Chris & Jenny Johnson

Christmas 2011

2012-01-26T15:49:00.001-05:00

A few days before Christmas, baby #2 decided to start making Mommy feel really yucky all of the time, making Christmas only semi-enjoyable for our family. Here’s a run-down of what we did because if I don’t record this, I’ll feel bad for the rest of my life.

On Christmas Eve Eve, we decided to take Miles to see the lights at the zoo. And since we had snow a few days before, it was cold. Very cold. But Miles did get to meet Santa in a really smelly building. He was happy until it was his turn to actually sit on Santa’s lap.

Oh well. There’s always next year.

Chris has Christmas Eve off, so my parents drove down to meet us at our lot (did I mention that we’re building a house?) and then to spend the rest of the day with us. After looking at our pile of dirt, we headed to Subway for lunch where I had my first official vomit-in-the-parking-lot for this pregnancy. Yay!

After lunch we headed over to our house for nap time for Miles and for me. I ended up spending the entire rest of the day and night throwing up about every hour. I have a sneaking suspicion that it wasn’t morning sickness but instead a bit of the flu. Luckily no one else got it because I was essentially quarantined.

But what this meant for poor Chris was that he spent his night playing Santa all by himself. I had managed to wrap his presents a few days earlier but that’s it. Nothing for my family or for Miles had been wrapped (or assembled in some cases), and I hadn’t done anything with the stocking stuffers (some of which were meant for Chris). This made for some interesting wrapped presents. Like the boxes of deodorants that I had picked up at Costco but had somehow ended up with the pile of presents. It was cute.

Luckily I woke up feeling better on Christmas morning, so after Miles had breakfast, we opened as many presents as we could before Chris had to leave for work.

The only presents Miles cared about were cars, and these are the only toys he has played with for the last month. Literally. He does not play with anything else. Ever.

After I took my sweet time getting ready (it’s amazing how little energy I had after a day of vomiting), Miles and I headed to my parents house for the day. I spent a good amount of time sitting in the comfy chair watching everyone else do things. Merry Christmas.

Here we go again

2012-01-08T19:04:00.001-05:00

Let’s rewind to 2009 for a second when I wrote some pretty serious blasphemies against Eve in this post. I feel the urge to curse her again. Yes, folks, I’m pregnant again. Which explains my disappearance from cataloging our family life on this here blog. And why do I sometimes curse against Eve? Because I’m sick. And tired. And sick.

I’m only 9 1/2 weeks along, but we had an ultrasound last week (I think it was our doctor’s way of giving another doctor some special treatment even though we have to pay for it), we feel pretty confident in telling the world. We told our families on Christmas (my parents on Christmas Eve because they saw vomiting first hand) and have been telling people here and there, but I guess it’s official once you put it on the internet.

So far this pregnancy has been very different than my first. I’m still sick, but at different times. With Miles, I threw up every morning until like 18 weeks. But this time I get worse in the afternoons and evenings, making dinner time and the “witching hour” very difficult. I remember being tired with Miles (often falling asleep by 8:30 in the couch), but not tired like I am now. I just have NO energy. I do a lot of parenting from the couch. And the floor of the bathroom. I often don’t change out of my pjs until the afternoon when I finally shower during Miles’ naptime, and then mostly I put on another set of pjs when I’m done. I don’t do my hair. I don’t put on make-up. And I don’t leave the house unless it’s to refill my prescription for anti-nausea pills, which don’t seem to be working like they did last time. Oh, and I surely don’t clean. Or cook. I’m utterly useless.

Luckily I have a husband with much patience. He surely doesn’t enjoy this time, but he does a good job at getting things done when I can’t. Like Christmas (more on that later).

But my doctor suggested a prescription bracelet, not the one from the tv commercials of people at the mall, but one he swears really works. Insurance doesn’t cover it, so it costs a pretty penny, but I’ll pay anything for some relief from nausea. Chris was actually at the appointment with me and seemed eager to get it. It’s supposed to be delivered to my door sometime soon, and I’m really hoping it works.

Even with all of the bad stuff, we are excited to add another member of our family, even if we disagree about what gender we would prefer. We might have to find out the sex this time so that neither one of us has a sliver of disappointment once it’s born into this world.

And here’s our little peanut with tiny arm and leg buds:

Not a snow bunny

2012-01-08T18:40:00.001-05:00

We had some really good snow a few weeks ago, and although it wasn’t our first snow since moving here, it was the first one that Miles was fully prepared for; it took me a while to collect the essential gear. Side note: it’s really hard to find mittens in his size.

So after I shoveled the drive, I thought Miles might enjoy going out to play. I was wrong.

Just trying to figure out what to do.

Thinking maybe he should touch it.

Thinking that wasn’t a good idea. This kids hates things on his hands. In fact, he wouldn’t move until I wiped all of the snow off.

And no experience would be complete without a toddler tantrum, which only got worse when I made him go around to the garage before going inside.

He did seem to enjoy being pulled on his toddler-sized sled by Daddy, but because I was watching from the warmth of the kitchen, there are no pictures. But I’m sure we’ll have plenty more snow to come.

At least it wasn’t flour

2011-12-13T14:09:00.001-05:00

On Friday morning while I was getting ready, this is what Miles did to pass the time.

I wish there were some way to lock my pantry, but alas, accordion doors are made for children to open (and smash their fingers in occasionally).

Let’s play catch-up, shall we?

2011-12-07T00:15:00.001-05:00

So I took a little break from blogging over the last month or so. Sue me. And I still don’t have much to blog about, but I’ll make my best go of it, you know, for my dedicated fans.

Since the last update on Miles, only some things have changed. Most important of all: he now says “nana” or banana. No, he still doesn’t say “Mommy.” Not like I’m important in his daily life or anything. Clearly bananas are far more important than the person that labored to bring him into this world.d The person that feeds him, cleans him, loves him, takes him to McDonalds when Dad isn’t around. No need to say her name.

The other big change is that I gave him a haircut at home tonight. I usually prefer to take him somewhere so that I can blame someone else when it doesn’t turn out, but our last trip to Cost Cutters was far too traumatic for both of us. I’ve yet to find a food children’s salon here, so I guess doing it myself is the next best thing. And I read an article that suggested that taking him to a salon that clearly terrifies him and then pinning him down in my arms so that some strange lady can put sharp objects up to his head might make him more likely to stay terrified of it or a long time to come. I did not have the courage to use scissors, rather opting for our clippers with the longest guard instead. He still didn’t like it, but I got it over with quicker.

We also had a nice Thanksgiving here at our house with my parents and brother since my sister’s family was with her in-laws this year. I even made a centerpiece and table runner that I saw on Pinterest. And yes, I was made fun of for taking a picture of my table.

We had a nice dinner once Chris came home from work, and then put in a movie for Miles to watch. But he didn’t. Instead my Dad and Chris (and the dog) took it as an opportunity to nap. I guess this means the meal was good.

Instead Miles played with my brother. I kept trying to get a picture of him snuggling up to Steve’s chest, but every time I took out the camera, Miles did this.

The day after Thanksgiving, Chris’s parents and two youngest brothers drove up from Texas on their way to Utah to drop off Cameron at the MTC before his mission to the Philippines. They stayed all weekend, but I took no pictures the entire time. Or when they stopped back through on their way home at the end of the week. But we had a great time while they were here. Even if there aren’t any pictures to show for it.

But the real reason that I haven’t blogged much is that Chris and I have been very busy trying to decide if we should build a house or just buy an existing one in the summer when our lease is up. I won’t get into it now because we’re still working out a few things, but it seems like we will be building a house. Craziness. Mostly because it will probably end in divorce. Agreement has never been our strong suit.

But we did manage to get our decorations up. Most of the ornaments have been moved to the top half of the tree, but is still looks pretty at night. And it’s hard to get upset at this cute face when he pulls the shiny balls off the tree and then runs away because he knows I’m going to get him. Especially when he smiles because he thinks it’s a game.

Hopefully I actually update again before the end of the year. If not, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Miles: 18 months

2011-11-01T17:07:00.000-04:00

Wow! 18 months! And what am I most excited about? Nursery at church! Finally.

I think this is the most difficult age with Miles (so far) because he wants so many things but doesn’t have the language (more on that later) to tell us what it is, so we all end up frustrated. And some of us end up crying. I won’t name names.

He is still super curious which means our house is still stripped bare of anything at his level, and I imagine our Christmas tree will only have decorations on the bottom half this year. The only time he stands still is when he is taking care of business, if you know what I mean. The one benefit of the constant running though is that when he refuses to be carried, we actually get to where we need to be a little faster.

He is becoming more and more independent (except of course when I need to do something like shower, cook dinner, or talk on the phone). He prefers to go up and down stairs by himself, and for the most part, doesn’t fall. He LOVES to “put” on his own shoes by going to get them from the basket by the door and then sit on his “bench” (a box of wipes). He will also help Chris and I put on our shoes as well. Not successfully, but he tries.

But as difficult as this age is, it is also so fun to watch him develop and figure things out. He really loves things with lids. Especially when he can put other things inside. He sat with these wooden containers at my in-laws’ house for about 30 minutes just moving legos from one to the other. He figures things out so quickly now that it sometime surprises me when he does something after I showed it to him only once.

But the temper tantrums. Oh, the temper tantrums. The smallest thing will set him off and then it’s a game of trying to find the one thing that will make the crying stop. And I’m never right, so most days I end up putting him in the car to go somewhere with lots of distractions. A place of magic and wonder. A place where Mommies and little boys get what they need. Target.

And then there’s his eating pickiness. He has been really fighting us on anything veggie, but loves most fruits. And he has also become very eager to feed himself with his own utensils. Yogurt makes quite a mess, but it leaves him happy. My doctor assured me that toddlers won’t starve, so I have permission to not give him different foods when he refuses what I’ve put in front of him.

He loves to be outside and will take the opportunity to take walks whenever the weather is semi-pleasant. This picture was in Texas just after he woke up from his afternoon nap. The only problem with going outside (at least here at home), is that his love of rocks has now extended to eating them. I looked up today to see him putting small pebbles in his mouth, and when I tried to get them out, he bit me. Hard. I just hope he didn’t break any teeth.

He loves to sit on anything that is his size, so we’ve put in word to Santa that some toddler furniture might be a good idea.

And now about that language issue. He’s been saying “Daddy” for quite some time now, but that’s it. He imitates sounds we make for words like “Hi,” or “Uh-oh,” but he doesn’t spontaneously say them on his own. He knows a few signs, but won’t do them consistently because he thinks that grunting, whining, and pointing should be enough. When you ask him to show you what he wants, his eyes light up and he keeps looking back to make sure you are still following him (usually to the pantry).

But when I mentioned this to our pediatrician at his check-up, she recommended that he have an evaluation done. Not because she thinks there is a serious problem (in fact, her son was the same way), but because Colorado has an amazing program called The Resource Exchange that will allow him to be evaluated (and worked with if he needs it) for free until the age of 3. At that point, he would go through the school district pre-schools, which I would like to avoid only because I don’t want him entering Kindergarten with an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) because those things will follow him until he graduates. So he has a hearing and vision test in two weeks to make sure that isn’t the issue (which it isn’t) and then and in-home evaluation with a speech therapist in December. My pediatrician said that what they found with her son was that the adults in his life were just too attentive and didn’t allow him the opportunity to ask for something because they just gave it to him.

I just hope we can find ways to communicate with him soon.

No matter what happens, we love Miles so much. And we love his enthusiasm about life, even if it is sometimes focused in the wrong area.

Chicken Little

2011-10-31T22:18:00.000-04:00

After a much needed Halloween nap, we all headed over to Chance (Chris’s brother) and Rachael’s house to join them and some family and friends for pizza and trick-or-treating. And is always the case when there are so many people involved (five kids, six parents, four grandparents, a girlfriend, and two brothers), we got started on the actual trick-or-treating a bit late. And since this was the last night of our trip, our little chicken was on some major sleep deprivation.

But we were able to at least get a few pictures with smiles.

He did not love when I put him in his costume, but as soon as we took him outside, he started running.

We tried to do one kid group shot before leaving the house, but you know how that goes.

We drove a couple of blocks over to park near the busiest trick-or-treating street that I have ever seen! They had the road blocked off to cars, but I’m not sure a car could have driven through there if they tried. Yes, it was a “rich” neighborhood, but it’s not as if they were handing out king size candy bars or anything; in fact, several houses just had small tootsie rolls. I guess it’s possible that at one time this was the neighborhood for lots of candy and that’s how it became so popular and now they just have to buy ten huge bags of candy just to make it through the night.

Suffice it to say that it was packed. And Miles had no idea what was going on.

I had to hold the bag for him because it was as tall as he was, and he kept trying to go inside the houses, and we had lots of meltdowns. But I don’t think it would be Halloween without those.

Dallas Zoo

2011-10-31T21:57:00.000-04:00

We spent Halloween morning at the Dallas Zoo with two of Chris’s little brothers, and it turned out to be a my kind of trip to the zoo (i.e. there was no one else there). So here’s a smattering of pictures to tell the story of morning.'

“Mom, I don’t care about that gorilla sitting right up against the glass. I’m busy.”

“But I do like this me-sized monkey.”

I guess the cool thing to do at zoos these days is to charge you $5 for some romaine lettuce to feed the giraffes. When we fed them at our zoo here earlier this summer, he didn’t really like them, but this time he was way more into it.

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We ended our trip with a visit to the children’s zoo where, along with farm animals for petting, there was a manmade wading creek. He loved it!

And because I just thought this was really funny, here you go:

Even Pumpkin Patches are Bigger in Texas

2011-10-29T21:48:00.000-04:00

We spent a long Halloween weekend in Texas visiting with Chris’s family and enjoyed all of the festivities that come with October. We will not talk about the other reason for visiting that particular weekend. You know, that football game that left us both very upset that we spent money on tickets to watch our alma mater play horribly. But we did get to see the largest HD TV in the world. And one of my old roomies and her husband. So I guess there were perks.

But we spent Saturday morning enjoying a wonderful pumpkin patch that is run out of someone’s large backyard which happens to be right next door to a competing pumpkin patch that tries to entice you in with free parking, but my S-I-L informed me that it was not nearly as good.

Miles got to enjoy some firsts. Starting with his first bouncy house. There were about 5 of them, but this one was designated for children 4 and under, which I was grateful for because these things are crazy dangerous. At least when your kid has never been in one and you spend the whole time worrying that he’s going to get bonked in the head. Like the kid in the back of this picture did.

But Miles really loved it. Until he didn’t.

He also enjoyed his first Hay Ride, which he loved. Until he didn’t. But we got to spend it with some great people.

Like Uncle Colton and cousins Maddox and Vivienne. So cute! The kids, not Colton.

Miles apparently is teething (is that still possible?) and is chewing on fingers again.

There were lots of things to look out from the hay ride, like horses, cows, and painted cutouts of all sorts of characters (like Elmo).

But the cousins seemed to have a good time (at least we were able to get one pictures that made it seem that way).

***Oh, and those scratches on his face…he took his first big tumble two days before we left home. No biggie.

Why I’m glad I had food poisoning

2011-10-23T22:10:00.001-04:00

Friday was not a fun day because I woke up feeling completely nauseated. Chris lovingly got up with Miles and fed him breakfast but then had to go to that place where he makes money so that I can buy shoes. This left me spending the bulk of my day curled up in a ball on the bathroom floor with Miles whining at me because I don’t think I was being very much fun.

He made his point known by slamming the toilet lid into my head while I was vomiting.

And why am I glad that I had this experience?

Because it made me remember the four months that I spent feeling this way while my little bundle of joy was cooking. And it made realize that I don’t think I could do that again just yet while Miles is so young.

And why is Chris glad that I had this experience?

See above.

And because he’s hoping I have developed a taste aversion to Qdoba.

Why I haven’t spent any time on the computer

2011-10-18T21:55:00.001-04:00

For some reason last Sunday night I decided that the next morning would be a good time to stop letting Miles have his binky during awake times. Don’t ask me why because I don’t really have a good reason. Other than I was worried other moms were judging me. And I was sick of him dropping it on the floor pretty much everywhere we went.

Don't get me wrong—I was really glad that I gave him a binky at a week and a half because comfort sucking on anything other that a rubber nipple was out of the question. But somewhere along the lines (probably after nine months), it became a crutch—which my mother-in-law did warn me about.

So how did the week go? Let’s just say that we spent a lot of time out of the house doing distracting activities like going to the play place at McDonalds, going to Costco, and Target (many, many times). And spent no time doing things like cleaning or laundry.

And then I caved. A couple of times. Like today when he woke up from his nap an hour early in a really bad mood.

But now I’m sitting on my couch in my slippers, next to my favorite man, sipping hot chocolate, and watching TV.

Life. Is. Good.

Is this wrong?

2011-10-17T22:43:00.001-04:00

How does a mother of a toddler clean the house without a little "helper" getting in the way?

Baby prison, that's how.

Supporting our local growers

2011-10-07T23:40:00.001-04:00

This morning the playgroup in our ward took a self guided tour of the Venetucci Farm just a few minutes from the house, a family farm since 1936. And because I was curious, I looked up Nick Venetucci, the “Pumpkin Man,” on Wikipedia and learned some amazing facts. He played baseball for the New York Yankees organization when he was 22 but stopped early when his family (immigrants from Italy) bought about 100o acres in Colorado Springs. In 1942, the family sold 800 acres of their land to the US Army to help establish Camp Carson (now Fort Carson) for $10 an acre. He courted his wife for 27 years! In the 1950s he started giving pumpkins away to every local child he saw as he drove his truck around town. Over the years, it is estimated that the farm gave away over 1 million pumpkins. And…he is apparently a subject in On the Road with Charles Kuralt.

