Miles In Between

Look at this cheeky little boy!  I am really relishing in his sweetness at this age, although “no” is more and more common, he really does have only pure intentions in his heart.  Love! <3

• Bean Counter.  Miles is learning to count!  He likes to count “beans”; a bean being anything smaller than a rock that is not a rock, like a seed or a pinecone, or a shell.  He extends his index finger and knows where to start: “unnnn..doooo”, it stops there and goes to erratic pointing at all the beans.  The other day he busted out with an “eight!” when I was counting and got past 7.
• Who, What, Where?  This month, Miles developed standard answers to the W’s: Who? Ada. What? Apple. Where? Up.
• Bus or Truck?  On the way to kindy each morning, Miles and I have a game.  He chooses one or the other, and I get the leftover.  Whoever sees their vehicle first “wins”.  He can also identify a motorcycle “mo-turrr” and a taxi.  This game was modeled after the game he plays with Tim each night: Bird or Dog?
• Morning, Sun!  Each morning, Miles gets very excited at the appearance of a huge red ball over the sea “Dun!!!”  He waves and says good morning.  At night (and he discovered even during the day) he searches the sky for his second favorite, the moon.
• Sleeping seems back on track, for the most part.  At least it is pretty consistent, 10 hours at night and 2-3 in the afternoon.  Thank you!
• Food.  We started off the month with Miles insisting he would only take food off a spoon or fork he personally delivered to his mouth, and ended it with him dumping out the contents of any plate or bowl onto the table/floor eating only when we shovel it in for him.  Favorite food: fish!  And yes, I am a mom that hides veggies.
• Potty!  Miles is using the potty for all his #2′s and I can take him out of the house without diapers for short periods if I explain he is not wearing diapers and he can’t poop or pee unless he is on the toilet.  Still uses (disposable now) diapers at daycare and during sleep.  But it is a step in the right direction.  Slowly, slowly.
• Other…Miles LOVES to play in the sand, “beeeetch” is his favorite destination; favorite toys are a tea kettle & cups, bus with sesame st characters, anything with wheels; singing is also a great distractor, although he is most interested in new songs, I am constantly challenging my memory and coming up with something he hasn’t heard before; “preparation” for the new baby consisted of reading a story where the big brother’s bed was relegated to the new baby, we think he is getting it, because he HATES that book now and refuses to read it; naked time is all the time around here, as soon as we get home it’s shoes off, shorts off, dipe off (at Miles’ insistence).  Unfortunately, it’s extending to outside the home, hope our neighbors don’t mind a naked boy running around the pool!

Miles is growing up.  He understands what we say, copies what we do, and needs to be up to his elbows in everything!

• Mine: word of the month.  Everything is ‘mine, mine’.  Basically just means he wants something, but I try and explain, no Miles, that actually belongs to Momma, and I am sharing with you.
• The stool.  Miles has  a little ottoman from his nursing chair that he drags around the house, effectively making him 18″ taller.  This means he is on every counter, every table, in the sink, at the stove (yikes!) and helping with all tasks that go on there.  Dishes are a clear favorite (and luckily he cannot reach the faucet yet).  He also likes to “mix, mix”, which means to help with cooking.  I’m glad he has such an interest, and that he is learning to steer clear of knives and the stove (do you want to touch sharp? hot?, to which he replies with a shaking head, waving hand and ‘bye, bye’)
• The pot.  Another month of diaper free, and we’ve had some back and forth.  Not so much with accidents on the floor, those are very rare, but sometimes he is keen to sit and read/watch videos on the potty, and other times he would rather hold it.  For a LONG time, or at least until I get his swim diaper on and take him to the pool.  Ugh.  We’ll get there, anyway.  I stopped using cloth diapers (he was super-soaking through them in about 45 minutes), so we go through 2-3 disposables a day.
• Thanks.  We made it a priority to start family dinners this month so we all sit down and eat together each night.  Most nights, anyway.  This means 2 good things: Miles gets exposed to whatever we are eating, and tends to eat better when he sees us doing it AND he participates in our pre-dinner ‘grace’, where we hold hands and go around saying what we are thankful for.  He knows the drill, daddy goes first, then momma, then Miles says ‘thanks’ and then we can eat!  He loves this tradition and sometimes insists on doing it before breakfast or when we eat out.  Its so sweet, though, we can’t resist.
• Sleep: a regression.  I can’t blame jetlag, or molars, or lack of routine.  Miles just did not have a good month of sleeping.  Night waking, calling for momma, and not putting himself to sleep.  Sigh.
• Other – Miles started daycare Monday, just a little break for momma and a chance to get some energy out on some other, well-paid adults…even with the mine-mine attitude, Miles doesn’t seem to care that much if other kids take stuff from him, he just picks up something else to play with…so much singing these days, there will be whole mornings where Miles is hanging around singing songs to himself, or having an unintelligible monologue…I have been taking some mom time recently, so lots of chances for Miles to bond with dad, they are so sweet together.  I love my little family, and looking forward to it getting bigger…I don’t think Miles has any concept of a baby on the way.  He likes to poke and prod my belly, kiss it and say baby, but I don’t think he ‘gets’ it yet at all.  He will soon enough, 3 months to go!!

