9 Months

Almost a month ago Miles turned 9 months. Although I am not posting this until he is almost 10 months old, I did at least take these pictures closer to when he actually turned 9 months.

At nine months Miles is:

Weight: 19 lbs., 12 oz., 30th percentile
Height: 29", 90th percentile
Head Circumference: 18", 60th percentile

Is extremely mobile. He's crawling everywhere, going up AND down stairs, and I do think walking is not too far behind. He can pull himself up and cruise from object to object and can even hover for a few seconds when you let go. Before when you put him down he would gladly go onto his butt and then start crawling, but now he would prefer it if you stood him on his feet and walked with him.

Everything is fair game.... if it's out in the open, in a cabinet or drawer that is not baby proofed, he will get to it and proceed to pull everything out and scatter it around the room. This usually is "allowed" to happen when mommy is desperately trying to do something like get ready in the morning, cook, or clean something. I just look around and try to accept that hurricane Miles has just attacked. Cleaning up these days consists of just tidying up after him and not actually cleaning. This is why my house looks the way it does. Sorry for whoever comes over.

He is mimicking us a lot lately with sounds and expressions which has been hilarious. Daddy really knows how to bring the silly out of him, especially at the dinner table.

When we say "what sound does a doggy make?" he will respond with some kind of noise that we are deeming a bark. You may not think so, but we'll take it :)

Miles interacts with other children pretty well. He had his first kiss a couple weeks ago when he plunged right in for a wet one with a little lady he just met. He knows what he wants, what can I say :) He will also "talk" to other kids. They will send shriek messages back and forth to each other which is so piercing to mommy's ears, but glad they can figure out what each other is saying.

He has developed a little bit of a mullet (pictured above) which kind of drives me nuts, but I can't bring myself to cut it so I just sit there and play with it while he is nursing embracing the mullet.

Time is flying and I try desperately to store all these moments into my head as much as I can. Can't believe how big he is getting.

Adventures in Indy

You may remember this picture from last summer:

Well here are most of us now...

A few months ago Miles and I headed down to Indy to visit some really good friends from Purdue and their kiddos. Miss Julie and Macy came for a visit all the way from Rochester, and we hadn't seen Cari, Rigg, and Ryder in awhile, so we had to make a quick one day visit to see everyone. In my mind I thought no problem! We got this! Up until this point I could time so that during Miles's nap time, I could throw him in the car and he would sleep for at least 1.5 hours, which is a big chunk of the 3 hour drive to Indy. He would usually then proceed to wake up and happily coo and play with some of his toys. Was even hoping we wouldn't even have to stop because I had timed it so well that he wouldn't need to eat until we got there. WELL NOT THIS TIME!!!!

Here are some numbers for you from that little trip:

3: The number of hours it should take us to get from Chicago to Indy
5: How many hours it actually took us to get to Indy
3+: How long Miles screamed his little head off, hours that is
489: The number of times I called Nick panicking (as if there was anything he could do from home)
3: Stops we needed to take to regain sanity
10: How many minutes I sat in Park on the skyway at one time
74: Mommy break down moments
3: How many times I almost turned around and went home
30: Total minutes Miles slept
5: Phone calls from sweet friends in Indy checking on my sanity (they "witnessed" the screaming child in the back seat)
3: Number of friends that greeted me with open arms once we reached our destination
1: Very sleepy (but happy????) boy once out of the car and one very tired mommy

It was an adventure that I do not wish to repeat anytime soon but once we got there it was SO great to visit with friends and meet Miss Macy for the first time. The only sad part was that our good friend Michele was not able to join us this visit, but we all get to rendezvous again next week (sans Miles) where she will be able to come.

After sharing some mommy stories, Julie and I came to the conclusion that we have the same type of child. They had and have the same dispositions, struggled and succeeded with similar things, and made their mommy's feel the same frustrations and joys. So nice to hear we weren't alone! It's almost as if they could feel how similar they are because it seemed as though there was some competition between the two with toys, location in a room, mobility, you name it. It was pretty funny.

Cari's son Rigg is 2 and it was so fun to see him interact with us and the other babies, watch him dance and sing, and just be silly. Loved seeing how big the youngest of the group, Ryder, is compared to his "older" friends. Cari even has a dog named Bo that we swear is Maddie's long lost brother, or "brother from another mother" as Cari would say.

