall to wall toddlers. And they liked to hang out in there with a snack in their hands looking for all the world like old men chilling in the water nursing beers.

Preparty Miles was busy running around without shoes. I tried to keep him on the patio by keeping shoes off thinking the rocks would be to hard and he would stay confined. No, he's ready to do a firewalk, his feet have no feeling apparently. He can walk on the sharpest rock without a "weh".

Then they partied.

Then there was an afterparty with his best buds River and Liam. This afterparty involved clearing me out of all kitchen utensils then jumping on the couches like 18 month old maniacs. Poor River practically fell asleep mid jump. I looked over one minute he's partying, next passed out!

This age is so fun when it's not being challenging. And he's starting to talk more! And last Wednesday he was trying to jump and mostly he looked like a Sumo wrestler because just one foot would end up going dramatically up and down. But ONCE! he caught some air. Like maybe half an inch. And he landed on his feet. And the expression on his face was priceless. Filled with awe and amazement that he just left the earth. So full of wonderment and curiosity. I just hope to not spoil that.

18 months

Our Sweet Littlefeet turned 18 months old today. A year and a half of a kind of life I never thought I would really enjoy or be cut out for. But I have loved it. Miles makes it so easy. Even when he's being naughty he's mostly still so cuddly. Like in the first picture. We were in the parking lot of the base hospital on the way for him to get his 18 month checkup. The light was good. I asked him to look at me so I could take his picture. He would look everywhere else BUT at me. Because that's how he rolls now - he's 18 months and thinks he can be an independent agent now.

This weekend we took him for a little hike at Corn Creek. He had a stick and used it to poke and point at any and everything. As little boys go I guess that's par for the course. I kind of thought it was how all the kids were but my friends who have girls say no, girls are just more mellow. Miles, well, let me just say that everyday is a desperate attempt to find outlets for him to use up his BOUNDLESS energy. Today it was peds office followed by thrift store, toysrus (we're having a water party playdate on Friday with some of his friends), then off to the neighborhood park to play with his friends River and Liam in the water feature. It was a lovely 81 degrees today but that water was ICY and poor Miles is crying in this picture as the water chills him to the bone. The upside of Vegas' dry and windy climate is that it's like living inside a hairdryer so he dried off in a matter of minutes.
So 18 month stats:

Weight 27.2 lbs, Height 31.8 inches, Head Circumference 49.5 cm - not much change from 15 month checkup, except for his height which, since it's the first time he was measured standing up instead of lying down actually DECREASED by 3 inches. Go figure. Maybe it was the haircut he got.

Pace July 7 1996 - April 19, 2009

Today is one of the sad days. Feel free to skip reading this post because it's a downer. It's a loss not only of a life but one of my best friends who made the transition with me from single to married. I am still in shock and keep thinking I will see her on her favorite chair or in the tub meowing for some water. But I won't.

Last night my gorgeous Pace suffered a severe asthma attack and she died. The pollen and dust here in Vegas is horrible. Miles has an inhaler as do I, for the first time in my life. The dust and pollen must have gotten to her that much more and it has been especially horrible the last few days and it was too much for her. She was only 12 years old and she was never a problem cat. Norris even grew to begrudgingly like her. She was simple, she liked water. She had a routine. She started her day around 7 by meowing at our door to open up and turn the tub faucet on. She got her good drink of fresh water then she went to the green chair in the playroom to sit and wait for the sun to pass across and warm her body. Mid day she moved to the chair in the living room and watched the action of Miles and Bella horsing around. Every now and then she would get involved but not for too long. In the afternoons she dissappeared and I think she went under the couch. She would come over at night for a little cuddle and then patrol a bit and go to sleep for the night.
She was a picky eater. Only kibble. No wet food, no treats - not even fresh fish or milk or cheese. Not interested.
Pace was a Ragdoll I adopted along with Appolonia a Persian (Kitty to those who knew her) in Washington D.C. in January 2003. I knew they were already older but I was not sure if I would like having pets so I thought an older pair of cats would be a good starter. They were a great starter. They were bonded since they were kittens but since Pace always really thought she was the shit she tried to give Kitty the beat down whenever she could.
All that equalized a few years later when we got Bella and then Pace was the one always getting extra special "love" from Bella who would jump in the fray whenever a Pace/Kitty rumble started up. Kitty, my sweet little Persian with the stuffy nose would have had an even more terrible time with allergies here in Vegas and unfortunately she died when I was 5 months pregnant with Miles.

Kitty was easy to love though she had more problems. She was a sneezer who liked to get right in your face and spray you with cat boogers. But she always was so grateful to be near you and she just couldn't get near you enough. She disarmed even the crochety cat hating Norris who I would catch cuddling with her and babytalking her.

Pace was not as easy to love but of both my cats she was the one I loved more. Kitty had everyone's love, even my mom who was terrified of cats. Pace was almost universally second cat to everyone but me. Her name was pronounced Pachi and it means Peace in Italian. She mostly lived up to her name thought had a poor reputation because Kitty was so sugar sweet. I loved Pace for her totally unrealistic confidence and superiority. Pace was totally full of confidence and kind of dumb. She had no fear and would approach dogs and try to play with them the couple times we had friends' dogs over. She had ZERO hunting instinct and was hilarious in the way she would see a bird at the window and just think she could run up to it and catch it while Kitty spent twenty minutes sneaking up inch by inch. She ran out of the house a couple times. She caught fleas and brought them in and we had a horrible flea infestation in the Pensacola house after Hurricane Ivan that was so bad that Norris had to take the cats to Biloxi with him and I had to stay at a friends and have the house treated. Because of Pace. But for all that she never peed anywhere untoward (unlike Kitty) and was not a terrible shedder (Kitty again).

