New Baby!

How great are these pics?!? It was so fun to go to the doctor this week and see our new family member. Turns out that baby is right on target for the same due date, and is measuring at the 42nd %ile.

We are not yet working on the baby's room, but we are working on transitioning Miles into all his big-boy furniture (that way he won't have too many transitions at once when baby arrives!). We bought a new twin bed/box spring, and found a bedframe and dresser on craig's list. I think I might go with some bedding from IKEA and some chalkboard wall decals in order to turn the "baby's room" into a "boy's room". We'll move all of the baby furniture into the room right next to ours.

We're also off to our sister, Laura's, wedding this weekend. I'll be standing up in the wedding, and Matt will be both usher and M.C. Matt is pretty excited about a game that he came up with, but I won't explain it here so that it's a surprise for those at the wedding:)

Welp, off to make dinner. Chicken something...

Early 4th of July Celebration

We were able to celebrate 4th of July with our friends, the Kraays, this weekend. Miles and Henry, both almost 2, are starting to interact more which is a lot of fun to watch.

Awww:) So cute.
Did you notice the mosquito bite that Miles got in the middle of his forehead?

Last weekend we went to Leslie Tassel Park near Cascade. There is a fun fountain where kids can run through and splash around, which Miles loved once he warmed up to the idea (he got more daring when he saw some older kids go in first).

...Uh oh, Blogger isn't letting me post more pictures, but I'll try again later.

Next weekend we are off to Starved Rock Park in IL, where we get to go camping with my (Megan's) family. Nate and Char are flying out from Alaska! We can't wait to all be together again!

Hope you all have a great holiday weekend!

"Where's your pants?"

So, Matt and Miles got me a FLIP video recorder for Mother's Day! I know, I was shocked too. This video is a little old now (from mid-May), but I finally have time to post it. It starts a little slow, and we talk a little quiet, but it gets better as you go. Enjoy! I'll post more later...

Big Boy Haircut!

Such a big boy!

I thought that maybe we should start out with a photo-shoot:




:)

Matt and I are very much enjoying Miles' current stage. All stages have their joys (and hardships), and we tend to say "this is the best stage" as each new stage arrives. But something is different right now...we can just tell that over all of the stages that our children go through, this one will be one of the top few.

Miles has quite a few words that he uses now. Some he uses only if we use them first, some he uses only if the object is right in front of him, and some depending on need. Here's a non-exhaustive list:
ball (baaah)
car (caaah)
light (dight)
milk (gilk)
book (gook)
all done (all dah)
bye-bye
hi (hhhhhi)
up (bup)
down (duh)
baby
uh-oh (uh....(long pause)....oh)
tickle, tickle, tickle (tikuh, tikuh, tikuh, while moving fingers in the air. so cute!)
tweet-tweet (tee, tee, tee, tee, tee)
roof-roof (this has been his staple for a long time. now he bobs his head when he barks. ??)
cocoa (all dogs are called cocoa :))
banana (nah)
truck (tuck)
kick (kick-kick-kick)

And the best part is all of the words that he recognizes receptively. There are many things that we ask him to get/do, or we tell him what we're going to do (bath, na-night, go outside, play basketball, etc., etc.), and he understands. This is so fun. We love to tell him to go give something to Daddy/Mommy because he gets so excited and gives a hug along with his delivery.

Bath time is a riot now. He has figured out how to pour water over his head, and does this over and over, sometimes throwing the water over his shoulder and missing his body completely. He screams, laughs, and splashes every time because he's so excited.

He also loves to play "soccer" by walking with the ball in front of his feet, which inadvertently kicks the ball forward each time. He says, "kick-kick-kick-kick" the whole time.

Reading books is a lot of fun with him now, too, because he knows what's coming in a book. For example, there is a page in the book "Knuffle Bunny" where the baby cries, and right before we turn to that page, Miles starts crying. Or in a book where a bear goes, "Boom, boom, boom", Miles says, "bah, bah, bah" right before we turn to that page. He also has definite opinions about which books he would like to read. If he's bored with one, he closes it, pushes it away, and hands you another one. If it's a book he likes, he'll turn back to the front after we have read the whole thing. Multiple times. Over and over throughout the day, he'll go get a book, come to you holding the book up, and say "gook". Once you take it, he says "gup?" (to be up on your lap). He could easily sit on our lap and look at books for hours at a time.

