Myles Monthly: 13

As you may know, I didn't decide to start my blog until my son Myles was about 8 months old. And well... now he is 22 months old! I'm still trying to get caught up with the monthly updates and monthly favorites, so I can get, and hopefully stay, up to date. 

 August 15th- September 14th, 2013

Health

 Things continued to go fairly well in the health category this month. He did get a little cold in the beginning of the month. Right before we left to go back to Illinois for his first birthday, he started getting a runny nose. It continued for about 4 days into our trip, but was completely gone by the day of his party. He also had his 12 month well-check while we were back home. Everything went well and he was right on track. I decided to push back his 12 month shots since he already had a runny nose and his party was only two days after his appointment. He has had a bad track record with his shots, and even though the 9 month ones weren't too bad, I didn't want to risk him not being 100% for his party. Our doctor was fine with it, knowing that he wasn't going to daycare or anything regularly.

Love me a big Buddha baby belly... althought it was steadily shrinking since he started walking!
 
Eating
Eating was going better with each passing month; very slow, but steadily eating more at a time and trying more foods. Last month I talked a little about how getting Myles to eat a significant amount of food was a big challenge in our house. We saw some big improvements during month 12 and although he still wasn't eating 3 meals a day, we were happy with him eating dinner every night. He still wasn't into breakfast at all, but he would sometimes snack at lunch, and mostly always ate dinner. 
He was still breastfeeding throughout the day, so I wasn't worried about him not getting enough nutrition or anything. He always drank a lot in the morning, so I am guessing that's why he never wanted breakfast. He was still nursing anywhere from 5-10 times a day. Morning, nap, and before bed were the times that he would drink a significant amount. The other times were short 5-10 minute sessions because he was upset, got hurt, was bored, etc. After making it a whole year breastfeeding, I didn't really know where I was going to go from there. I had never imagined I was going to make it to a year, so I didn't have any goals or expectations past that. At this point, I decided I was just going to keep going as long as he wanted it, and think about weaning if he was still nursing when he turned two. I knew I would still be comfortable nursing him up until two, so I figured it would be best to let him wean at his own pace and then see how I felt about nursing past two when we got closer to that time. And to be honest, I was pretty sure I didn't have a choice with his level of attachment. 

He also really started mastering the straw. He learned how to use a straw months back, but now it was his preferred method of drinking!

Sleeping
With such big changes last month, I wasn't sure how traveling and staying back at my parents' was going to go. I was pretty nervous since he had just started sleeping 10 hours straight at night (up from his normal 8 and then nursing back to sleep for another 2 hours). I was also not sure how a time change would effect his sleep. Since I had literally gone 8 months on 0-3 hours of sleep a night, this new sleep routine was too amazing to risk messing up. But we had to go back for his birthday, so I had to just hope that he would take the changes with a grain of salt! And thankfully he did!! Most nights I let him stay up a little later than his normal schedule, but we were visiting family and I wanted him to get as much time in with them as possible. So he was sleeping more like 10pm-8am, but still getting one 2-3 hour nap each day. On his birthday party day though he was so excited and pumped that he didn't take a nap all day! Around 7pm, when everyone was gone, he got really tired, but by that time I didn't want him to even take a nap, so I let him sleep for like 20 minutes and then woke him up to play for a bit before I put him to bed for the night.

Getting some snuggles in with daddy before mommy put him to bed.


Saying

Another new category!! This one should be fun as the months go on. For now, he is saying:

• MaMa, DaDa, Ball, Pa, Book, Peek-a-Boo

Outings

• Discovery Center Children's Museum; I make it a point to go here at least once every time we go back home. I never thought it was the greatest, but now after going to many others out here in California, I have realized just how awesome it really is. I could go on for days about this place, but my favorite part is the Tot Spot. It's just for kids ages 5-under and has everything a toddler could ever want to play with! Myles could spend his whole day there if I didn't make him explore other parts of the museum! I didn't really take any good pictures because I just wanted to spend time with Myles, but his favorite part this visit was the water exhibit.  He also got to ride a huge tractor and we made our hand imprints together. 

• San Fransisco Zoo: One Sunday we decided to take a trip to the San Fran zoo with some friends. I am a big zoo/aquarium person and I was expecting this one to be amazing! I think my expectations were way too high and I definitely walked away disappointed. It was an okay zoo, but for the price and location, I thought there would be a lot more. A lot of the exhibits were closed and I wasn't impressed with the ones that were open. But the kids still had a great time and that's all that matters really.

