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