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.

Valley of Fire State Park

We went to the most gorgeous park the other weekend. Valley of Fire State Park was the first State Park of Nevada. The rock coloration there is unbelievable, there are petroglyphs all along the hikes and several movies have been filmed there. We enjoyed hiking there and plan to return at least once more before the weather turns hot as it gets very hot there in the aptly named Valley of Fire - usually around 120 in summer.

16.5 months

Well this post is officially very late and will be very lame. I'm kind of burned out on keeping up with the blog now which is sad because we do so many things to blog about now and Miles is increasingly entertaning to be around.

For instance, he loves putting on our shoes and walking around in them. Here he is, pure joy as Norris put his boots on Miles and let him try to walk around in them.
We've also been doing a lot of fun things with him. Here we took him to see Thomas the Tank Engine Show with his friend David. The child did not blink for minutes at a time during that show.

He also hosted his first playdate last month and had a blast. We had about 6 little boys from ages 4 to 9 months come over and play. We made edible fingerpaints and they had a blast fingerpainting. The recipe is simple if anyone wants to try. Just mix 2 tablespoons flour with 1 tablespoon water and add food coloring to make the desired colors. Look for neon food coloring also. Miles was the youngest of the fingerpainters and the only one to dip a cracker in the paints and eat them.

Things he can do this month:
Can eat with a fork - baby fork

Can drink small amounts from a cup

Can drink from a squeeze bottle

Good at throwing a ball

Can walk up and down hills of moderate incline

Helps rub lotion on himself after bath

Not immediately putting everything he sees into his mouth

Went poop in a potty once

(Pooped on the floor twice though)

Helps put his toys away

Can identify dogs, cats, fish and frogs in almost any book

LOVES, LOVES watching Animal Planet's Pet Star. He and Bella both get right up under the TV and he screams with delight while Bella whines and gets excited.

Says Mommy, Daddy, Da (dog or duck), occassionally will say other words (Pace - our cat, dirty)

If I say something is dirty he will scrunch his noes and make a face like something smells bad

Loves going to the park, and can now throw bread to feed the ducks.

15 months

This 15 month post is so late it should really be called the 15.5 month post. But he's been growing like a weed and keeping us really busy! His 15 month well baby checkup shows him at 95%tile for head circumference (observe picture of him in black jumper, head is almost bobble head proportion), 75%tile for weight and 100%tile for height. The boy is big and strong! Miles loves to walk and can't quite run yet so he looks like a penguin who speed walks as he races down the halls. He can also walk backwards which he loves to show you and can run in place, which he does when he's excited. Talking is not happening much yet but he understands a lot and will occasionally repeat something you say. He loves, and I mean loves reading books and they are his favorite toy. He will bring Norris and I books all day long for us to read to him and can be quite demanding about it. It's like having a small General barking orders "read! read!" but instead just grunting or yelling something we can't call English. The pictures of him eating corn and near the lake are of him at the Floyd Lamb State park near our house, the closest thing to regular nature you can get out here in the desert. He also RODE A PONY! for the first time, and loved petting and kissing the animals at the JR Pony Farm. Also observe our kitchen chairs lying on the ground, as he has already climbed onto the table and fallen off. So now he trys to kill himself by entangling himself in the chair legs and leaning over all sorts of ways. The scary news this month was that he might have asthma. We've had to get an inhaler and though his doc hasn't heard wheezing in his follow up visits he's still on an inhaler for a while till she can determine he does not need it. He's not the biggest fan of the inhaler so it's a bit frustrating sometimes but other than that he's a great eater and very even tempered.