Myles Monthly: 22

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 over 2 years 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. 

 May 15th- June 14th, 2014

Health/Personality
Pretty good month health wise, but we had another 24 hour sickness. This seems to be becoming a trend around here. I don't like seeing him sick, but luckily it only lasted a day again and I'm not going to lie, the cuddles were pretty amazing! It is a completely different Myles from his regular non-stop, go-go-go personality. Tons of cuddles, movies, and sleep and he was feeling 70% better the next day. The craby and clinginess still lingered around for a couple days after, but it was never anything that stuck around too long. 

Watching The Lion King.. gets me every time!

  Last month I touched a little bit on his new flair for the drama and it decided to stick around this month as well. I really can't complain as it wasn't a daily occurrence. However when it did happen, it was intense. This particular day he wanted to see his friend Cammy. He kept saying "door, car, Cammy." When I told him he couldn't play, meelllttttdddooowwnn:

Eating
Steadily trying more foods and adding more to each meal. Still no breakfast food, just milk, but lunch and dinner were going good. Nothing new in the breastfeeding department. Same schedule as last month: once in the morning, at nap time, and before bed.

  Sleeping 
After the slight hiccup during our vacation back home last month with the new big boy bed, we were back to our regularly scheduled program this month. Bed time being from 9pm-8am and one nap still from 1pm-3/4pm.

Saying

For some reason I didn't write down that many new words this month: 
He calls nursing 'drinks', whenever he was tired and wanted to nurse and sleep, he would say 'I drinks'
 'Hold me', 'Oh man'
'Come on mommy' while grabbing my hand and taking me places
He will only call himself baby, He will not say his name. Whenever you asked what his name was, he would say 'baby'. We tried so hard everyday to get him to say Myles, but he wouldn't do it. I think it became a game to him, knowing we wanted him to say it so bad, so he wouldn't.
And lastly, this....

Proud mommy moment :)

Outings

• Fair season officially started and I was all over it! I found out about a children's festival 30 minutes away from us and had to check it out. I couldn't believe how many awesome things were at the festival, some of them actually being FREE! I loved the animals the best (kitten sleeping with baby pigs!) and Myles was all about the air ball blow-up and train ride!

He also got his daddy to take him on this strange, but fun looking motorized horse ride:

• I also found a little amusement park 20 minutes from us. By this time, I knew that we would be moving to a new city within a couple months, so I wanted to make sure we did everything kid related around us. Now that I have Myles, I have an obsessive need to check out every possible kid activity around us. This place was small, but had a couple fun rides, a little creek, two playgrounds, a train, and lots of grass to run and play on. This was the first ride we went on. The cool thing about Myles' age was that he hadn't quite figured out fears yet, so he didn't hesitate to go on this. It went pretty high, but he liked it and actually went on a couple times. He wanted to hold my hand too :)

The bottom left picture is so funny. I captured it just at the right moment because he wasn't ever scared or wanting to get down, so I really don't know what was going on there!

And a little carousal action:

•  I was not expecting it so get so hot in the Bay Area. Before we moved, I figured it would be like San Fransisco weather. Boy was I shocked when I got to the east bay to see that it regularly gets into the high 90s the whole summer. Not complaining at all though; just need a little splash pad action and we are good to go!

   Milestones/Skills

• When we went to the children's festival, Myles rode his first real fair ride. There is a picture above of him riding the train and here is a video. I bought a bunch of tickets thinking he would want to try out all the rides, but he kept saying no to all of them. He went on the big slide once, but wouldn't go on anything else... until we found this train. We used all of our tickets on this train and he rode it like 5 or 6 times!  

• First time riding an escalator. We were at the mall eating lunch and Myles was super antsy waiting for the food, so I took him out to walk around. We were right next to a set of escalators and Myles was super intrigued. So I let him go on it.. game over! He seriously would not stop... down, up, down, up... at least 25 times! I don't know how I got him away from it... maybe the lure of fries.

