Tuesday, September 25, 2012

helping hands

we encourage milo to help when we go do laundry... it often takes a little longer, but we want him to be involved in chores while it's still fun, so that later, when he's 16 and ornery, doing chores won't be a new thing to complain about, just something to complain about.

anyhow, he loves putting the quarters into the machine.  i let him sit on the dryer, and hand him the quarters one by one.  he sort of wiggles with delight as he carefully places each quarter in a slot.

if we put all the wet clothes into a basket - or hand him pieces one by one - he'll also help throw them into the dryer for us, as well as take them out once they're done.  hopefully i'll look back on this memory with fondness when we do get to that stage of 16 and ornery, and i'll try not to be snarky as i remind him that he once loved helping us with laundry, and sweeping, and picking up his things.


after we got back from laundry, and i sat down to type this post, milo was playing with the bananas, and i noticed he had peeled off all the stickers, placed one on himself, one on the highchair, and was putting one on me... make that two.  stickers for everyone!

thanks milo  ;P

Monday, September 24, 2012

daddy says...

(aka lessons from thomas the tank engine)



"got that milo?  it's true in the real world, too.  if i am the most really useful at work, i will be rewarded with more work, special work.  but they will not pay me any more, because i am really useful."




(being "the most really useful engine" is a big deal on thomas the tank engine.)

Friday, September 21, 2012

you say tomato, i say thomas.

actually, this isn't about that funny, little, blue train on tv.

milo calls everything that goes on his head a hat.

the baseball cap that just barely still fits him.  ben's baseball cap that is adorably too big for him.  yup, those are hats.

his sweatshirt hoodie that i pulled up this morning because it was drizzling, "hat?"  ummm, i guess so...  why not.

when we go for a bike ride, we always wear out helmets, even milo, even though he's strapped in, sitting in the covered trailer.  "hat?"  yeah, okay buddy, technically that's a hat, too.

he also received a plastic fireman's helmet at a church we visited when we were with my parents in door county.  "haaaaat.  haaaaaat.  haaaaat!"  sure, milo, hat.




currently he's shoveling down fistfuls of mac n' cheese with broccoli and peas mixed in...

i love what a healthy eater his is (most of the time).

Thursday, September 20, 2012

milo and the muppets

i'd like to preface this by saying we try to limit milo's screen time... movies are not a regular thing for him - just a few nightly episodes of thomas the tank engine, shaun the sheep, timmy time, or a partial sesame street before bed time...

but this morning, milo had grabbed The Great Muppet Caper and was asking to watch that ("ba? ba?"  - please please, instead of his usual "djoo djoo" - choo choo) upon getting up this morning.

so i put it in, and he just sat in front of the screen, mesmerized by these new creatures singing and dancing and laughing.

it's a little spark of joy for me, to see my kid enjoying the very same movie i grew up on, loving and laughing to... i look forward to continuing to share this with him as he gets older and can fully understand what's going on.

Monday, September 17, 2012

precious moments

milo can occasionally be caught singing, if you know what you're listening for... random syllables at various pitches.  one time i was singing "old mcdonald's farm" to him, and after i sang the "ee-i-ee-i-oh" part, he sang back "i-yi-yi-yi!"

he was singing as we were on our way out from target today after running some quick errands.  so i sang back to him "ee-i-ee-i-oh" and he sang back to me "i-yi-yi-yi."

also on the way out from target, i was holding him as i carried our grocery bag to the car, he put his arm around my neck and stated very matter-of-factly, "mine."  made my heart melt...  way cuter than when he holds out one of his toy cars to me and declares "MINE!"  (i'm blaming daycare for his learning of this new possessive adjective.)

other communications he's made recently:

milo was sitting on the couch playing with some of his cars, i was sitting on the floor in front of him and reading.  certainly still giving him all my undivided attention and not going on to facebook... noooo, never.

anyhow, he dropped a car down the back of the couch (for anyone who hasn't seen our place, our couch separates our living room from the hallway, so it's not up against a wall along the back side).

milo then leaned over my shoulder and as i looked at him, he let me know in a very adult sigh, "i get it."

Sunday, September 16, 2012

shoes?

this morning milo picked a little grover that my mom has given to him on loan (grover is one of her favorites, too).

inspecting it, he pointed to grover's eyes and announced, "eye!"

"good job milo! those are grover's eyes."

then he starts asking, "dshoo?"  (shoe?)

"sorry milo, grover doesn't have any shoes."

ben and milo decided to bring grover to me, "dshoo? dshoo?"

so i let my artsy fartsy self go into craft mode, and fashioned some shoes for grover.



milo looked pretty pleased that grover now had shoes.  then he pointed to grover's head and asked, "hat?"

Sunday, September 9, 2012

"can you hear me now?"

milo is enamored with our cell phones.  ben and i don't ever let him play with our phones, though sometimes he does manage to grab hold of one.  usually he gives it back very dutifully.

but he'll also take just about anything that even remotely resembles a cell phone, hold it up to his ear and say, "he-wah?" (hello) - cars, sunglasses, shoes...

this morning it was a banana.

"he-wah?"

Sunday, September 2, 2012

another adventure at the pool...

yesterday we took milo for another trip to the pool.

he loved it as always.  i can't even count the number of times we had to climb the long flight of stairs so we could ride the big slide over and over (which i was perfectly happy with, as i really enjoy the slide, too).

after a little while, ben decided he was going to swim over in the big-people pool, without the squirting/floating/mini-slide/plaything occupied wading area for toddlers.

milo and i went for one more ride, and then he wanted to find dada.

so we get to the bigger pool, and i hand milo to ben, and we decide to try teaching him how to kick when he's on his belly.  one of us would hold him up, superman style, and the other would move his legs in kicking motion, and we would tell him, "kick, kick, kick!"

he never did pick up on the kicking motion, but when we got him on his belly and asked him to kick, he would repeat back to us, "kick, kick, kick."

then we thought we'd try and teach him how to jump in - with us holding onto his hands, of course, so that he wouldn't go under.  we would get him to the edge of the pool, and count, "wuuunnnnnn, tooooooooooh, THREE!" and he would step forward into the pool.  eventually, milo picked up "one" and would say it with us when we started counting... uber cute!


that's it for our escapade at the pool, but milo has picked up a few other cute tricks:
sometimes we'll let milo play with us on our bed, and he'll pat on the bed for us to lay down, and we'll all pretend to snore.  then he'll go to leave, say "nite, nite!" and then put his finger to this lips and say, "shhhh!" as he closes the door.

he's also learned to fold his hands when we pray with him at night and mealtimes.  i believe he learned both of these with grandma laura at her daycare, and i'm so glad he did.  he seems that much more excited when i say, "ok milo, let's pray." and he gets this huge smile and folds his hands together, and waits patiently while i repeat the Lord's prayer - he can interact now, and i know that will just be a stepping stone towards deeper interaction as we continue to show and teach him about prayer.