Friday, December 29, 2006

Blizzard #3

The third blizzard for the season hit us Thursday morning. Although they swore it would be worse than the last, it hasn't been as bad so far....again we were shocked that they could be wrong. It is definitely as cold, and we are more than tired of being cooped up in the house. There is only so long we can look at each other in the same environment, in the same pajamas, in the same housebound mood, in one week. Did I mention Chris has the whole week off?

Here's the big picture: Colorado has not seen this much snow since 1978. Last year we had a total of 30.5 inches of snow all season. Winter only started one week ago and we have already had 36 inches of snowfall, all of it landing in our backyard. Of course this has also been one of the coldest winters for us as well, and we just happen to have a baby who recently decided he likes hanging out in only his diaper. It's pretty amusing to watch a 10 month old try to get out of sleeper pj's that are snapped up to his neck. Eventually, we just break down and help him when he cries because both his arms are stuck inside.

Last night he ended up in his diaper because of an apparent weak stomach. He hasn't evolved enough to be able to digest books. These things always seem to happen when Mom steps out of the room and Dad is in charge. I was upstairs putting away laundry, when Chris yelled for me to come down. Miles was sitting on his lap covered in formula vomit, the worst kind I might add. Over by the TV was a nice little puke stain and Chris was shaking his head wondering what happened. I walked over to the evidence and found one of his books to be wet with spit and missing a corner of the cover, words and all. After sifting through the floor fluids and finding no library fiber, I resolved that the book chunks must have stayed down while the putrid smelling milk lost the internal battle.

You'd think at this point we would have given him a bath and cleaned the carpet, but us being well experienced at this type of occurrence, knew that it was futile and repetitive. I cleaned the carpet stain (which I kept stepping in all night) with a baby wipe, while Chris took off the wet garments and we called it "done". Now the bath might have been a good idea considering the heat in the house sits somewhere around 73 degrees, and all night the vomit smell kept wafting into the air off the sweaty baby, making us cringe and shutter, but who wants to go through all that trouble. I was sure it would rub off inside his pajamas when he rolls around in bed that night and presto, in the morning we would have a clean baby.....sort of.

We will be giving him a bath sometime soon though, only for something to do, because we are all terribly bored. I chuckle every time I think of telling my girlfriend how little we bath our child and how her response echos in my ear: "Christine, YOU HAVE PIGPEN. Miles is Pigpen from Charlie Brown." Little boys only get more stinky as they get older, so I promise Kristina we will start to bath him more.......eventually. I have to say it is not a task either of us looks forward to.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Christmas Outfit

This is the outfit Grandma Toni and Grandpa Ernie sent Miles for Christmas. It was a little late because of our blizzard, but we still wanted to have some pictures of it. The hat has tiny reindeer antlers on the top.

This is the fully
dressed version.....
......this one's not!

We'll let you guess which one he preferred.

Our Virtuoso Sports Commentator

Miles got a baby piano for Christmas and it is fast becoming one of his favorite toys. Chris calls him a little "Jerry Lee Lewis", because he likes to stand and play. Basically, he just bangs on the keys and turns the pages of the playbook, but someday he might stop wanting to eat it and learn to play songs.

Babies usually say their first words around 12 months and boys in particular are often even later, so we find it a bit odd that people constantly ask us if Miles talks yet. With that said, we are almost convinced that Miles has said his first word.

On two separate occasions, he has uttered what sounds like the word "touchdown". They sounded more like "tutdow" and "tuchdon" but they were clearly his attempt to repeat what he heard. We know this because they accompanied the physical action of raising both arms over his head. (Something he started doing on his own, followed by us yelling "touchdown" in response.) It always made him smile.

Recently, he has been shouting a two syllable word right after we say it and it distinctly sounds like "touchdown". Because he is hearing impaired, we will both be okay if he doesn't say "mommy" or "daddy" first, a little sad, but thrilled that he speaks. I just wish his first words weren't sports related, but the sooner I succumb to another male ego, the better. When the little female cat, Charlie, dies, I will be outnumbered and all alone. At least he said "touchdown" and not "Go Knicks". I don't think I could handle another depressed NY fan during the NBA season. One is plenty.