• We also started taking him to the daycare at the gym. This was the first time he was under the care of someone that wasn't my parents or sister-in-law! I was really not prepared to do it, but since we had moved away from everyone that helped us with Myles before, I had to get a break and take time for myself somehow. The first 2 weeks were rough. He bawled every time we left and pretty much cried the whole time. The situation ended up being more stressful than helpful. They had to call us down to get him most times after about 30 minutes. I dreaded going and almost wanted to quit. But I kept at it just hoping it would get better soon, and it eventually did. He found a girl that he really liked. She had to hold him the whole time, but he didn't cry with her. So we just made sure we went when she was working.

Milestones

• Little Gym: he really started blossoming there. He loved trying out all of the skills and of course ball time was his favorite. He had really awesome upper body strength; even the teacher couldn't believe how strong he was on the bars. This picture is him hanging from the bar. I know it's hard to tell but he is really hanging and not touching the ground. 

• Climbing: we officially entered the climbing phase; the daredevil climbing phase to be exact! I got a couple pictures of some examples of this:

This is how Myles likes to tell me he is hungry: he climbs up into his highchair with the use of a dining room chair! He also became a climbing expert at the park. His new favorite was climbing up the slide, or trying to at least :)

• On the way back to California, Myles got his own seat on the plane. It is so nice when the plane isn't full and we get that extra seat. He sat on his own for a while and I had to get a picture because it was so stinkin' cute!

• He also acquired another new skill at the park: going down slide by himself! He could climb up the stairs, sit down, and slide all by himself now! Big boy status!

•  He loved brushing his teeth! Once I showed him what to do, he never wanted to stop.

Funnies

Now that he is developing his personality, I think I will be keeping this new category around!

• This goofy guy always had me laughing at his antics! This day he felt like taking his AlphabetPal for a ride. 

• He loved playing outside in his water table. One day he decided to use it at a pool! He thought it was so cool, he tried doing every time we went outside!

• He got this toy golf set for his birthday and loved it. I think it is safe to say it was his absolute favorite present. I was totally impressed with his skills:

• He started getting into the phase where he had to help do everything, most notably sweep and vacuum. Every time I got out the vacuum or broom, he had to take over and do it himself. He liked this play vacuum for a couple weeks and then he was over it and only wanted the real thing!

What are new skills your kid(s) are learning?

 

Come back to check out my favorites from months thirteen & fourteen!

{First Birthday} Birthday Festivities

I am back with some more first birthday fun. In my first post, I talked about how I decided on a theme and showed you Myles' Birthday Photo Shoot and invitation. I wouldn't consider myself a very traditional mom, but when it comes to milestones I tend to be quite extreme! So this mini-series is going to show just how crazy I get in celebrating Myles. This is my second post filed under Myles' First Birthday, and I may or may not have at least 4 more posts planned! 

*Side note: I already have a board full of pins, 3 pages of lists, and tons of supplies for his 2nd birthday coming up in August!*

Anywho, back to the 1st birthday! Even though we only just moved to California at the beginning of July, we knew we had to go back home for Myles' 1st birthday. A 1st birthday is a pretty big deal in my book and the perfect excuse to bring all of our families together to eat yummy food, have tons of goofy fun, and dote on the cutest little guy around! We flew back on the 13th so we would have a night to relax and recuperate after 12+ hours of traveling, before Myles' big day. 
We settled in at my parent's house, had a little visit, and called it an early night. When we woke up, I got a few shots of the birthday boy while we were getting in our morning snuggle time!

We lounged around for the rest of the morning and then finally got ready because we were meeting my dad for lunch. Around noon we headed up the street to one of my favorite neighborhood cafes. We ate an awesome lunch and loved on the birthday boy.

I have to preface these videos and pictures by saying that up until this point, Myles had never had a sweet treat or dessert of any type. He didn't care for any sort of cookie or chocolate. I tried a few times when he seemed interested but he would either just flat out say no or spit it out after 2 seconds of tasting it. Because of that, I knew there would be no point in getting him a cupcake to eat. So I picked out what I thought we would have the best luck in getting him to try: a carrot cake muffin. And truth be told, I wasn't going to mind one bit if I was going to be the one that ended up having to eat it. I brought a little candle from home and stuck it in the muffin for him!

I guess I should have assumed that he was going to try and reach for the lit candle (duh mom!), but at least I got to it before he did! It seemed like he was pretty excited to see what was on his plate, so I was hopeful that maybe he would eat it! But it went a little something like this:

Not quite what I has envisioned, but he got to get messy and I think he may have actually gotten a bite or two in his mouth.

