well that's new

milo has his very first freckle. a teeny tiny little dark speck that wouldn't wash off no matter how much i scrubbed.

he can also now give high fives on command. as well as hugs. and when you ask him for a hug, he smiles, lunges towards you with open arms, and lets out this happy little growly grunt.

cutest thing ever.

how one step backward is really one step forward...

milo woke up at 4:45 yesterday. still not my favorite, but i'll gladly take it over 3:45.

he also took two naps, and woke up at 5 this morning. it seems (i hope) that the transition back to two naps is a lot more natural for the little bugger than trying to do just one nap.

one small step for milo; a giant leap for mama's sanity.

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.