By the way blizzard #3 is on the way tomorrow. It's supposed to be worse than the last one. We'll keep you posted considering we won't be able to leave the house again and there will be nothing better to do....look for the pics.

Monday, December 25, 2006

Christmas Morning



Miles opened all of his presents this morning. We tried to take video, but for some reason the battery on the video camera died and we only got through half of the presents. We took a lot of pictures to compensate. Miles still found the boxes and paper more exciting than what was inside, but once those were gone, he really got into all his gifts.

He got Chicken Dance Elmo and a double faced monster ball, lots of clothes and books, giant Lego's, a truck, a musical activity center and some musical toys, a baseball, and a baby laptop. It was a very successful Christmas for him. So successful that he is now napping earlier than usual....he was grumpy. When he wakes up today we will be heading down to Fountain, CO to spend the day with the Meyers family. Hopefully the cranky baby will be more rested by then.

We spent nap time trying to organize and clean up all of his loot. We are going to need to buy a bigger house, just because of Christmas. There is no place to put all of his toys now that both Miles and the toys are getting bigger. There are only so many times we can rearrange the family room furniture to accommodate all the new baby things. I venture to say this time next year we will be looking to expand (our house not our family).

Merry Christmas!!!

Just wanted to wish all of our friends and family a very........


Merry Christmas!

Sunday, December 24, 2006

10 Months Old!

Miles was 10 months old on Friday the 22nd. He has decided that he is too big to bath in the sink and too small for his winter coat.



Dress Up

Grandma Carol sent Miles a bunch of new outfits for Christmas. He's only worn two, but so far everything fits with room to grow.

Friday, December 22, 2006

...nothing but blue skies from now on!

Not as much snow on the mountain as there was in our driveway.



This was Chris' project yesterday......


.....it took him several hours.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Before and After

The worst has passed but it's still snowing. These are side by sides of yesterday and today....





Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Announcements!

Congratulations to Bryan (and Kristina, she was so proud of him). Bryan received his residential contractors license after passing all of his required testing. Best of luck for your future success!

(This is Kristina and Bryan's engagement photo. They were married on October 28, 2006.....Yeah!)

This one makes me feel old........

Congratulations to Maura and Carl on their engagement on Dec. 8th, 2006. We wish you all the best!

(Maura is a gymnastics student of mine from New York that I taught about 10+ years ago. I just found out the good news today. Hope she won't be upset with me for posting their picture. Fortunate for her I didn't post one from when she was 14.)

Blizzard #2

Walking in a winter wonderland............







Blizzard number 2 for the season hit at about 6am this morning. They told us it would be in yesterday morning, so of course we were shocked when they were wrong. The winds are gusting between 40 and 60 mph, depending on where you live in Colorado. It is supposed to pass by tomorrow evening, but we've already been declared a "State of Emergency" by the Governor. Yippee! We're going to dress the dogs in their little sweaters later and throw them out in the backyard. Now that sounds like Colorado fun!

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Birthday Wishes!


We want to wish Grandma Carol a very.....



......today!

All our love - Chris, Christine & Miles

Monday, December 18, 2006

What a Cutie.....



BRRRR!

It was about 22 degrees out tonight and we still had to shop for Miles for Christmas. So we bundled up the baby and off we went. He was not thrilled with the costume for the evening. Whoever thought up mittens in infant sizes obviously never tried to put them on one.



Saturday, December 16, 2006

American Retail!

It amazes me to get out in the world and see American Consumer Dollars at work. There is no better time than the Holidays to witness them in all their glory, unless you have the luxury of shopping online. We went with a short list of purchases to make Saturday and finally returned home five hours later. We actually had to skip several drop offs because the recipients managed to get out and about.

We had on our short list, one older child's gift and a present from Grandma to Miles. Grandma Carol asked me to pick up a gift she wanted for the baby at a local Babies R Us. Of course they were sold out except for the floor model, minus the box and directions (offered to us at a whopping 15% off the already marked up Xmas price). We passed and decided to look elsewhere.

