Miles Miscellaneous

Miles has been busy these days, development wise. He's super chatty these days, telling lots of stories and engaging people with his flirty smile. He's a lot like his brother in that way, and although Nolan's ability to start up a conversation with ANYONE scares the crap out of me, it's also one of my favorite qualities about him. I would love for Miles to have this ability as well and it makes me happy to see it emerging.

When he's not chatty and smiley though, watch out! He's a pretty moody guy and swings between happy and talkative to grumpy and screaming in seconds. I'm hoping content and peaceful will come later.

He has learned how to reach out and grab things although he sometimes doesn't know what to do with them once he has it, most of the time it goes straight to the mouth...more on that in a bit. 

Once he turned 3 months old a whole new world of toy options opened up to him. We introduced him to his excersaucer and it was instant love. He spends much of his day in there spinning around looking/yelling at all the toys.

 Nolan enjoys it as well and spends a lot of time showing Miles exactly how each toy works.

I love the way Miles looks at his brother.

Pat and Miles talking about their day.

Miles is pretty happy as long as he's being held. This is why he is still sleeping in our room. Nolan was sleeping in his room by 5 weeks so I'm thrown by this baby who actually WANTS to be with us. I'm in no rush to push him out on his own and am just now working on getting him to nap in his crib instead of in my lap or in his swing. It hasn't been a very productive 4 months but I sure have gotten in some great cuddle time. 

Helping Yaya with some sewing projects.

 Our major obstacle right now is that Miles has started teething.

BIG time!

Like full on drooling, fussy, mouthy teething that wakes him (and everyone else) up in the middle of the night. It's a good thing he's still in our room as his 2 am screaming fits that only stop when I massage his gums are much easier to deal with when I don't have to get out of bed.

Poor guy! Nolan didn't have too hard a time teething (or maybe I just blocked that part out) so we are learning what works as we go. So far chewing on fingers/chins/collarbones, cold wash cloths and teething tablets seem to do the trick but no teeth have cut through yet. I'm thinking we have a long couple months a head of us!

Christmas Part II

Once December hit, we really kicked up the Christmas activities. We started off with our Book advent.

Nolan LOVES this part of our evening routine and asks if it's time to open our book all day long.

Pat and Nolan reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas, one of his favorites so far.

We've also enjoyed driving around to see all the lights in our area. We saw the Menashe House, my photos don't do it justice...it's seriously crazy!! So I'm stealing this one from the Internet, thanks West Seattle Herald!

Next stop was to Alki to watch the Christmas Ships roll in. There is a choir on the main boat that sings carols along the waterfront. Luckily it wasn't raining this night, but it was very chilly!

Nolan was being quite a scrooge about being in a photo with me, so just Reindeer Miles and I took one.

I wasn't sure that Nolan enjoyed this activity as he was super whiny the entire time we were there. But a few days later when we were listening to Christmas music and Let it Snow came on. Nolan excitedly told me he knew that song so I asked him if they sing it at school. He said "no mama! The boat sang it to me, don't you remember?"I guess he did like it after all.

Christmas Part I

The weekend after Thanksgiving we kicked off our Christmas big time by going downtown to the Providence Festival of Trees. Our Friend Heather did another tree this year with A Candyland Theme. Doesn't it look delicious...I mean beautiful?

Heather's tree got our vote for best tree but my runner up was this light installation/Christmas tree. In some alternate universe where I live in a chic downtown loft this is the tree I would want.

Nolan's runner up was this one covered in plush puppies.

The best part about this event (other then getting to see my talented friends' work of art) is that Santa is there, starting his shopping list. 

Yep, this is the best they could get. At one point Miles tried to lick Santa's beard.

Nolan asked Santa for a "special green car" but wouldn't elaborate on what makes it special. We will see if Santa's interpretations meets Nolan's expectations.

I also managed to get a quick family photo before Miles' started to fuss and we had to high tail it home.

Since you can't really appreciate the cuteness of Miles outfit in either photo, here's another one I took when we got home. His neck rolls were hiding his bow tie!

3 Months and a Tree

I wasted no time in getting our Christmas tree up this year. In fact I don't think I made it even 24 hours after Thanksgiving. I knew that this was the year that Nolan would finally understand how exciting Christmas was. 

So up went the tree on November 23rd. Nolan was so excited that first night it was up that he gave it a hug and kiss goodnight.

Miles was pretty happy about the new decor as well.

The day I set up the tree just so happened to be Miles' 3 month birthday so I tried to do a little photo shoot by the tree. 

