This Guy

Miles was six months old on Sunday. He's made such a smooth transition and a great addition into our family that it's already hard to remember life without him.

At his doctor's appointment yesterday, he weighed 17 lbs (40%), was 27 1/4" (77%), and his head was only in the 66th percentile. I guess if one of them is going to have an extra-large head, I'd rather it be Brooke who can camouflage it with hair.

This is the face he gets anytime he sees his sister or dad. (He's squealing with delight, not terror.) He's quick to smile at strangers, but will then usually shyly bury his face in my neck. He's hitting the "Momma's Boy" stage a bit. He loves the exersaucer. It's already gotten 10x the use it did with Brooke, who would just curl up her legs and hang while she was in the seat. He's all about jumping up and down in it.

You can't really see them in this picture but he still only has the two bottom teeth that he's had for THREE MONTHS now. He's scooting around on the floor in the sense that I'll lay him in one place and come back to get him and he'll be a few feet away, but he's not really doing any kind of crawling yet. And that is OKAY by me. He's almost like a spring in that anytime I lay him down on his back he immediately rolls to his tummy. He's at about 50% accuracy for rolling back onto his back. I've had to remove everything from his changing table and he still will roll all around looking for things to grab. It's become a bit of a wrestling match and he gets a kick out of it.

 

Sitting up is also coming along. He can tripod sit for several seconds. After a bit of a hiccup a couple of weeks ago (I think due to a cold), he's back to sleeping through the night. He usually goes down around 6:30 or 7 and is up around 6 to eat, then back to sleep for another hour or so. He only naps for about half an hour in the morning but is usually down for 1-2 hours in the afternoon. He probably could nap in the early evening, but we're usually at the playground. Ah, the trials of being a second child.(*Perhaps sadly, these photos were not all taken on the same day. I guess the poor kid needs a few more long-sleeved shirts. Point taken.*)

 He's graduated to the booster chair (I'm a much bigger fan of these than high chairs. They take up so much less space and are so portable.). Matt's relieved - Captain Safety hates the Bumbo ever since the recall. The doctor said he should be having a couple of solid meals a day. The problem is, he just isn't that excited about solid food. He'll have a few bites, then get distracted - usually with trying to get the spoon out of my hand. We'll keep working at it. He's still exclusively breastfed. When Gigi was here she had him holding his own bottle.

 He's really such a good, easy baby. He goes with the flow and is happy to hang in there while we cart Brook around to school and playdates or I run errands. Generally, as long as someone is in sight (and he's not hungry or tired), he's a content little guy. We're so blessed and couldn't love him any more. Happy six months, Big Guy!

"Great" Grandparents, part 2

My grandparents and mom made the trek up to see us last week. We spent a lot of time hanging around our house and it was great to get to see them for an extended period. I'm really blessed to have grandparents that are not only healthy enough, but willing to travel to see us. Miles enjoyed being fed by Gigi.

 Until he got distracted by the camera.

 

The kids hanging out with Grandpa Charlie.

After they left on Saturday, we were also able to go see Grandma Audie. These two got their fair share of spoiling this week.

*September is flying by much too quickly. I'm obviously behind on posts and will get to them asap. I hate to neglect my loyal readers (i.e. my parents and in-laws).*

First Day

It's here. Today was Brooke's first "official" day of preschool. Granted, it was an abbreviated day (one hour as opposed to the two it will usually be. Wednesday she goes for an hour and a half. I'm not sure if it's to ease the kids, teachers, or parents in, but I'm sure it's a good idea on all counts.), but she was still going somewhere on her own. Without me, her dad, or one of her close family members. I was a little sentimental and had to take a photo of her at breakfast.

 

And at the front door. Which ended up making us a few minutes late. Didn't I call it? I think running late ended up being a good thing for me, though. I didn't have time to get sad. And she just stepped over the crying boy and the little girl screaming, "GET ME OUT OF HERE!" and went on her merry way into the room. I choked up a bit when I got back into the car after dropping her and heard her Princess CD playing. And for the record, I was the SECOND parent in line to pick her up, thankyouverymuch.

Her and Kali on the way out afterwards. I'm seeing an annual photo op....

We came back home and played on the playground. It was a beautiful day and I'm glad that she seems to be adjusting so well.

Little Big Boy

This little guy continues to coast along. Not a ton has changed. He's napping better in the afternoon (most days). He wakes up every morning on his tummy. I think he'll wake up happier once he's proficient at rolling back onto his back. (The blur in this pic is Ozzie's nose - not my finger.)

The Starbucks logo may be the first he recognizes. Kind of embarrassing. On a related note, I received my Gold Card from Starbucks the other day. Legitimately embarrassing.

Brooke always likes to pretend that the Bumbo is a train. He just goes with it.

He's much more of a fan of the exersaucer than Brooke ever was. It helps that he actually bears weight on his legs. He's slowly making the transition from horizontal to vertical worldview. Yay!

Family Fun

We've had some fun family outings lately. On Labor Day, we were able to get one last visit in to the pool. This isn't the best shot, but Miles had a decent time in the wading pool for the first time.