I am pretty ashamed to admit this, but I have no pictures from the rest of the daytime. And because of that, I am even more ashamed to admit that I really have no idea what we did. I'm guess some playing, a nap, and some more playing... 
When the rest of the household got home, we ate dinner and I let Myles try out another treat for the first time: Jello! I was searching through the kitchen to find something I could put a candle in so we could sing 'happy birthday' to Myles all together, and I knew I stuck gold when I found a little individual sized jello cup.
Apparently, I didn't learn my lesson the first time with the lit candle. I didn't put it far enough away and he tried grabbing it again! This time he got so close that his fingers got a little hot and he freaked out. Luckily he didn't actually touch the center of the flame, but he was a little worked up about it.

But all was right again in the world when Myles got his hands on that jello! He was so picky and selective with his eating at the time, I couldn't believe that he liked it! He was literally shoveling the jello into his mouth and couldn't sallow it fast enough!

After getting cleaned up from dessert, we let Myles open up a present that his great-aunt dropped off because she wasn't going to be able to make it to his party. He was really into the card (I think it had a dinosaur on it) and was genuinely intrigued by the opening of his present. That made me even more excited for his party and to be able to watch him open all of his presents!

Then we got ready for bed, but before the night was over, I had sneak in a little first birthday selfie photo shoot. Then it was off to dreamland for Myles and DIYing for the momma!

Do you celebrate the actual birthday as well as have a party? Or just pick one? 
What are some of your birthday traditions for your kids?

Don't forget to come back to check out the actual party and see if all my hard work paid off!

Myles Monthly: 12

As you may know, I didn't decide to start my blog until my son Myles was about 8 months old. And well... now he is 20 months old! So I am focusing on getting caught up with monthly updates and monthly favorites, so I can get, and hopefully stay, up to date with current times. 

 July 15th- August 14th, 2013

This update is going to be pretty short and sweet because I have separate posts planned for his birthday and party.

Statistics

Born: 7 lbs 6 oz and 19.5 inches
Twelve Months: 20 lbs 3 oz and 30 1/4 inches

  Health

Again, thankfully nothing major this month in the health department. Like I mentioned in the last update, Myles' weight had slowed way down over the last couple months. He had an offical weigh-in at his 12 month well-check and my observation was confirmed. He only gained 6 ounces since his last check up at 9 months. I was just so used to him gaining pounds between each visit that I was beginning to worry a lot about it. I know that the weight gain slows down as they get older, especially when they start being mobile, but this seemed a little extreme to me. I asked his doctor what she thought and she wasn't concerned at this point. At least he wasn't losing weight and was still in the 20s, percentile wise. He didn't show any other symptoms of being malnourished and he had TONS of energy, so I just made a point that he was never dehydrated and always offered him food for all meals and snacks.

Eating
Well I officially made it to a year breastfeeding! I never thought I would make it that far. I remembering thinking I would just try for 3 month increments. I was hoping to make it to three months, and then at three months, my next goal was to go to six months, and so on. Honestly, before I knew it, he was 12 months and we were still going strong. It went by pretty fast in the sense that when we made it to 12 months, it didn't feel like it was that long or hard to get there. However, I'm pretty sure at this point my mommy goggles were on and working in full effect! We went through so many phases and changes throughout the last 12 months, but that's a post for another day. If you haven't already, check out the breastfeeding posts I have already wrote. Breastfeeding a now toddler came with a totally new set of challenges, benefits, and quirks. Our typical day in the life of breastfeeding a toddler looked something like this. All day, everyday people!

If you have been keeping up with Myles' Monthly updates lately, then you know we had been struggling a bit to get Myles to eat any actual food. Well I am very happy to report that we finally had a breakthrough this month! He wasn't eating all three meals or big portions yet, but progress, not perfection! He started eating a lot more fruits like whole apples, peaches, and nectarines, along with his normal berries. He also began eating dinner with us! This was a huge milestone for us because I felt like it was never going to happen. Pasta, most meats, and beans were at the top of his favorites list. He really loved to gnaw on corn-on-the-cob still too. It was such a relief to see him start eating actual meals!

Sleeping

This month had big changes for sleep. I guess his body got the memo that he was now a toddler and his sleep had to change accordingly. One random night he decided to sleep 10 1/2 hours straight through. He went to bed at 9:30 like usual, but instead of getting up at 6:00am and nursing to sleep for another couple hours like usual, he slept all the way through until 7:30-8:00am and then was up for the day. The first time it happened, I remember waking up at 7:30am and freaking out; I felt like it was super late and I just knew something had to be wrong if he was still sleeping! I looked at the monitor and he appeared to be fine and still sleeping. Of course, I had to go in there and physically check on him because this was totally out of character for him. Thankfully, he was fine and was peacefully sleeping away. I guess his body decided that he didn't need that little bit of momma milk to sleep all the way through the night anymore. I waited 12 LONG months to get 10 hours of sleep out of Myles and I will say that it was as glorious as I had always imagined it was! After that one night, 10-10 1/2 hours straight became his new norm. I was reluctant to celebrate this milestone, as I feared it wouldn't last, but he has stuck pretty true to that schedule for almost a year now (minus vacations and sick days). To be able to go to bed and know that I could sleep for a significant amount of time was something I longed for during the first 8 months so much that now that it was finally here, I definitely did not take it for granted! 

With his nighttime sleep transition also came a nap transition. He very seamlessly went from two naps a day to one. I honestly didn't have to do anything in regards to his schedule, he just transitioned all on his own. He went from taking 2 shorter naps (30-45 minutes) to one longer nap (1 1/2-2 hours). As soon as he started sleeping that 10 hours through the night, he was up for a longer period of time until his nap. Then when he did go down, he slept longer, so when he woke up he had enough energy to last until bedtime without another nap. I was lucky with how easy this transition was and very grateful that Myles just went with the flow and let it all work out on its own. I am definitely a fan of the one longer nap too!  

Outings

• Since moving to a new town 1,000s of miles away from anyone I knew, I decided to look into some mommy and me programs in our area. I was lucky enough to discover that we had a Little Gym pretty close to us. I was happy to find something that Myles and I could do together and was hopeful to meet some other moms and babies. We were able to take a trial class before signing up, but it was an easy decision. I was really impressed with their classes. They allows the kids to explore on their own, but also learn to participate in group activities, all while learning fine and gross motor skills. I loved it because it was a great, safe environment to let Myles be free and get into whatever he wanted!

• One thing I was really looking forward to being in a new place was exploring the city and what it had to offer for Myles and I. The first thing on my list was to check out any/every playground in our area. I was very serious about this job and even printed out a map and list from the parks and recreation website. I'm not going to lie, we visited some pretty sketchy places, but we had to weed out the bad to find the good. I was able to make a pretty decent list of parks that we absolutely love and are all within 15-20 minutes from our house. 

• We also went to meet Mark's aunt and her family for the first time. They live about 30 minutes from us, so we took a little trip to their house to meet them. They have a pool and a dog, so Myles loved it and I really enjoyed getting to know all of them. We have visited a lot since moving here; it is nice to be able to extend our family circle to include them!

• I had my 28th birthday this month. Since we had just moved and also spent our first week here 'vacationing' with our friends Angela and Ryan, I decided to just have a very low key birthday. I honestly can't even remember what we did besides have dinner together. I picked out a sushi place that I noticed driving by a couple of times. It wasn't the best I've had, but it was good and I got to eat it with these two handsome gents :)

Milestones

• We finally got a third word out of Myles and if you're a veteran around here, you shouldn't be surprised by what is was: ball! It wasn't a surprise to us either. Everything he did or played with had something to do with a ball. It was the most frequently used word around our house, so it was only natural that after 'mama' and 'dada' came 'ball'!

• If his mind workings were any indication as to what we would be in store for in the future... I am scared! At this point, he had no fears, no boundaries, and no limitations to his explorations. You want to get to the cat that is on the counter, but you can't reach the top of the counter... well then duh.. go get a dining room chair and push it across the whole kitchen over to the counter. Then you can climb on the chair to get to the counter, and then the cat is all YOURS!!! Oh my lands... help my future self! 

• Laugh: getting him to full on laugh was pretty easy now. He started to become ticklish and loved peek-a-boo, especially when you got really up close to his face. These videos of him laughing are the greatest!

• One foot: since starting the Little gym this month, I learned all sorts of new activities and skills to try with Myles. One day when we were sitting in the living room relaxing, I told Mark about a way I learned how to help Myles with his balance. I totally did not expect Myles to actually do it. I was so surprised, I got out my phone to see if he would do it again when I was recording. I was even more surprised to see that he actually did it a second time and for the camera!  

 

Funnies

Now that he is developing his personality, I think I will be keeping this new category around for a bit. 

• This was before we put child locks on the cabinets. I was sitting in the living room and I heard him making noise. I look over and see him trying to get in the cabinet. So I went to get my camera and stood back to watch what he would do. He is a very determined little boy and doesn't stop until he gets what he wants, that is for sure!

• I took off the push bar on his tricycle and he decided this was the place to be! At this age, it was so fun to sit back and let him do his thing, just to see what kind of ideas he would come up with. I was surprised daily by the workings of his mind!

Likes

• Balls... it was still all about balls with this one! The ball fetish had only gotten worse at this point. I learned to keep an assortment of balls in the car at all times. That way he would always have one to hold on to in the car and/or if we decided to take a stop at the park. If he went anywhere without a ball and he saw another kid with a ball, it was game over until he got it. I quickly learned it was much easier to keep a ton of balls with us at all times just to be safe!

• Now that we had a second story, Myles became a people watcher. He loved looking out the window every morning and after nap times. This particular day was garbage day, which is the best day for a toddler boy to people watch because there are huge, loud trucks involved!

• Favorite book: I talked in last months' favorites list about a his favorite book at the time: Ten Little Ladybugs. This month he re-discovered Peek-A Who? I so love this book! It is one of my all time favorites in Myles' book collection. His reaction when you read it to him was priceless! He loved giving himself a big ole kiss in the mirror at the end... every single time! Still wouldn't give me a kiss, but boy did he love that cute little boy he saw in the mirror!

• Outside: The biggest reason we decided to move to California! And it did not disappoint! Myles and I pretty much lived outside this month and we could not have been happier! I found some outdoor toys for super cheap on Criagslist and resale shops. I even picked up a Cozy Coupe with the perfect accessory; a California license plate that says "BOYS RULE"! I've been wanted to do a makeover on it for months now, but I just can't decide what theme I want to go with... so maybe I'll be posting about that soon. And of course, I had to pick up a water table. It is nothing fancy, but for $5 it has been worth every penny! It was getting pretty hot here most days, so some splashing and even a little dip in the water kept Myles cool as a cucumber.   

Dislikes

• Needing to having patience: totally a maternal trait there. I seriously have the worse patience in the world and Myles did not fall far from the tree on that one. I know it has to do with his age, so hopefully it gets better with time. I really hope! The biggest thing he didn't like waiting for was food; whether it was dinner or his momma milk, if he didn't get what he wanted in an instant, it was full on tantrum! *Remember this post I linked to earlier ;) *

 

Come back to check out my favorites from months eleven & twelve!

Myles Monthly: 11

As you may know, I didn't decide to start my blog until my son Myles was about 8 months old. And well... now he is 20 months old! So I am focusing on getting caught up with monthly updates and monthly favorites, so I can get, and hopefully stay, up to date with current times. 

  June 15th- July 14th, 2013

Statistics

Born: 7 lbs 6 oz and 19.5 inches
Eleven Months: Not sure but I don't think he grew much, if at all.

  Health

Health was pretty great this month. No colds or other scary new habits, which is a complete blessing! Taking care of a baby/toddler full-time is hard enough.. and then throwing a sickness in the mix... eekk! 

The only small concern I was beginning to have was his weight. From when he was born until about 7 months, he was in the 70-95% for his weight. This made me happy because that meant he was getting enough nourishment through my breastmilk. One less thing for this anxiety-ridden momma to worry about. However I noticed that over the last few months his weight gain pretty much stopped. From 3 months to 7 months, he gained over three pounds, but from 7 months to 11 months, he only gained one pound and a few ounces. I knew it was because he became active with crawling/standing/walking, but it still worried me a bit. He was up so high in the percentiles, and then he dropped all the way down into the 20s. His doctor never mentioned any concern, so I never brought it up with her. It still sat in the back of my mind though, especially because we struggled with getting him to eat real food. He diet was still 90% breastmilk, and at 11 months, I wasn't so sure that that was enough. He didn't have any other symptoms like being tired, sunken eyes, not sleeping through the night, etc., so I figured he was just slimming down and starting to take more of his genetic physical shape. I think he is perfect being strong and lean, I just wanted to make sure that he wasn't malnourished or anything; and, at this point, he seemed to be just fine :)

He finally got some more teeth! We hadn't gotten any new ones since his first two came in during month seven. He got all four top middle teeth in at once. I didn't even know they were coming in. I only noticed one day when he was laughing and happened to tilt his head back. When he did that, I could see all four teeth poking through his gums! Yay for more teeth... the sooner they all come in, the better!

Eating
Still going strong with breastfeeding, of course! As I have mentioned before, he is a little obsessed with breastfeeding, so I knew weaning would not be in the near (or far) future. He usually ate about every 2-4 hours depending on how occupied he was. Like I mentioned last month, he is definitely a comfort nurser, but he is also a bored nurser. Our time spent at home is in direct correlation to how much he nurses. If we were home most of the day (bad weather, sick, etc), then he would nurse more frequently, but if we were out and something had his attention, he would be fine for hours. That is still how he is now.

He was slowly eating more and more foods, but nothing too significant. I still couldn't get him to eat an actual full on meal. It bothered me a little, but since he was still breastfeeding so much, I knew he was at least getting good stuff from me. I offered him all kinds of different foods throughout the day and put him in his highchair for meal times so that even if he wasn't really eating much, he would at least get used to the routine. Most of the food I offered him during these times ended up in the garbage disposal or in our dog's mouth. At the rate he was going, I wasn't sure he would ever really eat. Luckily, most of the stuff he did like was nutritionally dense. He liked chicken (grilled), french fries, plain pasta, eggs, beans, and cheese. He would usually eat those when offered (although in pretty small amounts). Other than that, most of his real food diet consisted of fruit. He loved his fruit, especially blueberries and strawberries. He pretty much would always eat them.

He also learned how to drink from a straw this month!

Sleeping
Same as last month; and no complaints here! He was still sleeping 8 hours in one stretch at night, from about 10pm-6am. Then I would bring him in bed with me to nurse and sleep on-and-off until we woke up sometime between 8am-9am. 
He would typically take 2 naps a day: one mid-morning around 11am-12pm and one mid-afternoon around 2pm-3pm. He was still only going down for about 30 minutes, but it was better than nothing and a much needed break for me!
 

First sign of toddler mode: falling asleep on the floor playing with his toys!

Sleeping at the beach under an umbrella :)

Outings

Brace yourself... this month was crazy for us! So much happened in 30 days, I don't even know how we made it through alive! It was the most hectic, emotional, physically draining, amazing, and fun month we had as a family of 3. 

Well, let's get started:

• First off, we took a day trip to Lake Geneva, Wi. This place is the cutest little town. It is a very touristy area, so they have all sorts of fun little activities to do. The best part and the reason we went was the beach! This was Myles' very first beach experience. Myles loved every second of it and only agreed to leave because he fell asleep in his stroller while we were walking around. Most of our day was spent checking out the sand, shoveling blueberries down our throats, and chasing ducks. He really had a blast playing with all of his toys in the sand and building castles with my aunt. We even got to sneak in a little ice cream stop before we left! A really great day spent with our favorite people. 

• In keeping with the water theme, Myles got to go to the outside waterpark/pool with grandma! I like this one because it has a fun little kids area but it's small so I didn't have to worry about Myles getting too far away from me or him getting lost in a sea of kids. He loved all the spots where water was squirting out and of course all the wheels. It was nice having my mom along because I even got to relax in the sun for a bit! All around win!

• Spending lots of time with family: I made sure we got to see as much family as possible this month before we headed out to California. This month we finally made it across the country in a move we had been talking about for years. It was not an easy decision by any means and it took a lot of time, money, and sacrifice, but we figured we would regret it if we didn't at least try. My biggest worry about moving so far away was that Myles would miss out on being with his family. Almost a year into our move, I still struggle with that now. What I have learned though is now that our time with them is limited, the quality of that time spent together has gone up tremulously. I (re: my mom) always make a point to get extended family together to see Myles at least once when we are in town, which is also what I did before we left for the first time. 
• Myles and I went to see my cousin's boy play in a football game one Saturday morning. Afterwards, we all went to grab some grub and custard at Culver's. In true Myles fashion, he had no interest in the ice cream, but had a blast crawling all over the table to get to each different person to play with.

• In the beginning of June, Mark went to California for two weeks to find us a place to live. It didn't seem too hopeful at first, but at the last minute (literally the day before he left), he was approved and chose a house for us. He wouldn't even show me pictures because he wanted it to be a total surprise. While he was gone on that trip, I sold all of our things that we weren't taking with... about 75% of all our belongings. We weren't taking any furniture because it wasn't worth it. Nothing we owned was worth enough to pay to have it moved. After Mark came back, he took a couple days to load up our car/van with everything we were taking and then drove the 2,000+ miles from Illinois to our new home in California. Then a couple days later, he flew back to Illinois to say goodbye to family and see his grandfather who was in town. Myles got to meet his great-grandfather for the first time and have another waterpark day (this one indoors). The next day we went swimming again this time with all of Mark's close family. I was so happy that Myles got to see his cousins before he left as well. They are really great with him and I hope they can keep a close relationship.

