mister music man milo

Milo is constantly singing. I love that he has a song in his heart and a tune on his lips. Usually he's repeating something he's heard from a show or movie, but lately he's started creating his own music.

Yesterday at lunch:

I like cheese, it is so nummy! It goes in my tummy, then it goes to my butt, and then I have to go potty, in the afternoon!

Today on the way to Ingrid's 2 month check-up, which included getting her vaccination shots:

You know, baby Ingrid, I really love you. But you are going to get shots today, and you're not going to like it.

At Ingrid's appointment, I was surprised to learn that she's only 11 pounds 7 ounces. I thought for sure she weighed more than that. I was not at all surprised to find out that she's in the 98th percentile for height, at 24.25 inches. I should start calling her my little string bean.

While we're on the subject of vegetables, Milo now enjoys eating salads with us. He hasn't tried dressings yet; I'm sure he'd love ranch, but we just haven't had it on hand. However, he'll gobble up the lettuce and then eat the veggies, boiled egg, cheese, or whatever else is on it, separately. In fact, we were eating salad yesterday when he came up with his cheese song. He must have felt inspired!

It's been awhile, gotta keep up with the changes

Welcome to our final new blog-site!

And holy guacamole! Has it really been two years since my last post!? Time sure does fly...

Well, in that time, I changed jobs, Ben's still in school, Milo's still growing and hilarious as ever, and we added another member to our family: Ingrid!

She's only two months old, and she grunts like a LumberJack pooping in winter. (Make that LumberJane.) But she smiles like the springtime sun after a cold and gloomy winter. (We're all hopelessly in love with her.)

So with the new addition, it seemed we should have a blog better suited to our entire family. No longer will my words revolve around the antics of one little boy. Now it's on everybody. One central hub for the BackPack.

I'll try to keep this better updated.

But for now I'm off - we're having a friend over for dinner! Butternut squash risotto, with gouda and walnuts. As Milo likes to say, "it's NUUUUUMY!"

he's learning!

milo's in that stage of constantly - CONSTANTLY - testing boundaries and trying out defiance, and whining when we tell him no (ok, maybe not 24/7, but sometimes it feels that way).

tonight he's actually been pretty good.  on the way home from daycare, he was humming something, and it sounded familiar, but i couldn't fully place it.

i asked him what he was singing, and he started putting in jumbled lyrics: "...... what you waaaannnt"

and i immediately recognized the Rolling Stones' little ditty that we sing to him all too often when he starts to get upset over not getting his way.

so on the ride home we joyfully sang together "you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need!" and then milo shouts the "yeah" part. and since that's the only part of the song i really know, we sang it again.

i don't know which part made me happier, that he's learning the classics, or that the idea of we don't always get what we want, but we have what we need is getting ingrained into his adorable little head.

the highlight of my week...

milo was wanting to watch an episode of handy manny, so i made him ask nicely, and then turned the show on for him.

he proceeded to snuggle up next to me on the couch, wiggle his little arm into mine, and very matter-of-factly said to me, "you're my best friend, mom!"

the kid just made my week!

wedding bells already???

tonight as i was helping milo get his coat off, he started to throw a fit when i wanted to put his glove in his pocket, and he kept shouting, "my ring! my ring!"

the zipper was stuck, so i asked him if he wanted help fixing his zipper and getting the ring out of his pocket.  the crocodile tears ceased immediately, "yeah," he replied, cool as a cucumber.

i get the zipper unstuck, and a bulky, grey, plastic "ring" that i'm quite certain was originally a 6-point wrench (had to google that one).

i asked him if it was his ring, again, ever so coolly, "yeah."

"are you going to give it to maggie?" (at daycare today, they informed me that he calls her "my maggie" as in, "where's my maggie?")

"yeah."

"you gonna ask her to be your wife?"

"yeah."

they grow up so fast.





also, on the way home, milo was telling me about playing with maggie, and how she's with her mommy right now, and then he went straight for my heart and said, "everyone needs their mommy!"

wise beyond his years.

what a hoot

so milo's 3 now, and i'm ridiculously behind on keeping track of all his hysterical sayings and doings.

let's see what i can remember:

• the words are just flying now - there are still some rather indiscernible syllables thrown in, especially when his "s" and "f" still sound like a "d", but the kid is talking a mile a minute, and we love it.  especially at 2 in the morning, when he calls out, "mommmmmmm, i need my bay-ket!" (blanket), instead of simply screaming.

• the other day, we were driving to a garage sale, and ben accidentally went up on the curb.  i responded a little dramatically, nothing new.  later that day, milo and i were going to the store, and i accidentally pulled a curb check as i rounded a turn.  as we came off the curb, milo let's out a very pleasant, "oopsies!  you gotta be care-toh mom!"  i couldn't help but laugh and agree with him.

• his friends at daycare will randomly give me reports on him: "milo had a really good day!"  "milo ate all his corn and prunes!"  "milo needs to bring his pajamas so he can come for a sleepover to my house, but only girls are allowed!"

• i pointed out some deer in a field on the way home from daycare today, and milo shouted out "hi deer!"

• one of the things we got for milo for his 3rd birthday was a helium-filled, yellow, smiley face balloon. (his favorite color is yellow, and he specifically asked for yellow balloons for his birthday.  how could we say no?)  i think it may be one of his favorite presents - he carries it everywhere throughout the house, will lay on it, and tries to bring it to bed with him, but we won't let him, 'cause of the string.  so he insists on tying it up to the little chair at his desk.

• he calls pumpkins "puttin" and muffin is "mutton"- we made pumpkin muffins from a mix that he got from "gramma kacky"for his birthday, and at every meal we heard "i wanna puttin mutton!"

• he can say his abc's and count to ten all on his own.  that's entirely thanks to daycare.

• when he wants to do something that he can tell we might say no to (we're on our way someone, it's dinner time, etc.) he'll say, "i want to play cars/watch a show/go to park for a couple minute, mom."
• the night my parents came into town for milo's birthday weekend, my mom had to run to the store for a few items.  she came back with some chinese food for me, since everyone else had eaten at daycare/work/on the road, but i hadn't had a chance to eat yet.  milo looked at me eating my dinner, then turned to my mom and said, "gake-oo dor getting my mom doood!" (thank you for getting my mom food.)  it's amazing how considerate and thoughtful he is.  i love it.

• the other night we were picking up ben from work, and he was running late, so we were waiting in the car.  milo decided he was going to call out for him, "daaaaaad!"  i responded that daddy was inside the building, and we were outside in the car, and that he couldn't hear us.  milo decided to try harder by yelling louder, "DAAAAAAAD! CAN YOU HEAR ME DAAAAAAAAAD?"

• we still sing him to sleep, and we tend to stick to the same playlist of songs.  milo now knows them too: "you are my dun-doiiiiine" (sunshine), "may the Wowrd bet you and keeeeep you" (may the Lord bless you and keep you), "twinkle twinkle liddoh staaaahr" and "Jesus loves me" are the ones he'll sing along to.  he'll also sing the little ditties he hears on "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood" (a cartoon spin-off from Mister Roger's Neighborhood) - "you can take a turn, and then you get it back!"

• he'll still let us cuddle him, and when we drop him off at daycare, he says "i give you biiiigggggg HUG!" and then proceeds to bear-squeeze my neck.

i think we hit the jackpot with this one.

love lessons from our resident romeo

another maggie moment: they told me that maggie had been playing with a piece of paper, and when one of the workers went to throw it in the garbage, milo posted himself between the worker and the garbage, pointing his finger at the worker, he kept saying, "no, no, no!" until the worker returned the piece of paper to maggie.


the other night, milo patted my head and said, "wow, mom, your hair pretty!"  (although it sounded more like "wow mom, yoooh hayuh prih-eee!")  to which i replied, "thank you!" and he immediately responded, "you're welcome!" ("yoooh weldun!")


he knows how to woo the ladies!