And when Miles came she was wonderful to him. She slept near him and hung near me and was motherly to me. And she never hissed or tried to scratch him when he would bestow his enthusiastic love on her. She just stayed and purred. My last memory of them together is of his bath day before yesterday. He was in the tub and she came over and sat on the rim just looking down at him bathe as she often did. And he just sat in the water looking up at her and smiling. And they were in harmony at that moment and it was wonderful.
I loved Pace so much and miss her already. I know that she hasn't been as lively lately and just wants to sleep and is even more grumpy and antisocial than ever but I still think of her as just misunderstood. And now she's gone and so suddenly it's unreal. No one to turn the tap on at a drip for anymore.

Chopped Liver thy name is Mummy

So it's become a pretty predictable thing now that Miles starts fussing every day around 4pm till Norris gets home. Once he sees Norris he's all sunshine and light and I am left to complain like a paranoid delusional about a horrible acting Todd that was just here but can't be found now.
So I accept my role as second string when Norris gets home but yesterday Miles took it to a whole new level. I was sitting on the couch covering my legs with one of his baby blankets and Norris was sitting on the other couch. Miles decided that Norris was looking cold and just walked over to me, took the blanket off of me and gave it to Norris with a big smile kind of saying "for you, precious Father". So Norris takes the blanket and says "Thanks Miles, can I get Mommy's cushion too?" with a laugh. The child walks over to me Very Seriously and tries to pull the cushion from behind me to give to Norris. And kind of gives me a sour look when I wouldn't give up my cushion. I feel happy that he loves his Daddy oh so much but this better not be the start of a trend.

17 months

The pace of life has been quickening as Miles becomes older. Where I used to have hours of free time while he napped in which I could download pics and update the blog, he now naps about an hour a day and there is much to do in that time.

This month has been additionally busy because of a great jaunt we took over to California for a week. We started with a couple days at Disneyland and California Adventures while staying at the Grand Californian right in the park. I do recommend this if going with a small child as it was excellent for just breaking up the day and letting him come back to the room to rest or go to the pool. We had originally planned to do 4 days at Disney but quickly realized that Miles is not ready for Disney. He doesn't watch much TV apart from Animal Planet and didn' t know any characters. He was also most interested in everyday things like the flowers, DRINKING FOUNTAINS (we could go to the gym for that) and little stationary cars he could climb in. The highlights at Disney were the Jungle river boat ride with the animals and Small World. He did not like meeting Mickey and was pretty much overwhelmed by the crowds which made it necessary for him to mostly stay in his stroller.

So after a couple days we left and went down to Sea World in San Diego as he LOVES animals. Sea World was not crowded at all and we had pretty much the park to ourselves. Miles was able to run about freely and absolutely loved seeing all the animals. I would recommend Sea World for toddlers any day. They even have an excellent play area to just let them run around and have free play while the parents chill on the side.

And for Norris and I we got a chance to tool around San Diego a bit. We stayed at a nice hotel on Mission Beach and our room had a beautiful view of the marina. We also went to Coronado and Miles played in the sand - which may have been a highlight for him.

Lesson from this trip for me was that I have a simple, easy to please child. Give him some sand to play in, a playarea, or a car and he's as happy as he'll get. Things he did not like: Fireworks - totally terrified of those, Big Characters - didn't want to meet Mickey etc. Fell asleep FOR THE SECOND TIME at Mickey's Playhouse - I think it overwhelms him and he just shuts down.

And the grand finale of the trip for me? IKEA!! Managed to drag Norris to IKEA (which he pretends to hate while simultaneously making a beeline to their cinnamon buns the instant he gets there). There is no IKEA in Vegas and Miles has almost outgrown his little wooden toys and I wanted to get him trains. He seemed to like IKEA so I guess he is my child after all even though day by day he is more of Norris' Mini-me.

17month report:

He is still not a big talker. Words include Mummy, Da Da, Dog, Eyes, Teeth, Ball, Yummy. He makes his wishes clearly known however with an incredibly bossy index finger. But his personality.... pure sugar. He's the only kid his age I know who just comes up to his mommy in the middle of a playdate and gives me a big hug and wet kiss. All the other moms were jealous. He's super loving like that. He is such a little charmer it's hard to put your foot down and tell him no. He is very mild and pretty well behaved most of the time and the times when he does act naughty I tend to let him slide now which I will probably rue one day but as he doesn't have tantrums and do mean things like biting or shoving other kids I give him leeway on not letting me brush his teeth as well as I would like.

We stay busy to burn off the endless supply of toddler energy. Currently he takes Swim classes, Gymboree and Music Together classes once a week. Then we meet up with other kids and have playdates or go to the museum, park or some random thing or other - this week it was touring a dairy plant and going for a hike at Calico Basin.