Thursday, December 12, 2013

19 Months

The words are coming so fast these days.  He picks up new words every day.  He's started saying two word sentences too, "Bye bye Momma," "No milk," "Hi Daddy."

He's finally picking up a tiny bit of weight and height.  I've taken to tailoring all of his pants so that they  don't fall of his hips.  

I said last month that each age and development is more enjoyable than the last.  This still holds true.  It's so much fun to be around him.  He's super cute, happy, and funny.  He's loving and sweet.  And that old cliche about seeing the world anew through a child's eyes has turned out to be cliche for a reason.  Watching him in the snow was just so cool.

Here's our little dude this month:


We might have let him play in a sewer pipe.
Or a tunnel in the park.

He's quite cute in glasses.

Really. Cute.
New hangout.


Moo?

Raspberry fingers!

Another new hangout.

Hello?

Hanging out with friends on a snow day.

Sometimes we watch tv standing up.


A couple of dudes.

Snowpants!

We look a little bit alike.



Christmas lights

SNOW!!!

SNOW!

Eh... snow.



Monday, November 11, 2013

18 Months!

It's a classic battle of the ages.  Toddler against toddler.  Unlimited resources at their disposal but they both must have the same piece of chalk.  In this battle, Miles happened to start out with the coveted pale yellow chalk.  The battle ensues.  A parent intervenes.  Miles gets knocked down, the chalk wrested from his hand.  But, justice prevails; the parent hands the chalk back to Miles and gives him a deserved kiss on the forehead. And this is where one might expect that the story ends, the toddlers heading off in opposite directions, the other whimpering at her loss. But now, as a ray of light shines down from the sky, highlighting his golden tresses, Miles does the unthinkable (at least for an 18 month old). He walks to the chalk bucket, carefully selects another piece of chalk, ambles to the defeated toddler and hands over the bounty.

Our hearts melt.

---

We had a pediatrician visit today, his 18 month check up.  His head is growing really well.  So much so, that it's difficult to fit it through the appropriate sized clothing for him (for those family members who might be reading this and might want to get him clothes for the holidays, he's wearing size 18 month shirts and size 12 month pants).  The 18 month shirts are a little baggy on him but his darn head won't fit easily through the 12 month sized tops!  And most of the 12 month sized pants fall down because his waist is too narrow unless he's wearing cloth diapers.  Thank goodness for cloth diapers.

His head growth is really showing too!  He is picking up new words daily.  He can identify a bunch of letters in the alphabet and he says a whole bunch of them too.  It's fascinating watching him learn the letters, because I see patterns among the letters I don't think I had ever noticed before.  He gets V and Y and K mixed up.  They all have a V shape contained in them and it's really interesting to watch his brain work the through the similarities.

---

Lucas and I commented recently that this age is so much more fun than any age before it.  Miles has become a completely separate person, with his own very distinct personality. A little person who lives with us.  And it's not like having a crappy roommate (although he doesn't pick up after himself very much), we totally get a kick out of him.  He's good natured and funny!  He made his first joke!  Baby's first joke:
Lucas: Miles, where's the ball?
Miles: points at the ball
L: Where's the zebra?
M: points at the zebra
L: Where's daddy?
M (with a gigantic silly grin on his face): points to himself
It's subtle but he was totally pointing to the wrong person to be funny!  "Look how funny I am, I know I'm not daddy but I'm saying I am!" Anyway, we're very, very happy to be a little family together. I feel I lucked out on the husband and the kid fronts.

---

Here are the most recent pictures of our funny little roommate:



Just relaxing.  No need for back or butt support.

Hanging with the neighbor girls.
You think in 15 years this will be them, but taller and sneaking cigarettes?

Cheese architect.

Autumn leaf pile!

There has to be a yoga instructor out there who could use this
picture to illustrate downward facing dog.

Reading a book at sing-a-long.

Books don't go in tape decks Miles.
No, I'm sorry, I can't really explain what a tape deck is for.

cool kid

Pinky swearing with Frankie

Each of them making good use of plaid and baby strollers

I don't even know

Seeking out lady bugs

Playing with his cars.  He doesn't know it,
but he's got some hot wheels coming his way at Christmas.

It's gotten colder!

Batman totally came to our pizza night a few weeks ago.
How cool is that?

Little tuckered out guys

Little dude, chilling out in a fire engine cab.
His life is so cool.

City fireman. City fire engine. City kids.

He will drop whatever he's doing and put his hands up to be carried to the train.

Train watching.  It's a neighborhood pastime.

We're always at the train tracks.

Lots of love for the toddlers.

Let us out (or in)!

Toddler jail can only lead to experimentation.

Chilling out, watching Elmo.  Note the super cool boots.
They were brought back from Spain.  Miles has lots of people who love him.

My two favorite dudes.

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I decided to combine all the videos from the last month or so into one 5 minute video.  Let me know if you prefer this method or you like a bunch of different videos!


Sunday, October 13, 2013

17 Months!

Miles had his endoscopy and all the results came back normal.  We also met with the pediatrician again and we have a plan going forward in the future for Miles and his growth and development.

This last month has been particularly difficult for me in dealing with Miles' lack of growth.  I was torn while we were waiting for the endoscopy results because I wanted Miles to be normal, but I also would have liked an explanation for his lack of growth.  If we had an explanation, we could have at least worked with that and helped him to eat more.  When the results came back normal I was initially pretty happy but then completely heartbroken because it leaves us where we are.  And recently I've felt like where we are is nowhere.  With no improvement.  With all the changes we've made in his diet, we haven't seen any appreciable growth.  So I had a rough week where I was crying.  A lot.  After meeting with the pediatrician though, I feel like we have a solid plan moving forward.  We've got some upcoming doctors' appointments and we're going to get Miles in a feeding clinic.

All that said, I'd like to stop concentrating on this issue here.  My whole entire life feels like it circles around how much he's eating or how much he weighs, how he swims in his 12 month sized clothing and how we have a closet full of gifts of 18 month sized clothing that it seems like he'll never fit in.  Anyway, I kind of made an agreement with myself to stop dwelling on it.  I've decided to not talk about his size in public, to not discuss calories with Lucas in front of other people.  Because I would like to start focusing on the positive.

Miles is a joy.  He runs around all day.  He's adding words all over the place.  He has an opinion.  He wants you to know his opinion because it usually involves his desire to go outside.  Willingly, without prompting, he shares with other kids.  He's working on learning to jump.  He colors, with sidewalk chalk and crayons.  He still listens pretty well.  We're so happy to be a little family.

I don't even know.  Apparently this is at the JHU bookstore.

I love this picture!  Park in downtown Baltimore!

I might have put him in one of my shirts and a belt.
I may be the worst mother ever.

Sometimes, you just have to lie down in the middle of the sidewalk.

We got him a stroller because the neighbor girls all had one.
He loves it!

Lucas' album came out on vinyl!
"See, you just put your arm down the hole, like this."

"No, I won't let you!"

Worst. Mother. Ever.

Reading

Strolling

More strolling

Holding hands

Sliding

Looking up

Pumpkin patch potato sack slide!

Little Farmer

Cool kid

Selfie!  He really took this photo himself.

Sitting in the bathroom sink

Practicing for halloween.

Wearing hats at bedtime.

Sweeping up the leaves















Happy little family.