At least it wasn’t flour

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?

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

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

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

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: