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."

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?"

"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?"

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.

gotta teach 'em young...

it's been absolutely gorgeous all day today - high seventies, no humidity, bright blue skies, and a little breeze.  so after milo's nap, we decided to take him out to a park so he could run and play and explore and climb.

but first we decided to stop for ice cream at a local coffee shop.

now, in case you haven't seen ben in a while, he's been growing out his beard, since for the last 5 years he's had to keep any facial hair neat and trim (which usually meant a goatee).  along with the grizzly man beard, he's got a full-fledged cookie duster.  so as we were eating our ice cream, ben's mustache would catch some, and he wasn't getting it cleaned off fast enough for milo's liking.

milo was sitting on ben's lap, and i was giving him spoonfuls of ice some from the cone that ben and i were sharing.  i also gave milo a napkin to wipe his hands and face, because he's become a bit of a neat-freak and doesn't like it when his hands get sticky or dirty.

so we're all eating ice cream and loving it, except for that aforementioned bit of ice cream that kept getting caught on ben's mustache.  milo decided to take it upon himself to use the napkin i gave him to wipe ben's face clean.  it was pretty great to watch him with furrowed brow cleaning up after his daddy.  i did happen to catch video of it, but sadly i used my phone instead of my iPod, and i have yet to figure out how to get it transferred.


then when we got to the park, ben grabbed a frisbee from the trunk for him and i to toss while we followed milo around the playground.

milo decided he wanted to join in, so we would through the frisbee out, it would land on the ground, and milo, with great excitement, would shout "i get it!"as he ran after the frisbee, fetching it as buoyantly as any golden retriever, and then run it back to us.  he would try and throw it, but at this point it's more of a flailing drop accompanied by a gleaming little boy proudly throwing his arms above his head.

(i got video of this, too, but again, on my phone.... which - without a data plan - seems to be the fort knox of my videos.  i'll be carrying my iPod or the digital camera with us from here on out.)

at this rate, we're thinking he'll be a pro-frolfer by the time he's ten.

thar she grows!

milo's first two-year-molar has been sighted.  it must have been coming through for the past week (of which milo spent at grandma's daycare again, since ben has been working for his dad, and of course, i'm still in the 9-5 grind... cue dolly parton), because now it's about halfway visible...  it's the bottom left, and my guess is the bottom right isn't too far behind, but no matter how much i try to get him to roar like a lion so i can get a better look, i think he sees right through my games.

book worm.

milo's new thing when we're getting him ready for bed each night is that he doesn't want us to read the book, he just wants to hold it to his chest, arms wrapped around it like he's hugging a dear fuzzy friend, while we recite bedtime stories from memory, and pray, and sing lullabies.

his book of choice is always Grover's New Kitten, which actually belonged to me from when i was a child, and i loved it.

when it comes time to lay him down, he doesn't cast the book aside or want to put it away or give it back to us. oh no sir. (or ma'am.)  he continues to keep his arms loosely cradling its sturdy cover and board-book pages.

we put him in his crib with a kiss and well-wishes for a good-night slept tight, and he rolls over on top of the book, content.

come morning, the book is usually in some opposite corner, but by evening, he needs it in his arms once again.