The farm was put into conservancy with a local foundation that now holds annual give-away days when school groups (or playgroups) can come get free pumpkins, see the animals, and learn about how food is grown.

Now for the narrated photo series:

Our group was gathering near the chicken coop and as soon as Miles reached up to the fence, he got pecked. But he was a very brave boy and didn’t cry.

But he decided to move onto something nicer. Like a goat. And they became fast friends.

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Since the pumpkins are all grown on site, they actually had volunteers come out a few days ago to prepare the field for the kids (i.e. cutting them from the vine and moving some around for easier access). Once at the patch, we were given a lesson about Nick Venetucci and the rule he initiated for picking pumpkins: only pick one that you can carry all the way up the hill by yourself. Miles took this to heart.

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Until he realized that this rotten little green one was much easier to pick up and carry.

I took that one away as we kept exploring. Unfortunately, the rows with pumpkin vines all over were a bit difficult to maneuver with little toddler feet. But it did result in the cutest picture of the day.

Then he set his sights on the pumpkin of his dreams.

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I had to convince him to move on to something that followed the rules, but at that point he was too frustrated from falling so often that I carried it up the hill for him. We tried to get a picture right before we left with his actual pumpkin, but he wasn’t having it.

Overall it was a very enjoyable morning at the farm that we will probably visit for years to come.

Falling slowly

2011-09-30T22:48:00.001-04:00

As I mentioned before, after we took our previous mountain drive, we knew we would be headed back up once the leaves changed. This week and the next are the peak for colors in the high country near our house, so we packed up and headed out this morning for a long drive around the backside of Pikes Peak.

Of course we needed our camera to make sure we got some great shots of leaves, as seen here:

But I was more interested in finding a spot for a family portrait, as seen here:

I kept trying to turn the camera onto the manual mode so that I could learn how to take better pictures. Unfortunately, when you have no idea how to adjust any settings and you are in the middle of the mountains, you just put it back into Auto mode. Some day.

So when I got home, I started fiddling with Photoshop to adjust some colors and shadows, but quickly realized that you can’t read entire help book in one sitting. So here’s the best I got:

I think it looks a little better than it did before.

The drive was absolutely beautiful! And long. Miles, as per usual on a drive over 45 minutes, took a nap at an unusual time. Which means he didn’t nap at all once we got home. I left him in his crib during the time it took me to clean all of the mountain from the outside of my car and the goldfish/cheerios/dog hair from the inside of my car.

And since Chris had to leave at about 4:15 for work leaving me alone with a non-napper, I decided to let the lovely young ladies at my gym deal with him during the witching hour. This might be the best thing I have ever done!

The search for our dream home…

2011-09-29T17:58:00.000-04:00

…is hard.

On some of the days that Chris has off, we like to take drives to different neighborhoods in Colorado Springs and surrounding areas to try to narrow our focus. Especially since we hired a realtor this week and it would be nice to give her something specific to look for—you know, not just “a house.” Today we went to one of the prettier areas, the towns of Monument and Woodland Park.

Imagine a quant mountain-ish town just 10 minutes from the freeway. Both cities are tucked up against the foothills, although Monument extends to the east side of I-25 as well, and are beautiful. The houses seem to have much more land than you will find in the suburbs, which is anything above 1/8 acre. I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want to see into ten of my neighbors’ backyards from my back patio.

The problem with these areas is that you are a bit removed from the convenience shopping, the parks, the schools, and other kids. Unless we plan on having 8 kids that can keep each other entertained all of the time, I just think it might be best to be closer to their friends as they grow up. And Chris likes the idea of building a new house with everything he is looking for (but probably not a yard or a beautiful mountain feel).

And the other major problem in our search right now is that we don’t have money. Remember how my parents helped us to get out of our townhome in Charlotte? Well that means that we have a balance to pay them every month. Oh, and let’s not forget those medical school loans that are due now. Oh, and that large chunk of change that we may need to buy into the group in 18-24 months. But somehow we need to also have a down payment?

Right.

But I really hate our rental!

I hate the kitchen. I hate the white tiles on the counter that show every piece of cat hair. I hate the baseboards in the kitchen that aren’t actually attached to anything. I hate cooking in the kitchen. I hate the dirty white walls. I hate the random blue accent walls. I hate the drafty, dirty windows. I hate the weird smell in the basement. I hate the bugs in the basement. I hate that our master bathroom doesn’t even have a tub. I hate the cobwebs growing on our front porch. I hate the driveway that is crumbling. I hate the garage door that only opens about half of the time. I hate the rock garden in the backyard. I hate that birds fall out of the sky and die in our grass. Yes, you heard me, birds die here!

But mostly I hate that it isn’t mine.

So you can see why I am eager to get out of this place, but we have 8 more months on the lease. Unless the perfect house shows up and our bank account miraculously grows, we’re stuck here.

It could happen, right?

Things I really want to like but don't

2011-09-29T00:17:00.001-04:00

* Eating healthy foods.
* Crafting. Although perhaps if I actually tried to make something instead of just looking at it on Pinterest, I might like it.
* Cleaning the shower and tub.
* Waking up early.
* The new show "Up All Night." I keep trying.
* Ironing. But that will never happen.
* The lady who pulled into two spots at the grocery store because clearly, her car is so much more important than mine.
* Cooking dinner.
* Cleaning up after dinner.
* Sharing food with my adorable son.

And I'm sure many, many more.

We teach by example in this household

2011-09-27T22:48:00.001-04:00

We ran our second 5k as a family tonight which makes me feel so good about what we are teaching our son about health and well-being.

And then we ate out and got some ice cream which makes me feel so good about what we are teaching our son about sometimes food and rewards. Kind of.

And now I’m eating popcorn. The extra butter kind. And kind of thinking that I might be a little confused.

Slider

2011-09-26T15:50:00.000-04:00

Miles has bravely been going down slides now for a few weeks (a big milestone for him since he would previously scream when we took him near it). Last Friday Miles and I met a friend and her daughter at this same park where Miles went down a very tall slide several times with no fear, even though it has a drop off at the bottom causing him to drop about a foot to the ground.

But when Chris and I took him today, we was more cautious.

I apologize if the video doesn’t look right on your screen; this was my first time uploading a a video from my phone.

Boob tube

2011-09-25T15:34:00.000-04:00

I just deleted an entire post about my the TV shows I watched in the last week. So pathetic. Here’s what you need to know:

I need more hobbies.

But more importantly, I need another TV and receiver so that I can record more shows.

Inflation

2011-09-24T15:26:00.000-04:00

Hey, remember me, the girl who pledged to blog everyday in September but just skipped three days in a row? Well, I’m back and with no good reason why I didn’t blog. Unless you count that I just didn’t feel like it. But because Live Writer lets me set my own publication date (even if it has already passed), none will be the wiser.

So let’s pretend that it is Saturday night and I just got back home after my first real date since our anniversary in July.

Chris and I just paid our first babysitter ever. Yes, after nearly 17 months. In Charlotte we just did swaps with friends since we didn’t go out often; and since we’ve moved here, we used my mom once, but that’s it. So we decided to hire on of the scribes that Chris works with in the hospital, but because I was worried about what Miles would do with a stranger, we had her come over right before bedtime to meet the little man but didn’t leave until after we put him down. But next time, she’s on her own.

Especially because we paid her $10 an hour to watch TV.

And she drives a nicer car than we do.

Cat nap

2011-09-23T00:30:00.001-04:00

I bought this bed for the cat yesterday so that he would stop leaving his dark hair all over my light couch.

Good news: he loves it.

Bad news: we lost one seat because he'll only sleep on it when it is perched on the chair.

It’s like Hollywood up in here

2011-09-21T22:25:00.001-04:00

And because I forgot to blog yesterday, here is a second one for today.

I spotted a celebrity at the gym. Not sure what he is doing in Colorado Springs, but he’s here. Probably because every show I have seen him on has been canceled. And because I don’t even know his name, perhaps he can’t be considered a celebrity. Maybe D-list. Or perhaps F.

But thanks to IMDB, I can tell you all about him. Except that it doesn’t say a whole lot.

Meet Nate Torrance. He’s from Canton, Ohio. He was in some commercials and some failed shows, including one of my favorites, “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.”

And I did try to take a picture of him at the gym with my phone, but I felt kind of foolish and invasive. Here’s the best I got.

I promise it’s him.

Not that anyone cares.

We be jammin’

2011-09-21T21:51:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was our second music class with Miles, and it went much better than last week. Both for Miles and the photographer.

Last week we had a bit of a hard time because Miles would have a meltdown every time we had to put away something that he loved (i.e. the egg shakers, the scarves, the instruments), but this week we were able to distract him enough during the transitions so that he didn’t realize what was happening.

His favorite part of the entire class is instrument free time, otherwise known as a jam session.

I know he doesn’t look excited, but he truly was. He just kept switching from instrument to instrument which sometimes meant that he stole them from the boy whose striped sleeve you see. And it was so cute to see him figure out how each one worked.

And then do it wrong.

I say he’s a boy prodigy, you know, because the future of drumming definitely involves turning it upside down.

Why today is my favorite day of the year

2011-09-19T22:19:00.001-04:00

Two words: fall lineup.

In fact, I’m having a hard time focusing on this post because I am watching the season premier of “How I Met Your Mother.” And as far as I can tell from my DVR list, I’ve got a follow-up episode coming up right after this.

Embarrassing story time. When Chris and I were first married, we didn’t yet have DVR because TV had always been a background part of our lives. Don’t get me wrong, I watched my fair share of “Friends” in college (well, until it ended) and occasionally “Dawson’s Creek” (although I’m not proud of that), but this was before the world of DVR or Tivo. If I wasn’t home to watch something, then I didn’t watch it. And I know Chris made a specific arrangements to be home on Thursday nights for “ER” (not surprising), but that was pretty much it.

But as time went by, we realized that we were actually planning our social calendar around our shows. Pathetic. So we upgraded to DVR service. And it revolutionized our lives!

And now that I find myself at home more often (something to do with that adorable sleeping boy downstairs), I find my nightly TV to be so rewarding.

And then summer comes along and totally ruins everything.

So tonight is the start of a beautiful reunion with old friends. And of course some new friends. But in past experience, I should just wait until a new show gets renewed for a third season before I pour my heart and soul into it. Or maybe even a fourth season.

Cookie monster

2011-09-19T00:33:00.001-04:00

I bought a package of Walmart snickerdoodle cookies last night, and barring the one that Chris ate this afternoon, I ate all of them. I didn’t count, but I’m pretty sure that makes 11. This is not something I normally do. But I know that tomorrow there will be no more cookies in my house to stuff my face with, and I can start over and pretend the whole thing never happened. So long as I don’t step on the scale in the morning.

Free advertising

2011-09-17T23:42:00.001-04:00

On my jog today, I saw something rather odd: children holding signs to indicate a garage sale. And I saw it twice! I felt a bit odd taking a picture, so that's why you can't really read the sign or see his five year old brother around the corner holding another sign.

Why my car is really dirty tonight

2011-09-16T22:35:00.001-04:00

The thing we love most about Colorado, and specifically where we are in Colorado Springs, is the proximity to beautiful mountains; well, that and the fact that there is almost no humidity in the air. Today we decided to take a mountain drive through Pike National Forest, which was about 15 minutes from our front door.

And about 3o minutes from our front door, we made it to “Make-Out Reef,” at least that’s what the spray paint on one of the rocks said. We did NOT make-out while we were there.

That’s downtown way down there.

Where’s Miles, you say?

Doing this:

He did wake up when he realized that Daddy was snapping pictures.

And as we continued driving up, we saw the first signs of Autumn on the Aspens and decided that we will be making this drive again in a few weeks.

Chris’s original plan was to get out and walk/hike to the reservoir, but when we realized that we didn’t have the carrier or warm enough clothes for Miles, we turned back around so that Miles could stretch his legs back at Make-Out Reef. I did inform him that this will be his ONLY trip there. EVER!

But who needs kissing when you have huge rocks? A little boy’s dream.

And a bunch of little rocks to show off.

He was so excited that he just couldn’t keep that drool in his mouth. Either that or he is getting three molars at the same time.

Blogging gets old after 15 days

2011-09-15T22:37:00.001-04:00

I have a great husband who stayed home with Miles all morning while I went shopping for clothes with a friend….is what Chris told me to blog about.

And because he was mad that I insulted his photography is the last post.

And because I can’t think of anything else to blog about.

Date night (afternoon)

2011-09-14T23:32:00.001-04:00

Chris and I went on a date today. To the dentist. Is that lame?

Is it better that we then went to Ikea, Nordstom Rack, and Target without Miles?

No?

Maybe next time we’ll also go to the grocery store.

Next time I’ll hire a professional

2011-09-13T23:01:00.001-04:00

Today was the first day of Miles’ new music class, and I was excited to have Chris join us for the first class so that he could take pictures of our little music lover.

And this is what I got:

Nobody puts Baby in a corner

2011-09-12T23:32:00.001-04:00

I really wish that I had taken a picture of the woman I saw while in Zumba this morning, but I thought that would be a bit awkward. No one wants to be on camera while working out. But this woman was clearly dressing for others, at least that’s what I am assuming.

I tried to Google the top she was wearing, but to no avail, so my description will have to suffice.

To start with, it was a light orange…not quite salmon, but not quite neon either. It was tight, but that seems to be common among Zumba-ites (I don’t know if that’s what they call themselves). It wasn’t quite long enough to cover her, yes, muffin top (but to her credit, she was at the gym). It was an open back shirt/bra with three wide straps across the back revealing her skin rolls. And it was ugly.

The shorts were basic enough: white, short, possibly classified as hot pants. But they were short enough that I could see the white strip of skin that never gets tanned while lying in a tanning bed.

And she was clearly a woman that loves to Zumba because she dances right up front by the instructor, she gives tips to newbies before each song, and she gets REALLY excited about everything.

But not as excited as the old lady that sings and shouts to every song that is played. Including when she sings every other word to the theme from Dirty Dancing.

“Had…time…life…owe…you!”

Remembering

2011-09-11T21:40:00.001-04:00

There is nothing that I could write today that would accurately convey how I feel ten years after the tragedies of 9/11/01. Yes, I remember where I was: at work cleaning the dorms at BYU during my freshman year. Yes, I remember what I felt and still feel as I see images from that day: absolute awe. But as I was snuggling my son today, all I could think about was how grateful I am to know what I know about God and His love for all of us. Grateful to know that His son died for us on the cross and rose again on the third day to prepare a way for all of us to live with Him again. Grateful to know that He is there for us in our times of need. And all times.

I can’t say anything better than Thomas S. Monson, the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said in a guest blog for The Washington Post.

9/11 destruction allowed us to spiritually rebuild

By Thomas S. Monson

The calamity of September 11th, 2001 has cast a long shadow. Ten years later, many of us are still haunted by its terrible tragedy of lost lives and broken hearts. It is an episode of anguish that has become a defining moment in the history of the American nation and the world. This week, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, along with Tom Brokaw, will pay its own homage to the unforgettable events of September 11, 2001.

There was, as many have noted, a remarkable surge of faith following the tragedy. People across the United States rediscovered the need for God and turned to Him for solace and understanding. Comfortable times were shattered. We felt the great unsteadiness of life and reached for the great steadiness of our Father in Heaven. And, as ever, we found it. Americans of all faiths came together in a remarkable way.

Sadly, it seems that much of that renewal of faith has waned in the years that have followed. Healing has come with time, but so has indifference. We forget how vulnerable and sorrowful we felt. Our sorrow moved us to remember the deep purposes of our lives. The darkness of our despair brought us a moment of enlightenment. But we are forgetful. When the depth of grief has passed, its lessons often pass from our minds and hearts as well.

Our Father’s commitment to us, His children, is unwavering. Indeed He softens the winters of our lives, but He also brightens our summers. Whether it is the best of times or the worst, He is with us. He has promised us that this will never change.

But we are less faithful than He is. By nature we are vain, frail, and foolish. We sometimes neglect God. Sometimes we fail to keep the commandments that He gives us to make us happy. Sometimes we fail to commune with Him in prayer. Sometimes we forget to succor the poor and the downtrodden who are also His children. And our forgetfulness is very much to our detriment.

If there is a spiritual lesson to be learned from our experience of that fateful day, it may be that we owe to God the same faithfulness that He gives to us. We should strive for steadiness, and for a commitment to God that does not ebb and flow with the years or the crises of our lives. It should not require tragedy for us to remember Him, and we should not be compelled to humility before giving Him our faith and trust. We too should be with Him in every season.

The way to be with God in every season is to strive to be near Him every week and each day. We truly “need Him every hour,” not just in hours of devastation. We must speak to Him, listen to Him, and serve Him. If we wish to serve Him, we should serve our fellow men. We will mourn the lives we lose, but we should also fix the lives that can be mended and heal the hearts that may yet be healed.