The rocking horse in the background is actually his baby's first Christmas ornament.
I didn't set this up but am pleasantly surprised it turned up in this photo.

The photos didn't turn out quite as I had hoped. Let's call this Exhibit # 5,873 why I need a new camera. Mine has ZERO low light capabilities and the slowest shutter speed in the world! This is the year though, I'm determined to make it happen.

He is now almost 4 months old, I can't believe how time is flying by.

PS - Blogger is possessed today and is messing up the formatting on here, I have no idea why.

Thanksgiving

Phew, I have some catching up to do! Let's see I left off on Halloween so next is Thanksgiving. We actually had 3 Thanksgivings this year. The first one was at Nolan's school. They had an impromptu concert followed by a feast with all the families. Here's a video of one of their songs. See if you can find the 3 nose pickers, I'll give you a hint...none of them are my son...this time.

Second Thanksgiving was on Thanksgiving proper and Pat made a mini version of our usual feast. Turkey breast, stuffing, mashed potatoes and I made my first cheesecake ever. A pumpkin cheesecake with a gingersnap crust.

Nolan Approved.

The third and final Thanksgiving came the Saturday after Thanksgiving when we met up with my family. I didn't get too many pictures as I was busy eating but I did get this shot of the baby boys, Dutch and Miles hanging out on the floor.

I love triple Thanksgivings! It should be our new tradition.

Giggles

Halloween 2012

Halloween was a big deal for us this year. Last year Nolan went trick or treating for the first time ever (see his cowboy adventure here) so this year we decided to step it up and not only trick or treat in the Junction but also do the traditional door to door trick or treating. 

First off was the Junction festival the weekend before Halloween. So off we went, the train conductor, the baby from the hangover (which then turned into what looked like a smurf costume since he couldn't wear the sunglasses) and a lion (I let Nolan pick my costume this year).

He was super excited to get started since he knew trick or treating = candy. But first we had to wait in line to have our picture taken. A local photographer was offering free professional photos so I had to make that happen. Nolan waited somewhat patiently. 

  

It was finally time to get started and Nolan was off. 

We met up with Princess/Butterfly Annabella as well.

It was super crowded so we weren't able to do as much as we were hoping but the kids had fun and it was great practice for the real deal a few days later.

Nolan's first house. We told him to say Go Huskies! instead of trick or treat. I'm pretty sure he got some extra candy for that. 

He loved getting to knock on all those doors and he did a great job, even with the scary houses. That was until we ended up at this really decked out house. They had giant inflatable ghosts, bats and mummys all over their yard. We told Nolan we didn't have to go there but he forged ahead, walked right up to the door. The final straw was an animatronic zombie thing with glowing red eyes that popped up as soon as hit got to the door. He turned around wide eyed and ran back to us declaring that he was all done. The owner of this house was handing out entire gift bags full of vampire teeth, spider rings, stickers and full sized Snickers...score! Nolan still says that Trick or Treating is too spooky but he also asks when he can do it again, so I don't think too much damage was done. 

Other Halloween related randomness.

Bros

Miles is in love with his Brother. Whenever Nolan gets close he is mesmerized by his every move. Luckily the feeling is mutual.

Fall Recital

Yep, mine is the nose picker. Although they seemed to all take a turn at that.

When we signed Nolan up at school. The first thing I noticed on the calendar was a Fall recital scheduled for October 31. I was ecstatic because I LOVED singing in the school recitals. I still remember one where I dressed up as a tulip...or was it a daisy? Either way, I loved it and couldn't wait for Nolan to experience it as well. 

It was just as amazing as I had imagined it...I may have even cried a little bit (or maybe a lot). I loved watching Nolan up on stage but it made him suddenly look so grown up (apart from the nose picking). I can't believe how quickly this parenting thing makes life fly by. Where is the pause button?!

Pumpkins

We skipped the pumpkin patch this year. I just wasn't feeling up to dealing with the mud and the crowds. Instead we drove to a produce stand down the street. Not quite as thrilling but it got the job done.

Nolan insists on wearing that hat everywhere. He's even sleeping with it.

Nolan loved to pick out Miles size pumpkins and would set his selection down in his carrier.

This one was my favorite, which is why it came home with us, along with some regular sized pumpkins as well.

I tried to do a little pumpkin photo shoot but Miles was not cooperating.

I did get this funny one of him sneezing.

Back to the pumpkins. These are Pat's and Nolan's finished pumpkins and a preview of mine.

TA DA!