Funnies and Favorites

•  Loves to check the mail and get the newspaper everyday

• Loves to walk the dog

•  Funny poop stories:
  Myles had a weird infatuation with finding our dog's poop outside. Every single time he went out back (multiple times a day), he had to come running to me yelling "poo poo" as soon as he happened upon even the smallest turd. Then I, of course, had to instantly go pick it up or else he would not stop telling me about it.
  
  
    I let Myles go diaper free for an hour or so in the afternoon when we would be mostly playing outside. Two days in a row he ran inside telling me "poo poo". Thinking it was the usual dog poop I didn't think much of it until I went to go pick up the 'dog poop' and realized it was Myles poop on the ground outside. Not exactly potty training but hey at least I didn't have to clean up a diaper!

• Messy play of course; we can never get enough of it in our house. This month we made Foamy Bathtub Paints! Messy and clean at the same time; parenting win!

• This may come as a surprise, but the trampoline is still a favorite :) After Myles would not get off of the trampoline during our trip back home, I knew he would love the trampoline park! These things are so awesome.. why didn't they have them when I was young!?!?   

• I got Myles a life vest for when we went to the outdoor pool at our gym. He actually wore it most times and did really well with it. I had to take a picture when I saw him put it on like this one day:

• This kid.. I don't even know what to say. I bought him a sucker to keep him entertained on a longer car ride. I heard him keep saying 'stuck' in the back seat. I finally look back and see this:

• And lastly, a favorite of mine. I went to the gym one night for an hour long class and came back to this:

What are some of your children's favorites and funnies?

Toddler Boy Christmas Wishlist

Confession: I love buying toys for Myles. It is bad... some people like buying clothes for their little ones, but me, it's toys all the way. My Amazon wishlist is always full of cool toys I want for Myles. I think part of it is because I stay home with him, so having new things to play with helps us stay busy and entertained. And there may be a small part of me that gets just as giddy as him when a new toy comes home! So his Christmas wishlist has been in the making for a couple months now.

1. ALEX Toys Bathtime Fun Tub Island Racing Around: I have talked before on here about how I can never find good, entertaining bath toys. Luckily Myles finds the most fun out of an empty bubble container that he uses to give baths to his other toys. I have had my eye on this set for a while, so I figured Christmas would be the perfect time to give it a home with us. He likes playing with his cars in the bath, so hopefully he will like this track to race them around on.

2. Skywalker Trampoline Lily Pad Adventure Bouncer: It's been all about the trampoline around here lately (this and this). Ideally I want to get a big trampoline for all of us to play on, but we really don't have room in our backyard. Also, I don't want to take away from the specialness of the trampoline being only at grandma and grandpa's. It is something he always looks forward to when we go there, so I want to keep it that way. This little one will be perfect for satisfying his jumping need, but not taking up too much room. I love that it comes with a net too, because we all know the little ones can get pretty crazy. 

3. WowWee Robosapien X Robot Kit: Myles has been talking about getting a robot for Christmas for months now. That was the first thing he said he wanted when I asked him way before Halloween. My dad is getting this one for him. The recommended age is 4+, so it is a bit old for him. However, if he is going to get a robot, he might as well get one that he can grow up with. It is a more expensive one, so I want to make sure it will last a while and keep his interest for years to come. If the controls are too complicated for him, we can always do it for him for now. This thing looks awesome and I can't wait to see his face when he opens it on Christmas day!

4. Green Toys Seaplane: Another bath toy that I am hoping will make bath time even more fun. We have played with this one at the children's museum before, so I know Myles loves it. And with it being a Green Toy, it is a no brainer to add to our list!

5. Fisher-Price Little People City Skyway: Myles has played with other similar versions of this car racing toy. I liked the older ones, but Fisher Price really stepped their game up with this one! It is over three feet tall and has way more fun features than any of the others. This will definitely provide us tons of indoor entertainment throughout the winter.