Talking and teething and tantrums, oh my.

• Talking.  Wow, this month has been all about learning new words and putting them to use.  It’s frustrating at times when presented with just the first little sound of something Miles really wants.  He just repeats and repeats it until finally grabbing our hand and leading us around.  I’d guess he says about 50 intelligible words, and sings about 4 songs.  It’s fun.
• Teething.  Oh, man.  We waited, and waited.  And now Miles has molars.  All but one of the first set, making our total tooth count to eleven!
• Tantrums.  We do have a toddler.  One who is nearing two years old.  This month offered glimpses of what is to come.  A breakdown for him starts with some anxious pre-screaming panting, includes plenty of “mama”s and may or may not be accompanied by throwing something and/or swatting.  Fun times to come.
• Travel anxiety.  For a kid who is on the go a LOT, and who never gets left behind (except this once), Miles has some major travel anxiety.  If he sees a packed suitcase or a travel toiletries case, he refuses to leave my side, let alone sleep.  Tim and I have taken to sneaking around packing, leaving out piles of clothes (that seems completely normal to him for some reason) and pulling out the suitcase in the dead of night, often getting it in the car before he wakes up.  Thirty-nine flights down at this point in his life, and at least he (and I) are getting the hang of airport time and flying.
• Follow the leader.  Miles loves leading us around, grabbing 0ur hand or pushing from behind.  He will guide our hands to do something.  He likes to follow little instructions and “help” where he can, I even saw him do a little clean up!
• Baby buck.  The last week of this month, Miles spent almost completely naked.  We’ve been giving him lots of bare butt time to become more aware of his body functions.  The first day was full of accidents, but since then he has been pretty good about waiting until we sit him on the potty or more often put on his diaper for sleep or going out.  Right now it kind of feels like diaper training, but at least he is learning to control when to let it go.
• In love.  Miles is in love.  Her name is Ada and she lives downstairs.  All day he asks for her, he pretends to call her on the phone.  He looks out the window for her, goes to the door that leads downstairs.  He identified a girl in one of his books who has dark, curly pigtails, and points to her each time we are on that page, “Ada!”.  He watches videos of them playing over and over.  She is currently on home leave, too, in “dur-kees” (Turkey).  She’ll be home next week, and maybe Miles’ broken heart will start to mend.

I hear it all the time, and it is so true.  This is truly a very fun age.

• Talk, talk, talking.  This month has been all about the words.  Miles seems to add about 2-3 new ones a day.  The most used word is not surprisingly, mama.  Of note: family members “May” and “Vra” (grandma);  last week’s “beer”; his extensive janitorial vocabulary that includes not only “bucket”, but “mop”, “broom”, and “trash”; some form of “blender”; a range of foods from “fish” to “blueberries”; and a collection of sound effects including “knock, knock”, “DONG!”, and “BOOM!”.  Signing is still going strong, but I think he will soon realize it is not an effective means of communication with 99.9% of the population, as his friends are not too responsive when he stands in front of them signing *more, food, please* to try and get some snacks off them (little beggar).
• Jump up and Jam.  Miles has been working on his jumps.  He gets zero air at this point, but its cute to watch him drive his momentum up over and over.  He still loves dancing, which reminds me I have a video to share with you.  I tried getting him to be more comfortable in the water by putting water wings on him in the pool, and was only effective in scaring him off.
• Eat your veggies.  Miles certainly eats enough, if evaluated by the input/output method.  However, the variety he readily consumed prior to his first birthday has slowly dwindled to a small list, none of which are leafy and green.  Current favorites: blueberries (by a landslide), salmon, avocado, chicken, tortillas, olives (the saltier the better, and not soaked in gin, yet), watermelon, peaches and cheese.  He is also drinking a ton: milk, juice, water, shakes – making cloth diapering less interesting when I have to change him every 45 minutes.
• I’m not even going to mention sleep.  He is transitioning to just one nap a day and we flew halfway around the world.  He gets some sleep every day, and it appears to be enough to fuel his highly active lifestyle.
• Relentless.  I guess you can also call it endless curiosity.  This is one of Miles’ personality traits that has come through loud and clear.  He will not let something go.  If he wants in he is GOING TO GET IN!  No matter how long it takes.  And he will go back to the same things he is not supposed to be in over and over and over.  Hoping I suppose to wear us out. It works.
• He loves reading and playing.  If mom is around he will constantly ask for up, up, but does pretty good playing independently without that temptation around.  He can open most doors and locks (including bathroom doors and childproofing locks), and is learning to move furniture for a better climbing vantage.  He has been teething his 8th tooth for about 6 weeks, and it should come through any day now, away from home like all the others.  He is loving babies these days, especially pictures of mom and dad with a baby (him), which I hope is good news for the little one on the way!  If you ask “where’s Miles?”, he solemnly points to himself and says “Mies”.

