I know most of you are here for the pictures so here are some recents. Oh and I forgot to mention in my post about our dr. visit that Miles is now 18lbs. 7.5 oz. He has jumped from 16lbs 10.5 oz in 3 weeks! ( I will let you do the math.)
Playing with my toys in the big boy chair.
Getting ready for bedtime.
Can I have a kiss?I was asking for it. While chatting with a friend over lunch, the subject of Miles' health came up and I mentioned that we had only had a couple little colds. Today we got a big bug of some sort. I got him out of his crib at 7:15am this morning (a very late morning for us) and he was HOT. I fed him and then took his temperature. 100.6 under the arm. Great - so much for the picture of good health. I could not tell what was wrong. He sounded a little congested but no runny nose. His ears didn't seem to bother him. He was eating fine. No nasty diapers. So after calling everyone I knew, I decided we should go to the doctor. While making all those phone calls Miles sat in my lap half-heartedly moaning and fell asleep. Unheard of! He obviously was not feeling himself.
We went to the doctor and it was the perkiest he has felt all day. Of course. You know how your car never makes that noise that it has been making for 6 weeks when you take it to the mechanic. I've decided kids are the same way after talking with several moms. There is no sickness that a roll of the crinkly doctor's paper won't fix. He has a little virus. No biggie according to the doctor. Well then why am I so worried? I took his temperature again in the not so fun place and it was 102.6. I immediately called my sister and she politely danced around the question if I was paranoid. That seems awfully high for just a little cold. Anyway I say all of that to say, I now know how my mom feels whenever she worries about my sister and me. It is a nagging uneasiness that something is wrong and you have no control over the matter to fix it. 
I know a lot of you look to see the pictures so here is a new one of Miles. This is from our trip to Fayetteville. Miles has just learned how to suck on a straw and cups fascinate him so this entertained him for a good 10 minutes. (Just in case you were worried that he would get some of the Haagn-Dazs rest assured that it was a non-dairy lemon fizzer.) He was extremely upset when he had to get in the car and mommy took it away.
We weren't going to grandma's house but decided to take a little day hike over the hills and through the woods to Lake Sylvia and enjoy this nice fallish weather. I had never heard of Lake Sylvia but it was in our Tim Ernst trail book. It was only a 4 mile loop and was close in the Ouachita National Forest so we thought it sounded like a good Sunday afternoon stroll.
Yes, we brought Miles with us. (We can no longer leave him at home with Smokey the Great Dane babysitter - just kidding.) He rode in the Baby Bjorn and loved every minute of it - or more like 2 hours of it!
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Miles jabbered gleefully (seriously, he did) for the first 15 minutes or so and then became accustomed to the ride. It was not a difficult trail and gradually went up and down and around the terrain. There would have been a few streams but they were all dry. We finally reached the lookout over the lake as well as a good vista of the Ouachita Mountains..jpg)
The hike did take us longer than we expected - as does everything since we have a baby. I was carrying around 17 extra pounds and could not see my feet so i had to be very sure of my step. Plus, I have short little legs compared to Mason's long "Johnny Hopper" legs. I was trailing behind by a dozen steps the whole time. It has inspired me to loose 17 lbs though. I was quite relieved when I was able to take Miles "off". It got me thinking how much better I would feel if I could take 17 lbs off of myself so the push is on! A 17 lbs lighter me is my goal by the end of this year.
The highlight of our hike was seeing one (or two) whitetail deer does pranced across the trail. We could not tell if we saw the same deer twice or if it was a different one. The way they bounce around is quite amazing. Miles and I also admired a blue butterfly for a moment and I also saw a squirrel (and lots of mosquitoes). That is my wildlife report.
Miles was so good the entire time. He only got a little fussy towards the end - since he really did want to go to sleep but being jostled while I walked made the conditions for sleep unfavorable (though he has fallen asleep in the Bjorn before.) He thoroughly enjoys being outdoors and we hope that there are many more family hikes in store for us! We are just going to wait until the temperature drops another 20 degrees before attempting it again.
Miles has made it famous! Check out his absolutely adorable portrait that we had made with Christy Hollingshead. She is fantastic! And Miles is soo cute how could they not be fantastic. He is the 10th picture down.
(I should be getting my prints soon so you guys should come see the Miles gallery that we will have displayed at our house. I bought enough pictures to cover just about every empty wall space in the house. I will be mailing some out too.)
She has a really sharp looking logo too - don't you think?
Yesterday the Hazelwood House bid farewell to a good friend, Smokey. Smokey has been with us for 3 years now and with our new family situation we decided finding a new home would be the fair thing to do for everyone. Smokey will receive all the attention he needs and Miles can use the free space to roam fur-free as he pleases. Because Smokey came from the Arkansas Great Dane Rescue we were required to give him back. I was pleased to hear that he did not have to go to the rescue but a new family was there to take him immediately in. Smokey was a fantastic four legged friend with more affection than I knew dogs were capable of displaying. We hope he will be happy in his new home and if you are searching for a furry friend check out the Arkansas Great Dane website here. They are truely gentle giants!
Today Matt's Brother Will and his girlfriend Amber came to visit. After getting up and getting ready we headed to the beach. We walked this time and Miles rode in the Baby Bjorn. He enjoyed the ride but did not care for the beach. He was very cranky and tired the entire time which made it hard for me to enjoy the beach. He eventually took a nap and that allowed me to get in the water for a little bit but he woke up and grabbed a handful of sand and rubbed it in his face. As you can imagine, that wasn't fun and neither was us trying to clean him up. I think we are going to the pool next time.
After we came home and had lunch, the boys and Amber went to get seafood at Shrimp's seafood market. They got some Tuna and shrimp along with some other needed groceries for our seafood dinner.
After they were back we got our stuff together and took the bikes for a ride again. I have thoroughly enjoyed our rental bikes and Mason and I have discussed getting bikes for home but the only downside about that is that our neighborhood is much more hilly than the land here. I don't know if it would be as much pulling the trailer up all the big hills. While on our bike ride we went back over to Rosemary Beach. I didn't have anyone to bounce this off of because mason had gone to look at the beach, but I think I saw Vince Vaughn in Rosemary Beach. It looked like Vince Vaughn, and sounded like Vince Vaughn (who has a very destinctive voice) and he had a large african-american man riding with him (bodyguard?). I think i was starring just trying to figure out if that was really who I thought it was. I am sure he is used to it.
We got back and had our seafood dinner. It was very yummy with corn, potatoes, and asparagus to go with the boiled shrimp. We couldn't hardly eat the corn because it would burn our lips off!! We then played a good game of Loaded Questions - I had a really good laugh. Only one more fun day left of our vacation. The only think good about going home is that Miles' 3 month portraits are waiting on me when we get back.
