This is such a fun age...

Popular opinion would agree that "this is such a fun age." That seems to be the comment I get after I tell people Miles is one year old. And I would have to agree. Miles is doing a lot of funny things. I laugh out loud daily at something he does.

Imitating our actions is a new development. Miles has always been facinated when I brush my teeth but now he demands his toothbrush if I am brushing my teeth. Miles also will brush his hair with things that resemble a hairbrush. This action can be easily confused with his imitation of talking on the phone. He holds random things up to his ear and then starts to jabber in his alien talk. That is how you know the difference between brushing hair and him talking on the phone - the hairbrush action will be silent with a lot of arm movement and the telephone will be quite noisey! Only a mother would be able to discern it!
Miles is starting to become quite the little helper - whether you want the help or not. He likes to clean - I have video of him trying to sweep with our big broom. I also have a clip of him taking clothes out of the dryer. (Hopefully one day i will upload those.) He also likes to take the folded clothes out of the laundry basket. And then if you are brushing his hair, he wants to brush yours. If he is eating, he wants to share. He even likes to help me with my makeup (should I get that priviledge.) It's very sweet.
Miles is also very active these days. He is still slithering for the most part but has started to crawl some on his hands and knees. He is pulling up constantly and has started cruising a few steps here and there. He is clapping a lot more and I think is dancing in his own little way. Today for example, the cartoons were singing and he started swaying back and forth, clapping and singing this high pitched drawn out vowel noise. Sometimes if I sing a familiar song and replace the words with "da da" or just a noise, he will chime in with me. I love it. We also have a new tooth - that makes 5.





Here are a few pictures from Easter weekend. We visited the daffodil field at Wye Mountain and went to Searcy to see the grandparents. (Im not sure why the pictures will not post the correct direction. Hope you do not get a crick in your necks looking at them.)

Ramblings on boyhood

So the ultrasound lady pointed to the screen and said "See that." My response was "Not really - but since you are pointing at something it must be a boy." It's a BOY!
Miles will have a little brother to torture - but really they will probably feel kind of like twins. I don't remember life without my sister since we are only 15 months apart - and I like it that way. I hope Miles and brother will feel that way and not be arch enemies.

I do realize that I will probably have to break up fist fights, hose the mud off them in the backyard, and search for the frog that gets loose in the house. It makes me excited - giggle actually. I have always felt I would live in a house full of boys. Just a hunch. It fits my personality. People think I should be sad that I don't get to buy frilly dresses and have a permanent shopping partner, but I have never been one for frilly dresses and I recall sitting in on a shopping excursion with my husband's mom and sister, and it was painful. I have been more afraid I would have a girl and she would be girlie. Then I wouldn't know what to do with her. Other advantages of having boys - no weddings to pay for, though Mason's co-worker told us it is the groom's family who pays for the wedding in his homeland of Jordan. Maybe Miles and his brother won't marry a Jordanian woman. I have also heard the reasoning that when you have a boy you only have to worry about that one boy (or two in our case) but if you have a little girl, you have to worry about ALL the little boys out there. (See the Bill Cosby quote.)

Now for the fun part - naming and shopping. (That probably seems contradictory to my previous statements.) I love picking out names. I would immediately name any stuffed animal or doll I had as a child. I was heartbroken when I realized my cabbage patch doll came with a name - Peggy. I could think of a better name than that. So coming up with names is not the problem. It's that I have to be in agreement with Mason, and it has to match the rest of our names. It took Mason and me 5 good years to come up with Miles. I feel a lot of pressure to dream up another classy, intelligent sounding, timeless but creative name. We both like the name Joaquim but he would sound adopted: Mason, Deanna, Miles, and Joaquim...that just doesn't "go". There are a few leftovers from naming Miles but I want to think we created this name just for him - but on the flip side, I guess he should get used to hand-me-downs early on.
That brings me to the shopping part - picking out nursery decor. Baby 2 will be moved into Miles' current room (hand-me-downs already) and Miles will get a new room. Atleast that is the plan today. We have a crib borrowed and need to outfit it. With Miles, I searched and searched for bedding that was baby, but not too baby; not all blue but still boy looking; not covered in some character or animal or theme; modern with clean lines but not too mod. It was a hard search and a big bill to fill. I settled on custom made bedding with a custom price tag. That was my big lesson learned - we're not doing that again. After an hour or so searching on the internet I found EXACTLY what i wanted. It's absolutely perfect. The only downside - we will need to paint a room. Any volunteers?

How did we do that?

I found that fun little meter below through my sister's blog. We have received such a mix of who Miles looks like that I was interested in what this "advanced face detection technology" would say. I hear that he is a perfect mix, then someone else will turn around and say he looks just like me. When Miles was less than 6 mos old, a lot of people said he looked just like Mason. So who is it? According to this he looks more like me.
What amazes me is how did we get such a good looking kid? I look at either side of that meter and think - "hunh - that's amazing."

Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family tree template - Roots

First and Only...

We got what will probably be our first and only snow of the winter - and Miles' first snow as well. Its really not much, but enough to make everything pretty and white. I took Miles out early while flakes were still falling and he thought it was fun. He would reach for the snow and when it fell on his face he would scrunch it up in his "ham face". I couldn't put him down in it because we don't have any appropriate snowbaby clothes. I am pretty sure snow down the diaper would be a little startling.
After we came in, I sat and drank my (then cold) coffee while watching the snow fall and just sighed. I know it is all going to be gone by mid-afternoon.

If you have been around me much you know I have been whining about it being cold. I don't mind the cold as long as it snows. But cold weather without snow seems like a total waste. So if it has to be cold after a beautiful teaser 75 degree weekend - let it snow!

One Year Old: the party

It's official. Miles is one year old. Yes, we had a small party - though it seemed huge in our little house. Our house is just not suited for more than 6 people. Luckily, it was a super nice day and I moved everyone outside to play with bubbles and to ride in Miles' new wagon after we had cake.





These are the cakes. That is a robot on the top one. We got them from Blue Cake Company in Little Rock. They were very tasty.

Miles had fun eating his little cake - and mostly playing in it!





I purchased Miles a Birthday crown and banner - but got ones that the whole family can use on their birthday. I LOVED the banner - my neighbor introduced me to this lady's shop on Etsy. She makes all kinds of banners. We have one of her Halloween banners and they make everything so festive. You can check her shop out here. I got his crown at Hallmark along with the table runner - they matched our birthday decor just perfectly.



We opened a few gifts at the party. We told people no gifts on the invitation - but we knew that the grandparents couldn't resist - and we appreciate them :) Miles enjoys paper so unwrapping gifts is a lot of fun if you can keep the paper out of his mouth.



Have I ever stated how smart Miles is. Yes, he is reading his birthday card. Well, not really. This card played music and Miles would open and shut it to make it sing. He actually played with it while I opened almost all his presents.



One of Miles' gifts was a wagon from his Great-Gran. This is Miles' girlfriend Scarlett. Everyone had fun taking turns riding in the wagon while dinner was cooking.



Thanks to everyone for coming and sharing this big day with us!