Milo and the Sun!

I've been practicing a new photography technique. This was my first attempt at sun flares. I think they turned out rather well!

I love this one! My beautiful boy!

This was the only one that I got where he was looking at the camera and smiling. I love it when that happens because its so rare!

When it was time to go in he didn't want to and kept falling on the ground to be tickled.

Asher's Newborn pics

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Playing Pretend

I found a bunch of hats and stuff that relate to different professions in the dollar bin at Target a few weeks ago. I got pretty much every one they had and brought them home to Milo who has been obsessed with them ever since. He LOVES to run around pretending to be whatever hat he is wearing at the moment. The funny thing is he pretty much knows, with out having to be told, which hat goes with which profession and how to act and what to say when wearing that hat. I have no idea how he knows that.

Milo in his police hat. He also has a little badge, whistle and night stick that go with it. We've had to put limits on the use of the night stick!

There will definitely be more pics to come!

Bubble Fun

I got Milo a bubble machine which was like $2 on clearance. It's life span wasn't very long (glad I didn't pay full price!) but Milo had a blast while it lived.

Playdough

I finally got brave enough to get Milo some playdough. His teacher said he was not wanting to color in class to I should work with him at home and try to get him to color. He does color at home but not that much it's just not something he's really interested in. So we made the trek to Hobby Lobby and got some washable markers and a tray to color on. While on the color isle I saw some playdough and thought that might get him interested in crafts more than markers. So far he really likes it! I'm a little leery though. I can foresee regretting this decision when the playdough is ground into my carpet. Even if I regret it it was a pretty good photo op. :)

1st Day of PDO

Milo went to his first day of PDO today!!! He was very excited to go to school. Dropping him off went great, neither of us cried. He looked so adorable carrying his back pack and lunch box in! The only blip in the morning was that I was running late so we arrived a few minutes late. But I got pics anyway! He looked so adorable carrying in his back pack and lunch box!

So happy to be headed to school!

Trying to wave bye to Mama and Daddy. We walked him in anyway :)

Marching in the front door.

He was stopped for a photo op!

His cubby

He wasted no time getting to the business of playing!

Imaginary Friends

They say that 2 1/2 to 3 is the time when imaginary friends start showing up. I'm not sure if Milo does actually have an imaginary friend but I do know that he will carry on a 2 sided conversation with himself. He'll ask himself a question and then answer it (often times in an exasperated voice!). The other day he was playing in the sand box in the backyard and I had the window open so I could keep an ear on him. I noticed he was carrying on a 2 sided conversation with himself as he was dumping sand in little piles around the porch. I poked my head out the window and asked him what he was doing and he said very matter-of-factual and without missing a beat "feeding the monsters." LOL! How cute is that!?!

School Daze!

Milo will be starting PDO this year. I'm a half excited about it and half sad. He'll only be going two days a week but I still wonder sometimes if we should have waited another year. Because of where his birthday falls he'll be going into the 2 year old class even though he'll be 3 shortly after school starts. I'm perfectly ok with that, being more physically and emotionally developed will give him an advantage st least in the younger grades.

We got his backpack and lunch box in the other day! It's so cute I can't even stand it! Milo is very into monsters recently so when I found this one I knew it was the backpack for him, plus the lunch box came free with it so that didn't hurt either!

Backpack and water bottle

Lunch box

Super Milo

Another change of late is Super Milo! We got Milo a super hero cape and he loves to run around being "super". For some reason he likes to put a pair of red sock on his hands and say those are his super socks and well as putting on his cape. He is too funny!

Super Milo running around the backyard being super!

New Room

Milo has done so much growing and changing since I posted last. In that time we successfully moved him to his new room with his new bed (pics to follow soon!). That transition wasn't all together smooth but wasn't all that bad either. He took to it much better that I thought he would. I asked him today if he missed his crib and he indefatigably said "Yes!". He still views the nursery as his room even though he hasn't slept in there in a few weeks. When he said he wanted to get back in his crib today I told him that was were his baby brother was going to sleep. He got a bit upset and said that baby can sleep in his big boy bed and he would take the crib. I'm hoping that once we repaint and rearrange the nursery he will feel less like it's still his room.

Since moving to his big boy bed he has started to sleep less. His naps are shorter and he is waking MUCH earlier in the morning than he did in the crib. I think it's because he is fascinated by the freedom he now has. If he's awake then he can get up and play but while he was in his crib if he woke at the crack of dawn then he didn't have anything to do and just laid back down and went to sleep again. This has been quite an unwelcome change for me! I'm not used to having to get up so early with him. I really hope this is a phase that doesn't last very long!