6.   LeapFrog LeapReader Books: Leap and the Lost Dinosaur and Disney·Pixar Finding Nemo, Lost and Found: My parents got Myles a LeapFrog LeapReader for his birthday in August. I still haven't opened it up yet because it says the age recommendation is 4+. I was going to get him the junior one, but that only goes to age 3, so I felt like it would be a waste to have that one for just a year and then still need to get the other one. And I've discovered that a lot of time, the age recommendations are overshot. I think I will still wait to open it up for another couple months, but I want to get him some more books for it now because they have such good deals going on. He has so many normal books that I think it would be best to forgo those and start growing his LeapReader book collection for Christmas. He is so into dinosaurs and loves all things Disney so I know these two will be a hit. 

7. Big Hero Deluxe Flying Baymax with Hiro Action Figures: This is the holy grail of Christmas presents for Myles. If you ask him what he wants Santa to bring him for Christmas it will be "Big Baymax"... every time. Ever since we saw the movie, he has been Big Hero obsessed. A couple days after that we were at the store and he found this big Baymax and carried it around the whole store. When I told him he couldn't have it right now, he had a major meltdown. So I had to explain to him that if he wanted, Santa would bring it for Christmas. That calmed him down, but now all he talks about is big Baymax and getting is for Christmas. I am not sure we are going to make it another month without getting it. I may breakdown and let him use the rest of his birthday money to buy it. He has been okay with waiting so far, but we all know how unpredictable toddlers can be... so we will see.  

8. The Home Depot Deluxe Power Tool Set: Myles loves to work on things just like his daddy. Lately, we have been fixing his jeep and car and 'cutting' down trees in the backyard. He has some tools, but they are the basic ones like a hammer, screwdriver, wrench, etc. It's hard to cut down a tree with a hammer... let me tell ya! This set is awesome and has all of the necessary power tools for all the hard working we do around the house! 

9. Melissa Doug Wooden Sandwich-Making Set: We got Myles a kitchen and food for his birthday in August. Myles does all the cooking in the house now and his imagination runs wild with all the things he comes up with! He already has a couple of Melissa and Doug food sets, but I have been wanting to get him this sandwich set since we got the kitchen. We've got everything covered except the sandwich category. As of right now, he makes sandwiches by putting a slice of meat and cheese between two waffles! Poor child :P This set is so worth the price though. Plastic food gets ruined within months, but the wooden sets last forever and the pieces velcro together! So smart they are! Can't wait to start making real sandwiches in our house!

What toys are on your children's' wishlists?

Strawberry Fields Forever

So it looks like I have gotten into a routine; a Myles Monthly update, sharing pictures from the upcoming Myles Monthly update that I forgot about, then the next Myles Monthly update. This week I am sharing pictures from our first strawberry picking adventure (May 6th, 2014). I had never done this before and kept seeing tons of posts from blogging friends and it looked too fun to pass up! So we found a cute little farm, invited our besties, and took to the fields. 

Myles was into picking for about 5 minutes.. which is actually pretty good for him! For that time though, it was ridiculously cute!

Then Cameron showed up and they did what all little boys do in a field... run.. far away from adults:

And then Myles found the apricot trees, which were apparently pretty awesome!

 "Where's Myles?"

And then this happened:

Melt my heart into a puddle, I tell ya!

I know I say it too much on this blog, but these boys together makes my world go round. I'm so grateful that Cameron and his mommy came into our lives. 

Myles Monthly: 21

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 over 2 years 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. 

 April 15th- May 14th, 2014

Health/Personality
Stat Update: Because of insurance reasons we had his 18 month well check a little late. So at almost 21 months he was 24.6 pounds 34 inches. I think the height was a little off because now at 27 months he is 34 1/2 inches, so I think they were high on that stat. And his poor weight; he started out at like the 90% in the early months and has steadily gone down to like the 20 percentile now. He is very strong and normal height, but so skinny. 18-24 month pants are still falling off of him! He is my little peanut now!

Since the health category is kind of phasing out lately and his personality is coming on strong these days, I figured I would start to change up this category a bit.  
This month the terrible twos came on strong! He was always wanting to do things that were dangerous or defiant. Although I am sure he didn't really understand what he was doing wrong or why I was saying no. The worst was that he always wanted to run out in the street. I tried to keep him away, but I also wanted to expose him so that he would learn. He definitely didn't understand 'no' and I was beginning to think I was headed for the point of no return. I picked up a couple books, one of them being The Happiest Toddler on the Block hoping to avert my foreseen doomed future. I actually really enjoyed the book and found a lot of helpful hints if any of you are looking for a recommendation. 
He also started to be over going to The Little Gym. We had been going since he was 11 months old and recently moved up to a new class. He didn't want to participate in group activities and became bored after being there a couple minutes. It was a great place to go and we really loved our teachers, but I could just tell that it was time to let that one go.
To end on a positive note, he also started showing an interest in the way things work. He always wanted to help his daddy fix, make, build, etc. He knew right where the all the tools were and loved to get out the hammer!

Eating
Steadily trying more foods and adding more to each meal. Still no breakfast food, just milk, but lunch and dinner were going good. Nothing new in the breastfeeding department. Same schedule as last month: once in the morning, at nap time, and before bed.

  Sleeping 
Before we went back to visit my parents in Illinois this time, I told them to sell his old crib. It was a smaller one with the changing table attached and he was too big for it now. I thought about buying another, bigger crib, but it didn't seem like it would be worth it considering he would most likely be in a toddler bed soon. I also thought about bringing our pack 'n play, but that was getting too small for him too. So I gave my parents the okay to look for a big boy bed for him. I wasn't sure what exactly was going to happen because he was still in a crib at home. I was hoping for the best and expecting (dreading) the worse. 
I showed them a Buzz bed I found on Craigslist just for fun, knowing it was too expensive for just a vacation bed. My mom told me she bought just a regular cheap one and I was happy with that. However, we were both surprised when we got there and saw this:

He was so excited he was fumbling over his words! And at that point, I knew that the bed was totally worth it! I figured the fact that he loved it so much might work in my favor to get him to sleep in it! At night we laid down thick layers of blankets on each side in case he fell off. I did our normal routine, nursed him a bit, and laid him down. He went to sleep with no problems.. miracle! He did wake up early and get into bed with me for a while, but that was expected from him. I couldn't believe how well he did! I am guessing he was exhausted from the trip because the next night... not so much... I did everything the same and then a couple minutes later he was up walking around crying for me. I let him go a bit to see what he would do and within a couple minutes I didn't hear him anymore. When I went in there to go to bed myself, I found him sleeping on the blankets that were on the side of the bed. I didn't dare move him, knowing that the blankets were probably more comfortable than the bed anyway! The next night he got up and cried again, only this time it lasted longer. I waited it out and again he put himself back down. Then every night after that was fine. So all in all, it went way better than I could have ever imagined. With his sketchy sleeping history, I was really preparing for a total disaster and it wasn't too bad. The transition back home was a little rough the first few nights because he was used to coming in bed with me around 5am, but he quickly got over that and fell back to his normal routine of bedtime being from 9pm-8am. Also one nap still from 1pm-3/4pm.


Saying

Adding words each month that were new and I remembered to write down: 

'Op' for open- Op please or Op door
Up (to carry him), outside, Otay
Starting to repeat words back after you say them
Starting to say 'ABCs' and says letters when looking at words
Can count to 6 but not all the way thorough at the same time

Names for family members: Uncle Tick (uncle Chris), Papa (grandpa), Dabo (grandma)
I have no idea where Dabo came from. When we went back to visit them. he woke up in the morning and went to the garage door and said "Where's Dabo?" and it has stuck with every since. So now I am guessing she will be Dabo for the rest of her life!