It is constancy that God would have from us. Tragedies are not merely opportunities to give Him a fleeting thought, or for momentary insight to His plan for our happiness. Destruction allows us to rebuild our lives in the way He teaches us, and to become something different than we were. We can make Him the center of our thoughts and His Son, Jesus Christ, the pattern for our behavior. We may not only find faith in God in our sorrow. We may also become faithful to Him in times of calm.

Thomas S. Monson is president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

(http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/911-destruction-allowed-us-to-spiritually-rebuild/2011/09/08/gIQAbkjKCK_blog.html?fb_ref=NetworkNews&fb_source=profile_multiline)

Cute pictures make up for a missed day of blogging

2011-09-10T22:54:00.001-04:00

Before you start judging me for missing a day of blogging, just know that I spent my normal blogging time (that being once Miles is in bed) with my head hanging over the toilet. Caught some sort of stomach bug that I’m hoping is gone.

But I did take some great pictures of Miles at my sister’s house last night.

The weather was still very nice when we got there, so Chris took Miles out to the trampoline with my sister’s girls. Pictures don’t turn out that great through the mesh cage, but you can still tell he was having a great time.

And then (instead of eating dinner), he played with a ball in the lawn and pointed at airplanes flying over.

And then as Chris was playing video games in the basement with my brother-in-law, my mom introduced Miles to the piano. He got the hang of it pretty quickly.

And so you see, I’m still kind of copping out of a real blog entry by just posting pictures. Maybe tomorrow.

Star Light, Star Bright

2011-09-09T00:08:00.001-04:00

How do I keep forgetting to blog about the stars on my ceiling? I have started like four different entries, all about nothing, and as I erased the last one, I leaned my head back in frustration and remembered that in just a few minutes, when I turn out my lamp, the ceiling will look like the night sky.

The first day we were in this rental, we had unpacked the essentials and cleaned the floors (multiple times), but we had no idea what was waiting for us in the master bedroom. It isn’t like the ceiling has those adhesive stars that are popular in kids’ rooms because the ceiling looks completely normal in the daylight. But when the lights are off, it literally looks like the night sky that you would see in the mountains. I have tried googling it to see how it is done, but I have no idea what search terms to enter. Either there is a company that customizes some sort of see through glow-in-the-dark decal, or someone very skilled painstakingly painted each little star (and the entire Milky Way) with some glow-in-the-dark paint and a paintbrush.

I can’t decide if it’s cool or creepy.

I’m leaning towards creepy.

Waxing and Waning

2011-09-07T22:53:00.001-04:00

Have you ever gone in to get a simple eyebrow wax and after being directed to the room, you are tempted to leave because it looks more like a torture chamber than a reputable business? That was me today. But did I leave? No. I didn’t want to offend anyone or have to find another place near my house.

It turned out okay though.

But I won’t be going back.

Boon!

2011-09-06T22:16:00.001-04:00

While Miles and I were grocery shopping this afternoon, he kept pointing at all of the balloons hanging over the floral department, and I thought it would be a bad idea to get him one of those since he would probably just let go of it; and if I tied it to his wrist (which my mom tried once) it would only result in lots of crying. But as I was walking through the cereal aisle of all places, I noticed a pack of punch balloons (remember those?) and couldn’t resist.

I thought it would be perfect mommy-making-dinner entertainment. And although his face doesn’t show it in this picture, he truly loved it.

All little creatures were super excited to get to that balloon. Actually I think Scout was mostly nervous.

I was pretty sure that if I could just keep the cat away from the balloon, everything would be fine. I was wrong. I’m pretty sure that Miles bit it.

And because I’m not a good mother, I took a picture of the aftermath before I held him.

We only semi-labored today

2011-09-05T22:14:00.001-04:00

It being Labor Day today, we did what every family does: checked off items on our to-do list. Oh, is that not what everyone does? It was Chris’s intention to get up early to go see the balloon festival this morning, but I wasn’t keen on the idea of getting up that early, or more accurately, of waking up Miles that early. Perhaps we should have done it anyway because Miles decided to wake up at 6:15. Then we thought we would go for a morning hike, but it was that weird temperature between too cold and just right. So we sat around watching The Today Show in which their C-list anchors hosted. Then we figured we might as well just go run all of the errands that were piling up: REI to exchange our kid carrier, the mall to remove an alarm sensor from a sweater Chris bought in Utah, Kohls to replace Chris’s sunglasses that Miles destroyed (and pick up my first pair of skinny jeans…not quite jeggings though), and Target to pick up a whole plethora of items (including sunglasses because after summer is over, Kohls doesn’t think that men need sunglasses).

During naptime my sister’s family did stop by on their way home from hiking near us, and I’m pretty sure the kids were bothered that we wouldn’t wake up Miles to play with them. But like I said, I’m not real keen on waking him up if I don’t have to.

And since Miles ended up sleeping until 4:30, we decided that an evening hike would be a perfect time to test out our new backpack. We went up a canyon 15 minutes from our door to hike up Mt. Cutler. It is an easy hike, but has gorgeous views of mountains and the entire city.

Is there anything that could make this view better?

Yes.

We tried to get a family shot, but the camera battery gave up the ghost right as a nice hiker was about to snap it. So far, we are loving living near the mountains with such beautiful weather. Thing's that we missed living in Houston and Charlotte. Don’t get me wrong, each of those places had things that we loved. Houston had excellent food, in fact, we still crave Chuy’s. and Charlotte had wonderful seasons (just a bit too humid for my taste), but we are excited to become Coloradoans or Coloradans…never have decided how to say that.

A pleasant Sunday

2011-09-04T22:25:00.001-04:00

Church with a toddler can be very difficult, especially when Chris isn’t able to come with me to take turns walking the halls. But today was one of those days when I was pleasantly surprised. I only had to go in the hall once when Miles fell backwards and hit his head.

Can’t complain.

Oh, and the markers were a big hit. And he didn’t even need to take the cap off. He thought it was pretty fun to just tap the marker on the paper without actually coloring.

And that’s all I’ve got for you today. Forgot to take pictures of him playing with my family this afternoon. Oh well.

Fail

2011-09-03T22:45:00.001-04:00

I still have two months until I can officially take Miles to nursery at church…and yes, I am counting down. It will be nice to feel like going to church is actually worthwhile. And if I’m being honest, I must admit that on Sundays that Chris isn’t with us, we often leave early.

But a few weeks ago I thought maybe if Miles had a super cool toy that he can only play with at church, he would be so enchanted, that I would actually get to pay attention. So as per usual, we took a trip to Target on Saturday (not that we don’t also go on other days) to pick out a toy. Unfortunately, there aren’t many toys that are small enough to fit in my bag and also quiet. I ended up with something that he didn’t care about at all.

But today I had a better idea: coloring! There was another little boy at church with Crayola markers that only color on their own paper. Expensive? Yes. But if it will keep him entertained…totally worth it. But while we were in the Crayola section, I also saw the little markers and crayons that are supposed to be perfect for little hands. I tried to first stand him at the dining room table and help him color, but he kept pushing the chair back. And when the marker starting bleeding all over my table, I moved him to his high chair. Here’s what he thought of them…

I’m not sure why he was so upset by the idea of coloring, but every time I tried to help him, he screamed at me.

But the paper was pretty cool.

And these were put away for later.

But I know what will always make him happy: ROCKS!

And just for good measure, here is a picture of just how cute my little man is.

Here goes nothing…

2011-09-02T23:40:00.001-04:00

Why, oh why, did I say that I would blog everyday in the month of September? I seem to have temporarily forgotten just how not exciting my life is. Miles and I did stuff, but just nothing exciting happened. Other than lots of crankiness.

I think this must be one of the most fun and frustrating ages in Miles’ development. He is just so excited about everything, but can’t communicate exactly what he wants to us. We try our best to understand his pointing and grunting, but it often ends in tears. He’s pretty good at pointing at what he wants, but sometimes he points to the pantry but doesn’t want anything that’s in there. Perhaps a sign that he is super smart because perhaps he remembers something that was there before.

But today was just one of those days that we couldn’t seem to get it right. And one of those days that I was grateful Chris was around for the post-nap to bedtime crankiness.

And sorry that I don’t have any pictures of today, but no one wants to look at grumpy face. From Miles or me.

Miles: 16 months

2011-09-01T23:11:00.001-04:00

I’ve been trying really hard to pretend that I still have a baby, but it gets harder day by day. I think it’s time to admit that my Miles is officially a toddler. He definitely toddles around a lot. A lot. He has been busy since he could crawl, but not that he has mastered running, he doesn’t stop (unless he’s sick).

I took him to the doctor this week for his 15 month check-up (a little late, I know), but he is officially middle of the pack on the growth curve (finally). Although I feel like the big bulk of his growth has happened in his belly. Many of his shirts turn into belly shirts, and let’s be honest, that’s not attractive on a boy.

(This is what I found him doing when I got out of the shower the other day.)

But while at the doctor, they gave me a survey to fill out that’s supposed to be done at 14 months to see how your child is developing. As it turns out, I have neglected to observe behaviors during the day. Like if he can stack blocks on top of each other. To be honest, when he plays with his blocks, it mostly involves Chris building a tall tower while trying to keep Miles from touching it until it is completely done. Then Miles knocks it over. Or how about the question about his ability to hold a spoon. Well, yes, he can hold a spoon. But do I let him? No. I don’t want to be giving baths three times a day. Bad mom, I know. Or the question about coloring. Was I supposed to be teaching him to color? Oops.

It’s amazing to me how quickly he picks up on things now though. He learned the sign for “more” in one day this week. He learned the sign for “ball” while pointing at one hanging at a restaurant over and over again. We know he understands a lot of words: Mom, Dad, dog, cat, ball, milk, banana, flower, tree, airplane, truck, train, more, bite, take/bring, kiss, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Steve…and I’m sure more. But what does he say? Dada, or more specifically, “Dad-n.”

I’ll admit it: he LOVES his Daddy more than he loves me. Probably because Daddy plays music and dances with him more than I do. I keep meaning to get this on video, but whenever Chris puts on any song by The Killers, Miles lights up, lifts up his arm, and starts dancing. So cute. He actually points to the stereo when he wants a dance party.

But this child also has a very serious side. Like when he is trying to put things inside of an empty Diet Coke box.

And as observant as this child is of the world around him, he sometimes misses the big picture. You know, because that speck on the floor is way cooler than the otter behind him.

Excuses

2011-08-29T00:27:00.001-04:00

I haven’t been a very good blogger lately. Not that I was ever an excellent blogger, but better perhaps. Summers are lazy for me, even if it’s no different than any other time of year, as far as scheduling goes at least. We still do the same things now that we usually do. Wake up. Eat breakfast. Play. Shop. Eat lunch. Nap. Eat again. Play some more. Bed.

The only real difference has been that I have started to exercise regularly now at an actual gym where I get to drop of Miles for up to 2 hours. At first I felt a little guilty leaving him there while I worked out and then showered (without a toddler getting in to everything while I am otherwise engaged), but over time I realized it was good for both of us. He gets some socialization, and I get to actually work out without interruption.

We have also started to go on some hikes around town because the weather is actually pleasant, you know, no oppressing humidity making your sweat sweat.

I also spend a great deal of time doing very important things on the computer that don’t involve blogging. Like looking at houses that I can’t move into. Or decorations that I will never own (or make myself).

But I have set a new goal to blog everyday in September. Why? Just to get in the habit again. So consider this a warm-up.

Walk like a man

2011-07-28T15:52:00.001-04:00

Shortly after Miles and I got to Colorado (when was that, a month ago?), he started taking small steps between people. At most he would take three steps before falling into my arms on purpose. Sadly, Chris was still in North Carolina for these steps.

Luckily Miles decided to hold off on walking farther until Daddy was here. I walked out of the bedroom one day to see him let go of the dining table and walk toward something in the middle of the room. And after a few more days, he has gained a lot of confidence. My brother likes to make fun of him for walking with his hands in the air, but I’m more worried about the tongue in his mouth; surely this will result in some accidents.

And so far walking has definitely brought some minor damage to his face. I’ve had several people comment to me that they can tell he is “all boy” from the wide array of scrapes and bruises on his face and legs. Hopefully he’ll get a little bit more stable soon.

Ralph Lauren ad anyone?

2011-07-11T23:19:00.001-04:00

Miles didn’t really realize that Independence Day was any different than other days (especially because Chris and I left him at home while we went to watch fireworks), but I did seize the opportunity to get some genuine Americana pictures in the backyard.

‘Nuff said.

Miles: 14 months (plus some)

2011-07-11T23:10:00.001-04:00

I’ve been a bit busy lately, what with graduation, packing (or watching others pack for me), moving, and crashing in my mom’s house for about two weeks now (story to come), I just haven’t found much time to blog. And since I got my new iphone, Angry Birds and Words with Friends have been top of my priority list.

But so that everyone can look at adorable pictures of my baby boy, here is the 14-month update.

Since his first birthday, Miles has been working really hard to walk. When my mom got into Charlotte, he was pulling up and cruising along on the couch or the entertainment center, but not much else. If you held his hands, he would immediately bend his knees and go limp until you put him down. I just don’t think he sees the need to walk since he can move so dang fast while crawling. I was pretty sure that Miles was really busy, but my mom confirmed it for me once she got to spend lots of quality time with him.

In the process of the move, we stayed a night in our friend’s house to make things easier. Our friends have a daughter just slightly younger than Miles, so they’re house is baby-proofed, making things much easier. But I think their daughter must be much less interested in pulling things over, etc. Within ten minutes of being there, he had nearly pulled a potted plant over on the floor; luckily, I caught him early enough to only have to sweep up some dirt. Their house also had more furniture than we do, so he got much braver about letting go of one thing in order to get to another.

And once we got to Denver, he took his first few steps in between people. Chris was pretty disappointed that he missed it, but tried to convince me that Scout going through the dog door by herself was just as cool. I have some video of those steps, but I don’t know where my camera is and don’t have the patience to wait for videos to upload.

Climbing has also entered our world. Yippee. Within five minutes of getting to my parents’ house, my mom showed him how to get onto her miniature rocking chair. We put it in the basement immediately after this.

We also had to institute a house rule: do not open anything in front of Miles that you don’t want him to get into. He has only broken two things so far. But he also figured out how to control the tv and stereo system by touching the big button that clicks when he touches it. And I’m pretty sure he knows what it means when we say, “No,” because he turns around and smiles before continuing whatever it is he was doing.

I’m still pretty sure that he is consistently saying, “Da-da” when he sees Chris, but he sometimes says it to me, too. But I know he says, “Ma-ma” when he is whining. So great. He doesn’t really have any other words down, but he recognizes and points to lots of other things. He knows cat, dog, grandma, grandpa, Uncle Steve, and the ever important, nose.

Since arriving to Colorado, he has been able to spend lots of time with his cousins, and he loves it. They have been very good about playing with him and introducing him to new things, like the trampoline.

He liked it.

And since it’s summer, he has discovered his absolute love of fruit. He spent a few days loving watermelon before moving on the mandarin oranges (fyi—five cups of those are not fun the next day), then grapes, and now strawberries. And he definitely loves lemonade, limeade, and just straight lime juice.

And pickles. Not a fruit, I know, but he loves them nonetheless.

Dr. Christopher Nathan Johnson, M.D. (for reals this time)

2011-07-03T23:57:00.001-04:00

In an attempt to catch up, let’s start with Chris finishing his Emergency Medicine residency at Carolinas Medical Center after three, long, hard years.

Now allow me a moment to talk about how awesome my husband is.

Because he’s pretty awesome.

When I met Chris at the end of his (super) senior year at BYU, he had already been accepted to Baylor for medical school and knew he wanted to specialize in Emergency Medicine. This was literally the first time I had dated a boy that was actually more of a man. And I don’t mean in age, but I mean by his actions and plans and purpose and goals….etc. I actually remember having a conversation with him at Dairy Queen in Provo in which he expressed his desire to go into a field that allowed him to challenge himself and to provide for a future family. Pretty sure my heart melted right there.

After dating for only a few short weeks, Chris moved back to Texas and began school shortly thereafter. And since then, he has worked and worked and worked to get where we are today. I’m actually glad that we weren’t married (and not even dating for some of it) during his first year of school because that was by far his busiest time. He and his study partners often studied well past dinner time. And during the three years of medical school that we were married, he worked very hard to prepare himself to become a doctor while still being active in his church duties and being an excellent husband to boot.

And in the three years of residency, he worked even harder to make sure that he was doing everything he could to learn as much as possible to be the best doctor he could be. He often came home from long hours at the hospital only to spend more time studying at home. And as a chief and father in his last year, it was definitely challenging for both of us, but I’m happy to report that we came out of it alive.

Since arriving in Colorado, it has been great to see how happy he seems to be with the knowledge that we are done with the hardest part of his career (hopefully) and are now moving toward a new chapter far different than anything we have known so far.

But I wouldn’t want to do with anyone else.

And now I better become a true trophy wife.

So...I guess we've moved

2011-06-26T15:12:00.001-04:00

And I say, "I guess," because Chris and the dog are still in North Carolina, our stuff is somewhere in transit (hopefully), and Miles, myself, and the cat are temporarily staying with my parents. But we closed on our Charlotte house last Thursday, so that's not our home anymore. We're pretty much homeless for the time being. And because Chris sold Willie (the '97 Civic that he drove for 11 years), we trully don't have any assets to our name. But we do have plenty of debts.