It's a boy

We found out Monday at 16 weeks that we are having our 2nd little boy. I am happy for Milo that he will have a brother to play with but as far as how I feel... well I'm sad. I won't lie I wanted a girl, I've always wanted a girl. It's not that I don't love Milo, I do and I would never trade him but I have always wanted a girl. This will be our last baby and I am sad I will never know what it is like to have a daughter. I'll never get to dress up a little girl in bows and tutu's and dresses, or paint anything pink, plan a wedding or see my little girl trying on wedding gowns, or be involved in my girl's pregnancies (cause lets face it Daughter-in-laws usually don't want their mother-in-laws anywhere near them when they are pregnant). I'm sad I'll miss out on all of that. Mostly I think I'm sad that I'll never have a child who loves the things that I love. As Chris put it, when he thought of playing with a little girl he thought of tea parties, dress up and dolls and the thought of loosing that wasn't bad because he doesn't love those things. But I do, so the thought of never having a child that loves those things too makes me sad. Basically it's just the lose of a dream.

BUT I am happy for my son. He'll have a brother to play with, someone who can share his same interests and loves and who, hopefully, he will share a life long bond with. We wanted to have the 2nd child because I lost my brother whom I was very close to. When he died I lost more than just a brother, I lost a record of my childhood, someone who knew all the inside family jokes and understood where I was coming from on things simply because he was raised in the same household. It's been 6 1/2 years since he died and I grieve him still. So because I know what it's like to have a sibling you are close to and loosing him showed me just how important that connection with another person can be I wanted that for my son. I know it may not happen but even the possibility it could was worth having another child. So I am happy for Milo and I think that being two boys makes the potential for the close sibling bond I want for him even more possible.

Houston, We Have Movement!

For about the past week or so I have definitely been feeling the baby move! The are tiny, irregular, little flutters and the occasional tiny tiny thump. They are not so major that I feel them often yet but we will get there! This is my favorite part of being pregnant!

The things they say, Part: I don't even know

Momma: "Milo, are you a boy?"

Milo: "I not boy."

Momma: "Are you sure your not a boy?"

Milo: "No, I not boy...I Milo!"

11 Weeks In

I thought the morning sickness thing was finally going away permanently but unfortunately it made a return visit this week. Sucky! That ok there's only 1 1/2 more weeks in the 1st trimester and then hopefully I'll be moving past it for good.

I met with my OB's nurse at 10 weeks and I was informed that I would not be allowed to try for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). My OB doesn't allow anyone to do one. I am a little sad but I knew that it was a long shot for me anyway. My fervent hope with this one is to go as long as I did with Milo (almost 41 weeks). I was told my high risk OB would be the one to decided how long I go. I will have to discuss it with him at my first appt.

I finally got Baby Bean's 1st picture uploaded after some technical difficulties. I was 8 weeks when they did this sono. Milo's 8 week sono pic was better. I could actually see little arms and legs and eye sockets but this one just looks like a blur.

Earth: A Mystery to Ponder

Milo is really curious about space right now. I took him to see the astronaut space suit at the local science museum and he was completely enthralled. He talked about it for weeks. Since then we found a book about space that we had hidden in a drawer and he has started asking questions about it all the time. The other day we were in the car and he asked me "where earth?"

I thought about it for a second and said "Earth is under your feet."

He then picked up his foot and looked under his shoe and said "where it go?"

Chris and I laughed a lot about that one!!!

Better!

I am finally starting to feel enough to work out again! I hopped on the treadmill this morning. I am determined to work out as long as I can through out this pregnancy. I am sure that will help a lot with some of the discomforts that go along with being pregnant. I have two more weeks of my first trimester. My morning sickness with Milo lasted until about 14 or 15 weeks and started a week later then with this pregnancy. It seems to be tapering off thought and I am soooooo happy. I hate being nauseated all day!

Pregancy so far

Found out 1-24-10. I was about 3 weeks along. Both Chris and I were very calm about the news. With Milo I was in total shock for a few days but with this one I haven't felt that way at all. My anxiety about this baby is really more about how it will effect Milo and how I will deal with two especially being sleep deprived. I think the decision to have a 2nd is harder than the decision to have the first because you actually know what you are getting into this time around.

week 4 - told a lot of my friends here and Chris' parents. We got a shirt for Milo that says "Big Brother Milo" and I put it on him and let most people find out that way.

Week 5 - haven't had a lot of cravings or food aversions and I haven't gotten sick yet. YAY! I just hope that lasts! We told my parents on 2-5-10. Milo wore his shirt and he is very proud of it. I am not sure he really understands why people are so interested in the shirt but he is loving the attention :)

Chris taught Milo to talk to the baby (i.e. my belly) he will lift up my shirt and says "Hi baby, Hi baby, I love you baby" then he will pull down mt shirt and say "close it." LOL! I have not idea where he comes up with this stuff.