Brooke has gotten really comfortable there. She was walking around like she owned the place (with her sunglasses upside down). It was nice - I was able to actually sit in a chair and relax for a few minutes. Thanks for this pic, Jamie.

Last pool pic till Florida!

Brooke is really into underdogs lately. Receiving and giving them (to no one).

It wasn't an outing, but she helped me with brownies for the church potluck the other night.

And last Saturday, we took a walk over to watch the JV football game (Matt and Miles watched, I followed Brooke and her wooden frog around). We were able to catch the marching band practice and Brooke was mesmerized. No surprise there. We finished the morning off with a trip to the playground.

My budding photog.

Happy Fall!

Pee Skew

Brooke is going to a 2 1/2-year-old preschool (or "pee skew" as it sounds when she says it) this year and we had her orientation last Wednesday. I can't believe we're already here. How did that happen so fast?

We're at the "awkward photo face" phase. Now I'm totally getting why some of my friends' kids' pictures look the way they do. I apologize for thinking  your kids had weird smiles.

Here she is outside the school. Leading up to that day, I didn't really know how to feel. I would feel a little sad when thinking about my baby girl going to preschool, then nervous - finding things to worry about: "What if they don't understand what she's saying?"; "What if she has an accident?" - Matt reminded me that she's not the first 2 1/2 year old these teachers will have met - then excited for her. I always loved the anticipation of the first day of school. And let's be honest - I was kind of a nerd and really enjoyed school. I hope she has the same feelings.

Matt came along and we hung out in the room for the whole 45 minutes. She didn't seem to care that we were there. Which I know is a good thing, but c'mon, couldn't she have been a little clingy?!?

"Moooom, you're so embarrassing!" - she didn't really say that, but she was over taking pictures.

Afterward, we had a special "Girls Day" with her friend Kali, starting with mani/pedis.

Pink sparkles, natch.

She did well for the first 30 minutes or so, but then she was DONE. She ruined one of the flowers the lady put on her thumb almost immediately. This place was fine, but they did not specialize in kiddie mani/pedis.

"Cheese!"

Back at the ranch, Miles got to hang out with Grammie Deb and Grandpa.

We had a fancy lunch at Chick-fil-a (Complete with a play land meltdown, in case you were wondering. Someday she'll conquer that slide.).

And topped things off with a stop at Yogli Mogli.

It was great to spend some time with just my girl and we were lucky to have special friends to share the day with.

Dance party! Good thing the place was empty.

The "real" first day was today. I'll get to that update asap.

Miles at 5 Months

 It's hard to believe, but Miles will be five months old tomorrow (the 30th). I've been posting so many photos lately that I've posted most of his good ones, so the ones one this post aren't the greatest/most recent. I mentioned this in one of my early posts about Brooke, but it's amazing to see what we can and can't already tell about babies in a few short months. And since I enjoyed going back and reading about her as a baby, I thought I'd do the same for Mi-Guy (aka Mi-mo, Mi-mis, Mis {all obviously pronounced with the "my" sound and most given by Brooke} - it's funny how we lengthen our children's single syllable names when giving them nicknames).

 

We know that Miles likes to move. I'm going to call right now that he's "all boy." I'm already having to hold him down with one hand to stop him from rolling over when changing his diaper. AND he gets a kick out of it when I feign frustration. We also know that he's an active sleeper. He rolls back and forth and rotates around the bed like it's his job. He was over the swaddle before he was 2 months old. Speaking of sleeping, he's *so far* doing a great job sleeping through the night, going to bed around 6:30 and not waking until 6 or so. Naps, however, are not his strong suit. We've got to work on lengthening those puppies. We know that he was early to get teeth (2 before 5 months) but also that he was amazingly easygoing about them coming in. So far, he's a man of few words. He'll get on a little bit of a babbling kick, but he's generally pretty quiet and content to chew on/play with his toys.

Despite his appearance in this photo, he's actually generally an easygoing baby. He's happy just to have someone nearby. Usually if he's crying, it's because he's poopy or has rolled himself onto his tummy and forgotten how to roll back. Physicality seems to be the quickest means to getting him to laugh - playing with his arms, rolling him around...like I said, all boy. He's a full-fledged thumb sucker. He's also kind of gross (said in a loving, motherly way). He's pretty drooly and still spits up after most feedings, though not as much as he was before. I've also noticed that he doesn't seem super-inclined to adjusting to any schedule, much to my type-A frustration. I don't think he's ever gotten up or been ready to go back down from sleeping at the same time two days in a row. He eats at pretty much the same times, but I think if I wasn't controlling that, it'd be significantly less predictable as well.

We don't officially know what color his eyes will be, but I'm also going to call this one early and say brown. We don't know who he's going to look more like, although right now he's looking a LOT like Brooke, who looks a lot like Matt. We don't know what he's going to find funny when he's older or what he's going to be interested in. We hope he'll continue to adore his sister, but who knows? We don't know if he'll be a lefty or a righty (I think he's going to bat lefty whether he likes it or not, though). We can't wait to have all these questions answered about him and see the person that he's going to become - physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We pray for each of those areas and that he, too, will always know how proud we are of him and how much and how unconditionally he is loved, both by us and the by God who made him. Happy 5 months, Little Big Boy!