I have so many great little stories about the move process so far, but not the energy to write it. I need to go back and blog about some other things first, you know, like Chris graduating from his residency after three years. No biggie.

Suffice it to say, everything is in flux right now. Including nap times.

Who needs toys?

2011-06-10T17:35:00.001-04:00

We recently discovered that no matter how cool toys are, Miles always prefers whatever else is around. Books. Magazines. Dog collars. Cat collars. A ladle. Etc. And a few weeks ago, after sweeping out under the stove, we discovered some long lost cat toys. They are small, crinkly, shiny balls.

And this is what he does with them.

He thought he was so funny, and so did I, until I realized the dye was running down his chin. (Anyone else notice that his nose flares out with his mouth full?)

His girlfriend was not impressed.

One step at a time

2011-06-04T22:47:00.001-04:00

In case you haven’t figured it out, I have posted a lot of new videos to the blog tonight, but they are hidden in previous months. (Hint: check March 1, May 7, and May 17)

Remember when Miles was so happy to try this toy out on his birthday? Oh, that’s right, he hated it. But he’s gotten much braver the past few days. Today he took several steps, but then as soon as I got the camera out, he stopped because he would much rather try to grab the camera from my hands than do anything adorable. If only the camera didn’t chime when turning on.

Birthdays and balloons

2011-05-25T20:43:00.001-04:00

Today is in fact my birthday. Don’t ask me which one because I can’t remember and, yes, I know that a little bit of mental math could help me figure it out, but I don’t want to know that badly. But whatever birthday this is, I follow some absolutes when it comes to birthdays.

1. I sleep as much as I can on my birthday. Miles has been getting up earlier and earlier over the course of the last few weeks. I think he is ready to transition to one nap, but the attempt we made at that this week was not enjoyable. So…he gets up early in the mornings because he is so well rested. This means that today started at 5:45. Not cool; however, Chris wanted me to be able to sleep in until at least 7 on my birthday, so he took morning duty even though he got home after I was in bed last night.

2. I don’t work out on my birthday. And, just so you know, no one that knows me has to work out on my birthday either (or so my mom and I decided today). You’re welcome.

3. I don’t do anything that I don’t have to do on my birthday. This means that I cleaned everything last night so that I wouldn’t have any guilt today or have to look at my gross bathroom anymore. ( I did have to go to the grocery store though because we ran out of milk this morning).

4. I eat whatever I want on my birthday. And a lot of it. Oh, and I don’t cook any of it. Ever. Breakfast was provided by Yoplait. Lunch by Chick-fil-a. Dinner from Qdoba. And dessert, a slice of carrot cake bought by my wonderful husband at the grocery store.

So today was a pretty good birthday by my account. Of course, it would have been better if Chris could have been around for more of it. But he did buy me some shoes that he knew I was kind of obsessed with. Oh, and a gift card for something called a hot stone pedicure. Sounds exotic.

Miles celebrated my birthday by getting his first balloon at the grocery store. I’m just glad it didn’t pop.

And I also hope that I don’t pop. I might not be able to get into any of my clothes tomorrow. What am I wearing right now, you ask? Sweat pants. Did I not mention that as another rule?

Live action beachin’

2011-05-17T22:41:00.000-04:00

Chris thought it was a really great idea to feed the seagulls right off of our balcony at the beach. Not sure if you’ve ever met seagulls, but they know that people food is much easier to catch than actual bird food. And although I don’t have video of it, he also did this while holding my child in his arms. Dangerous? Perhaps.

And now for some adorable babies playing in the water and sand.

More adorableness

2011-05-17T20:49:00.001-04:00

As promised, we took more pictures of Miles at the beach yesterday. Our previous attempts at sand and sea had not yielded much excitement from the little man, so we had very low expectations for our last outing but were pleasantly surprised when he showed some real promise.

As Chris and I were sorting through our pictures last night, we came across this one and realized that at some point, we learned to understand every little gesture that Miles makes. When we look at this picture, we know exactly what he is feeling. We know the sounds that accompany throwing up his hands. And we know it means how excited he is. (And I’m sorry that all of outdoor pictures are always overexposed. We’re too lazy to figure anything out with the camera that we probably paid too much for).

And because no beach trip would be complete without eating sand, Miles just had to have a taste. It’s better than my childhood habit of eating cigarette butts at the beach.

I think he actually liked it.

Now on to the sea. Miles wasn’t having it until Joseph showed him how much fun it was to sit in a pool dug out by his dad down by the waves. And then I think Joseph wanted to try some of that sand.

And after spending quite some time splashing around, Daddy wrapped him in warm blanket and insisted that I take a picture of this cute face. Don’t have to twist my arm.

And after a nice dinner out, we needed at least one family picture in real clothes (mostly because there was a swimsuit picture embargo imposed on the entire trip). Not that I hate my body or anything, but I’m super pale. And by the end of the week, there was definitely had a vacation belly going on. So goes life. And motherhood. But it’s all worth it for my favorite men.

Compromise

2011-05-17T20:20:00.002-04:00

On the second full day of our get-away, we took the boys (did I mention that we went with our friends that have a boy three weeks younger than Miles?) to an aquarium just 10 minutes down the road from our condo. I’ll be honest, my idea of beach vacationing involves just sitting on beach with a book and some sun, but I also realize that vacationing with a child requires much more flexibility and accommodation and, yes, selflessness, than what I am used to. And yes, I might have been a bit of a grouch about going at all, but I’m still new to this parenting thing—fyi, how long can I say that?

The aquarium was equipped with fish, of course, but also a variety of other things. Like quail. Weird, huh?

And an albino alligator named Luna, which Chris just informed me means moon. I don’t know why he thought I didn’t already know that.

Then we took the boys to the touch pool where Miles was pleased to pet a horseshoe crab. And maybe a starfish, but I can’t remember because there is no picture to prove it.

The aquarium wasn’t very big, but Miles’ attention span isn’t very long. Especially this day when he had been awake between the hours of 11 pm and 3 am. Teething? Being in a new environment? Being woken up by his parents walking in to the room? All of the above. So after a quick attempt at eating lunch there, we took our bundle of joy back to the condo for a nap while I got some quiet beach time.

Beachin’

2011-05-14T20:12:00.001-04:00

Not to brag or anything, but I’m updating the blog while sitting on a balcony that overlooks the ocean. Just sayin’.

We arrived yesterday to Carolina Beach and are having a tremendous time so far. As soon as we got here, we attempted to put Miles down for an afternoon nap, but he wasn’t having it; he knew there were things to explore and people to play with. So we took him down to the beach—did I mention that it’s right outside our window?—for his first ocean experience. This is what he thought of that. (Pay no attention to the pasty, white woman holding the adorable child—she’s working on it).

Granted, the water is very cold this time of year, it being off-peak season and all, but that’s what we could afford. Instead, he thought it a better use of his time to just watch those little waves roll in. You know, keeping guard of his family. A man’s job.

Chris then decided to take him down to chase the waves safely about them. I wasn’t there, but I think Chris managed to get a smile or two from the non-napper.

That is until he decided to test the waters, so to speak.

It wasn’t long after this (a grand total of maybe 20 minutes after we unpacked) that we went back up to the condo and tried napping again—this time successfully. Miles did much better with the sand and the water today (2 whole hours, in fact), but we had forgotten to put the SD card back into the camera before going down to the beach and were too lazy to go back. But with two more days to come, I’m sure we’ll get some more adorableness captured on film.

But stay tuned for the video of Chris feeding seagulls. Only Chris would do something so strange, but that’s why we love him. I suppose.

Birthday song, fail

2011-05-07T22:36:00.000-04:00

As promised, here are the very amateur videos of Miles’ first birthday song. The first video is taken by yours truly while I was also trying to put the cupcake (with a lit candle) in front of the birthday boy. Don’t know why I didn’t ask for help. As you watch, you might be confused as to why the singing suddenly stops. Well let me explain: my wonderful husband thought it was dangerous to put a lit candle in front of the baby—like I was going to leave it there without supervision!

And for some reason, I accidentally turned off the camera while being reprimanded by my hubby, but then turned it back on just in time to hear one of our guests say that they hoped we were still recording because apparently watching Chris and I bicker is really fun. And here’s when the video gets really good because I turned it sideways. But let me explain—the camera looks like an iphone and the picture rotates based on the way you are holding it, but for some odd reason, doesn’t actually change the way it’s recording. Silly, I know.

I hope Miles doesn’t hold it against us when he’s older. But I’m sure there will be plenty bigger things that will cause him more trauma than this. Right?

Birthday party overload

2011-05-07T21:29:00.001-04:00

I know that not everyone likes to throw birthday parties for their kids (especially when the kid doesn’t even know what’s going on), but since we don’t have family to get together with informally, we decided to have a small party to celebrate the fact that we survived a year of parenthood. But I totally understand why we were only allowed friend birthday parties every other year; I’m exhausted!

I picked a “theme” many moons ago after being inspired by my amazing cousin, Kimba, and then running across some great ideas online. I’m not normally a very creative person—meaning, I cannot come up with an idea myself, but I can copy someone else. Mostly. So I was excited when I found a company that designs the invitations, decorations, etc. and then sells the PDF that can be personalized and printed at home. Awesome! (Except that we quickly discovered that our printer really eats the ink). Not awesome. Suffice it to say, I spent the bulk of the past few days decorating and baking and shopping.

The theme was “bouncy balls,” I guess. It ended up being more polka dots than anything else, but as it turns out, there’s a lot of stuff out there that fits that theme. Here’s the cute pennant banner and dots for my little boy. And because Target has wrapping paper that matched the theme, I wrapped the square wall hangings above our TV. I’ve always talked about wrapping these with Christmas paper during the holidays, but now I realize that it takes longer than it’s worth.

And now for the big reveal…

But the biggest deal was the homemade ball pit. As Chris was putting the balls in the pool this morning, he made fun of me because there was only one layer of balls. Not really a pit, in his opinion. But because we had a bunch of babies coming, I knew it would be perfect.

Miles seemed to like it when we put him in there.

But he liked it even more when his friends joined him.

That boy stayed in there longer than any one else. In fact, I left the ball pit in tact so that I can pull it out tomorrow after church.

But what would a birthday party be without cake?

Funny story. I put Chris in charge of the still camera while I was holding the video camera and giving Miles the cupcake (with candle). I don’t know why I didn’t ask anyone to record the milestone for me, but oh well. We lit the candle and started singing as I put the cupcake in front of Miles. At which point Chris chimes because he thought I was going to leave the lit candle in front of the baby, all while I’m trying to video. So we actually stopped singing so that I could explain to Chris that I’m not that stupid, and then we started singing again. I would include the video, but as you can imagine, it’s rather shaky. As far as the cupcake goes, Miles wasn’t really sure what to do. I was worried about this happening, so we practiced eating cupcakes yesterday after I baked them. I let him try some, and he really liked it. Today…not so much.

Notice that I forgot to unwrap the cupcake. First time parenting is tricky. But even with the paper off, he wasn’t sure what to make of the icing. Look how gingerly he is picking at it. No more doubting his pincer grasp capabilities here.

So after trying a few small bites, he decided to do this:

Whose child is this? We do not throw cupcakes on the floor in this family! That’s practically Rule # 1.

He did eventually try some more, but still not a big fan. I’m glad I didn’t make a bigger cake for him because that would have been a much bigger waste of time.

After cupcakes, Miles and Chris opened some presents. And I just can’t resist including this picture because isn’t it mandatory to have a meltdown at your birthday party? I’m not sure why he was crying, but it’s probably because he loved his present so much that it brought him to tears.

Overall we had a great time celebrating the birth of our little boy. The only bad part is the clean-up. Still haven’t taken down the decorations. Might leave them up for a while. Perhaps until we move.

Perhaps.

Miles: 12 months (yes, we survived a year!)

2011-05-01T20:57:00.001-04:00

Today marks a big day in our family because one year ago, we welcomed Miles to the world. It’s strange to think that this time last year we were in the hospital still quite amazed that we had a baby. Really, we were truly amazed that we even made it to the hospital at all. Need a reminder? Read it here.

In the past month, we have noticed a few small changes in personality. Some cute. Some not.

For example, he has grown very attached to his binky and his elephant. We have been using the binky since he was a few weeks old, but since he has started standing up in his crib, he has also started throwing or spitting his binky out on the floor. And then crying or talking until someone brings it back to him. Not cute.

But the elephant that has also been in his crib with him for a long time has recently become one of his favorite things. If I have to wake him up from a nap early, he has to hold onto it for quite some time to adjust to being awake. Cute. We sometimes bring the elephant to church with us in the hopes that maybe he’ll use it to take a nap during his regular time (doesn’t work), but he gets so excited when he sees it come out of my purse. He immediately grabs it and pulls it over his face and holds it there. Double cute.

Other new developments? No more nursing!! I’ve been phasing it out since he was about 10 1/2 months because I thought it would take longer than it did, so he’s been drinking formula during the day for a while. But I’m now 100 % done nursing. And I don’t miss it at all. Not. At. All. Although I have gained a pound or two that I am blaming on that.

He absolutely loves to be outside. When Chris is home in the evening, he’ll take Miles and the dog outside while I’m making dinner, and this is what they do.

He’s still not walking but is getting much more confident in his standing. He doesn’t need to pull so hard to stand up anymore, which make me a lot less nervous. A few weeks ago I was adjusting the mattress height of his crib and letting Miles crawl around the room while I did it. I was on the last of four difficult screws when he pulled the end table with the humidifier (which landed on my head, drenching me in water) and space heater on it. He of course was bawling because he was terrified, and I just felt so bad for him. So hopefully we’re past that (at least until he tries to climb something).

And we can’t leave the month of April without mentioning where we were when William and Katherine were married. We were here, doing this:

Miles even woke up early to watch. Yippee.

Oh, that’s the other big development. We’re in a sleep transition. What this means is that I can’t count on anything anymore. I think he was trying to get rid of his morning nap, but he’s clearly not ready to stay awake, at least not happily, until 1:00 in the afternoon, so we’re transitioning. I don’t really have a great action plan yet because, again, I’m waiting until after our vacation next week when everything will get screwed up anyway.

Now on to birthday stuff.

Since we are having a very small party for Miles on Saturday, we played it kind of low-key today. We did open up some family presents because it didn’t seem right to wait. Not that he cares at all. I wrapped most of them during his nap thinking that he would like to tear the paper. He didn’t.

We started with some fun “puffy balls” from the dollar spot at Target. We wasn’t sure what to make of them. I think they felt too much like grass.

Then we moved on to a little scooter that doubles as a walker. Neither adjustment were big hits. He’ll have to grow into this.

And then the big toy from my parents. This boy loves music, so they got him a musical table. Instead of just saying things as it lights up, this table sings everything! And it can be done in Spanish. I’m pretty happy with it right now, but as it goes with any toy that makes noise, I might hate it later.

Is this not the cutest little boy ever?

We are so blessed to have Miles in our family and love him right to pieces. And we’ re excited that his future years he’ll be much closer to family, both my family that will be in Colorado and Chris’s family that will now be a day’s drive instead of a really expensive plane ticket away.

And what does this day really signify? Let me put it this way: I leaned over to Chris during church and said, “Only six more months until he can go to the nursery.”

Easter 2011

2011-04-26T20:02:00.001-04:00

This was the day that I have been waiting for since having Miles—a REAL excuse to take pictures of him in his cute clothes. Yes, I know that I take a lot of pictures of him. Probably too many. But it was nice to not feel silly about it because doesn’t everyone take pictures on Easter Sunday? The silliest thing is that he didn’t really look any different on this particular Sunday from any other Sunday. (I can’t wait to have a girl to buy a new dress for.)

Ideally we would have taken our pictures before church, but let’s be honest, we were running a little late. I didn’t time the washing of my hair appropriately last week which resulted in having to wash and dry it before church (not typical). This always adds more time to my routine. So…we took our pictures as soon as we got home. And Chris humored me on the location and the prop (doesn’t he look so cute with that chair?).

And then, because I wanted the full effect of his outfit to show, I held his hand to help him stand up. He’s not usually the biggest fan of this, but he stood long enough to get my J. Crew-ish picture. Complete with a dog.

And because we don’t yet have a tri-pod for the camera, here are the pictures with Miles and one parent at a time. (And no, I did not buy a new Easter dress. Sigh.)

This is about when he decided that he would need some lunch if we wanted him to pose and smile any longer. Still cute, though.

And when he was supposed to be napping, he instead decided that he wanted to play in the kitchen with the eggs that the Easter bunny brought for him. And one of them even had cheerios in it. So exciting.

My new favorite backpack

2011-04-24T16:15:00.001-04:00

Day 4 of staycation started out pretty cloudy, but we were determined to go on a “hike” at a nature preserve not too far from the house. In fact, as we were driving there, we got several drops of rain on the windshield, but it cleared up by the time we arrived.

I’m not sure how big the nature preserve actually is, but there are only about 7 miles of trails total. We set out to hike as long as Miles would permit being carried like a backpack. Luckily, Miles seemed to enjoy being strapped in and being able to look around.

After hanging out on my back for quite some time, Chris and I switched off the burden of carrying the big ole’ baby. And as soon as we did that, this is what happened.

I know it’s hard to tell, but that child went and fell asleep like that. This meant that he didn’t take a legitimate nap at home. But such is life on staycation.