Scratch that I started having morning sickness in my 5th week. It totally sucks having morning sickness with a toddler to take care of. :(

Weeks 6-9 Morning sickness comes and goes. It sucks more this time around since I have a toddler.

Lately when we ask Milo where the baby is he will point to his belly and say it's in there. He will even lift up his own shirt and say hi to the baby. My friends little girl also did this and after she started showing then her daughter started saying the baby was in my friends tummy again. Maybe that will be the way it is.

"Snow all Gone!"

It's snowed an unusual amount this winter for where we live. Typically we only get one snow and it doesn't stick around long. But this year it has snowed several times and stuck around for a while on a couple of occasions. Milo has been fascinated by the snow. Now that it seems to be warming up and all of the snow has melted off he keeps going outside looking around and saying "snow all gone" very matter-of-factly. He will repeat that phrase over and over as if trying to convince himself that the snow truly is all gone! Every once and a while it will just come out of the blue we will be doing something that has nothing to do with snow and he will just blurt it out. I guess he just needs to remind himself.

Milo playing in the last big snow

Gymnastics!

Milo has been doing Gymnastics this spring and loving it! He gets so excited on thurs. when it's time to go to "nastics". I'm not sure if it will be something we stick with for a while but for now he is loving it.

Milo is the one in light blue pants. I shot this video with my phone so I couldn't zoom in

Daddy helping Milo do a flip over the bar.

Sick Pukey Boy

Milo spent the night with his grandparents on Friday night and they called us on Sat. morning to come get him becuase he was throwing up :(. Chris took him to the Dr. and they put him on a broad spectrum antibiotic. I think he has a virus though becuase after being on it for 48 hours he puked in his crib. He slept until 10:45 today! that is unheard of even though he does sleep later than most other toddlers I know. I pray he gets over this soon and neither Chris or I get it.

Blogging, School, Favorite Phrase and Big Boy Bed

I started this year thinking "I am going to do way better blogging Milo's days this year becuase this blog is the only real record I have of his infancy and toddlerhood!" but nearly two months in and I am failing on that score. He does so much stuff I want to record I just forget it by the time I can get to the computer. My brain seems to be on permanent vacation these days.

Somethings that have been going on are that we decided to put Milo in PDO next fall. He and I went to visit the school this week and I loved it! When we walked in there were backpacks lines up in the hall and it was lunch time so the class room smell like mayonnaise and chips. It made me miss my school days. If Milo loves school half as much as I did he is going to have a blast!

Milo's cognitive development is going through the roof these days. It's so neat to see him making connections he has never made before. He can count to 10 and recognizes the letters B O X and L. Why he latched on to those and not others, I don't know. His imagination is really amazing too. We were at a friends house about a week ago and he was playing with two play sauce pan lids. He turned to me and said "I see a monster!" I said "You see a monster?" He put the sauce pan lids up to his eyes like goggles and said "Yes! I see a monster in the backyard!"

His favorite phrase these days is "What you doin'?" He will ask it over and over and over again even though we just told him what we are doing. I know the repetition is how he learns but it gets wearying.

We are also contemplating moving him out of his crib into a big boy bed but I am having a hard time with that decision. Milo LOVES his crib and he has never tried to climb out. I value a good sleep for him and I have heard so many stories about toddlers who slept really well in their cribs but didn't after they were moved to big kid beds. Because of that it's been really hard to pull the trigger on moving him. He is just so happy where he is at.

Funny Stuff He Says

Milo is hilarious. Most of the time he is inadvertently funny but now that he is getting older he tries to be funny. When he is trying he will crack himself up and say "I funny!" He loves to laugh when everybody else laughs too whether he gets why we are laughing or not.

He loves holding coins. The other day he found a 50 cent piece and goes "oooh, I got BIG MONEY!!!"

Yesterday we were driving to Nanny and Papa's house and he saw a Mustang in the lane beside us, he turned to me and said "Mama, I want a race car!" So I said "ok baby, you can have one when you're 30" to which he replied "Thanks!"

On yet another day we were driving and he saw an 18 wheeler for a local groceries chain go by that had giant pictures of crackers on the side and he says "Look Mama, cookie truck!" to which I said "Yes baby, I see that." As the truck drove away he says "Follow cookie truck Mama!"

There are lots more I just can't remember them right now. I really need to start writing the down when they happen.

Winter

This winter has been CRAZY!!! it's snowed several times and usually we only get one heavy snow per winter. Every time it snows Milo likes to go find his "snow hat" and wear it around the house until he gets too hot.

He wasn't wanting me to take his picture so he would put toys up in front of his face.

I caught him unaware though!

There's nothing better than a paci a blanket a toy and a snow hat.