First Livestock Experience

While we were at the farm we took Milo out to see the mules that my grandfather breeds. I don't think he was quite sure what to make of it all. I also discovered that mules are very uncooperative when it come to being photographed. The darn beasts just wouldn't stay still!


When we drove up in the field and one of the mules started right for us


Then they all started coming up to us


Petting the Mule


Milo, Mama & a Mule


Chris petting the mule


Chris and Milo in the gator


Milo petting the mule


One of the mules tried eating the gator seat


Mule love


Sugar, Nanny and Papa's Border Collie, was also an uncooperative photography subject


Watching the mules in rapt fascination

Farm Fun

We went to visit my Nanny and Papa this weekend and it was fun. We stopped to eat lunch on the way there and met up with Chris' Mema and Pepa, Mother and Daddy and Nanny and Papa. I'm always glad to see them and for them to see Milo. They all enjoyed eating with Milo. We put him in the middle of the table in his Bumpo and he watched us eat and gets to interact with us. I have noticed that he drools more then than any other time. (hmmmm...)

Beautiful Baby Boy


He's just got that "Ahhh" look on his face


Happy Baby


"why do you keep flashing that thing in my face"


Milo and his Great Nanny


This is what happens when you try to do a photo shoot to close to nap time


Gamaw Kisses


Papa Kisses


Milo and Great Papa


Nanny loves Milo


Drooly Boy


"Who's cute? Me?"


"ok, you're right, I'm cute!"


Playing with Papa


Such a beautiful smile


Milo was fascinated with the stuff on Papa's overalls


It won't be long before he starts walking (at least not long enough, *sigh*)


Playing on the floor with Daddy. Chris had his PJ's open to tickle him.


Gamaw getting in on the floor play action.

Bailey: The Ball Chasing Fool

Bailey, our cocker spaniel, LOVES his tennis ball. He absolutely lives to chase the thing. The other day he kept bringing the ball to me and when I wouldn't throw it he would take it to Chris and when he wouldn't throw it he would bring it back to me. This went on for a little while then we noticed he wasn't doing this anymore then we looked up and he had taken it and put it on the floor next to Milo trying to get him to throw it. I guess he has finally figured out that Milo is indeed a little human being rather than just a bald dog!

Good Sleep

The night before last Milo had another really bad night of trying to sleep in his crib and I was so frustrated I ended up letting him cry it out. After a lot of screaming he did manage to calm himself down and and fall back to sleep. I was so exhausted that I persuaded Chris to take the night shift last night and wouldn't you know he didn't scream at all! He woke up at 3:30 for his night feeding and than went right back to sleep and woke up again at 7:45 for the morning. YAY! I hope this means he is finally starting to get used to his crib. I have only tried a couple of naps in the crib and they only went OK. He didn't take nearly as long of a nap as he should have so he ended up taking the last half of his nap in the swing. But that's OK, a little nap in the crib is still progress. Also when Chris got him up this morning he had gotten one of his arms out of his miracle blanket. I have no idea how he could have done that, that thing is like a baby straight jacket.

The Other M&M

I was doing a Google search for Milo's name yesterday and found out that there is someone else with the exact same name as my little M&M! The other other M&M is a retired Lutheran minister living in Mentor Minnesota. Our last name is not exactly obscure but it's not that common either and then to put it with Milo which is quite rare...How bizarre! I guess that just shows you how many people there are in the world. We wanted something that sounded good with our last name, clearly someone else thought it did too.

Our little M&M


The Other M&M

New tricks!

Milo can roll over onto his side from his back! I haven't actually seen him do it (daddy has though) but I looked down today and he was balled up on his side sucking on his fingers. He roll back on to his back before I could get a pic though. DRAT! He is also opening up his fist more. He will now suck on his fingers instead of trying to shove the whole fist in his mouth. It was funny to watch but not too successful.

Bad night, Bad, Bad Night

Last night was our second attempt at sleeping in the crib and it did not go well. He woke up every hour screaming. It was like it was when he was a new born again. He's asleep right now in the crib (I would go get a pic but I am terrified of waking him) and has been so for a little over an hour so my hopes are high that I might actually get some rest tonight. I am SO tired. I actually cried to day because I was so tired. It did finally dawn on me though that he might be waking to eat so much at night because I am letting him take four hour naps during the day rather than waking him up to eat. So I will start with the new "wake the baby up to eat no matter what" plan tomorrow. It was just so nice to be able to either get a decent nap with him or get stuff done around the house.(sigh)This parenthood thing is exhausting!

