close enough

tonight, as i changed milo into his fleece pajamas and 12 hour diaper, i asked him,

"do you know how loved you are, milo?"

to which he responded,

"hot?"

fractured fairytales

while grandma and grandpa z were here, we took a trip to costco, where grandma picked up a ginormous tub of organic animal crackers for the little boy.

he loves to stick his hands in, one at a time, grabbing great big handfuls of as many cookies that he can hold in one go. i think 5 has been his record thus far.

and does he eat these delectable little treats? oh no. no no no. he drops them as he walks along, leaving them laying around on the floor, hansel and gretel style, in case he loses his way from his toys in the livingroom to the fun filled drawers of mommy's cooking gadgets in the kitchen.

i usually wind up gathering the morsels and eating them myself.

at least he's not a hoarder.

let's play catchup, shall we?

milo's birthday came and went. it was fantastic and small and perfect. maybe i'll even write an entire post on it, but for right now i just want to catch up on all the things that have been happening with the little man:

• he currently has his first ear infection, and is on his first dose of antibiotics. he's definitely more irritable than usual, and also a lot more cuddly - not just with me, but ben, too - ben often expresses how milo follows me around the house or will sit in my lap for story time, but not for him... i see how milo lights up for ben when he gets home though, but it is nice to see milo cuddling into ben as much as he does to me. but while i love getting to comfort the little cutie, it's hard to see him in pain and troubled.

• he has sprouted 11 teeth thus far - the already established four on top, two on bottom, i may have mentioned the three molars that popped through just recently? and then there's been the two next to his bottom teeth that finally decided to join the party.

• we're finally having milo dedicated at church this weekend.

okay, it's getting late. wow, okay, maybe not - i just looked at the clock and it's only 9:04 pm, but for us that is late. some of ben's younger coworkers think we're really lame for enjoying quiet time at the library or just sitting over a cup of coffee, or enjoying getting to sleep before 10 pm..... i do miss the days of getting to stay up late knowing i'd be able to sleep in on a saturday, but i'm okay with it. i'm convinced milo's laugh is filled with magic, and it's totally worth a 9 o'clock curfew.

the cow says "moooo"

last night was milo's last bottle of formula. we'd switched to whole milk for his nap-time bottles a week or two ago? (i can't remember exactly when.) but he'd still been getting formula for his bed-time bottle.

last night is when the formula can went empty, so now it's whole milk from here on out.

i also tried giving milo crayons to see if he could discover the most fabulous pastime of coloring. he thought they were a new snacky treat and only tried to eat them, despite my many efforts to show him their magical properties of producing color on a white blank page.

he's a busy little boy.

well, the boy has two molars coming in - both on his left side, one on the top, one on the bottom. two little sharps pokes that have just barely broke through the gums. if your front left center tooth is number one, this would be tooth number four on the top and i think number four on the bottom, too. although he still hasn't gotten the two teeth next to his bottom center teeth - so i'm not sure where they're hiding. maybe he ate em?

the boy eats just about everything these days. he loves getting to eat "grown up" food and getting to shove fistfuls of flavorful cuisine all over his face, and by chance getting some of it in his mouth. mostly i think he enjoys the independence, but the new flavors seem to be quite enticing as well.

peas, corn, deli meat, bread, even cucumber bits. the egg-bake that i made for mops (that must not have appealed to many of the moms because only 4 squares were gone - of which i ate one), noodles, especially noodles. i'm very grateful for his current lack of pickiness when it comes to the new "mommy and daddy" foods that we put on his tray. noodles and spaghetti sauce, roasted butternut squash, spaghetti squash lasagna (spaghetti squash, pasta sauce, spinach, ricotta and mozzarella) as well as our crock pot chili.

those are all the foods i can think of that i know he's eaten with great vocal approval and lip smacking and enthusiasm.

he's also walking, like, walking walking, a lot! he walked all the way from the front door to the back door while i was going back and forth between the kitchen and porch yesterday. i suppose it's more of a waddle than a walk, but he's still getting really good. he does continue to crawl still, especially if he wants to get somewhere quickly, and he still falls down to his bottom from time to time, but i think he'll be a full time walker by his birthday, which is only a matter of 2 weeks from today.

project babyproof still underway...

we finally moved both mine and milo's dressers into the living room to replace the tv stand. while we now have to venture into the living room to retrieve any clothing we want from the dressers, it's worth it to have the tv and electronics higher, and thus out of milo's reach.

we've also relocated my desk - which used to be in the living room - to the bedroom. another one less headache to have to worry about milo trying to scale or maneuver around or bump into.

overall it's been a huge sense of accomplishment to feel the house getting more organized and cleaner as we sort through clutter and move furniture, and not having to constantly redirect milo from the same issue over and over again is probably the biggest thrill of all.

see ben? we don't have to move every year, you just have to let me rearrange the house every couple of months. ;)

now if we can find a new home for the cat. a lady and her 4 year old daughter called on the flyers i put up; they're supposedly coming today to meet kittles. maybe this one will actually work out - the last call i got was from a high school girl who's mom is "kind of allergic" (according to the teeny-bopper)... i'm guessing that one's not gonna happen. mom and 4 year old? i have high hopes for them.

milo's first family vacation

so technically, milo's been on a few trips with us visiting relatives/friends/etc for various holidays and road trips that have happened over the past 11 months... (uffda! can you believe it's been over 11 months already? i'm still trying to wrap my head around this whole parenthood thing, let alone that we've been at it for almost a year now.)

anyhow, we finally took our first trip as a family unit of just us three to northern minnesota - it's our last night here in lutsen, just off lake superior.

highlights from the trip include:

• milo's first taste of pizza at the famous sven and ole's pizza place in grand marais (he loved it, of course. how could he not, being my son? pizza is one of the main food groups in the zoe book of cooking.)

• we've given our son the native name of "wampum big mess" (i googled "wampum" to see what it really means, and i'm deciding to ignore the fact that it's the white shells used in beading... sometimes it just helps to ease the frustration of milo dropping food on the floor for the umpteenth time by sighing out "oh wampum, please eat your food instead of playing with it.")

• not realizing that the window shades we put up for milo were partially closed on the outside of the car door (whoops), we tried to figure out the rattling sounds coming from the back seat. as milo was more or less asleep, we knew he wasn't throwing anything, so we starting coming up with our own stories of bigfoot throwing rocks at our car. ben mentioned how he would be scared if bigfoot was running as fast as our car going 55 mph, and that no wonder no one had ever seen him. we decided a tank would be too slow, and with bigfoot coming after us, it was time to get a hummer.

• milo seems to enjoy the hiking backpack, and our mini hiking trips - as long as they don't interfere too greatly with napping or eating. even then, we've been able to push the limits a little bit, and while he's certainly a little fussier, ben's reassurance that long-term he'll be just fine seems to be accurate. if in 10 years, however, we're still asking wampum big mess to stop throwing his food on the floor or rubbing it in his hair, i may look back to this time for a scapegoat. fair warning. ;)

overall, i'd say it's been a good trip - good to get out of town, away from the every day rigamarole, away from the hustle and bustle of busy cars and busy people and busy life, to just slow down, see the trees, discover mushrooms growing on logs, yellow ferns, the way my calves feel way too tight from hiking in shoes that are probably a little too small, to invent stories about bigfoot and retell childhood stories of why there are signs for "fallen rock."

it's been good to just focus on our time together and how to enjoy this time as a family.