Outings

• We spent the actual holiday of Easter in Illinois. We did some Easter egg hunting, church going, brunch eating, egg dying, and tons of family hanging:

 

• This month we were on a Jamba Juice kick so we had many a Jamba Juice dates. Myles called it "Tippy juice" because we went there a lot with his friend Cammy (who he called Tippy).

•  We also got to celebrate some great friends' birthdays. His bestie Cammy turned 2.

And our little friend Kenny turned one!

• We took a day trip to the Children's Museum of Stockton. I found out about this place on Yelp and thought we would give it a try. We drove a little over an hour to get there and at first I didn't think it was worth it. I picked this place solely based on some pictures I saw online of emergency vehicles that you were able to get into and explore. I thought for sure Myles would love it.. well of course he was in and out of them within 5 seconds and didn't even care to check them out. At that point, I figured it would be a dud of a trip. Luckily Myles found a makeshift pinball machine that kept his attention for like a half an hour! And once we started exploring the rest of the museum, we found tons of things to keep our interest: train table, mini golf, art room, house with kitchen, farm, grocery store, newsroom, and water table. So in the end it was a successful trip and a place I would recommend for the little ones.

• While we were vising back home we got to spend some quality time with my lifelong best friend and her kids. It was going to be my niece's birthday in a couple weeks (and I would be missing it) so I wanted to take her some place that we could spent some time together. And now that Myles was getting older, he could play and interact with the older kids more, so we took them all to a family fun park for mini golf, go-carts, and arcade games. We tried to get Myles on the go-cart but it took too long to start and he wanted out before we got going. He played a little mini-putting, but it mostly turned into him trying to throw his ball into all of the water features. But I really had the best time with them.. they make my heart so happy!

   Milestones/Skills

• Jumping; jumping with both feet off the ground and jumping on the trampoline until he couldn't jump anymore!

• First time in big boy bed (see 'sleep' above)

Funnies and Favorites

•  Favorite movie: Robots 
• Favorite book: Ernie and Bert Can 
• Favorite game: being chased around the kitchen and in circles
• Really good at kicking and 'dribbling' the soccer ball
• Favorite toy: Still loving his balls

• I had to include this picture for all the Toy Story enthusiasts. One day we were playing with Buzz upstairs and I mentioned something about him flying and the next thing I know Buzz is being launched down the stairs onto the ground. Perfect reenactment of one of the saddest scenes in the original.   

• Hot enough in California for splash pad time in May. I picked this one up at Target and it was the perfect way to keep cool while playing outside. He always wanted me to stomp around in the water with him.

• Favorite ride/game: This virtual ride at Chuck E. Cheese. This kid would sit on that ride forever, even if I didn't put any money in it. I can't tell you how much money I have spent on this machine, I probably could have bought our own by now. This time he suckered grandma onto it for all three rides, plus the bonus one :)

• And jumping of course! Discovering the joys of the trampoline at grandma and grandpa's house made this the happiest boy on Earth.

 

What are new milestones your kid(s) are reaching?

Boy Mom

A couple of months ago I guest posted over on Liz's blog Chasin' Mason for her Boy Moms series. I was so excited to be apart of her series because I love being a boy mom and find comfort and encouragement from connecting with other blogging boy moms.
So in case you missed it, I thought I would post it here as well:

"I'm 90% sure you are having a girl" said the ultrasound tech at my 20 week anatomy scan. I wasn't at all surprised. Over the last 16 weeks, I had worked myself up to be scared to death to have a girl. I am not at all into girly things and I really have no idea how to be a girl myself, so how in the world would I be able to raise a girl and give her the true girl experience? Because the universe works in funny ways and I was really terrified to have a girl, I was sure I was going to be blessed with a baby girl just to show me that I could raise a girl perfectly well and it would all work out. 

 We decided not to tell anyone yet since we weren't 100% sure. We were waiting to see what was going to happen at the follow up ultrasound at 24 weeks.The reason the ultrasound tech was only 90% certain was because she couldn't get a full, clear view of the genital area. I turned sides, walked around, and prayed my little heart out, but after 10+ minutes of trying, the tech moved on. She told us she didn't see any boy parts, and so was fairly certain it was a girl. I was so disappointed to not know for sure (after hyping myself up for months to find out). However luckily, she also wasn't able to get a good view of certain parts of the heart, so we had to make another appointment at 24 weeks. 

In the weeks following that first unsuccessful gender scan, I began wrapping my mind around what it would be like to have a little girl and tried to make a real effort to be positive for both myself and my boyfriend Mark. I also became obsessed with anatomy ultrasound pictures. I would study every one that would come up on my mommy forum app and I learned all the ways to tell boy or girl. I was determined to be prepared for my next ultrasound; I was not going to leave that office without knowing 100%! 

Being that this post is part of the Boy Moms series, I am sure you can guess what happened at our second scan, but since I am probably the most long-winded writer you will ever meet, I will finish the story. The first thing she asked was if we wanted to know the gender and with a resounding yes! she moved her little wand around and found the sweet spot. All my 'research' was completely worth it because within 2 seconds I knew what I was looking at. I didn't say anything though because I wanted Mark to hear it from the tech. Somehow the little person inside of me that I was hoping was a boy, but knew had to be a girl, was in fact, a BOY! I was elated, so overjoyed, and incredibly grateful to get the news that I wanted so badly to hear! I basked in that elation for a long time. Pregnancy was not my thing, but finally finding out that I was going to have a little boy helped me get through that last grueling 15 weeks. 

DIY gender reveal photos

As D-Day grew closer and closer, I began to conger up all sorts of crazy thoughts: namely... oh crap is this going to be one of those "be careful what you wish for" situations where my son is going to be a complete terror and eventual serial killer?!?! 

Well 2 years into his life and I am happy to report that he is not a serial killer (yet), but I can't say that I haven't used the word 'terror' to describe him once or twice ;) He embodies every sense of the 'BOY' label and I do very often have to remind myself "this is what I wished for", but I wouldn't have it any other way. As I am sitting here writing this, I am trying to imagine what life would be like if the ultrasound tech was right the first time. It's hard to speculate on something so arbitrary: maybe life would be drastically different, but maybe things would be quite the same. I find it hard to tell if I am making him be all boy, if it just comes naturally, or if it is some combination of the two. Whatever the reason having a boy is everything I ever imagined it to be and more. I love everything he loves and am really enjoying learning about all the 'boy' things I never really knew much about. Currently, that means sports, dinosaurs, and Ninja Turtles. His ninja moves are on point and he is really excelling in his baseball skills. 

 It is hard for me to put into words all that I love about having a boy, specifically my boy, so I will be brief and use (mostly) pictures:

1. His laughter!

2. His love for all things messy (Paints and Edible sensory play):

3. His fearless (Noodling):

4. His goofy and imaginative demeanor:

5. His need to always be involved:

6. His determination (which will probably be the death of me):

He has been a man on a mission since the day he was born. It all started with his Houdini skills in the swaddle:

Then, it turned into a need to explore everything (even if that meant tippy toes):

Then, it was his needed to do everything his daddy did: 

And now apparently it is his need to become a pilot:

He is a handful and a half, always on the go, but he also has a very endearing, lovey-dovey side. His new goodbye routine consists of saying 'kiss, hug, high five, and boom-boom (fist pump)', making you do them in order, and insisting on all four before you leave. He is a pretty fierce cuddler as well, although only when he is tired or hurt. And he gives the best tickles and raspberries in all the land.
 He is my everything and will always be my number one. Anyone that knows us can attest to the fact that he is 120% a momma's boy. Sometimes it can be overwhelming when I need a break, but really, to know that he thinks I am the coolest person in the entire world makes my life complete.