Cow + fish = a pleasant (and metal) surprise

2011-04-21T20:36:00.001-04:00

Last month, Miles and I met my friend Tara for lunch at a new restaurant near the mall. I was excited to try this place because it sounded like a perfect combination for me and Chris to try because it specializes in sushi (for me) and burgers (for Chris). I noticed it also offered milkshakes--a sure bet.

Anyhow I ordered a small Philly roll and a super large salad, and when it came, I immediately started boxing up half of the salad for dinner that night. That is until I found a small surprise hiding under the chicken. A metal bracket. For a second, I was willing to overlook it because Miles’s good mood wouldn’t last forever, and I knew that waiting for a new salad would take a while.

Fortunately, Tara was horrified and kept me from eating around it. We called the waiter over to show him what I found to which he replied, “Do you want a new salad?”

Ummm…really? In his defense, this place hasn’t been open very long, so maybe he’s new at this whole thing.

Next, the owner came over with a very sullen face and said, “I don’t even know what to say.”

To which Tara replied, “I’m glad you didn’t break your teeth biting into a piece of metal?” I love her!

But he felt terrible about the whole thing and very apologetic. He then explained that the entire lunch would be free, and he gave us each a coupon for free appetizers and gave me a $20 gift card.

Fast forward to last night when Chris and I finally redeemed it. We originally thought we would go see “True Grit” at the cheap theater by our house because our friends offered to watch Miles for us. But after thinking about it, we realized that we sit next to each other watching movies/tv in the dark every night. And since it is our staycation, we figured cashing in our free dinner would be a better idea.

It was so great to go to a restaurant, eat a nice dinner, have a conversation, all without having to shovel cheerios in front of Miles to keep him quiet. There was no metal in my food this time, but I’ll admit it, I thought about carrying one in my purse in an attempt to score another free meal. The dinner was great (filet mignon sushi!) and my company was even better (even though he nearly gagged when I made him try my dinner).

Staycation day 3 was a success (even though Chris spent the whole day working). Such is life.

Discovery Place

2011-04-21T20:10:00.001-04:00

On Day 2 of our staycation, we spent the morning at Discovery Place Kids with our good friend Natalie and her daughter, Emerson. It’s kind of like a children’s museum in that it has a lot of interactive things for young kids to do, but without all the boring things to read. This specific place is designed especially for younger kids, including little crawlers.

We got there after morning nap time, which is apparently when everyone else got there, too. It was Spring Break for the Charlotte schools, so it was probably busier than most weekday mornings. As soon as we walked in, there was a sea of empty strollers and diaper bags because it’s much easier to maneuver the crowds without a large stroller to run into people with.

Our first stop was the water table for kids too small to stand at the one on the floor. They have it designed with high chairs built into it so that wee ones can play with toys and water. They have “water aprons” to keep them dry, but as you’ll see later, it didn’t work so well. Why they would include a bucket at the water table, I don’t know. This is when he poured the water directly onto his lap.

After I had enough of the water (both kids probably would have stayed there longer), we took them over to a matted area with a large mirror to indulge his vanity. He immediately set to kissing himself, a favorite past time. And remember, he did not pee himself; it’s from the water table, I promise. Emerson is not nearly as vain as Miles; she seems to prefer to sit in the background staring at all of the other kids.

When some of the other kids abandoned this little scooter, I snatched it right up. He was far more interested in the antenna than actually riding it. Sometimes I forget that he really isn’t a big boy yet; riding scooters might be a little too advanced for this guy.

And then he did my new favorite thing: he came over to give me a big hug. I swear that he does say “mama” when he comes over to me, but I might be making it up. I hear what I want to hear. He says it all the time, but I can’t decide if he has any idea who or what he is saying it to.

After playing here for a while, we made the rounds to see what else this place has to offer; however, because it was so crowded, I wasn’t able to put Miles down to crawl as much as he would have liked. But I think we will definitely go back when it’s not as busy to truly explore.

And after this, we had lunch at Friendly’s. Don’t ask me why. I wanted a sandwich. It would have been quick and easy with two kids that desperately needed afternoon naps, but Chris would rather die than eat a sandwich that he could make himself at home. The kids did okay, but the food left a lot to be desired.

Chris’s punishment was then to keep both kids awake for the drive home, a job at which he failed. And then both kids ended up taking really short naps once they got home. I know this because we all got together for dinner at our house that night. Luckily, both babies are good natured enough that one would never know just how tired they were.

Hair

2011-04-19T23:00:00.001-04:00

Chris is on staycation this week, and we are trying our best to do things that we wouldn’t ordinarily do. First on our list on Monday? Miles’s first haircut. We’ve been talking about it for a long time now because his hair was getting so close to his eyes and it seemed that the hair around his ears was really bothering him. BUT…Chris was really concerned that getting his hair cut would officially make him a boy and not a baby. I was putting it off because, well, I do that with a lot of things these days. But Groupon pulled me in last week with a coupon, I mean groupon, to a children’s salon here in town. I figured if they cater to kids, there would be a smaller chance that they mess up.

Our appointment was for 4:00 so that Miles could take a nice afternoon nap, but so that it wasn’t so close to dinner that we entered the witching hour. But, as things often go, we were slightly late. It happens when Miles holds his own bottle.

When we arrived, there was a sign directing us to the front desk (if a sign needs to direct me, it must mean it is not in the front of the store). On my way to the so-called front desk, I noticed that there was an awfully lot of hair on the floor. I get that it’s a hair salon, but shouldn’t they be cleaner because it caters to kids?

Anyhow, the receptionist asked and if we had an appointment, and as I was answering in the affirmative, one of the stylists chimed in with, “Yes, at 4:00. It’s 4:09, but I guess we’ll keep it.”

She never once looked up at me. Just talked to the receptionist as if they were in a back room gossiping about the new clients that dared to be 9 minutes late. You’re telling me that no one is ever late taking their kid to a haircut? And it’s not as if they were super busy. But, it’s their business, not mine. Perhaps as a punishment, we were made to wait for the three other kids to get their hair cut first.

We did this:

Waiting for three others worked in our favor because then I didn’t have to interact with the stylist that was so offended by our tardiness. When it was our turn, Miles was strapped into some sort of automobile and immediately got to work driving (and admiring himself in the mirror).

We wasn’t quite sure what to make of the apron that was tied around him because it made his hands hard to locate, but other than that, he didn’t seem to care that someone to cutting off his beautiful hair. Especially since the stylist let him chew on a hair clip. I’m sure that I should have been worried about the cleanliness of the clip, but because Miles likes to lick the bottom of people’s shoes, a hair clip isn’t my biggest concern.

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And at the end of it all, we had ourselves a fine, young man.

And to celebrate, we of course had ice cream (not pictured).

Swinging on a Sunday

2011-04-17T21:30:00.001-04:00

After our afternoon naps today (for me and Miles), we headed over to a local park so that I could prove to Chris that Miles does like the swings. Chris wasn’t with me the first time and never trusts me until he sees it. Oh, Chris of little faith.

I know this picture looks like he doesn’t like it, but this is just him waiting patiently and watching the other kids play.

This is how much he likes it:

We didn’t stay long though, because as it turns out, swinging you kid gets kind of boring after a few minutes. I think we might be bad parents. Scratch that. Just selfish.

Storage ottomans are fun

2011-04-17T21:23:00.001-04:00

A little over a month ago, I finally got sick of all of the baby toys on the floor and Miles pulling all of the non-baby toys off of the bookshelf, so I brought back the storage ottoman that we had been using in his room.

Most days, I pull out some favorite toys and put them on the floor for him. He has figured out that there are more toys in the ottoman but hasn’t quite figured out how to get them. Although I did catch his feet dangling off of the floor this morning as he was trying to reach something at the very bottom. So cute.

The other day I was watching Miles’s friend Emerson while her mom was sleeping after a night shift, and I pulled out everything for the two of them to play with. But what did they want? You got it. The big, empty ottoman. So I helped them out a bit.

Can you believe she is two months younger than Miles?

They stayed in there for over 15 minutes and didn’t get frustrated until I tried to put their friend Joseph in their with them when he stopped by for lunch. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture with all three of them in there.

The next day I made a ball pit for Miles with the PVC balls I bought for his birthday party. But he needed some convincing that it was fun, not scary.

We heart visitors!

2011-04-11T13:17:00.001-04:00

We were lucky this weekend to get a visit from my cousin Kathy who needed a break from the hub-ub of DC (in her defense, she did not describe it as a hub-ub). Knowing my cousin like I do, I tried to pick an activity that would fit her desire to get exercise even while on vacation. I know, craziness! She also likes to swim “laps” at Lake Powell. So on Saturday, we all packed into the car, and I mean packed, and drove to Crowder’s Mountain. I sat in the back squished between the dog and the oversized car seat for the drive while Kathy sat up front with her legs cramped due to the same oversized car seat.

But after about an hour in the car (and a stop at McDonalds because any drive longer than 15 minutes requires road food), we got to the start of the trail. And although Chris and I had discussed bringing the carrier for Miles, we ended up only having the jog stroller. I still love the jog stroller, but it didn’t survive the rocky paths, so we ended up not going as far as we wanted when we started out.

But still a glorious little hike.

I feel like I have a lot of pictures of Miles sitting in the grass, but he’s just so cute!

And here he is with his new teething toy: pine cones.

Tethered

2011-04-04T12:58:00.001-04:00

Lest I bore my faithful readers with too many entries about Miles, please allow me to thrill you with a tale of my pets, Scout (the cowardly dog) and Jem (the crazy cat).

Scout loves to be outside, especially when there is some warm sunshine to bask in. Sadly, we do not have a proper backyard for her to enjoy unattended. She’s pretty good about staying near the house, but if there is bird or a stray cat at our neighbor’s house, she takes off. So when she’s driving me crazy, and it’s warm enough outside, I hook her up to her tie-out. She does this:

Jem, however, jealously sits at the back door.Remember, this cat came to our family as a stray on our front doorstep and has always been an escape artist. Remember the four weeks he has disappeared over the summer?

I noticed a family a few houses up that hooks their cat on a long rope in their backyard, letting the cat just sit in the trees. I thought Jem would enjoy something like this, so I bought another rope to hook to Scout’s tie-out last week and tried it out with Jem’s collar. That didn’t go so well because his first reaction was to run as fast as he could until the collar nearly choked him or came off. Back to Petsmart I went and came home with a harness specially designed for cats. This was after a lovely sales associate told me about a large raptor of some sort that she watched fly away with a live squirrel out her back window.

At first, Jem wasn’t sure what to make of the harness, but he does let me put it on him without scratching. Our last cat would never have allowed such a violation of his civil liberties.

So while the dog was inside, I put Jem outside.

For some reason he stays very close to the ground.

After a few minutes of this, I let Scout back out. I kept telling her to “leave it,” which she did, until I turned my back, at which point, she attacked. But in a friendly way.

I don’t think a bird could stand a chance against those claws, but they don’t deter our dog.

At this point, the dog came back inside in a role-reversal.

This only lasted a few minutes though because somehow Jem managed to do this:

So now he is stuck inside with the other attacker, Miles.

Miles: 11 months

2011-04-02T20:55:00.001-04:00

Hard to believe that this time last year, I was still very much pregnant. Still working. Still feeling my baby kicking inside my belly. Still having lots of back pain. Still totally unprepared for the birth. Still able to sleep in on weekends. Still waiting to be a mom.

And now I have Miles. A little boy. I can’t quite call him a toddler yet because he has yet to “toddle,” but I can’t quite call him a baby anymore. But as long as he’s still using his binkie, he will retain some definite baby-ness.

Since the weather has been mostly warmer this month, we have been able to sit outside in the grass on lazy afternoons. The first time he touched the grass, he lifted up his arms and curled up his legs and cried for me to pick him up. He did not enjoy the feeling. So when Chris and I brought him out to eat a picnic lunch with us a few weekends back, the blanket on the ground served as a perfect barrier. He did not want to leave the comfort of the soft cotton quilt. That lasted about a day. Now he finds it fascinating.

He is still very happy with his ability to crawl. And he has gained a lot of speed. I have had to change him several times because he gets to the dog’s water dish before I even realize it’s on the ground. I know most people say that when they have kids, their house gets more and more cluttered, but ours seems to be doing the opposite. Don’t get me wrong; this child has plenty of toys, but we seem to be getting rid of everything else to make room for him to crawl around. It helps to have our house on the market, too. It forces me to show some restraint in the amount of things he has.

He’s right on track with the big milestone of playing “pat-a-cake.” Chris indulges him in the song far more than I do. And we’re supposed to be playing peek-a-book, I guess, but I’ll admit that it’s not high on my daily to-do list. He’s also discovered his inner rhythm in the past few weeks or so. I read somewhere that babies are trying to imitate the feeling or being rocked, but it sure seems like he does this “rocking” as soon as music comes on.

Speaking of music, he has finally decided that he is a fan of the guitar. Chris usually plays to Miles after bath time while I am getting him dressed. He is so fascinated by it, that I have to be careful that he doesn’t fall of the changing table in an attempt to get to Chris.

He is pulling up on things now. And all this has changed, really, is that now I know just how dirty my window sills are. Thanks, Miles. One more thing to clean.

And lastly, I’m not sure what he is doing in this picture, but I thought it was cute. Enjoy.

To Catch a Monkey

2011-03-23T21:47:00.001-04:00

Have you ever heard the analogy of a monkey and a trap. It goes something like this: in order to catch a monkey, you need to simply place some food in trap that easily allows an open hand in and out, but not a closed fist. The monkey will clutch onto the food and refuse to let go, allowing you to simply catch the monkey with his hand caught in the trap. I can’t remember what moral goes with the story. It’s not important for tonight’s purposes.

Here’s my little monkey.

Eventually he just tried the old fashioned way.

And yes, those are cargo shorts on my little boy. Where is my baby??

Manners

2011-03-16T19:39:00.001-04:00

Although Miles usually eats his dinner before Chris and I do (it’s easiest to feed him in the kitchen while I’m making dinner), we try to put him at the table with us while we eat so that we can introduce him to social eating. A couple of nights ago, we put some rice in front of him (which he was totally uninterested in), and this is what he did.

We thought it was so cute that we took a few pictures and let him do it again the next night. That is until he pushed back so hard that his chair nearly fell backward.

Now we just let him crawl around on the floor while we eat. It’s just easier that way. Even though it means we’ll be missing out on this face:

Kissing

2011-03-03T13:20:00.001-05:00

This little man has been working really hard on a new skill.

And I have been the fortunate (?) guinea pig. He loves getting kisses but is now really excited to start reciprocating. The unfortunate part is that he doesn’t quite understand the process.

First, he missed the mouth and went straight for the nose. But at least his eyes were closed.

Then he went for the “kiss and tell” approach. “Look, Dad, I’m kissing.”

And then he went for the kill shot but really ended up eating my face.

In the course of a few minutes, he managed to pull out all of the bad moves that we have all experienced in our past lives. Am I right?

He’s so vain

2011-03-01T21:11:00.000-05:00

For those of you that check this blog on some sort of reader, you will notice that this is a new post but not a new post at the same time. For those of you who just come over to my blog every once in a while, you probably won’t see this at all. Why? Because I figured out how to post-date my entries! So even though it is really June, according to my blog, it’s only March 1st.

Mostly I am finally getting around to uploading videos that have been sitting on our camera for months now. And even though Miles has changed significantly since this video was taken, I couldn’t help but post it.

Miles: 10 months

2011-03-01T20:14:00.001-05:00

It must be his new found mobility, but it seems like Miles is more of a little boy and less of a little baby these days. Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited that he is growing up, but part of me will miss the tiny baby stage. I guess this is why women have more babies. And I guess if I got pregnant now, I would have another baby when this one is just under 2. But let’s NOT talk about that.

Let’s talk about how great Miles is. This is his blog update after all.

I bought a calendar before Miles was born that allows you to write in your own months and dates that has places for monthly baby pictures, weight, height, etc. and stickers with all sorts of milestones on them. Until yesterday, that calendar was still showing September. It’s unfortunate that all of his major milestones have fallen in these last few months.

And this last month has been a biggie. Crawling.

A lot of other babies we know, babies that are younger than Miles, have started crawling in the last two months or so. I wasn’t worried because he was still on track for his age, but part of me was ready for it to happen. Mostly because he was spending so much time crying in frustration and waiting for someone to come pick him up. Of course part of me never wanted this to happen because I started to think about all of the baby proofing that needs to happen (but still hasn’t because I can’t decide what to do).

It’s amazing how quickly he figured out that he can get to wherever he wants to be. I’ll put him down in front of the couch and then walk to the kitchen, and before I know it, he is right behind me. Or in the dog bowl. Or the shoe basket. Or trying to put every cord plugged into an outlet into his mouth. Or, better yet, unplug the airwick incense thingy and put it in his mouth. This morning I put together a stand for the dog dishes so that it would be off of the floor, but within two minutes, the cat had pulled it over, spilling its content on the kitchen floor. And if a cat can do that, so can a baby. So that got re-packed to be returned to Petsmart and possibly exchanged for something sturdier.

Miles has also discovered his voice. He’s been babbling for quite some time now, but it’s been in the last few weeks that he’s decided that it’s really fun to screech at the top of his lungs. He does this most while riding in his car seat because there is a handsome baby to talk to in his mirror. He’s yet to discover how loud his voice is while at church. Let’s cross out fingers that doesn’t happen for a while longer.