•  Before we all left, Myles celebrated his first 4th of July! It was a gorgeous day so we spent most of it outside. We stopped by my dad's for a bit to visit and let Myles play with all his Papa toys. Then we went to Mark's sister's house for a little cookout action and let the kids get some time together. Lots of good eating and water playing ensued.

• The next day Mark left again. This time he took my car filled with the last of the stuff Myles and I were living off of. By the time Mark made it back, he had to leave again the next morning to come pick Myles and I up at the airport. The best part was that my Florida bestie and her son Ryan flew in at the same time as us! It just so happened that Angela had some time off work and had nothing planned. Although it was a bit chaotic, it worked out perfectly and was so worth being able to see them for a whole week! I hadn't seen her since before I got pregnant with Myles and missed her something fierce. Our house was in no way put together but we didn't care... we were really only there for sleeping anyway! Their visit was so much fun and I can't wait until they come back... hint, hint!

Our first full day together was spent at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. This place is awesome and is on the very top of my list for places to go for family fun day. Since moving we have gone to a lot of places in the Bay Area (with still so much more), but I am still calling this my favorite place. It is pretty much 4 different mini parks all in one: theme park (rides, games, etc.) waterpark, aquirium, and zoo. This place really has it all and is perfect for families of varying ages. Both Myles and Ryan, 7, had tons to do and stayed busy all day. I even  stayed entertained; if we had more time, I would have rode some of the big roller coasters! Seriously, I can't praise this place enough.. GO (if you are in the area)! 

Water feature for the little ones.. Myles was digging it :)

Water/animal shows: they had a regular dolphin show and a Cirque de Soleil one (awesome)! We also checked out all of the marine animals (heaven for me): this walrus was the cutest! They also had one of those underground shark aquariums that you get to walk under.

They even had a couple of rides that Myles could go on (he just had to be able to take a couple steps on his own). One was a jeep safari and the other was a submarine that went up and down. I can't wait to take him back this summer to get on some of the cooler rides now that he is bigger!

Bugs Bunny play area.. Myles loved trying to climb on everything like the other big kids.

The next day we ventured into the city to check out some tourist spots. We didn't have a plan, so we ended up just wandered around Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf for a couple of hours. We had talked about doing a cable car tour, but never got around to doing it before it got too late.  

I swear he had fun... most of the time anyway!

The rest of the days were spent at the beach, park, and any other outdoor activity we could think of. Even though these two are years apart, they were so cute playing together. Myles would watch Ryan do crazy stuff and just laugh at him, especially if it involved balls.   

  They didn't have to be at the airport until late Sunday, so we hit up the Chuck E. Cheese before they had to go. Myles' hadn't been since his 6 month birthday back in Illinois, so it was really neat seeing how much he had changed. He was really interactive and much more into the games/rides. It was a good thing Ryan was there; he was able to show Myles the ropes! 

Milestones

• Crawling up and down stairs: Before we left Illinois, Myles was really starting to excel in his gross motor skills. I took this video one day just to see what he would do. He was playing with my set of keys and when they dropped down the stairs, I was very surprised at what he did:

 

• Strong legs: This kid was becoming so strong. Like I talked about earlier, he was moving so much now that he had stopped gaining weight and started losing his baby fat. In its place he gained muscle. Whenever I picked him up, he wasn't that heavy, but he was super solid. He was so determined to do everything that he would try and try until he did it himself. He became the king of the Tippy Toes, always trying to reach something that was bigger than him (mostly things he wasn't supposed to be into). His calves got super toned from that... wish I had his determination and legs :)

• Adventuring on his own: I have mentioned this playworld before in other monthly updates. We went a lot because it was free for under 11 months and under. All the times before this, Myles would just stay on the floor or the bottom level of the play area; he never ventured any further up. But for whatever reason, this time he decided to go on an adventure:

The video stops when he gets to the top of the left side. He was sketched out by the netting material for the tunnel. I had to put my hands through the holes and grab onto his hands so that he felt safe enough to go across. I was so proud when he made it to the other side... then he started banging on the glass for me to come get him :)

• Blowing bubbles in the tub: At swim class, I would blow bubbles and show Myles in hopes that he would learn by example. It was something we did at every class, so he had been exposed to it for months now. He hadn't tried it in the pool, but one day when he was taking his bath, he leaned over and blew bubbles. I didn't get a video of the first time he did it, but I do have this one from my Instagram.  

