Merry Christmas...

I have run out of Christmas Cards! I got all the family done and a lot of my long distance friends, but there are still a few that didn't get one. Though I am a real "paper" kind of person and I like to hold it in my hand, this is the next best thing. Merry Christmas everyone and next year I will order more cards!

Saturday night at Gran and Pop's...

This past Saturday was our first overnight trip away from Miles. We had a wedding and Mason's company Christmas party all in one evening so we thought it was the perfect day for Miles to spend at Gran and Pop's house in Searcy. Overall, I think everyone handled it well - me, Miles and Gran and Pop.
We dropped Miles off around mid-day on Saturday and we were off. In addition to the wedding and Christmas party, we finished most of our Christmas shopping and thought we would try and catch a late movie after the party. It seemed like a very "non-baby" thing for us to do. In case you weren't aware this weekend was not only cold, but very, very windy. We arrived at our house after the party to a very dark neighborhood. The electricity had gone out. Then after we got to the theater and Mason braved the very cold, blustery weather to get our tickets (my hero), the electricity went out at the theater and we had to leave as the emergency lighting was about to shut off. Sure, we can use our tickets to get back in another time, but we don't have a lot of those "another times" with the babysitter. Too bad they couldn't give us a rain-check on that as well. We came back home and decided to watch one of our recorded movies - "The Man Who Knew Too Much". (The electricity had returned to our house.) It's a great Hitchcock film, but don't tell me how it ends because our recording cut off before the story was resolved at the pinnacle of suspense. It was the absolute worse timing for the movie to stop. We have to wait until Thursday when it comes on again. It was just not our night for a movie. It was after midnight and we went to bed only to sleep until 9 this morning! Yeah! It was mighty nice. I rolled over at 8:30 and stayed asleep for 30 more minutes just because I could. Yes, we played hookie from church, but I don't feel guilty about it in the least. I don't get to sleep as late as I want very often. Actually, this is the first time since March that I was able to determine my wake-up time :)
We returned for Miles mid-day today (Sunday) and everyone was happy. The grandparents said Miles was great - despite the blow-out in the middle of the night. I guess Miles was testing the depths of their love and devotion. Gran and Pops didn't seem too stressed out about the 24 hour sitting event. Miles didn't hold any grudges about us leaving him. And I only required one phone call to check how everything was going. I think Mason was surprised.
I feel confident now that I could leave him an entire weekend. Baby steps. We have to work up to 10 days so we can take the trip to Europe that we didn't get in before Miles was born.
I don't have any pictures from this weekend but I will leave you with a picture of Pop with Miles at Thanksgiving. They are quite the pair. Thanks Marilyn and Marks!

North Pole Encounter...

Miles had his first encounter with Santa tonight. I will let you be the judge of how things went.

"Mom, I'm not so sure about this guy."

"Don't tell anyone, but I don't think his beard is the real deal."

"Mom, Dad, Anyone- take me. I'm finished with this guy."

Tooth...

I didn't intend for this picture to be about Miles' tooth, but its about as good as it is going to get if you want to see the tooth. If you look hard you can see the one little tooth standing on the bottom front. It looks a little crooked which gives it character, right? Poor kid doesn't have much of a chance with straight teeth. Sure, I have beautiful straight teeth now, but that was after 6 years of carefully planned orthodontic strategy. Thanks Dr. Devinny.
I do believe Miles will be getting another tooth soon. He has been clingy today and chewing, or rather rubbing things across his bottom gums. I just hope it doesn't cause an ear infection again.
This made me think about the tooth fairy - I realize I have several years before I officially have to worry about this but when something was left under my pillow in exchange for my tooth, it was usually a quarter or two. I heard of some kids getting dollars - up to five - for each tooth. With the rate of inflation, I wonder what we will have to fork out in exchange.



Also, I would like to add that we are doing much better with the sippy cup skills (to add to his mad numchuck skills.) I don't know that sippy cup skills are essential in life, and I really don't know why you can't just go from a bottle to a cup, but I guess they prevent spillage. And that is useful. I was wondering there for a while if he would ever get the hang of it, but obviously he did. For the longest time, he would just stick his neck out waiting for me to place the cup in his mouth and then tilt it back for him. Maybe watching his bud, Sam, at church helped. It was like one day he woke up and knew exactly what to do with it. I don't know why that surprises me. That has been how every other skill has occurred.



I really like this picture. I giggle inside every time I see it. It just looks like Miles is hanging out on the couch with Mason. I guess he is, but it's only because I set him there :0)