Church. Not sure why we even bother to go because I don’t hear much of what’s said these days. Miles doesn't enjoy sitting still as well as he used to, especially now that he is crawling. We spend a lot of time trading back and forth wandering the hallways. Not sure if we’ll let him crawl and play out there because I don’t know if he knows it yet, but eventually he’ll figure out that the hallway in much cooler than the chapel. Sundays that Chris isn’t at church are especially enjoyable, but such is life.

I get weekly emails from BabyCenter that tell me what “should” be happening with my baby at each stage of his growth. Each update ends with a section that says, “Remember, each baby is an individual,” meaning, don’t freak out if your baby is just barely crawling but we’ve been sending you updates for TWO MONTHS about his new-found skills of crawling, cruising, and walking. Anyway, this week’s update is about his language development, and that he understands a lot of what we’re saying and may be able to start communicating with his “words.” At the bottom of the update, there are two comments from mother’s of 10-month-olds that claim their children are saying “mama, “dada,” “dog,” etc. REALLY? Because all Miles says is, oh wait, nothing. He can make the m, d, and th sounds, but I’m not sure he is forming words, especially because he says the same things over and over again, no matter who or what are in the room with him. Am I supposed to be doing something differently?

I’m still making my own baby food (mostly). Now that he eats more and more, I find it harder to keep up, so I buy some jars to keep in the pantry. He is starting to get frustrated while I am spoon feeding him pureed food because he wants so badly to hold the spoon himself. No way is that going to happen any time soon. I do enough laundry as it is. So I’ve started giving him another spoon to play with in between bites. Aside from the pureed meats, lentils, veggies, and fruit, he is also eating more finger foods. This past month I’ve started giving him little pieces of cheese and cooked peas or carrots, and black beans. He also gets to eat little pieces of whatever we have as well.

And as for sleep, he’s really good at it. He is mostly sleeping through the night (7-7) and taking two naps with the AM nap being at least an hour and the PM nap mostly 2-3 hours. I know, I’m lucky.

I’m already thinking about his birthday party. It’s not going to be big (we don’t have big enough house for lots of people), but I’m excited to have a party. I’m not sure what the theme will be, but I’m more of the philosophy that the party shouldn’t be a huge deal because then I’ve set a high bar that I’ll have to live up to each time and with each kid. I’m all about low expectations here.

The progression of a crawler

2011-02-26T21:07:00.001-05:00

Let’s start by looking at what Miles thought of crawling 5 days ago. He mostly would get to all fours and then start crying for someone to come pick him up. At this point, he also tried some baby yoga with an attempt at a downward dog.

And then 3 days ago, he decided that it might not be so bad to actually move forward. But not too far. He was super slow and stopped as soon as he reached his objective.

And since then, has gotten a little braver and a little faster. So far he has made it to the dog dishes in the kitchen, to the shoe basket by the front door, to the cable box and dvd player in the entertainment center, and in his baskets on the bookshelf.

I’m excited that he is crawling but also dreading it just a tiny bit. How am I supposed to shower now? I can’t just put him down on the floor and expect him to be there when I get out 10 minutes later. How am I supposed to sit in one spot while he is playing? I’m pretty sure this means I will be spending less time on the computer during the day and more time following him around.

But I’m really glad that he is happier. He was getting so frustrated with wanting to get to things but not being able to get there. He spent a lot of time screaming at me to come get him.

And somehow in the last few days, my baby has turned into a boy.

Why today is a great day

2011-02-14T21:26:00.001-05:00

Of course, as a single woman, I hated this day. I know, I could have looked at it as a day to celebrate love in general, but I was bitter. And bitter young women don’t celebrate love. I did, however, celebrate ice cream. Shout out to Kate and The Purple Turtle!

But since meeting Chris, I have been able to have a Valentine for 6 years in a row. We used to make a really big deal about it. You know, before life started. We used to get really great gifts and go eat at really great restaurants. It was nice. But because we were pregnant last year, busy, and trying to save money for the baby, we had homemade fondue and marinated flank steak at home. And we didn’t really miss anything.

This year, having a child has really rocked our world. Yes, we could get someone to watch Miles so that we could go to a nice dinner, and we could buy really great gifts. But let’s be honest, we’re poor. Or, more accurately, we have far less money than ever before.

But what makes this year a truly great Valentine’s Day is that I have two Valentines.

Chris said goodbye to me very early this morning, so I spent the majority of the day with my mini-Valentine. After his morning nap, we were able to go for a really nice walk with the dog at the park. It was so nice out that I was able to wear shorts and a T-shirt. As it turns out, I am pretty pale after a long, cold couple of months.

After his afternoon nap, I pulled out the camera to get some pictures of him in his Beatles: All You Need is Love shirt. As soon as I pulled out the camera, he gave me this face:

And then this one:

And then he enjoyed some dried Apricots:

When Chris got home, we ran to the grocery store to pick up some steak (yes, we only eat it on holidays, or when my parents buy it for us) and other goodies. This is where Chris volunteered to go get me some flowers, but I explained that, although flowers are great, it doesn’t really mean as much when I’m standing right there while they are being purchased. So I told him that what I really wanted was a People magazine and a Diet Dr. Pepper. I’m a simple girl.

And after a short walk around the block as a family, I got a couple of great shots with my little man, including this one of him doing his new favorite thing—clapping.

And yes, that is a brownie mix in the background. It is a holiday, after all.

Sleep

2011-02-04T21:45:00.001-05:00

I really can’t complain too much about being a sleepless mom. Miles takes really great naps twice a day, and if I’m feeling tired, I take a nap, too. I do this even if I’m not truly tired because I know that when I have my next baby, there will be a little toddler to look after instead of taking a nap. And at night, when Miles does wake up to eat, it only takes about 10 minutes from the time I hear him wake-up to the time I am back in bed. But it would be nice to lay down at night knowing that I won’t have to get up until the morning.

And so I was looking forward to his 9-month check-up on Wednesday, and not just because he wasn’t getting any shots this time. Just a little prick to draw some blood. And because Miles is now eating solids really well on top of the breast milk 6 times a day (still twice a night!), he managed to gain about three pounds since his weight check in December!

This was what I was waiting for. I knew that by about 9 months, most babies are sleeping through the night and that it’s okay to stop nursing them if they haven’t gotten there yet. Of course I didn’t want to stop feeding him if the doctor was still worried about his weight gain. So after she gave me the green light, I felt such a huge elation. And then I just happened to mention that I think I produce a lot more milk at night. Ooops.

“Well,” she said, “some babies still need to eat at about 4 or 5 in the morning.”

So close!

But that meant that I wouldn’t be feeding him if he woke up before then. Just letting him cry. Or going in there to comfort him if I felt like he would calm down without nursing.

Miles has been fairly inconsistent with his night feedings. He has slept through the night a handful of times. Then he went back to waking up three times. Then once. Then twice. I never know when I go to sleep at night how long I have until he will wake up.

But after the appointment, Chris and I decided that if Miles woke up before 4 am, we would just let him cry himself back to sleep. The same way we let him cry when we were trying to help him learn how to fall asleep for nap times. I really dreaded this when we went to bed that night. I was pretty sure that I would have to go in there to hold him because I HATE to listen to him upset, especially if I could be sleeping. Selfish, I know.

But Miles decided that he would go ahead and sleep until 4.

And then the last night he decided that he would sleep until 5:30. And then slept in until 8 am after that!

Of course, because I am putting this out there in the universe, he will wake up five times tonight. And Chris is going back to working nights tonight. Yea!

Miles: 9 months

2011-02-01T22:06:00.001-05:00

No, he is not crawling. In fact, until about a week ago that he didn’t seem all that interested in crawling at all. He was perfectly content to sit on the ground or lay on his back playing with toys. But then he started to notice that there were other toys that were just out of reach that were, in fact, cooler than the one in his hand. But rather than moving his way to the toy, he would cry for me to give it to him.

And then he REALLY started rolling around. Yes, he has been able to roll for a while, but this past week has been totally different. Let’s just say that I vacuum a lot more now because he ends up in every corner of the room. Oh, and I also vacuum just in case someone decides that they want to come look at our house. Never going to happen.

In attempts to crawl, he will get up on his hands and knees, but then takes a nosedive to the ground. Luckily, most times it doesn’t end in a crying session. But sometimes it does.

In the past month we also added a high chair. We had been feeding him in his Bumbo chair sitting on the counter, but he started to get too wriggly. So now he gets strapped in. This picture was while Chris was feeding him some Butternut squash. Those pesky hands are always rubbing food everywhere.

Like I mentioned yesterday, Miles has had a cold/cough for over a week now; I am hoping this is why he is acting more fussy, but I’m starting to think that he is just more clingy. I get emails from a website every week to let me know what my baby should be going, and they seem to be saying that this is the time when my baby might be feeling a bit of separation anxiety. The problem is that Miles is never separated from me. He just wants to be held. Don’t get me wrong—I LOVE to snuggle my baby on the couch for 30 minutes before naptime—it’s just that occasionally there are other things I need to be doing.

But I would do anything for this face:

Even if it means getting less done. You know what they say, less is more.

Does it get any better than this?

2011-01-31T20:23:00.001-05:00

We had a great weekend here; mostly because Chris had three days off in a row. It was lovely to be together as a family for such prolonged hours. And super lovely that there was another parent to take care of our sick little guy. Miles has had a cold for almost two weeks now which seems to make him a bite fussier.

And on Saturday as I was making some baby food, I heard the words that I have been longing to hear. As Chris was trying to keep Miles happy, I heard him say, “Miles, I don’t know how your mother does this everyday!”

Love it!

Life

2011-01-24T13:24:00.001-05:00

I’m sure that everyone that reads my blog also waits anxiously for me to update my Facebook status, so they probably already know this, but I will finally write about here: we are moving to Colorado Springs this summer!

The Colorado job market, as we’ve been told for years and years, is notoriously hard to break into. I guess it’s something about the beautiful mountains and the 300 days of sunshine each year. This led us to believe that we would never be able to live there. Well at least not any time soon. For this reason, we almost decided to go to Denver for residency, thinking it would give us a greater chance of getting a job there, but their program is 4 years instead of 3, and it just didn’t seem right.

Charlotte has been a pretty good fit for us. We have made some great friends, traveled to a few places that we wouldn’t have if we were out west (DC, Asheville, and the beach a few times), and had a nice, little townhouse in the suburbs (more on this house later).

But Chris spent months and months trying to network in Colorado while we got letters and fliers in the mail almost daily of other jobs trying to recruit. Colorado doesn’t recruit. They don’t have to. They just wait for people to find them. In fact, they don’t always have websites with phone numbers to call. But as it turns out, there is a Charlotte alumni that works for a group in Colorado Springs. And Chris happens to be really good at what he does, he wouldn’t say it himself, but I’m pretty sure any group is lucky to have him.

We traveled to Denver for a few interviews in November and Chris went back a few weeks later for a formal interview in Colorado Springs. And we were officially offered the job last week. Now we have to sell our house and find a place to live in Colorado.

The house goes on the market in three days for far less than we bought it for 2 1/2 years ago, and less than we owe on it now. Clearly, this is not the greatest time to try to sell a townhouse in the suburbs of Charlotte. But if we’re lucky, it will sell. We’ take ANY reasonable offer because we do NOT want to try to rent this place. Or pay for it to be vacant. We’ll probably end up renting once we move because we want to make sure we end up in the right area, and probably more importantly, we’ll need some time to save up for a down payment. And pay back my parents that have graciously offered to help us get out of this place. It’s seems a bit backwards to me that we will have to ask for financial help after almost 6 years of being married and when we are finally finishing the student/resident part of our lives. We’re really grateful for the help though.

Now there is definitely a light at the end of this long, dark tunnel. We’ll miss Charlotte, but we’re excited to finally settle down and put down roots.

A rather serious post

2011-01-13T13:52:00.001-05:00

I’ve been thinking about this post for some time now, but didn’t know if there was really a point in writing it because it contains no pictures of Miles. I’m not even sure that I know how to write an entry without pictures anymore. I’m am, however, pretty sure that I have a serious case of what I like to call “mommy brain,” meaning I find myself searching for words more, making silly mistakes, etc. I don’t know if there is a scientific reason or if it’s just because I am still getting up one, two, or three times at night.

A good friend of mine had a “Holiday Book Swap” party in December. No, we did not trade copies of How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Elf on a Shelf with each other, but instead we all brought one of our favorite books and did a white-elephant style swap. A great majority of us were English teachers, and those that weren't were well-read, so there were some good books. I ended up with Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Wells. This is the true story of the author’s maternal grandmother who grew up on a ranch in Arizona and then spent the majority of her life teaching in one-room school houses in rural Arizona, working a large cattle ranch with her husband, and raising two kids. I found myself absolutely amazed at the life she led and how vastly different is than my life. This book was apparently the author’s second book, her first being her own memoir, The Glass Castle. I read both books rather quickly because they were so good. So quickly that Chris was frustrated that I didn’t give him time to buy the second one to put in my stocking.

The Glass Castle is what really made me think about parenthood. Wells truly had a remarkable upbringing, one I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Her parents were so irresponsible, often doings things that made me want to cry for their children that were forced to take care of themselves (and sometimes their parents) from very young ages.

But what it really made me think about is the strength of the parent-child relationship. Once the children were grown, they all moved to New York and were later followed by their parents who then lived mostly on the streets or squatting in run-down buildings. But their children did everything they could to help their parents. And that’s what amazed me. In my eyes, their parents did not deserve to even have relationships with their children because they had done so little for them. But perhaps I only feel this way because my parents were (and are) great parents. I, of course, would do everything to help my parents if they needed my help because I am in debt to them for so many things.

And then I watched an episode of my guilty please, Hoarders, last week that made my jaw drop. The woman on this episode was hoarding lots of trash and lots of animals. She had chickens living in rubbermaid tubs with grates over the top but never cleaning out their droppings, so the poor chickens were being squashed. She apparently had 10 children that had all been removed from her home when they were younger because she was abusive and neglectful. But it was two of her daughters that wanted to help their mother. They didn’t want to see her go through another winter without heat. They didn’t want to see her living in such squalid conditions because they love her when as far as I could tell, she didn’t deserve love.

Now that I am a mother, I am always wondering how my children will view their own childhoods. Will they see me as a good mother? What will they remember? I just don’t want my children to ever have to explain to others why they love me when in others’ eyes I may not deserve it. I want them to grow up in a home that is comfortable and nourishing. I want them to thrive in an environment that fosters creativity.

And now I don’t know how to end this. I wish I had a recent picture of Miles to include. Let me do some searching. Not recent, but will still do.

At least Miles can tell people that his mom let him eat Christmas trees.

The End.

Snow day

2011-01-12T14:54:00.001-05:00

Early Monday morning, the snow moved in to the Charlotte area; this wasn’t the first snow of the season for the area, but since we were in Texas for the first go-round, this was the first snow for Miles. Luckily, I thought ahead and picked up a winter coat for him on consignment over the weekend. I just didn’t see the point of buying him a jacket that he will only wear for the next couple of months especially since it won’t fit him next year.

When Chris came home from work, we took the obligatory first snow picture. And since we don’t have a tripod, there always has to be more than one picture.

Scout always wants to be near me in pictures, but we can’t get her to understand the concept of facing the camera.

Miles will face the camera, but isn’t sure if he should smile when he hears me talking to him when he can only see the big, black thing in front of my face.

The dog really enjoyed the snow. And Miles really enjoyed watching her run.

And then I just really liked this next picture.

Later that night, the snow turned to freezing rain so that everything had a thick layer of ice on it the next morning. Chris had to take my car because his has a hard time making out of our neighborhood on ice, which means I haven’t left the house in several days. But today the ice is all melted, so maybe we’ll venture to the grocery store. Yippee!

The non-resolution resolution

2011-01-04T19:23:00.001-05:00

As a rule (as of about three years ago), I do not make New Year’s Resolutions. I used to. I liked the idea of having the opportunity to re-commit to the things that are important to me. But it always ended up looking like a list of things that I needed to DO and not things that I wanted to become. Last year, I’m pretty sure my only resolution was to have a baby. Accomplished!

Admittedly, Chris and I did set a goal to eat more at home (and that doesn’t mean ordering more pizza) and being more active. We have a beach trip scheduled in May and don’t want it to sneak up on us.

This year, I wanted to think about some habits that I think will help me to be a better person. So that’s what I did. I thought about them. I didn’t want to utter them aloud because that would put me in some sort of binding contract with whomever heard me say them. So I’m not even going to write them down. I’m just hoping that I can change a few habits.

I will, however, admit that one goal was to blog everyday for the first 21 days of the year because that’s how long it’s supposed to take to turn something into a habit. Clearly I did not follow through. In my defense, I did think about things I could write about each night as I was lying in bed. Also, Chris has been working on his monthly presentation over the past couple of days which means that I have far less time with the laptop.

Let’s just say that I hope to blog more but am making no promises.

Miles: 8 months

2011-01-01T19:38:00.001-05:00

Note: these entries may not be interesting to anyone but me, but this is how I am planning on journaling this phase of life. Sorry.

Turning 8 months old is a pretty great way to start the new year, if you ask me, which you pretty much did by reading my blog. Yesterday we said goodbye to the year of Miles and hello to the year of unknowns. Don’t get me wrong, Miles will still be a pretty big part of 2011, but it’s not his birth year anymore, making it open for whatever else wants to come our way (i.e. a new job, home, etc.).