Oh, for those of you who haven't seen him for a while, he's walking all over the place. Once he started there was no going back. One of his favorite games right now is putting the bottom of a piece of tupperware over his mouth and walking around talking loudly...we call this the tupperware monster. We run away and he chases us.

He's also been showing a bit of a naughty side. He was in nursery this past Wednesday while I was in our church Mom's group. They said that he was stealing everyone's toys and doing things he knew he wasn't supposed to while smiling at them. He also seems to have a little bit of a short fuse. If something doesn't go his way, he'll get really frustrated and throw it or just lay down on his back and whine. This is whether we're in the room with him or not. I think he's also getting his two year molars in because he keeps sticking things way back in his mouth, and drooling a TON.

We haven't taken him outside a ton this winter, because, let's face it, it takes forever to dress/undress the kid, and he doesn't even seem to enjoy it one lick. Once we find a good deal on some boots we'll try again.

At Miles' last doctor's appointment, he was in the 70th percentile for height, and the 20th for weight. He's thinning out and getting his daddy's build.

Well, that's it for now. I'm sure there's a ton more I could say, but I wanted to be sure to post something for all of Miles' fans out there (this one is especially dedicated to "Uncle" Chris, "Aunt" Emily, and Great-Grandpa Jack). Thanks to everyone for the love and care that you have for Miles, whether near or far.

Here are a few more pics:

Helping Mom with some baking

Pouty Mc-Poutster :(

Playing peek-a-boo with Uncle Nathan

Such a big boy!

I finally caved in!

Friends,
I finally had to cave in. I have a facebook account. I will be updating more regularly on facebook than here on blogger. If there are huge updates, I will post them here, but for photos check my facebook account.

As for updates on the boy:

*Miles has like 12 teeth all of a sudden! Ouch!
*Miles has been taking up to 10 steps on his own, but then gets nervous and sits down.
*I've been putting in some hours in the Ed. Department at Calvin, and Miles has been going to a babysitter for a few hours. He's all of a sudden a little more "clingy" and "needy" when I'm around (people tell me that the minute I leave he's fine). So far, Matt and I feel this is a healthy thing, but we will continue to monitor:)
*Miles has some regular words: "dight" for light (while pointing to any lamp-on or off-, any light, sunrise, sunset...) "gook" for book, "gewk" for milk, "dada" for Matt, "dada" for Megan unless he's crying in which case he carries the vowels out and says "maaaaamaaaaa".
*Miles can point to his nose when asked, gives noises for the animals on his audio puzzle (not by name, but by mimic), claps "normally" now, and initiates waving bye-bye once someone picks up keys or puts their coat on
*Miles is all of a sudden going through a shy stage, as he rests his head on my shoulder when a new person says hi to him.
*I cut the back of Miles' hair last night--no more mullet!--he looks even more grown up!
*Check out my facebook account for a few fall photos of Mr. Miles.

Happy November!
Megan

The Wonder Year

(T-shirt says: MY 1st BIRTHDAY)

Believe it or not, Miles has been alive for a whole year! Well, a year plus a week or two at this point. Apparently I had a moment where I thought I was super-woman, because I planned Miles' birthday party for just 2 weeks after moving into our new home--2 weeks that Matt would not be around for, because of RD and RA training. It all went off without a hitch, though, and it has actually been really great to have the house all unpacked so quickly, because we just get to enjoy it now. Thank you to all of the family and friends who came to celebrate the party with us, especially the distance-travelers. Here are a few photos, mostly documenting the cake-eating, of course. I created a longer slideshow on snapfish, so if you want to see more, just let me know and I can send it to you.

Had to go with a doggy cake, since he barks whenever we say doggy, or he sees/hears one. We debated what noise to teach him (all these big parenting questions!), but he ended up deciding all on his own. He's landed on something that sounds like "Arf, Arf".

This is about as much as he dug into that cake ?!?

Excuse me, guests, while I go get clean...

And then here's the last year in pictures. We took a monthly "chair" -or couch- picture to watch his changing and growing. For some reason his 11-month picture is missing (on a different file or something). I just can't believe how much he's been changing right in front of us, but day to day you hardly notice a difference! It's only a year, people! Crazy. And we only have 17 more of these left with him. Well, in the same house I guess. Still, let's not think about that! Tears.

1 month old

2 months



3 months

4 months

5 months



6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

12 months!!! So handsome.