He's All Boy!

This is Miles' first shiner. He went one round with his plastic piano and the piano won on a "knockout". Although he was not knocked out cold, the injuries did require immediate hugs, kisses and lots of ice. Better luck next time champ.

Here's Looking at You....

Not quite sure who he gets this face from -

At least he's not devoid of expression.

Miles' New Shoes

Because Miles started walking earlier than most babies, the respective new problems followed and a few changes had to be explored. A friend of ours with several children told us that we should now be practicing with shoes. Apparently it is difficult for babies to make the transition from walking barefoot to having something on their feet. She recommended we buy some shoes and let Miles practice in the house.

When Miles was first born we put him in all the cute newborn shoes we could find. But like most newborn items, they fit for about 2 weeks before you were on to the next size. We finally just gave up and opted for little white sock. Plus all those do-gooder parenting mags always suggest against putting infants in hard soled shoes until they learn to walk. I'm sure there was a good reason, but I never managed to read that far. Even when Miles started walking a couple of months ago, we still chose to avoid shoes. Who has time for them anyway?

Someone out there should tell you that when you become parents your "getting ready" time doubles or even triples and getting anywhere on time becomes a distant fantasy. So for two people who were already always late, (mainly because of my insane lack of time management) having a baby just assured us an extra half hour of tardiness. After the diaper change, the shirt, the pants and the socks, the hat, the car seat, the blanket, the toys, the diaper bag, the bottle bag and the change of clothes, the thought of shoes for the baby would have pretty much ended my marriage. In fact every time I would run back in the house for something, Chris would sigh and contemplate the pleasantries of his once single life.

After several weeks of washing little blackened socks from a baby that was getting too heavy to hold, I broke down and bought shoes. One pair of suede boots in a size 3 and a pair of velcro sneaks one size too big were purchased from our favorite baby store in the mall. When we returned home I proceeded to put the baby into his new shoes. Now I have attempted this dangerous maneuver in the past, but each time I pretended to forget. Miles has these insanely long toes, just like his dad, that he curls every time you try to put on shoes. With this latest attempt we came across the newest problem: Miles Fred Flinstone feet. This kid has the widest, flattest feet of any child I have ever seen. (Because of all my experience looking at baby feet of course.)

Needless to say, the boots are going back and a trip to a cheap mega mart was made. Believe it or not they sell baby shoes in wide sizes. So for 8 whole dollars Miles finally got a pair of practice shoes that were stuffed on his fat little sausage feet for a good deal of carpet walking this evening. The above pictures are a result of our efforts. Although he is thrilled with having his first real "big boy" shoes, wearing them is another story and somewhere along the way I noticed he only had one on, having kicked the other one off after several failed attempts I'm sure. Even though this was a short practice for tonight we will definitely try again tomorrow and eventually when it stops snowing (when I'm 40) we will try them outside. I can hardly wait.....

Congratulations!

We want to wish the Alessandro's congratulations on their exciting announcement. Chrissy and Rob are expecting a baby this summer and we couldn't be happier for them both.

(This is the only picture we had of the happy couple taken at their wedding a few years back.)

"People who say they sleep like babies usually don't have them." Leo J. Burke
Sleep now or forever never again! (Seriously)