First foods

So Miles was about a week shy of his 6 month birthday when he finally tried solid foods. His first food was a freshly picked orange from my uncle's orchard. We went to my Uncle Kenny's orange orchard to spend the afternoon and Norris and I got to pick fresh fruit and walk the grounds. It was very pretty and the oranges were so sweet. We peeled one and Miles first gave it a lick then once he realized it was good he was nose deep, sucking at the orange like a little pro! It was so comical to see him eating the orange with gusto like he had been doing it his whole life. He sucked both halves and as you can see from the picture almost finished both.

April 20, 2008

This was the day that all the preparations and travel was for. And it was a great day. First was Miles' baptism, I don't have the best pictures, they're in my mom's camera, but here he is with the pastor who baptised him. He was calm and interested in what was going on, seemed to like the water being anointed on him, but he loves water anyway. My dad played the guitar for the service and the pastor went to elementary school with my mom at the school right next door. The church was Riversdale Presbyterian Church.

After baptism we went to a brunch at my grandmothers house and got changed for the big party - my dad's 60th.

It was held in a pretty ranch with wide open spaces and big trees. It was quite a party. There was singing, dancing, acting, steelband playing, a live band, a DJ, facepainting, a bouncy castle for children - and did they bounce!, people playing cricket and a Master of Ceremonies. Then there was the food and drink - barbecue, curry duck, roti, curry goat, channa and aloo, I can't remember all the food plus lots of drinks to make everyone tipsy. It was one of the best parties I've been to. There was a river nearby and people would go there and hang out and talk, a huge huge tree called a salmon tree that was off from the main event and you could just go sit out there and watch the children get their faces painted. Everything for the main event went on under tents so it was cool and breezy. And Miles, well he must have been held by almost everyone there - and there were more than 300 people there. He was so happy with the whole thing, didn't fuss at being passed around and admired - I think he liked it.

They Meet....

The trouble cousins finally met. As is evident from the pictures, Miles and Amelia seemed to already know each other. They stared deep into each others eyes, fell in love and decided to begin their plans for parental and grandparental domination! Bwahahahaha!

The journey begins - Toronto

So we had to go to Trinidad with Mr. Wiggles. A few people recommended that we try to do the trip in 2 legs with some time in between and that along with the opportunity to use some of the masses of sky miles we have collected resulted in us taking a flight from Vegas to Toronto from 11pm to 5am then another flight to Trinidad at 8pm. Yes, in retrospect this was a very.dumb.idea. but sitting at the computer at home it made perfect sense. So anyway, we red eyed it to Toronto (both of us in middle seats and separated, me holding the 20 pound infant in my lap the whole way) and got in around 5am and rented a car from seriously, a one man car rental company (note: companies can look a whole lot more professional online than in person - remember this when I tell the tale of the Moonhole couple in Bequia later). It was a beautiful day in Toronto and the weather was perfect, little crocuses coming up, daffodils peeking out and at Niagra Falls we got to see bits of icebergs broken off and careening to their deaths off the fall.

Miles was pretty good for the Vegas to Toronto and day trip parts but kind of had a meltdown halfway through the 6 hour flight to Trinidad. He was restless and fussy and we were so glad to land and put an end to his jumping up and down on our legs on the plane.

Alfred and Stephanie visit

What a month! Long time no blogging as real life has been busy and exciting. Kicked off the month with a visit from Alfred and Stephanie, had a lot of fun going to Red Rocks with them to see the cactus blooms,

went to Mystere, and Alfred, Norris and I had an eternally memorable time at a hypnosis show - sorry, can't explain, and you probably are better off for it. Their visit was a great reminder of how much fun we have in Vegas and after they were gone it was time to pack and 2 days later we left to go to Trinidad for my Dad's 60th birthday celebration.

5 months

Miles turned 5 months old a few days ago and here are the pictures from his Kiddie Kandids photo shoot. He still does not like to smile in public or for cameras so here are the few pictures we got with him smiling. Notice the outfit changes? Not planned. Our dear boy puked all the way down his outfit mid photo shoot so we had to strip him down hence the semi naked shot then put on whatever we had in the diaper bag, which happened to be a way too big hand me down onsie but it looked cute in the photo so we kept it.

At 5 months he drools constantly but has no teeth or nubbins that might turn into teeth. He can sometimes sit up unsupported if he has his hands positioned in front of himself just right and can sit for a little while in a shopping cart child section - maybe 10 minutes before looking tired and strained. He does not sleep through the night, sometimes wakes at 4am just to talk to himself and laugh but does not want a bottle - totally just wants to play and woe be to you if you go in there and think you can just leave if he wants to play. His personality is sweet and shy - calm and pretty easy to understand - basic needs - hunger, love, tired, play. He weighs 20 pounds and likes to be board stiff and leaning outward when you hold him so he can look around. That makes it hard to hold him with one hand as he doesn't snuggle into you to help out with the holding at all. Absolutely everything must be experienced by mouth if possible especially my fingers - they seem to be a baby's version of barbeque ribs, he can't get enough of sucking and gnawing on them then contrasting them with sucking and gnawing on his own fingers. A very sweet phase of babyhood that I am relishing as crawling lurks just around the corner.

crazy hair amelia

Ok, we've all had a laugh about Miles' hair and how it has a life of it's own, and I thought his hair was crazy, but check out his cousin Amelia, my brother Warren's daughter - she takes crazy hair to the next level! She is so cute, she's about a year and a half and they just opened their own business in St. Vincent and the Grenadines selling tiles etc. and when people come into the store apparently she goes up to them and tells them "buy tiles!". My sister in law Dee is so sweet and mild mannered that kind of shameless marketing and promotion behavior can only come from our side of the family - BTW, if you are in need of tiles in St. Vincent, check them out at http://islandstyleinteriors.com/. Side by side comparison of the crazy hair cousins: