he's an angry little elf

i think it's time i stop posting about any sleeping successes with milo, as it seems whenever i do, he has a major relapse.

we're switching back to two naps - we attempted to do so today, since he decided to wake up at 3:45, and wouldn't go back to sleep except cuddled up on me on the couch... he got another hour and a half in this morning, but has been up since 7:20, and has screamed through any nap we try to put him down for.

i have no clue what his deal is... aside from a slight runny nose, a cough when he sleeps/first wakes up, and those last two canine teeth still coming in on the bottom, and ignoring the fact that he's obviously over-tired, which is making him a lot more prone to temper tantrums when things aren't going his way (i'm talking full on, hit the floor, kicking and screaming... sometimes he tries to throw in some syllables, like maybe if he can figure out our language we'll give him what he wants... at this point, if he were to look up at me and say "mommy, i want a pony" i might just say "okay, but only if you nap.") anyhow, those things aside, he seems fine, so maybe it's just the lethal combo of all those things...

ben's off work today; i'm both relieved and feel badly - neither of us have really gotten a break since milo got up. although ben did let me go back to sleep and then brought me breakfast in bed. what a keeper.

before i forget...

these are all things that have happened in the past week/month, and i keep meaning to write about it, but it's so easy to get sidetracked with such a busy little boy.

he's sleeping now, and ben's watching some swamp-logging show on netflix, so now's as good a time as any.

- on a recent playdate with some mops moms from my table, milo was the youngest one there. two boys were about 3 or 4 (i think?) and then there was another little girl who's probably 2-3-ish (i've never been good with guessing baby ages, and with milo being abnormally ginormous for his age, he was bigger than her, but i know she's older, because she talks and she's potty trained.) anyhow, she was sitting on the floor, playing with some cash register thing, and milo was sitting across from her, and he was totally playing footsie with her.

- milo's canine teeth, both top and bottom are coming in. i may have already mentioned this? but there it is again, just in case i haven't. all he has left is two more set of molars. boom. teething round 1 almost done, and it didn't really ever seem to phase him, other than a slight temp from time to time, and the runny nose thing, which i hear is common... he makes up for it by still insisting on waking up at 5 am. however....

- we're transitioning to one nap. milo has been waking up at 5:15 or 5:30. i'm hoping once we're fully adjusted he'll sleep till 6. it'll be nice to sleep in again (ha! but seriously, i would love to be able to sleep in till 6. 5 stink in 30 is just wayyyyy too early). anyhow, along with going from a 10 am nap and a 3 pm nap to just a noon-nap, the first day i kept him up past his usual nap time, the poor thing crawled up on the couch, got into his sleeping fetal cuddle pose, and had some major droopy eye going on. i felt badly keeping him awake. at another point, this time sitting on the couch, and he kept falling asleep, sitting up. aside from carseat-sleeping, he'd never done that before... it's possible he's not ready, but we're going to try it for a week and go from there.

- i think that's it, goodnight folks, it's already way too late :\

5 AM

milo's wake up call... every. single. morning.

oh except a little while ago when he slept till 5:20. but then this morning, he woke up at 4:20. not even close to balancing the scales. granted i got him to go back to sleep, but i didn't quite get that luxury, though i did try.

he also took a face plant to some asphalt on saturday when we were on a walking path up in the cities near minnehaha falls. now he has quite the scrape right between his eyebrows and on the bridge of his adorable little nose.

plus he's gibbering a whole bunch.

and then when i put him down for a nap this morning, he decided to put my heart through the ringer. i heard him mumbling something, so i went to his monitor and turned it up.

i see him laying there, kind of lazing around, and repeating "mamaaaa" "maaaama" "maaaaamaaaaaa"...

it was all i could do not to rush in there and pick him right up.

count along with me

milo is 15 months old.

he has 14 teeth.

he is 33.5 inches long and 25 pounds, which means we can turn his carseat around to face forward.

i asked his dr. about height predictions, if they can measure his hands or something along that line. i was told that they don't really do that, but he said that the two ways they can project height is to:

1. take the median height of the parents (6 feet 0.5 inches) and add a couple of inches, which would put milo at 6'2.5", give or take.

or

2. you can take the childs height at 2 and double it. so if milo continues on the trajectory of the 96% in height (which has been consistent thus far), then he'll be about 6'2".

he repeatedly reminded me that these are just estimates. theory number one holds true if i apply it to my height (derived from my parents' median), but would not hold true for my brother. i think milo's gonna be taller.

moving on, and away from the number game, milo has decided that his 2012 habit of sleeping in till 6 or later is not a habit, but just a one week gift of bliss.

