Miles is Walking!

Sorry for the spoiler in the title, but A) I'm very excited about this new development and B) I know that in a year or two, I'm going to want to look back on when he actually started walking and won't be able to find it if it's not in the title. Before I get to the thrilling details, here are a few shots of the kids. This was unprompted:

They actually get along pretty well most of the time. Things are a little more complicated as Miles has become more mobile, but overall they adore each other. The other day, Brooke came with me and Miles to My Gym. There's a "separation time" where the kids play for a few minutes without the parents. Miles is not a fan of this time as he's a pretty big Momma's Boy. He started crying and Brooke called out, "It's okay, Miles! I'm right here if you need me!" She got a resounding "Aww!" from all the other parents. They held hands again in the carpool line the other day.

 

I feel like I need to balance that sweet story and picture out with a story of the time last week when they were playing and suddenly Miles started crying and holding his head. I asked Brooke what happened and she said he fell into the wall. I was comforting him a couple of minutes later when Brooke came up to me and said, "Actually, I pushed him to fall into the wall." At least she apologized, but I just wanted to get out there that it's not all rainbows and unicorns over here on Arrow Glen Court. Of course, Miles wants everything Brooke has (and usually vice versa, actually). Often he gets told "no", but as the second child, he's also been allowed things like sweets much earlier than Brooke ever was. He's also hooked on maple syrup now. Pretty sure Brooke didn't know that existed until she was at least 2.

Having fun at Grandma Audie's.

Just like Brooke did, Miles has his own routine when he comes to her house. He goes into the living room and takes the knobs off the windows. He also has a specific cup that he takes off the shelf in the kitchen and gives to Grandma Audie.

Impromptu group shot. Matt didn't get the "navy" memo that day.

Now, onto Miles at seventeen months. His fascination with ceiling fans has continued, but now he also likes any kind of switch that he can flip. (I blame my brother for taking him around the house and letting him turn the lights on and off when they came up to visit.) He's also really into throwing things, specifically crumbs, in trash cans. He's also dropped  a few toys into both trash cans and the toilet. He came out of the room smiling and clapping and very proud of himself when he did it. The other day, we were at an indoor playground with tons of stuff for the kids to do. Guess what I had to drag him away from?

He's also really into books, especially books with transportation equipment. He also loves to sing. There are  only a couple of songs (a song from VBS this summer and the "Bubble Guppies" theme song - video of that to come, hopefully) that I can decipher, but I can tell he has several in his repertoire. He also loves singing on microphones. Athletically, he's got a pretty good arm. He's getting more words and trying to talk more, but his go-to is "Mama" - that can mean, "help", "look", "I'm done", etc. It can make for a bit of a long day, but I know (?) I'll miss it when he's really talking.

And now, the moment you've been waiting for. He took his first steps around 16 1/2 months, but was much happier crawling. Finally, last Friday (at 17 months, 1 week), he really started taking off and actually choosing to walk rather than crawl. Brooke followed a very similar time line. In the last week, he's progressed to walking about 90% of the time. It's not exactly pretty yet, but it gets the job done. I've tried to get good video of him walking a few times, but he ends up kind of whining and sitting down because he wants something from me. Thanks to Jamie for this video. Enjoy!