I called one of our "present drop offs" and found them to be at Toys R Us shopping for their son...........we have a Toys R Us? Come to find out it was in the same parking lot we were just in but blocked by the mall. So after driving all the way out and around, we came upon the next brick and mortar nightmare to search through. (Note to our friends without kids yet: When you do have children, shop for them early, because whatever you are looking for will be sold out long before Christmas.)

The toy stores are no different than the department stores this time of year. Everything looks like a bomb hit it. You know those pictures on the news of stores being looted in natural disasters. That's what holiday shopping looks like except with people actually paying and before this year we not only didn't have to go to the toy stores, we didn't even know where they were.

As for our purchase, we thought we had plenty of time considering we still have one usable weekend left before Christmas (although it's usually reserved for boyfriends and husbands). So every woman and unhappy child was out today trying to hit whatever over marketed sale they could find, and the last boxes of this or that quickly disappeared off the shelves.

Finally, we found what we were looking for and headed home to change a diaper and order dinner.......take-out. Figures that after all the out and about, we'd just want to eat in. By the way Christmas cookies cannot be counted as a valuable food source for the day and could lead to reckless purchasing when the sugar crash kicks in. After a good meal and a change of clothes we put another overcrowded, consumer crazy shopping day behind us and swore, once again, to do it earlier next year.

On another "too much information" note, the breast pump finally got returned today. That beastly, evil piece of equipment is out of our lives for good (hopefully)! If I can say anything good happened today, it was passing over that painful, nasty, forty-five dollar per month pump to the lady at the hospital. We decided, or should I say, I decided it was time to move on to formula and that I wouldn't feel guilty for not making it the full year. But when your 9 month old finds watching you pump to be funnier than Sesame Street, it is "TIME" to stop. (It is inevitable if your husband works that you will eventually have to do this in front of your child.) So, with very little resistance, we move on to a new era and put an old one FOREVER behind us...........Merry Christmas to me!

Friday, December 15, 2006

Sock Paws

Most everyone is familiar with the fact that Miles wears a hearing aid on a band around his head. Well if that wasn't challenging enough, you throw teething into the mix and you end up with "sock paws":

Miles has 4 teeth and is currently working on 5, 6, & 7. This is what happens when he thinks taking off his hearing aid will stop all the pain from teething. When "NO" fails to work, Super Mommy becomes Evil Mommy for a while!

Miles' fine motor skills will have to be sacrificed for a couple of days.....



Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Baby Clothes....

We keep getting asked this question, so I figured I answer it in a post:

Miles is in a "12 month" size right now and we suspect he will be wearing them for a while. If anyone plans on buying him "18 month" clothes, just remember, it will be summertime here by the time he fits into them so don't buy winter clothing in that size. Hope this helps.

Last Chance Santa!

We went to see the mall Santa last night. We figured we'd give Santa one more chance and see if we could get a good picture.....no luck. Miles screamed every time we put him on Santa's lap (all four times). We finally gave up when we realized we were holding up the line. We did take a few consolation pictures when we got home. (By the way....our kid does have clothes other than this outfit that you have seen in two previous posts. But this is the only Xmas outfit that fits him now. Grandma Carol did buy him one that he grew out of before he really got to wear it. Oh, well!)







Monday, December 11, 2006

Big Steps!

Miles started "really" walking a few days after his 9 month birthday. Now he motors everywhere he can. Here are a few recent pictures.







Saturday, December 9, 2006

T'was the Morning of Breakfast!

We belong to a financial advisement group called Woodmen of America. Periodically they host "camp" activities for their members. This morning was Breakfast With Santa:

T'was the morning of breakfast and all through the place, all the food was digesting 'cause none went to waste.
Miles, dashed in t'ward Santa while clinging to me, for this was his very first visit you see.
He smiled, then frowned and looked all around, when we plopped him on Santa he stared at the ground.