maybe someday we'll go back there, where birds fly over the rainbow, and life is in technicolor, and getting up before 6 am is entirely my own choice, and not demanded of me.

meanwhile, i count my blessings in footie pajamas. covered feet are slippery feet, and slippery feet have yet to figure out scaling the crib slats. as much as i dread milo waking up before 6 am, i would hate to wake up to the thud and ensuing cries of him escaping from the alcatraz crib.

spoke too soon.

yesterday milo woke up at 4:45, and though i went in to assure him that it wasn't time to get up yet, and laid him back down to sleep, it was a struggle. he maybe slept 20 or 30 more minutes intermittently, and at 5:45, i gave in.

and he only got one nap yesterday after we got back from church.

this morning he woke up at 5:45... better than yesterday, better than 5, but still earlier than necessary, and too early enough that his crankiness shows that "mother knows best" when it comes to sleeping in.

i put him down for a nap at 10, he babbled till 10:15, and he's just woken up again...

i think it's gonna be one of those days.

new year, new tricks

milo has added a "stepping" motion to the dance moves that he uses to bust a groove when there's music playing. (it started as a head bobble, and then moved into a full-body-bounce, and now it's a combo all three.)

both his eye teeth are coming in. at first i mistakenly thought that his eye teeth were the ones next to the two front teeth, but they weren't, and now they're coming in. at this rate, i think this kid is going to have all his permanent teeth by the time he's four.

he's also started making kissing noises, only it seems he's just sucking in his bottom lip. i guess it's really more of a lips smacking noise. in the old year (2011), he was accomplishing this feat with fish-face-lips. now it's the lower-lip-suction-trick. and of course, if we repeat the noise/action, he gets all smiley and giggly.

there's one thing that's been surprisingly consistent since the new year rang in... i don't want to talk about it too much just for it to go away, but suffice it to say that i haven't gotten out of bed before 6 am since 2011. i'm really hoping this lasts...

we did a clean sweep of his hoard of outgrown toys and clothes, and the whole house just feels so much cleaner and more spacious and better organized. with his closest cleaned out of all the old clothes that no longer fit, we finally got around to rearranging things so that his shirts, pajamas and onesies are actually hanging, his pants folded on a shelf, and his socks are in a bin next to the pants. two of his empty dresser drawers are now storage space for his puzzles and legos and some other miscellaneous toys, while the top holds our overflow of dvds. meanwhile, the bottom shelf of his closet holds stuffed animals, and on the floor of the closet we keep his wooden toys and weebles collection.

all in all it's been a good start to the new year.

sickity-doo-dah

Christmas part 1 (with my folks in illinois) has come and gone. it felt like an explosion of wrapping paper and milo squakings and "ooh, ahhh, thank you!"

and then i got the flu christmas night, and a new sense of explosion erupted. it's awful. i hate the flu and it's been years since i've had it... in fact, i haven't had a full-fledged, toilet-bowl hugging, steam-rolled aches & pains flu since college, 6 years ago. i suppose i'm due. and i have to count my blessings, if you're going to be sick anywhere, why not be at mom's? plus being on vacation and in chicago, it's not like i can just go home. so ben and my mom are watching after milo, and i'm in bed, growing restless and worn out at the same time. i have my own bathroom. i know i have to count my blessings and that there are far worse ailments to be burdened with...

so how 'bout we recount the festivities:

milo has loved the new activity course with all it's challenges and obstacles that is my parents' only slightly milo-proofed house. the stairs especially. we only have one gate, so we're able to section of portions of the house, but there are exciting forbidden treasures, nooks and crannies in every room, so we still have to keep a close eye on him no matter what area has been barricaded.

we eventually added bubblewrap to the marble table in they're "foyer" area, which is right above his line of vision, but still within well range of his cranial circumference. he still has a pretty bad goose egg with slight puncture mark from the corner of that one. whoops.

milo got a plethora of weebles, a few puzzles, a jack in the box, a spinning metal top that you pump a lever to make it go, some bigger clothes for the months ahead, and some other blinking/mooing/singing things.

he's enthralled. and we haven't even had Christmas part 2 with ben's parents' yet.

ben and i have decided it's time to do a clean sweep of all his toys - pack away the ones that are still good for future babies, throw out the broken ones, add to the garage-sale pile ones he never really seemed that interested in, and maybe keep out a few of the ones he still plays with.

over the past year, we'd received quite a number of hand-me-down stashes of toys (plus what he received last Christmas and for his birthday). if we don't clear out some of it soon, our house is going to be swallowed up by milo-stuff.

we'll let you know when the garage sale finally happens :P