As always, the visit was too short, but I am so glad we went despite the trip down.


P.S.- Sorry for the blurry shots, it's hard capturing active babies!

5 years!

I can't believe it, but we have been married for five years today. Where has the time gone? 

This year has been a big one for us. We made this.....

...and survived it so far :) It's fun being a family now and all the new great (and exhausting) things that come along with it.

Happy anniversary Nick!

Good To Have Friends

In June my good friend from high school, Katherine, got married. It was a beautiful wedding and a lot of fun. Since I was honored enough to be in the wedding, it also marked my first close to full day and night away from Miles. It was a little rough juggling all the schedules and making sure I had EVERYTHING that he needed to be away from me for so long, but I have to say it was a nice little break.

Because of Katherine's wedding, my other good friend Jenny and her son James came in from El Paso and we got to spend a few days with them. One of the days we met up with our friend Kristin and her son Charlie for a little play date. It was so wonderful to see them and to have the boys play together.

Smiley Charlie

"Look over here Char"

Not an easy picture to get! James, Charlie and Miles

7 & 8 months

Since I was a slacker for his 7 month update, you'll be getting 7 AND 8 month updates together.

At 7 months Miles became a crawling champ as well as a wonderful eater. He can get from one place to the next with out any problems and we already forget what it was like before he started crawling.

He can eat so many different yummy things. There really hasn't been anything we've put in front of him that he absolutely hated which has been really fun. His all time favorite food right now would have to be blueberries.

At 8 months he has learned to wave and has developed a fake cough that he busts out when he's being silly. He seems to be making more and more funny sounds that not only make us laugh, but get him going too. He never was a kid that laughed too much unless you really tried, but it's getting easier now and I just love it. With a good tickle you can really get him going.

He's getting so good at eating solid foods that we have ended the pureed baby food all together. Hooray!

When he's sitting in a high chair he does a little dance when eating or when I am singing to him. It cracks me up everytime.

Miles is also a pro at going up the stairs. We have two long stairs separating our living room from our kitchen and I no longer have to worry about him climbing up them without me right behind him. Going down is a different story. We're practicing :) He can also go up an entire flight of stairs with no help. I let him do this when we are going up to bed because I think it tires him out.

I did an unofficial weigh in the other day and he's about 19 lbs. these days and is growing out of his 6 and even some of his 9 month clothing length wise so I'm guessing he's still pretty long. I feel a little better about him growing out of his cloths so quickly because now we have so many friends to pass our clothes off to for borrowing.


These days his hair is looking more and more like it has a redish tint to it... sigh. Maybe it will pass.
 :)

Miles has sprung 2 more teeth so our grand total is up to eight. Let's just say it really hurts when he bites you now.

Each month I feel like I have a better handle on things and we just have more fun together. Don't get me wrong, it's a lot of work and mommy needs a break sometimes, but it's so much better. Love you little man!

Summer Fun

This summer Miles was old enough to go to a class offered at the library. It meets once a week and we made it about 25% of the time. It was at a rough time for us because it was right in the middle of nap time but I really wanted him to be exposed to other kids so we tried to go as much as possible. He seemed to have a good time. We signed up again for the next session so I hope we can make it to a few more classes and that he will interact a little more with the other kiddos. Now that he is crawling, I think it will be easier for him to "meet and greet".

On good days we are able to meet up with Daddy and have lunch with him since the library is right by his work. We like those days :)

There is a park about a block away that hosted a "concert in the park" night. We headed over, laid out our blanket and spent time with some neighbors and listened to some fun music.

We weren't able to go to the movie in the park which was Toy Story 3 because of someone's bedtime. As we were walking past it on our way him Nick said "Don't worry, we'll get to go next year" and I said "Ok, I guess I'll just have to wait", but I think he wasn't talking to me :) I just love going to those types of things, I can't help it.

Happy Birthday Maddie Girl!

Maddie turned 8 this July and because I love her like a child, I made her a puppy friendly birthday cake and invited some of her friends over to share it with her :) It was chaos but I think they enjoyed themselves.

Everyone waiting patiently for their cake