Ready for Christmas

As soon as we cleaned up from Thanksgiving I got to work getting our Christmas decor up. The house looks really festive and it's cold enough now that we have been using the fireplace so it feels extra Christmasy. After Miles is asleep I love to curl up on the couch with a mug of hot chocolate and just watch the fire with the tree lights shimmering nearby. We still haven't hung our outdoor lights, but hopefully we'll get that done early this week. Right now it's just too cold to be stringing lights. Thanks to the internet I'm nearly done with my shopping. All of the sudden I'm feeling quite caught up.



I decided to forgo the holiday mayhem at the local portrait studios and just take pictures for our Christmas cards at home. I think the candid shots you get at home are usually better anyway. We did our homespun portrait shoot this morning and I've got my cards on order. Miles is pretty tolerant of the Santa hat and wears it without much resistance. The cats on the other hand are certain the furry Santa hat is some sort of animal intruder. They keep attacking it and dragging it from room to room. Animals are so weird some times.

Thanksgiving

It's nice to have a couple days off work to enjoy some family time. My fridge is stuffed to the limit and we really enjoyed having a house full of family. I am so pleased with the way my Thanksgiving table turned out. Santa brought my new table early so I could have it for our holiday meal and I put the old one in the living room to accommodate our crowd. I made napkins rings from raffia and some fall floral that I cut apart. We had quite a spread with turkey, ham, salad, rolls, garlic mashed potatoes, green beans, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, maple glazed carrots, apple pecan cheesecake, and pie. Yum! I don't have time to do much cooking normally, but I really enjoy cooking for special occasions. It was Miles' first Thanksgiving meal and he pigged out right along with the rest of us. He didn't care for turkey, but he loved the ham. I hope everyone had a great holiday!


The highlight of our meal was watching my cousin's daughter Addyson feed Miles. They are such a cute pair.

Bad Habits

This week we noticed Miles starting to pick up bad habits.

1. He loves TV entirely too much. He doesn't watch a lot, but he definitely wants to watch more. He finds the remote himself and brings it to you whining for the TV to be turned on. When you tell him it isn't time for TV he gets mad. He loves Blues Clues and will sit glued to the TV through an entire 20 minute episode. We have started hiding our remotes and I think I'm going to have to keep the TV armoire closed to prevent melt downs.

2. He is also drawn to buttons like a magnet. The computer, the printer, the DVD player, the DVR, the remote, phones, car alarms- if it has a button he is all over it. All our electronics are getting extra abuse these days.

3. He's biting. Not in aggression so I think it just feels good to his new teeth to chomp. He likes to chew on your clothes if you are holding him and more often than not he gets a bite of skin. I have small bruises all over my left shoulder from his little nips and I can tell you that his bites pack a punch. I guess I can at least be thankful he is not in daycare biting all the other kids. We are encouraging him to bite his chew toys, but he still sneaks one on me several times a day.

4.He has started waking up at night... a lot. Sometimes he goes right back to sleep and sometimes he needs lots of cajoling. It's tiresome to say the least. It's been hard to pin point a cause because he has so much going on. He's teething, he's eating new foods, he's taking only one nap now, and he's dealing with the time change. I'm going to try to go back to two naps a day and see if I can firm up his schedule a bit. Hopefully that helps.

As for me I am preparing to host our first Thanksgiving in the new house. I planned my menu this weekend and I am going over all the details. I also started my Christmas shopping so that when the tree goes up we have gifts to put underneath. It feels kind of like the holidays snuck up on me this year. Time is just flying by. I 'm making Casey help me with the gifts for his side of the family since he thinks picking out gifts is a cinch. It should be interesting to see what he comes up with.


I look too cute to be causing so much trouble.


I have no idea why the green crayon has teeth marks on it.

A Good Week

This week we transitioned Miles to table foods and he did really well. His favorites include: bananas, grapes, cheese, peas, carrots, and peanut butter toast. Yesterday he ate an entire banana in one sitting. I hope we don't pay for that in today's diapers. We spent the weekend enjoying some of our last nice days outside. We took a walk at the park, played on our backyard swing, and just let Miles crawl around the yard. It's a good thing too because today it's cold and wet.

To top off an already great week we booked our next Disney vacation and I have to say that sometimes it really pays to be a geek. I was reading the Disney discussion board I frequent and I stumbled across a fantastic offer- buy 4 days/nights, get 3 free, plus a free $200 gift card. I found really good airfare through Southwest which sealed the deal. We're booked for Jan 24-31. I know it's really soon, but I will only go in value season so it was either Jan or Feb. I found the best airfare for Jan so that was it. It feels kind of indulgent to be going again so soon, but having a little extra money for things like this is exactly why I overload myself 16 weeks out of the year and teach a couple of classes on the side. I can't wait! I'm telling everyone I know because this price is a steal. The deal is good Jan- June, but you have to book by Dec 20th. I keep an eye on all things Disney and I'm telling you deals like this just don't come around that often.


Loves his rider, but so far can only go backwards. We listen to the song it plays at least 20 times a day. Miles is a sucker for buttons. We also listen to the phone and the toilet in his Little People house a lot. Casey jokes and says the phone keeps ringing because the water company is calling on account of the excessive flushing.


Enjoying the sun.


Miles is an outdoor boy. I'm not sure what we are going to do this winter when it gets too cold to go out.


Miles is walking more and more every day, but for the most part he still prefers his signature monkey crawl.

Jungle Groove

We caught Miles cycling through the noises on his Little People Dinoland until he got to the music at which point he would get his groove on. He did this about 6 times in a row. Pretty cute.

Walking

I finally got a video of Miles walking. He's doing pretty well for only his second day as a walker.

Check Up

Today Miles went for his one year check up and he is a perfectly healthy, happy boy. He weighed in at 24 lbs and 4 ounces which was at the 75th percentile for his age and he measured 32 inches tall which was in the 95th percentile for his age. The doctor commented that his height is considered average for a 19 month old. Who knows where he gets that. The doctor said babies at 12 months usually can say anywhere from 0-5 words. Miles knows hi, daddy, duh(duck), and dada(mommy) so I guess he's right on track. He's babbling up a storm so I'm sure he start adding more words soon. The doctor asked if he was walking and I said no, but he was getting close. She said 12 months is average, but it was nothing to worry about. After the doctor's visit I took Miles to grandma's house and while we were there he took 3 steps totally unassisted. He's very cautious and I almost feel bad because he really prefers to hold your hand. We kept ourselves just out of reach and he took a few shaky steps towards grandma. We have a walker!




The trees are all turning and I snapped this picture outside my office. I have no idea what kind of tree it is, but it's gorgeous. I love this time of year.

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween and Miles looked super cute in his spider outfit. My Disney pumpkins turned out pretty good although they shriveled up before Halloween. Lesson learned- carve pumpkins at the very last minute. We only got two groups of trick-or-treaters for a grand total of five kids. We have a ton of candy left over. We do have lots of empty lots in the neighborhood, but there are kids here. I guess people just don't trick-or-treat anymore. Casey and I walked next door to show off Miles about 7:30pm which was prime trick-or-treat time and the streets were deserted. Kind of sad.



We always have fun dressing up at work. Here's a picture of the MA staff.

More Disney Pics

This week we received the professional photos taken by Disney.