One Whole Night in the Crib

I started trying to transition Milo from sleeping in the swing to sleeping in his crib last night. And it went much better than I thought that it would. He sleep for the first two hours all on his own and then I had to start going in to comfort him. But he only really had one major melt down and the rest was just fussy. Needless to say though I got very little sleep and I am EXHAUSTED Until he gets used to sleeping in the crib I am using the "No Cry " method. After that I will probably start the "Cry It Out" method to get him to where I can just lay him down in the crib and leave the room and he'll fall asleep on his own.

My little clown in his polka dotted PJs


He loves to cuddle his blanket


Tummy time


The tummy time roll over

Milo's Biggest Fans

I love my baby!


Handsome Like Daddy

The Scoop on Poop

In a effort to get Milo the calories he was so obviously needing for this growth spurt I was feeding him frequently and we would occasionally give him a bottle of formula. I had also gone and gotten some rice cereal just in case we needed it. One night after the needing to feed so often had gone on for more than a week we were sitting having dinner with Milo in the center of the table sitting in his bumpo. Chris speared a piece if his chicken cordon blue (yes I made it from scratch, I rule!) and playfully held it up for Milo to smell and Milo opened his mouth like he was going to eat it. So taking that as a sing of readiness we decided to try a little cereal. (pedi. said it could happen between 3 to 4 months) It didn't go well. He would make this horrible grimace every time I would try to put the spoon in his mouth and then act like he was swallowing, choke and end up drooling it all out. Apparently he was not ready at all. So we gave it to him in a bottle and that went much better. I have discovered though that he doesn't really like the taste of formula. He much prefers breast milk. It's work to get him to take all of a bottle of formula but if we give him stored milk he'll suck it right down.

Since Milo has been exclusively breast fed since he was born I always thought that changing poopy diapers was gross but not really that bad. After all of our feeding experiments I discover how wrong I was. That was AWFUL. I mean REALLY AWFUL. Chris was laughing his butt off while I was in there yelling "OH MY GOD, You are SO going back to just breast milk!" What made it worse was that he wasn't quite done filling his diaper when I decided to change it and let's just say that if that had been a runny breast milk diaper I so would have had a face full of it. GROSS, GROSS, GROSS!!!

Milo NOT getting spoon fed


Daddy giving him his first cereal bottle

Ahhh Blissful Slumber

Milo has been on a growth spurt for well over a week now and he has been wanting to eat every 1.5 to 2 hours, not really sleeping well and waking up every 2-3 hours to eat and I was exhausted. It was like it was when he was a newborn all over again. but at last it finally seems to be easing up and last night he slept from 8:00 to 3:00. It was heaven! I feel so rested.

Milo sleeps in his swaddled in his swing. He is also developing a strong attachment to his blanket. He likes to rub his face in it before he falls asleep. Here are a couple of him sleeping.

Tummy Time Sucks

Milo hates tummy time. He screams almost as soon as I lay him down in his tummy so we don't do it as often as we should I guess. But every little while I get to fearing that he's not developing properly so I plop him down on his tummy and let him cry for a couple of minutes Then I can't take it any more and pick him up and we cuddle until he calms down. But he got a tummy time toys for Christmas and the other night I set up his blanket and the toy on the floor to give this thing another shot to see if the toy made it better. He did better but he still screamed it was just delayed a little. The toy has this spinning rattle thing on one side and at one point I was trying to distract him so I started spinning the thing and he was still crying but also trying to laugh. That made me giggle! I wonder how this boy is ever going to learn to crawl he just can't stand to be on his tummy.

The evolution of the tummy time cry:






Milo and his new tummy time toy

Play, Play, Play

We put Milo in the exer-saucer the other day and his teeth started chattering it was so cold in his room. So we improvised and put a blanket over him. It was so cute to watch him play covered in the thing. He still hasn't figured out how to turn himself in the thing but he will push buttons and play on his own with out mommy ans daddy pushing buttons and making him grab toys. He also got a plastic rattle for Christmas that he will hold on to and shake around but I have to put it in his hand first. He is developing so fast it takes my breath away. I looked back at pics of him and it's unbelievable how much he has changed in just 14 short weeks.