•  Copying and repetition:

• WALKING: This is probably one of the biggest milestones in the first year (or so) of a baby's life. To me, walking signifies the beginning of the transition from baby to toddler,and boy did that transition happen fast with Myles. After seeing how much things changed after the crawling stage began, I had no intentions to push him to walk like I did with crawling. Honestly, I was pretty terrified of him being able to walk, so I let him take his time and work it out by himself (90% of the time). However my urgings to slow him down didn't really have an effect on young Myles, as he decided it was time to take his first steps on June 18th (10 months and 4 days). At first it was just a couple steps here and there, fall on the butt, then crawl the rest of the way. This lasted about 2 weeks. Then one day he discovered that when he fell down he could just stand back up again... from that moment on, he was a walker. Once he figured that part out, he would take his steps, fall, stand back up, take his steps.. repeat..repeat. Everyday after that, his walks would consist of more and more steps before he fell, until he was full on walking by July 1st (10 1/2 months). I had to write a post about his new found mode of transportation entitled "We've Got a Walker". You can see the videos of his first couple of real walks there.

• First plane ride: Last, but certainly not least, Myles rode on his first plane. He actually did quite well; no ear problems and no real crying. It went much better than what I was mentally preparing myself for. It was certainly no easy task doing it by myself, but Myles was such a good little trooper. I even got compliments from some other passengers. And for all that could go wrong, I was just happy to have made it to California and our new home safely and with most of my sanity still intact.

Funnies
I had to add a new category this month because I found a couple of hilariously cute pictures that didn't fit into any of the other areas. 

• As I was going through all of our things to get ready for the move, I found this Pooh Bear costume. It was 12 months, so I knew that he wouldn't be able to wear it for next Halloween. It was too cute to just get rid of without him ever wearing it, so duh.... I put him in it and oh my heavens, it did not disappoint! He was mad within 30 seconds, but he was the cutest with the little ears and big ole belly :)

• Trying on my aunts glasses at dinner. Something about a little boy looking like a nerdy, old man is just about the cutest thing ever!

• This is Myles stuck under his crib. For any one who has been reading these monthly updates for a while now, I'm sure you can guess what he was trying to get. Apparently the ball was so cool that it was worth crawling into the deep, dark abyss that is under his crib to retrieve. He made it in just fine, but when it was time to get out, he couldn't figure out how to get his big dome through the tiny space. He was super mad (in the bottom picture) while I let him struggle for a minute until I helped him get out.

Likes

• My daddy's dog, Abbey. Myles was super interested in Abbey whenever we went to visit. He always wanted to play with her toys and chase her around. Abbey was getting older, so I am glad Myles got to spent some time with her before she passed away.

• He finally started getting into books. I was beginning to think he was never going to want to read/look at books, which made me sad, and also worry a bit. He is definitely way more of a physically active personality type and excels in that category, so it is harder for him to sit and be interested in books. This month though, we found a couple of books that really held his attention, which was so awesome to finally see happen. I love reading with him and seeing him be captivated by the story. I can't wait until we can get into actual story books!

•  His bike: I talked about Myles' love for this tricycle in his 9 & 10 month favorites post and it continued to be a hit this month as well. He just thought this thing was super cool and I loved it because it kept him occupied when we went for walks, and I was still able to control where we were going.

 

• And of course, still all of the typical things that have been his favorites since birth: breastfeeding, being held my mommy, balls, and chewing on any/everything.
  

Dislikes
Same as last month, and actually for a while now:

• Being confined: He didn't like being in anything that held him down, i.e. car seat, stroller, high chair. He would be okay for a certain amount of time (maybe 10-15 minutes), but when he wanted out, that was it. He would have a tantrum until someone got him out. The biggest problem this month was the car seat. Once we moved, he hated being in his car seat again. He cried 75% of the time he was in it. Sometimes I would play or sing his favorite Hoopla Kidz songs and that usually calmed him down. But it only lasted for so long. 

He also only lasted so long in a stroller, high chair, or cart. When he was over it, he would start screaming until I got him out and held him.

 

Come back to check out my favorites from months eleven & twelve!