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.
