Recent pics...

A few recent pics of Miles.
Tooth update: matching #6 tooth is coming in on the left side. I do believe in one of his falls that he has already chipped a tooth or two. Do you see it?

We are working on our self-feeding spoon skills along with the "mad" crawling, pulling up and walking skills. He can do it as long as you load the spoon for him and help him with holding it. He seems to favor his left hand for eating with a utensil but uses his right hand if he is picking the food up with his fingers. He's ambidextrous.

This was a good smiling picture. Most of the pictures we get these days look like the next one.

Who me, a ham? If the camera is out, this is the face we get. He was really handsome in his Sunday best but in every picture that day he was hamming it up.

Miles with Mason probably watching a Mickey DVD

The freezer bar on our fridge is the perfect height for Miles to pull up on. Look at that shaggy hair. He is going with Mason tomorrow for a cut!

Slam Dunk...

I am notorious in my family for dunking - Oreos in Milk (or any cookie for that matter), doughnuts in coffee - just about any reasonable combination you can think of, I have tried. It's fun. I thought I would pass this heritage along to my precious son - and I do believe the lesson stuck - for better or worse.




We were dunking our graham crackers (and hands) in the applesauce!




"You want a bite?" Miles is good at sharing his snacks.

The next day...
Miles enjoys playing in water. It doesn't really matter where the water is. A good splash is worth its weight in gold to him. I paid a little trip to the restroom and Miles followed me as normal. I lifted the seat lid and then realized that there was no toilet paper - so i swiftly swung around the corner to grab a roll out of the closet. I heard a little splashing sound followed by squeals of delight. I quickly made my way back to the bathroom to see Miles splashing his little hand in the toilet (now you see why we keep all the seats shut unless in use.) Completely grossed out, I grabbed the guest towel with one had and then his little hand with the other for a cleaning. I need to note that prior to Miles following me into the bathroom, he was snacking on a cookie. He brought the cookie with him on the journey and it had been silently sitting in his other hand while he played - until I took his dirty hand to wipe it off. He proceeded to dunk his cookie into the toilet water while both of my hands were occupied. You could say this was one of those moments that seem to move in slow motion though all of this only took seconds. I threw the towel across the room and snatched that cookie from his hand before it touched his lips. His mouth dropped as I immediately threw it in the trash can, and of course that bottom lip of his stuck out. He was not pleased that I threw away his snack. I haven't tried cookies dunked in toilet water and I - nor he - plans to in the future.

Making room for #2

Now that baby #2 (as we affectionately call him - no name yet) is over halfway done, I am seriously considering where we are going to put him. Actually he is not the problem. It's more of where to put all of our stuff that is already occupying what will be Miles' space. For ease of explanation we will call that the "guest room".

When expecting Miles we played the whole musical room shuffle. It required A LOT of purging. I threw away, gave away or sold boxes, and boxes. Everything that was once in the current nursery went either in the office, or guest room in order to make space for all the new nursery stuff. And for those of you without children - the babies themselves do not take up much room, just all the things they need seem to require a lot of space. Anyway, now we have to clear out the guest room that for months has been more of a storage facility than bedroom.

Since Miles will be moving there, I feel like we should move our things out of the guest room so that he can have his own room. After all, he will be a "big boy" - a whole 18 mos old. Miles is inheriting the current dresser so that baby #2's clothes can go in the nursery with him. You would be absolutely amazed at how much stuff is in the dresser, under the bed, and in the closet of our guest room. All of our "off-season" clothing and accessories (hats, shoes, bags, etc), the gift wrapping center, the tangles of cords and electronic pieces that mason accumulates, luggage, games, workout equipment, coats and seasonal home decor are stored in that room - as well as the knick-knacks that I can't find another place for. So that brings me to our current problem: where are we going to put all that stuff? The closet in the office is absolutely full, as is the one in our bedroom. There are a few shelves here and there through the house that could be better facilitated but nothing to store the magnitude of items that are being housed in the guest room.

The only solution that I have come up with is to create more storage space. It's not a very creative idea, but I figure it will be a well deserved investment. The only room that has available wall space is in the office. At one time, we had two "working" desk areas, but now our PC has moved to the living room with the TV. There is a bookshelf that I hope to incorporate into Miles' new room, the guest room. So with both of those gone and some clever rearranging of the sofa, I think we could use the entire exterior wall of the office to turn into some sort of major storage area, maybe possibly a work area too.

Ideally I want an enclosed wardrobe and desk area. I have taken most of my ideas from IKEA. After we went to the store in Dallas a few months ago, I have been dreaming in IKEA. They make solutions for people with problems like ours - space challenge problems. They had an entire apartment for 3 people in 850ish square feet and I thought, "I could live here". That is what got me thinking that we don't need more space as much as we need to better organize the space we have. We also paid a visit to the new Container Store here in town. It fueled my new found desire for organization. The ELFA system I think would work but its problem is that it is made to use in an existing closet rather than building a closet in the middle of the room. My things wouldn't be enclosed - and I want all of it out of sight! I think we are going to be using a combination of "systems" to make this work.

A picture is worth a thousand words so here are a few images that have been the starting point for where I am hopefully going with this.
These are from IKEA:


This is most like what I am visioning - just not in black...and maybe with a few more doors to cover our stuff.


Picture a desk where the bed is here.


This is my favorite but I won't be able to use exactly this because we have a window we have to work around. I like that it is floor to ceiling - almost like it is a built in unit.
These next few are from the ELFA system at the Container Store. I like them but as you see they don't provide the containment that the wardrobes do.