This past month seems to be the month that Miles has changed the most since he was born. But I’m pretty sure I think that every month. Although he could sit up at 7 months, he is way more comfortable sitting up now and can do it for much longer without getting tired and fussy. He sometimes still cries when he falls over, but that’s mostly when he is close to nap time.

His favorite toys happen to not be toys. TV remotes, computers, and phones. I usually give him my phone, but as of yesterday that must stop. He let bite marks. He peeled some of the shiny stuff off (probably swallowed it). Tonight I pulled out the TV remote that we don’t use and gave it to him for his very own. He was very excited.

Oh, that’s the other major thing. He has teeth. His two bottom teeth are up. I noticed them about three weeks ago when he bit my finger one morning. He wasn’t too fussy, though, which is nice. He has since bit other body parts. Not cool. Not cool at all.

Over Christmas I started giving him cheerios. He seems to really love them. And they seem to keep him happy. A new great tool for church and restaurants.

He is still napping really well, and in the past week or so has started to drop his late afternoon nap. Sometimes this means he is a little fussy around our dinnertime, but it’s nice to have a longer stretch in the afternoon/evening to get some errands done if I need to. He is not sleeping through the night. In fact, he is still consistently waking up twice. I would try to stop nursing him both times, but he seems to nurse so much better at night. He just can’t be bothered to nurse well during the day—too many other things to see and do. Hence the biting. I think I read somewhere that I can stop feeding him overnight at 9 months, so I’ll wait until we see the pediatrician next month to make sure I’m not starving him.

He is eating solids much better now, too. He still love avocados (much to Chris’s dismay), but will eat anything I give him. We are about to start some more meats and beans to make sure he is getting enough protein, so we’ll see how that goes.

Chris has decided that Miles is officially fun now. He has developed a personality and enjoys playing with his Daddy, which is all Chris cares about. I’ve noticed that Miles is quite a flirt, especially during church. He loves to smile at whomever is sitting behind us, even if they don’t smile first. He seems to really enjoy going to class because he things the teacher is talking only to him.

I’m still loving being home with him. I’m about to start teaching online for North Carolina, so I’m a little worried that it will be harder for me to juggle my schedule, but I’m sure we’ll work it out.

You’re only cool if you celebrate Christmas twice

2010-12-29T12:33:00.001-05:00

We traveled to Dallas for Christmas this year to spend it with Chris’s family but didn’t want to take all of our gifts for each other there only to have to bring them back (with the gifts from his family). So we celebrated Christmas last Tuesday; I wanted to do just like it were Christmas, you know, open one present the night before, read the nativity, and then open everything else the next morning. However, it’s time I get used to having to schedule everything around Chris’s work schedule. So instead, we had one little celebration after Miles’ afternoon nap.

The first gift of Christmas was his first ornament—a holly bell with his name and the year engraved on it; everyone in Chris’s family has one of these, and Chris and I have one for the year we were married.

And of course, it has to go straight in the mouth. As did all of his other presents.

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In Texas, Miles was having a hard time adjusting to a new schedule and house and noise, so he wasn’t the happiest baby, but we managed to get a few pictures before he started screaming.

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The first picture is after we changed him into his photo shoot outfit—those pictures will come later. The other two are during stocking-opening. He needed some assistance to figure out what to do. Apparently he prefers to just lie down on his stocking.

And this is the morning after Christmas when Chris was awake with Miles. Apparently there was some sort of blow out, which is why his sleeper is on the floor, and as soon as he was stripped down, Miles was very excited.

Overall we had a great Christmas and hope that all of you did as well. I’m still working on a Johnson newsletter to email out. No promises.

Animal tracks

2010-12-18T20:22:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was the warmest day we have had in a what seems like a very long time, so we finally took the dog to the park (and Miles came, too). We had some rain on Thursday, so much of the trail was still slightly muddy and along the way, Chris made a couple of comments about some interesting tracks he kept seeing. After about a mile, he stopped and looked more closely at one of the tracks. It only took me about two seconds to have it figured out: the elusive animal was the dreaded human in shoes.

As soon as I realized that my super intelligent husband who prides himself on his ability to identify all sorts of birds, animals, tracks, etc. had made a mistake, I said, “blog update.” And being a good sport, he even took the pictures from his phone.

He wanted me to point out, in his defense, that he originally was only seeing the heel of the shoe.

As we continued to walk, I saw the following. He must have thought it was a stampede.

Tonight’s bath brought to you by the letters M and H

2010-12-14T22:24:00.001-05:00

Thanks to our friend Meredith, Miles is learning his alphabet during bath time. Please disregard the major scratch on his face—apparently I need to do a better job of trimming his nails.

And in other news, he is no longer failing to thrive. This child gained three pounds in the last month. Now he has chunky thighs like his mom.

Miles and the bearded man

2010-12-14T17:00:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was the BIG day! The day that all parents look forward to. The day that truly shows that you are, indeed, parents. The day that your child meets Santa for the first time.

I had done my research prior to visiting Santa because I wanted to make sure that we were meeting an authentic looking Santa. And where does one find that sort of Santa? The fancy mall, of course.

We made sure to time our visit to Santa just after Miles’s morning nap because in order to get a smiling picture, one must have a well-rested child. Well, I figured it at least increased our chances. Santa arrives at the mall at 10 am, and we made it there by 11; and there was no line! Bonus.

There weren’t, however, any elves helping this Santa—only a slight disappointment. Before we got in line, we told the two young men working there that we would be purchasing the digital copy of our photo because then, we figured, we could do whatever we wanted with it. I guess you don’t actually have to purchase a photo, you know, in case your child takes terrible pictures, but in order to take your own pictures with your own camera, you must purchase.

Miles and I walked up to Santa, and he explained the best place to set the baby on his lap and the best place for the parents to stand. So I set Miles on Santa’s lap, stepped beside the camera, and started making all sorts of silly noises. Luckily, Miles hasn’t yet developed any stranger anxiety, in fact, I’m not even sure he noticed that he was sitting on an old man’s lap.

After they took their picture, I got to look at it on their screen in order to approve it, and Chris started snapping away. (When we got home, we compared the pictures, and ours turned out much better). After Chris took a few, he stepped away to pay for the picture, and I talked to Santa a bit. It was then that Miles noticed the man with the beard, and he looked up at Santa in the cutest way. I wish we had taken a picture then.

Chris and I talked to Santa briefly (again, no line), and he expressed that he views it as such a privilege to be part of a baby’s first Christmas. A very good Santa, in my opinion.

I’m pretty sure Miles told Santa that he wanted for his mom to stop making him wear sweater vests for Christmas.

It’s beginning to look, feel, and smell a lot like Christmas!

2010-12-04T21:23:00.001-05:00

Although I decorated the house and put the tree up a week ago, today felt like the real start of the Christmas season around here. It was the perfect Saturday to get into the festive spirit since it hasn’t gotten out of the 30s and low 40s all day—we even had some sleet/hail/frozen rain mix!

The day started with Chris getting up with Miles so that I could have a morning to sleep in. And what did Miles do? He slept 45 minutes more than he has been lately. And I couldn’t get back to sleep after he woke up anyway. I did, however, lay in bed while Chris got him changed and fed. After I came downstairs, Chris and I both commented that it would have been a great day to go for a jog except that it was so cold. It is highly possible that we said that only to make ourselves feel better but fully knowing that it wasn’t going to happen.

While Miles took his morning nap, I got ready for the day (instead of taking a nap, too) because Miles was invited to his first birthday party. We, of course, were fashionably late because I didn’t want to wake him too soon. But he made an appearance, giving ample time to give the birthday girl her gift—one of those Sing-a-ma-jigs. We got back in the car at about the time he needed his second nap for the day, leaving him about 30 minutes to sleep in the car seat before we got home. I tried to transfer him to his crib, but that only works if he has been asleep for about 10 minutes or so.

Instead, I fed him again, changed him into something fancy, and we headed out to his first symphony concert. The Charlotte Symphony and Orchestra does a concert every December called, “The Magic of Christmas,” in which they play a variety of Christmas music accompanied by various vocal groups (and sometimes the audience). Chris surprised me with tickets to the concert last year, and I was excited to take Miles this year. Chris wasn’t too sure about taking a 7-month-old to a concert, but I thought he did remarkably well. We made sure to get seats on the aisle in case we needed to get out, which we did. We met some of our friends there; and between the two babies in the group, there was always someone standing in the aisle with a baby. During the first half, Miles was enthralled with the loud music and lights. He was tired, which usually means he wants to snuggle against my chest, but he really wanted to be facing the music to see what all the noise was about. Also, we discovered he really likes applause. Chris stood with him until Intermission, but it wasn’t until the second half when there were two slower songs in a row, that I got him to fall asleep.

After a stop at Panera for dinner (because it was a soup kind of night), we headed home to finally trim our tree. Around here, we always wear Santa hats and listen to carols as we decorate, so of course, I had to get Miles his own hat this year. Unfortunately, the only one I found (that I was willing to spend money on) had silly ear straps.

You can really see that Miles has lost his blue eyes here. They’re still in between brown, green, hazel.

I attempted to wear antlers instead this year, but soon after this, Chris made me put on the hat because it was too hard to get the top of the antlers in the pictures.

This is what Miles wanted to be doing instead of looking at the camera.

This was after we turned off the flash in an attempt to get more ambiance in the photos, but it also made everything a little blurry—especially because Miles doesn’t like to hold still.

This is what happens anytime we are on the floor because Scout really likes attention. It makes for a VERY blurry picture.

And here’s the big moment—hanging the first ornament.

But the biggest reminder that it is the Christmas season is the cold I am in the middle of. Let’s hope this doesn’t turn into the sinus/ear infections of last year.

Miles: 7 months

2010-12-02T21:25:00.001-05:00

Officially Miles turned 7 months yesterday, but Chris took the laptop with him to Colorado, and the desktop decided to “take a break” last night, so this post is a day late. But I’m pretty sure not much has changed since yesterday.

Since his 6 month appointment fell a few days after his half-birthday post, I didn’t get a chance to update on his stats, but it wasn’t what the doctor was hoping for, I guess. Everyone is always telling me how healthy he looks because of his chubby cheeks, but he only fell in the 10th percentile for weight. I wasn’t too concerned about it because he is in the 90th percentile for height (but really length because they measure him lying down, whatever). I’m not saying that Chris and I are the skinniest people in the world, but we are both relatively long and lean, and the doctor has met both of us on several occasions, but she was still concerned because he has dropped two percentile groups in his last few appointments. She suggested that I start adding pureed meats to his food rotations, add some butter or olive oil to the food that I prepare for him, which I was already doing, and maybe start supplementing with formula if I wasn’t opposed to it, which I’m not. She did make me a little bit worried because I know I am not producing as much milk as I used to, and because I only produce on one side, I thought maybe he wasn’t getting enough to eat. So I’ve been giving him formula before he goes to bed at night (no, it is not making a difference in getting him to sleep longer) to see how it goes. He has to go back in two weeks to get a flu booster shot, and if he hasn’t changed weight significantly, I might just go back to all breast milk because it’s cheaper than formula.

Overall he is still a very happy baby. He really only cries when he is tired, which can be fixed by putting him down for a nap. He is napping consistently two times a day for about an hour and half (ish) each and taking a shorter naps most days in the late afternoon. He goes down without a fuss on most days, but I can’t say always because every time I do, he screams. And Chris is always here for those ones and is very quick to point out that I was wrong. He is going to sleep at about 6:30 most nights, waking up one or two (sigh) times, and getting up anywhere between 6 and 7 in the morning. I would really love for him to sleep through the night again, but I haven’t seen those nights since he was almost four months. Not sure what happened, but I know it will come again.

He is consistently eating pretty much anything I give him: sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, apples, pears, squash, avocado, banana, and yogurts. I think he has had enough “first tastes” now so that I can start mixing things up a bit. He did not really enjoy the turkey that I gave him on Thanksgiving, but he did enjoy the mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie that we let him taste at the restaurant. Chris is always trying to put things in his mouth, mostly ice cream and things of that nature, and I think I need to give up trying to stop him.

Miles is definitely developing a personality, which is so fun to watch. Now that he is mostly sitting up, he will turn and look at me over his shoulder, smile, and then turn back around. Just checking to make sure I am still there or something. He loves to jump in his jumper/activity center, but only if he can see me while he does it. When he’s done, he’ll start yelling at me, so I walk over to get him, and he now reaches up for me to take him out. He screams a lot when he is playing on the floor, but not in an angry way. He just likes to hear himself. So far he hasn’t done it at church, but that will be fun. But the best, the experience that showed me he is truly a boy, was the other night as I was burping him after his bottle. He let out a huge burp, and then turned and smiled and laughed. I couldn’t help but laugh at that.

He loves his daddy now, which has been great for me. He gets the biggest smile on his face when Chris comes home and reaches straight for Chris’s face. He still is a little unsure of Chris putting him to bed at night, but now that he is getting a bottle, we will remedy that situation.

He has been able to roll over for over two months now, but wasn’t interested in it at all until this past week. He used to just lie on his stomach and scream until one of us rolled him over. But he seems to be more interested in his toys, so there is added motivation. And because he is falling forward still while he is sitting up, he has no choice but to get into a better position on his own.

And because Chris took the laptop with all of the photos on it, the only ones I have are from his first Thanksgiving. These were taken on our smaller camera, so they never look as crisp, but that’s all I got.

His hair is getting a little unruly in the front and over his ears, but the thought of cutting it breaks my heart.

I sure do love this little guy. But I sure am looking forward to Chris coming home tomorrow and giving me a day to sleep in.

A good feeling

2010-11-30T22:22:00.001-05:00

There’s nothing better than putting your baby down to bed, not hearing a peep from his room, and coming downstairs to watch Glee with a bowl of honey nut cheerios.

‘Nuff said.

A list of today’s blessings

2010-11-25T19:55:00.001-05:00

I’m grateful that Miles took a really long morning nap so that I could as well.

I’m grateful that Chris agreed to go on our own little Turkey Trot when I know he just wanted to sleep.

I’m grateful for Boston Market’s Thanksgiving feast.

I’m grateful that Miles took a really long afternoon nap so that I could clean my carpets.

I’m grateful for my Dyson.

I’m grateful for my steam vacuum.

I’m grateful for two great pets that keep me company.

I’m grateful for my family that Skyped me from their dinner table (especially my sister who was eating one of their THREE pies in front of me).

I’m grateful for my in-laws who called to wish me a Happy Thanksgiving because they knew their son was at work.

I’m grateful for Gerber’s canned turkey so that Miles could have a feast of his own, and that I didn’t have to puree it myself. Even if it smelled like dog food.

I’m grateful for Healthy Choice frozen dinners.

I’m grateful for Diet Coke. More than I can say.

I’m grateful for Jeopardy. And saved episodes of Glee that I can re-watch.

I’m grateful for a husband that works so very hard for our family.

I’m grateful for my testimony in a loving Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ.

And of course, I’m grateful for the blessing of raising one of His precious children.

And…I’m pretty sure I’m grateful for the cookies I’m thinking about making.

Impromptu Fall Photo Shoot

2010-11-23T18:50:00.001-05:00

I promise that I am also planning on doing an entry with more words than pictures, but I couldn’t resist putting these adorable pictures up first.

As I was driving home from Costco today, I noticed a very nice little patch of green grass with beautiful fall leaves, and I immediately knew I needed to get some pictures. No, I do not drive around with our camera in the car. Chris and I went back later after running some errands. I later realized I should have put Miles in his “My First Thanksgiving” outfit since we aren’t really having a Thanksgiving this year, but oh well.

And I also know that I should be adjusting colors in Photoshop since we really only use our fancy camera as a point-and-shoot, but we haven’t gotten around to loading the program on this computer.

Proof that he can sit up with out his hands on the ground (he fell over about three seconds later).

The most sure way to get him to smile? Sing a song. I believe this one was my warm-up song from 8th grade choir: “Mama made me mash my M&Ms.”

The Lone Traveler

2010-11-15T21:59:00.001-05:00

As promised, here is the story of my return trip to Charlotte from Denver. Looking back, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but still makes for a good, little story.

When Chris and I flew to Denver, we booked a flight that stopped in Memphis for an hour or so because with two of us, it wouldn’t really be a hassle. We had checked the stroller frame and car seat with baggage, so we didn’t have any extra junk to haul around; I strapped Miles to me, and since he was drugged, he stayed pretty mellow the entire time. But when I returned home, I was alone because Chris had left the day before to get back to work.

My brother drove me to the airport with specific instructions from my mother to walk me inside to make sure I got off okay. So that’s what he did even though I explained that I could push the stroller with one hand and pull the suitcase with the other.

We walked up to the Delta section only to see that I have to check myself in at a kiosk before I can go up to the counter. Does this really save time? I absolutely hate it! No one ever knows what they’re doing and there is always a reason that you need to talk to the agent anyway. Especially if you’re last name is Johnson and have been put on the terror watch list because no one was willing to take the time to fix it in the system. (We spent years having to see the agent at the desk). So, I go up to the kiosk, swipe my credit card, and nothing happened. I tried again. Nothing. I asked the agent (or greeter, I’m not really sure which) for help. She asked if I had swiped the card correctly. Yes, I’m not stupid. She tried it herself. Nothing. She asked if I was sure that was the day of my ticket. Of course, I said. Why wouldn’t it be? I usually have a copy of my itinerary printed out, but Chris had it with him. So she directed me to the ticket counter for real help.