This little bean is getting more fun and more cheeky all the time!  I think this is the fun part of toddlerhood, and I am fully enjoying it.

• Inevitable.  I knew it.  With parents like us how could he avoid it? (No, he’s not already doing calculus…that will be in the 18 mo update.)  Miles is a runner.  He no longer walks anywhere, his flat feet smack on the floor as he rushes from room to room.  Fortunately, his balance seems pretty good and no major accidents thus far.  He also likes to show off on steps, putting one foot only on each going up (not step, meet, step, meet, like he did before) and not holding on for the way down.  Luckily here he’s a pretty good faller.  Is that a notable accomplishment?  Miles has the tuck and roll down.
• Blah, blah, blah.  The constant babbling of last month started to come together into coherent (to me, anyway) words.  Mama and Dada are favorites, and used almost constantly in any new situation where we are not within his sights mamadadamamadada…  He will try and say any new word if you start it with “can you say..,.?”, except for those he has mastered by signs.  The only two I can see that transferred over to verbal at this point are dada and banana, although those signs are often used in conjunction with the word.  Food words are favorites: eggs, cheese, juice, grapes, milk…
• No-No. He’s 17 months.  Of course he is all about the no.  For Miles, its in the form of a very solemn bowed-head-wide-sweeping-side-to-side head sweep.
• Yes.  Fortunately, he says yes almost as much as he says no.  Here’s one where he foregoes his previous breathy “yeah” for a more vigorous full body jolt that comes from the solar plexus and eminates through his body.  I need to get these on video.  They’re emphatic.
• Food.  Miles will only eat things he wants to eat, and only things he brings to his own mouth (with an exception for ice cream, it seems).  I am just trying to go with the provide several healthy options and be OK with whichever goes down, even if its not the healthiest one.  I have not exactly been a pillar of reference in this department the last couple weeks, anyway…pickles and ice cream?  Miles loves it too.
• Others…Tooth seven made its appearance in Borneo, leading me to believe Miles will never cut a tooth at home in his own bed…We counted that Miles was on his 30th flight, making it almost one flight every 2 weeks of his life.  He does have massive feet, but I think his carbon footprint is even bigger…That being said, his traveling days are over it seems, after a particularly needy night at a hotel in KK, Tim swore he was never taking Miles anywhere again…Miles sings and does the hand motions to “itsy bitsy spider” and was showing off for some friends during dinner the other night.  I think I was the only one who got what he was doing…He’s a dancing fool when some good music comes on (his interpretation of good music that is), incorporating moves such as the high stomp, low squat, side to side shuffle, and the arms up spin (but only to the left).

We’ve been a bit absent from the blog (seems to be the season, my feed reader has been DEAD recently), but life is still going on here, including the growth and development of one certain little man.  Here’s what’s been up with him:

• Communication:  Miles has really started using words for things, from “nana” (banana) to dada/mama.  We’ve had our friends visiting and Miles has multi word sentence communication with their toddler, apparently they understand each other.  Its cute to finally hear his “voice”.  He still signs to get most of his point across and has recently added signs for rain, help and drawing.  Oh, and he is really good at shaking his head “no”.
• Motor Skills: Still climbing everything.  He’s gotten smarter about how to get into things too, moving chairs so he can climb onto counters or up to unlatch the windows (scary).  His walk has quickened to a run and we have to chase him down.  He’s much more independent now, walking places himself and feeding himself, which typically ends up as a giant mess.
• Sleep: Sleep is touch and go.  I thought he was done taking morning naps, then he wakes up at 4:30am the next day if he doesn’t get one.  Some days he is begging for the bed, and curls up with his little elephant sweetly just halfway through twinkle twinkle, other times he fights it for 20 minutes before finally passing out.
• Eating: Now that he is in control of getting it to his mouth, Miles seems more willing to eat anything. It probably helps that he is pretty much getting what we get these days, there’s no jealousy and peering over the edge of my bowl into greener (and usually raw-er) pastures.  Favorites include cheese (teesss), yogurt, rice and grapes.
• Other: Still only 6 teeth, one day (night) its going to get really bad, I’m afraid…Miles learned to kiss with a big *smack* and also kisses the people in the computer and the phone…he loves to sing and dance, and has a sign for music which is two hands overhead “snapping” while he clicks his tongue…he loves books, especially one with real pictures of babies in it. His favorite page is the one with 4 babies taking a bath, he does the sign for bath and just loves that page…he thinks my glasses are a hat and asks to put them on, looking quite scholarly.

I was thinking I could discontinue this update post, maybe slow it down to once a quarter…and then BAM! this month happened and we have a new child on our hands.  For starters, this one looks more like his daddy than ever before.  For more, read on.

• Monkey.  Miles does not slow down. In fact, he doesn’t sit down unless I physically restrain him (what else are the straps on a highchair for?)  He is in constant motion, and recently the direction of that motion has turned vertical: we’ve got a climber on our hands.  On top of the toilet, on top of the kitchen table, up the chair and onto the window sill, and most disturbingly, up the side of the crib and out of his bed.  I was pretty freaked out when that happened.  He was not so freaked out that he wouldn’t try it again.  The next time I set him in it he was over the side, using the sticky feet to gain purchase on the varnished boards.  I now put the toilet brush up high, keep the table free of anything and put him to bed with socks on, but I am fighting a losing battle against his growth hormones which make him longer and stronger without adding much bulk.
• Words!  I wouldn’t say Miles is talking.  His only intelligible “dada” word is consistent and dead on (being used for dad only).  Others are consistent but in his own language like food (b/doof), keys, grapes.  However, there are lots of other words slipping out here and there.  Did he just say cat? button? pancake? grandpa? dog?  As the words tumble out, the signs drop off; we haven’t seen daddy in a few days.  On the signing front, Miles has learned to say please and uses it incessantly to get what he wants.  ”bbbdddooff” *please*, further emphasized by tugging on the refrigerator doors.
• A crossroads.  I also feel we are at a crossroads. Miles is old enough to understand, too young to control his impulses.  I am running out of places to move the things I don’t want him to get into, and I feel we need another form of discipline other than diversion.  A wise momma told me, when I asked what to do about his climbing, “you be as consistent as you can, and teach him how to get down”.  We’re trying.
• And in other news: Miles wants a big sister after we had 2 big girls come stay with us for a few days…Tooth 5 erupted, and 6 is making a torturous descent…Jetlag is bad for sleep schedules.  For everyone…trying to phase out the morning nap, slowly, slowly…

This month, Miles added 10,000 miles to his frequent flyer account and just about that many to his shoes.  He is on the go and into EVERYTHING!  Tiring, but so much fun.

• Motor Skills.  Miles is walking, fast.  Its almost a run and I need to run to catch him.  He moves with relentless energy, its enviable.  He also learned to climb, and my heart jumped into my throat the first time I found him sitting on the kitchen table after leaving the room for just a minute.
• Communication.  Still no consistent words coming out of his mouth, but the signing is going strong, with a 20+ word vocab.  He can pick up a new sign quickly and remember it days later.  He made up a sign for dog, which looks a lot like a snorting and snuffing rhinoceros, but I know what he means.  At certain points during the day, he will look around the house, then give me the sign for “daddy” and “where did it go?”  A hand swept down his face slowly tells me he’s tired, and he knows he can get anything with please (hand rubbing chest).  He’s getting the point across.  He also comprehends and can follow some simple instructions like, give the book to daddy.
• Eating.  Miles is a bit too busy these days to sit down for a proper meal, so he makes do with grazing.  A bowl of oatmeal might take 3 hours to polish off.  Food is much more interesting to him if he is in control of the spoon and fork, and there were some funny moments where he speared something only to pick it off with his fingers and feed it to himself.  Almost anything will go down if it is blended into a shake or mixed into an omelet.
• Sleep.  Aside from the recent hiccup caused by taking 24 hours to travel back in time 13 hours, things are going very well.  He’s back to 2 naps a day, bringing back the mad sprint between 10:30 and 2 when all things outside the house must get done, but he’s happier for it.
• Fun.  Time with Miles is starting to get super fun.  He loves hiding.  He cracks us up constantly, like when he stumbles around the yard with a bucket over his head.  He is overjoyed at playgrounds and does this audible inhale that thoroughly conveys his maddening excitement.  He brings books to us to read and mimics our hand movements to the Itsy Bitsy Spider.  He points out any animal, all of which are categorized into either bird, elephant or dog/rhino, the only animal signs he knows.