We got out our camera, with flash at the ready, hoping old Santa would hold him quite steady.
At first he just looked at the man in the beard, when all of a sudden his face scrunched up weird.
Tears rose in his eyes, like a quick sinking ship, we thought that he may just soon let it rip.

Emotions were spiraling out of control, a sweet, happy baby was simply our goal.
Santa looked frazzled and Miles distraught, his face matched the little red hat that we bought.
Chris clicked away to capture the moment, and I stood by chuckling, just eating my donut.

The screaming got louder and we ran up quick, while Miles was snubbing a peppermint stick.
Finally Santa passed on our bundle, I swear when he did I heard a slight grumble.
Miles was soothed, safe in my arms, and we were amused which did him no harm.

"...Santa sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, and away they all flew like the down of a thistle...."
But I heard him exclaim as he changed clothes out of sight,

"Happy Christmas to all, wish this beard fit me right."






You Can't Always Get What You Want!



Friday, December 8, 2006

Xmas Shopping Nightmare!

Went to the store to do some Christmas shopping today.... I realized with the holiday drawing nearer, this would not be an easy task. What I didn't realize, was that the complications would all come from having a 9 month old in tow.

Miles is a big boy now, at least as far as shopping carts and car seats go. So, when we arrived at the local department store around lunchtime, Miles instantly new it was time to get out of the car seat. Before I could even get the seat unbuckled, he was wiggling and squirming to get out. I grabbed his cart cozy (a protective, quilted, seat cover for the child seat in most shopping carts), my purse and keys and hip saddled the baby.

The store has an unusual type of cart where the basket is placed vertically behind the infant/child seat, so the kid sits out in front as you push. Of course all the other non-germophobic moms just threw their toddlers into the seats and were off long before I even had the cozy tied. Ten minutes later, baby was loaded and we were officially shopping.

I decided to start with apparel since it was at the front of the store. Unfortunately, the aisles are made barely wide enough to fit the carts through, so everything that was hanging from a rack or on a shelf was well within Miles' reach. He took full advantage of this by holding his arms out as though pretending to be a plane and grabbed at everything we passed by. Several times I had to stop and put back articles of clothing he was double fisting.

The worst came when we were over in house wares, and I thought I would leave him out in the main aisle so as not to incur any damaged goods purchases. I stepped down the aisle for 2 seconds and came back to a pile of men's sale sweaters lying in a big heap on the floor in front of their shelf. After a quick clean-up we headed over to toys and took our time browsing. We avoided making any toy purchases and I sped swiftly by the infant clothing so as not to piss Daddy off anymore today. He was not having a good day at work and my excessive "Miles Stuff" shopping sprees were soon to take a toll on our bank account and marriage.

Finally, Miles had gotten bored with grabbing at things, or I had learned better to keep them out of his way. At last I was able to shop undisturbed and he was content to suck on four of his fingers or so I thought. What we've learned about our outings in the past months is that our son has a bit of an infectious smile, so we are quite used to people coming up to him or directing their attention his way. All of a sudden I noticed the whispered comments coming more frequently. I finally stopped the cart and walked around to the front to see what all the fuss was about.

It was approximately 2:30, about a half an hour past nap time, and my son had fallen asleep on the side railing of his seat. Under his head appeared to be a mock pillow made up of a rolled up, tan, argyle sweater that was apparently one of his purchases....not mine. I was heading toward the register and did not want to buy the $30 pillow so I looked for a place to ditch it. As I gently pulled it from under his head, I noticed the large pool of drool that had accumulated on the front. I neatly folded the sweater up backwards (drool inside) and set it on the nearest shelf.

Twenty minutes later after the checkout line, I successfully made it out of the store without my car seat shoplifting anything (that's another story entirely). I packed up the Christmas purchases and baby and headed home for a well deserved nap.........for him and me both.

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Christmas Gifts

I've been trying to tell everyone: "Don't be surprised if he's not as excited about what's in the box, as he is the packaging itself." Save your money. Recycle your used boxes with Miles.













Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Miles' Pics

Miles Now


Miles Newborn