The agent asked, “What’s your final destination?”

“Charlotte.”

“Going through Atlanta?”

“No, it should be non-stop” Because who wants to try to handle a plane change alone with a 6-month-old?

“We don’t have a non-stop to Charlotte.” So she asked what time I thought I was leaving, did some typing in the computer, and then directed me to the USAirways counter. Oops. I assumed that because we flew Delta for the first leg, and because Chris flew home on Delta the day before, that I would be on Delta also.

So then I walked over to the USAirways counter, still with my brother, which I was grateful for at this point. I checked myself in with no problems, but then the agent asked where the baby’s boarding pass was. What? Doesn’t the ticket need to just say “Infant in arms”? No, apparently that’s how Delta does it. Not USAirways.

Let me explain how this tripped was booked. Chris found the flights one night while we were watching TV while I was feeding or holding Miles. No big deal. Until I was checking our itinerary a few weeks later to send to my mom and noticed that Chris had typed his name in as “Chris Johndon.” And he had forgotten that we now have a child and had not added Miles to the ticket. I called Expedia because that’s where we booked the ticket, and they explained that they could change it in the system, but our boarding pass would still have his name misspelled. The guy kind of laughed when he realized that Chris hadn’t just typed a d instead of an s, but he failed to type the rest of his first name or his middle name at all.

But apparently, it only applied to the first flight under Chris’s name. USAirways likes you to put in the baby’s name and birth date. Luckily, the agent was willing to just do it there at the counter (which begs the question, why is it necessary at all?).

Then I asked her if I could check my stroller and car seat at the counter since it was just me traveling alone with the baby.

“Don’t you want it with you in the airport?”

“No, I’m just doing to strap the baby to my chest so that I don’t have to carry more things.”

“Well, maybe you should just gate check it.”

“I really don’t need it; can’t I just check it here.”

“You can, but I really think you should just gate check it. I wouldn’t want it to get damaged at all—not that we would damage it, but just to be safe.”

This went on for a while longer until I finally just caved and agreed to gate check. Fine and dandy, but I don’t think anyone realizes how hard it is to go through security with stuff and a baby.

As I mentioned before, one great thing about having a baby was the family line at security in Charlotte where we got to skip to the front of the line. Not so in Denver. They have a family line, but it didn’t appear to be any different than anything else. So there I am, taking Miles out of his stroller, carrying him on my hip and trying to get my shoes off, place the shoes in a bin, place the diaper bag in a bin, placing the plastic baggie with my liquid medicines in it in a bin, unhooking the car seat from the stroller with one hand, placing it on the conveyer belt, and then trying to fold the stroller frame up with one hand (it involves twisting the handlebar and pulling up on the frame at the same time)! I managed to get it all on the conveyer belt with one hand, still managing to hold onto our boarding passes and my driver’s license, with NO help. Not ONE person offered to assist me in anyway. Not even a TSA agent that should be there to help people in the family line. Oh wait, a TSA agent did step forward to tell me that I needed to turn the car seat up-side-down so that it wouldn’t get stuck.

Gee, thanks for the help, sir.

But we made it through security in one piece.

After that, the only real hassles were trying to get some food in a busy airport while pushing a large stroller that I didn’t want to have with me in the first place. Oh, and unfolding it all again in the jet way.

I guess I should be grateful that we traveled before all of the TSA changes. I’m pretty sure that Miles would not go through the body scanner, but how are they supposed to scan me and not him? And how could they pat me down in the new way with a baby in my arms? I’m almost positive that there is no way I would let a TSA agent hold my baby. I’m not sure why, but maybe it’s because they always seem so surly.

Miles from home (get the pun?) I’m so clever.

2010-11-13T19:00:00.001-05:00

This post has been a long time coming, but I find that when Chris is out of town, as he has been for the past three days, my motivation to do anything greatly diminishes. Since no one will see me, I may stay in my pajamas longer. Since no one needs to eat but me, I may just have cereal for dinner. Since no one is here to complain, I may just watch chick flicks after Miles goes to sleep rather than blogging.

But back to the point: our recent travels to Denver. Chris was able to secure a few job interviews in the Denver area (yay!), so we made a family vacation out of it last week.

Our immediate concern was flying with a 6-month-old. I have great confidence in Miles and his mellow attitude, but if he gets tired, he wants to be walked around, which is not always the easiest thing to do on an airplane. Ever the physician, Chris was eager to offer Benadryl as our solution. I was a bit weary of the whole thing because it seems against logic to medicate an infant for something he doesn’t have just to make traveling more convenient. I was way more weary when the bottle said not for children under the age of 6. But Chris convinced me that he knows what he is doing, we tested it at home, and then gave Miles some Benadryl before our flight. Awesome. He was so sleepy that he slept the majority of both flights.

Before the wonder drug took affect: After:

And next to the tax deduction, we learned that the next best thing about having a child is the family line at airport security. In Charlotte, we were able to skip right to the front of the line. Awesome!

Chris was busy much of our trip, but we were able to spend time with my immediate family and my grandpa and aunt that came from Utah for my niece’s baptism. Miles hasn’t yet developed stranger danger, so he was pretty happy with whomever was holding him. He was especially interested in his three cousins, always wanting to touch their faces and giggle at their antics. The following video is him enjoying his cousin Abby act like a frog. If you don’t want to watch it, just know that it ends with spit up.

My sister was always eager to hold Miles but kept complaining that he wasn’t snuggling with her like he does with me and Chris; I had to explain that it was probably because her pregnant belly was in the way. She’s a little baby hungry.

And of course, Miles was in love with his Uncle Steve just like all children. Steve was happy to play with him, loving the smiles that Miles so freely dishes out.

We were so happy to be able to spend time with family that lives so far away. And of course, it was great for Miles to meet his Great Grandpa Sieb and Great Aunt Bronwyn, even if he doesn't realize it.

But my favorite picture was taken at 4:30 in the morning before anyone else was awake (poor Miles didn’t adjust well to the two-hour time change). It was a little cold in the house that early, so he needed his hat to stay warm. Or, I just thought it was cute.

The trip home deserves it’s own entry, which I will have to get to another time. Stay tuned.

Happy Half Birthday

2010-11-01T22:57:00.001-04:00

Today is Miles’s (still not sure where that pesky apostrophe should go) first half birthday, not something I will celebrate in the coming years, but I figured the first one is kind of a milestone. In all honesty, all I can think about is being half way done with breastfeeding. Selfish, I know.

I know that I said the big milestone at 5 months was that he was eating solids, but that may have only been a half truth. I started rice cereal when he was about 4 1/2 months, but it didn’t go so well. He started waking up every few hours all night long. Not fun. So we suspended cereals for a while longer. The second time around went much smoother, and now he is officially eating his veggies (carrots and sweet potatoes so far). Carrots were not a big hit the first two days, but I think it had more to do with time of day than with taste, texture, or temperature. I was trying to feed him at the same time that Chris and I ate dinner, you know, so we could enjoy a family meal together. But that is the witching hour for Miles, so he was not totally into something orange being shoveled into his mouth. And I’m just going to say it: I do not like the smell of poop from a solids-eating-baby. I thought I didn’t like the smell of newborn poop, the poop that everyone else kept calling “sweet,” but I totally get it now. Anything is better than what we have now.

This past month has been a real challenge for my confidence in mothering. Just when I thought I had the whole thing figured out, he totally changed the norm. Where he used to be able to fall asleep without a fuss, he started crying and fussing. Where he used to sleep through the entire night, he started waking once or twice. Where he used to go right back to sleep after being nursed at night, he would cry or coo or whatever, just not sleep. Where he used to wake up after 7 am, he would wake up at 6 or so. Not cool. He could be teething, he could be growing, he could be testing my fortitude, I don’t know. We’re working through it.

He is still a very happy baby, though. He loves to be held and snuggled, but also loves to wiggle on the floor, jump in his jumper, or play with toys (kind of).

And in honor of his half birthday, we gave him sweet potato. We were going to put a candle in it, but didn’t have any.

This is the face I get if I don’t put enough oatmeal in the spoonful. It also comes with a nice gagging noise.

We also gave him a cupcake. And by that I mean that we put it in front of him, took a picture, and then Chris ate it.

Happy Halloween

2010-10-31T21:24:00.001-04:00

Since Halloween fell on a Sunday, and since Chris is working anyway, he had our Halloween festivities yesterday. We spent the day shopping for things for our church’s Trunk or Treat because I was in charge (yippee), so Miles needed to have some Halloween spirit all day. The hat and socks were bought last year from Target’s Dollar Spot, which Chris found amusing because I was pregnant at the time.

Then it was off to the Trunk or Treat as a Tiger family. Chris and I made our costumes on Friday night—please notice that my stripes are so much more neat than Chris’s. He got a little carried away. And then the cat walked across them as they were drying, so there are a few paw prints to make it more authentic. The paw prints on the floor were not so cool, though.

Everything was just too much fun for Miles.

Pickin’ Pumpkins

2010-10-17T21:28:00.001-04:00

Chris had yet another Saturday off, so this time we went to a local farm to pick some pumpkins that we may or may not carve for Halloween. The farm had a wide variety of farms animals, a hay ride (one where the driver smoked a cigarette the whole time), and an actual pumpkin patch. You could tell that some of the pumpkins had been strategically placed, but there were pumpkins that you could literally pick.

The first stop was to the pig pen with the following sign:

So what did Chris do as soon as he had Miles in his arms? Holds his fingers up to a pig’s snout.

After looking at some goats, some horses, and some chickens, we made our way to the pumpkin patch to pick our pumpkins, but mostly for some pictures. So, here you go:

The best picture, of course, had a farmer in the background. Well, I’m not positive he was a farmer, but doesn’t he look like one?

Metaphorically

2010-10-12T13:44:00.001-04:00

I’ve really painted myself into a corner. Except that I don’t like that analogy—who paints floors anymore? You only hear really old people tell stories of how they painted themselves into a corner in their youth. It’s more like I mopped myself into a corner. Except that I don’t mop. It’s more like I Swiffer Wet-Jetted myself into a corner. And here’s how:

I opened my big, fat mouth and told everyone that I was going to run the Amica Insurance Half Marathon in December to get rid of my big, fat, post-pregnancy bum.

As you may remember, I was able to procure a rather fancy jogging stroller several weeks ago with some amazing store credit, and yes, I love it, but I didn’t plan for Miles not loving it. Or the fact that when you haven’t run, I mean really run, for over a year, it kinda sucks.

My original plan was to get into running shape in September when Chris had a regular schedule that would allow me to run in the mornings after feeding Miles. Except that sometimes I still needed to pump. Sometimes I really needed to eat breakfast. Sometimes it was too hot. Sometimes it was too humid. Sometimes I just wanted to sit on the couch and watch the Today show followed by The West Wing.

So then Plan B was to just hit the ground running (literally) once the jogging stroller came in and the weather finally cooled off. I have tried, really tried. But when your training program tells you to run 5 miles on your third day of training, it’s not pretty. Miles is usually good for about 30 minutes. Yesterday he was fantastic. Today, we only made it a mile.

And I didn’t account for the SNAKES! Today I finally got Miles calmed down by walking really slowly so that he could stare at the trees, and we were about a quarter mile from the car when I spotted a snake in the middle of the path. I stopped (far enough away to be completely safe) to assess the situation. It wasn’t terribly huge, but I’m not sure that really matters. I HATE snakes! I thought perhaps it was dead, smushed by some heroic biker, because it wasn’t moving, but there was no way I was going to test that theory by walking past it. I backed up a little bit more and contemplated throwing something in it’s direction to see if it moved. But what if it started moving? I would be forced to turn around and go back the way I came, the opposite direction of the car. So I just stared at it. And then I saw it’s tongue move. I froze. I waited for it to slither across the trail. And then I sprinted away. I may have even looked back to make sure it wasn’t following us.

And then I decided that if I can sprint with that stroller, then maybe this half-marathon thing is do-able. Maybe.

If I pay for registration, then won’t I be forced to do it?

Zoo

2010-10-11T21:23:00.001-04:00

Chris had last Saturday off, which isn’t always the case during residency, so we actually went somewhere. We are always disappointed when we end up spending his days off running errands, cleaning the house, or just sitting at home. So late Friday night we decided we would drive down to the Columbia Zoo in the morning. Our original plan was to take the dog on a family hike, but we discovered that she has a sore on one of her paws, so she needed to stay home.

We started the day an hour later than usual because Miles tried to wake up an hour earlier than usual, so I brought him into bed with us (even though Chris always reminds me that it isn’t safe). The only thing rushing us out the door was that McDonald’s stops serving breakfast at 10:30; Chris even gave me a time reminder while I was getting ready. The man loves his egg biscuits.

The drive took about two hours; during which time Miles slept. I found a nice shady spot when we first arrived to nurse, and after a quick diaper change (being careful not to touch anything around us), we were off to see the animals.

I’m not the biggest fan of zoos, what with the smell and the sad animals in their little habitats that you can never see because they are always sleeping, but I knew that once I had children I would have to make some concessions. But really, watching Chris at a zoo is almost as exciting as watching a child. I had to remind him several times not to take so many pictures of the animals because we don’t need 50 pictures of giraffes.

Miles seemed pretty indifferent to the whole experience, which seemed to disappoint Chris. The only time Miles really showed interest was in the aquarium where he actually talked to the fish. We didn’t, however, spend much time in there because it was a little crowded, but I guess that’s to be expected when the weather is warm on an October Saturday.

I wish I had taken video because Miles was talking pretty loudly at those fish. If only I had let Chris bring his fish tank with him when we moved.

Don’t you love his safari hat? And you can’t tell, but his shirt has a monkey on it. Our outfits must always be appropriate for the occasion.

Isn’t he cute??

After we walked most of the zoo, we walked to the botanical garden where Chris kept expressing his desire to have one in our next backyard. He apparently needs a paved path where he can pace while on the phone. He needs a shade garden. He needs a water feature. He needs a forest path. He needs a lot of land.

After the garden, we finished the day with a few more animals and then got back in our car where Miles slept the whole time again. What a great baby.

What a great day.

I only wish I had taken a picture of our lunch. Going to the zoo, I anticipate spending more money than necessary on food, but I also expect the food to fill me. While I was trying to secure us a shady table, Chris went into get our food. I told him to get me the Italian Sub without seeing one. When he came out, we both had to laugh at their poor excuse for a sandwich. I couldn't even see the meat.

Miles: 5 months

2010-10-01T20:12:00.001-04:00

This past month was all about sleeping, and then not sleeping, and then sleeping. We were given the green light from our pediatrician to let Miles cry it out to help him develop his sleep schedule, so that’s what we did. This time, I subscribed to the book recommended by the doctor (not the one I’m married to), Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. In this book, the doctor says that I need to let him cry for an hour for naptimes and indefinitely at night to help Miles establish good sleep habits.

The first couple of days were really hard and pretty much meant that I went in there at the end of an hour to soothe him to sleep after an hour of screaming. At first I would go about doing something really involved during the crying session (i.e. working out, showering, or cleaning). But after a couple of days, he would be asleep after only a few minutes of crying and sometimes without any crying at all.

But we never had the courage to let him cry at night. We’ll get there.

In the pat month he has also really discovered his voice. So much so that I noticed that we are keeping the TV volume much higher now because we can’t hear it over Miles. Isn’t that pathetic? It’s not like we are trying to drown him out; we just want to hear the dialogue from the TV. At first he was just cooing, but now he is screeching. And yes, once he did squeal when Oprah came on.

At the 4 month appointment, my doctor said it was probably time to start solids because he had dropped a little in his weight percentile. I wasn’t planning on starting solids until 6 months, but she made me really worried that he was hungry because he had started sleeping 10-12 hours straight at night and was only eating every three or four hours during the day. So when my mom was here, we decided to start rice cereal.

It didn’t go well the first time. But then my mom remembered her trick: the pacifier. Spoonful of cereal, suck on pacifier. It worked pretty well for two more nights, but then I decided to stop because it didn’t seem to be sitting well with I'm at night. He was waking up four or more times at night. As soon as I stopped, he slept again. Maybe I’ll start giving it to him during the day instead.

But the biggest development happened just yesterday when he smiled at the dog. That’s a big deal around here.

Also, after reading this post, Chris and I have decided that we have become “those people” because all we do it talk about the baby. But he is pretty dang cute; how can we not?

Grandmas are great!

2010-09-30T21:59:00.001-04:00

I dropped my mom off at the airport this morning after a week of shopping, eating, napping, and watching our new guilty pleasure, “Friday Night Lights.” As always, my mom was more than generous while she was here, but mostly we loved just spending time with her. And I’m sure she loved spending time with her grandson. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures.

The other unfortunate thing? Miles was not on his best behavior. Previous to my mom coming, Miles and I had an excellent routine going; he napped three times and day and had started to sleep through the night (like almost 12 hours). Yes, he had been trying to wake up before 7 am, but we were working through it. But after my mom got here, he started crying way more before falling asleep, and he woke up some more at night. Now, I’m not saying it’s grandma’s fault, but it was sad that she couldn’t see how great he usually is. Really, he made me look like a bad mom.

And the past two nights it has been like having a newborn all over again—waking up every couple of hours. I’m tired all over again.