• Motor Skills: Walking, walking, walking and almost running! He can kick a soccer ball and throw.  He has started climbing into the pool by himself (yikes), but can also climb out.  He actually started climbing everything, and there are exactly 2 spot in our house that are free from Miles threat right now, but I think the middle of the table is about to lose that status as soon as he gets on top of a chair.  He spent most of this month with a runny nose, and our rhinoceros impression snort and snuff came in handy.
• Communication: Signing up a storm, but no real attempt at any more words yet.  Even his “dada” has fallen by the wayside as he learned the sign for dad, which he represents by banging himself on the head (I’m with you, boy!).  The signs are cute, especially “where did it go?”, which is accompanied by a spoken “dtheet?”  He loves the Itsy Bitsy spider and asks for it by rubbing his fists together and saying “sssss”.
• Eating: He tries his hand at feeding himself, and almost anything will go down if he brings it to his own mouth.  His favorites are grapes and raisins (gearing up to be a wine-o?).  I am still freezing meals for him, its so much easier to defrost something than make sure I have something Miles-friendly ready to go.  He has started associating the freezer and microwave with mealtime.  Woops.  On the weaning front, we are down to just one wakeup session a day.  I am willing to keep that up for a while longer.
• Sleeping: Miles gave up the morning nap almost as soon as I started to embrace the hour free each morning.  He now sleeps for 2+ hours in the afternoon and (mostly) until 6am (11 hours) at night.  After months of 4:30-5am, 6am feels like noon.
• Other. We do “shoe the old horse” before going out…he LOVES anything with buttons, including dad’s shirt…I taught Miles belly blow (raspberries, cute) Tim taught Miles titty tweaking (not cute when he is in the shower with me) and he goes around pinching his nipples all day…Several of his little buddies are talking and say his name “Myyy”, which is too cute…he has charmed all the vendors at the market and now gets free fruit everytime we go – I swear he knows when we are headed out, he refuses breakfast.

It was a great month, looking forward to many more!

Hard to believe this little guy has been with us only a year, I can’t imagine life without him.

Here’s what Miles is up to at the 1.0 mark:

• Walking! Miles started walking the day before his 11 mo birthday, and the last month has seen him go from drunken-zombie-stumbler to full on walking around.  It’s his preferred method of travel; I haven’t seen him crawl for weeks!
• Talking! (kind of…)  After months of signing “more”, “thirsty” and “water” to Miles, he finally got it.  His signing vocabulary is about 12 words (including the all important elephant and ceiling fan), and it seems to have significantly reduced the frustrated pointing and screaming.  Miles also added yes and no (breathy yeah’s and nah’s) to his spoken words, and I may have heard a “nana” for banana yesterday.  Most oft spoken “word” is “dddttthhhiiiieeettt!!”, which seems to mean, “Oh wow! Look!”
• Handed-ness. Miles is starting to show preference for one hand over the other.  He mostly uses the left as his pincher-picker-upper and Tim refers to the right as his “crush hand”, whatever goes in there gets pulverized and forgotten about, to be licked off at the end of the meal.  So, southpaw?
• Eating. After dutifully and eagerly opening wide for anything on a spoon, Miles palate has developed to prefer anything that is on my plate.  We can get all the healthy purees down by camoflouging the porridge under a tiny cube of papaya or the lentils under a sliver of crackers and cheese, but I don’t expect this trickery to last long.  I suppose as soon as I use up the frozen cubes of puree and ground rice-bean porridge mix, Miles will be ready to just eat what we eat.  Still nursing 3x/day, but has taken to clamping down and leaving teeth marks the last few days, which will lead to some pretty quick weaning if it continues.
• Teeth count: 4.  Guess what Miles got for Christmas?  His 2 front teeth.
• Sleep. Ahhhh, finally.
• Other. Lots of kisses and now hugs coming our way…Miles got sick for the first time – roseola, I think…he likes to pretend eat the banana in the stuffed monkey’s hand and the oranges in the counting book… loves reading and will bring book after book after book…started swim lessons and next week music class…