Country Bumpkin

Uncategorized, by lauren, June 2, 2008, 1 Reply

Ah, the puns keep coming. Will they ever end?
This past weekend Milo enjoyed the hills of Kentucky when we packed up and made the 9-hour drive to Mt. Sterling for our friends’ wedding. We left at 3am on Thursday morning and Milo was an angel for the entire drive. Come to think of it, he was pretty awesome for the entire trip. The only time he really became fussy was two hours after his bedtime, and even then he wasn’t unbearable. Andrew was in the wedding, so I took Milo back to the hotel each night at around 9pm, where he fell asleep in his pack-n-play pretty much right away every time. He even took some pretty solid naps there!

During the day, we hung out at the wedding site (Cat’s grandparents’ home) and explored the country. Though the forecast called for rain, we got lucky and enjoyed beautiful weather. Milo showed off his new standing skills:
And discovered the foliage on the beautiful property:
Milo with the beautiful bride at Thursday night’s dockside party:At the reception during sunset with Andrew and Washington, D.C. friend Jim (who helped us immensely with Milo during dinner so we could both eat at the same time… imagine!):

And Milo having a fit of giggles pre-breakdown (this was literally 10 minutes before I decided we had to leave before the squeals of exhaustion called the wild dogs:
He is holding the letter “O,” a favorite toy. Since then Milo has moved on to a blue letter “8” and has been carrying it around with him ALL DAY. It’s hilarious. I’m not exaggerating when I say that he takes his 8 everywhere. Even when I left the room and he panicked and tried to crawl after me as fast as possible, but he went back for his 8, stuck it in his mouth like a dog, and then crawled after me. Milo also holds his 8 out to me for me to bite, then takes it back, laughing, so he can bite it himself, and on and on. What a fun game. While Milo sits playing with other toys, his 8 sits within reach. He is sitting by the front door right now with his 8 beside him. Who would have known an 8 could be so wonderful?

But I digress…

Here is Milo at one of four, yes FOUR, trips to the Cracker Barrel next door to our hotel. Give me a break, people. This was Kentucky (we tried to walk somewhere with Milo in the backpack but didn’t get far when we realized there were no sidewalks anywhere and absolutely no way to cross the streets). I don’t think we had ever been in one of these restaurants before… Andrew asked for a beer when we went there for lunch the first day. They laughed in his face in a “oh, poor city folk” kind of way. Needless to say, we vowed for the fat-fest to be over as soon as we left KY. We did learn an interesting fact there, though. Milo LOVES egg yolk. (I know you’re not supposed to feed babies egg white until they are a year old… but for some reason the yolk is fine… something to do with allergies). Anyway, he loved his yolk. He also willingly ate almost all the baby food I brought with us. Sweet potatoes, blueberries and apples, pears, plain whole milk yogurt, and of course bananas, all devoured like only a baby starving to death would do. Oh, yeah. And he drinks water from a straw now. Still working on the sippy cup idea, but we may just skip that stage and go to the straw-in-cup-with-lid idea. I know he’s goofy, but what do you expect from someone who chooses the number 8 to fall in love with?

Memorial Day Weekend

Uncategorized, by lauren, May 26, 2008, 2 Replies

I hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day weekend! Andrew and I took Milo for a picnic lunch at Fort McHenry and soaked up a bit of sun on Saturday. See flying baby:
Finally the weather has been awesome, especially on Sat. when it was mid-70’s and breezy. We had some much-needed family time.

As for the rest of the weekend, we just hung out around home, taking a few walks to the park to enjoy the weather. The discovery has just begun with Milo, who found his empty box of diapers and took advantage of a new skill…
The art of escape!
Also being discovered:
Shadows (Milo could not figure out why he couldn’t grab the light, when every time he leaned forward to touch it, the shadow of his head mysteriously made it disappear) and playing with Daddy:

Friday Funfest

Uncategorized, by lauren, May 23, 2008, 1 Reply

Today, thanks to beautiful sunny 70-degree weather after days of cold, wind, and rain, was our first official Friday Funfest. Milo was in great spirits, so we ventured to the park down the street from our house (along with the entire neighborhood,it appears).

Milo enjoyed playing in the grass, despite the effort I put onto bringing a blanket to sit on.
He also found various leaves, sticks, and pebbles to try to stick in his mouth.
But the best part of all; going, going, going!

I have really enjoyed watching this new little person emerge where my baby boy used to be. We are having so much fun! Milo follows us into different rooms of the house and squeals in delight when he finds us. He plays peek-a-boo and cracks up laughing. It is like someone flipped a switch, and now he is on “fun.” Not that he wasn’t fun before, but he seems to find pleasure in such small things, like swinging, or playing with Proudie. It is awesome to see the world through his eyes.

Enjoy the videos!

Bum Doggy Dog

Uncategorized, by lauren, May 19, 2008, 3 Replies

I may be preaching to the choir here, as many of you reading this blog are parents… but I still find that I need to say that it is a whole new ballgame when your baby learns to crawl. It is a new, exciting world for Milo, and a scarier one for me! Over the course of one weekend, my little baby boy has gone from scooting around slowly, and mostly backwards, to full-out crawling. And even though he still looks somewhat Frankenstein-ish with his jerky, straight arms and uncoordinated movements, Milo is FAST!

I put him down on one side of the room, he is on the other. I place him in front of a nice basket full of safe, entertaining toys, and he is pulling up on the recycling bin, throwing trash onto the kitchen floor. I slide him next to me on the living room rug, and he is nearly behind the chair on the opposite side of the room, digging for electrical wires to chew on. I give him a book to chew on while I pour myself a glass of water, he finds a tiny gap between the kitchen floor and the baseboards to stick his finger into. Oh, and today he actually found a paint chip, picked it up, and held it out to me. So THAT’S how those kids ate lead paint chips. I always wondered, and now I know.

I know the novelty of my little baby boy crawling will wear off soon, but today was so exciting and fun! Milo took two great naps as I marveled at how great it is when your baby sleeps more than 30-minute naps and actually wakes up in a great mood! He was so happy and giggly all day. I think he was so frustrated at not being able to explore, that given the newfound freedom made him into the chipper young man he was meant to be.

One of the delightful things Milo discovered today: dog food. I decided that under my supervision, I would allow some exploration.
And lucky for you, I got some of the mischief on film:
Yes, he is so thoughtful. Already sharing:
Though Milo decided against putting any whole pieces in his mouth,
he did put his hand, covered in dog food dust, into his mouth. As many of you know, Milo has a gag reflex that would make any self-respecting bulimic green with envy. Look, Mom, no hands! Sorry, I know that’s not funny.
Milo mid-gag:
The infamous “face,” most frequently reserved for the high chair:
This face also preceded today’s vomit session after my attempt at feeding Milo the exact same flavor of yogurt that he scarfed down yesterday. Milo’s motto: Don’t want it? Throw it up.

The Queen, The Bum, and The Graduation

Uncategorized, by lauren, May 18, 2008, 3 Replies

Things have been going much better around here, though the sleep situation is still not completely resolved. Despite enduring over a week of extreme sleep deprivation (waking at night on the hour, sometimes half hour, never getting more than 3 hours of sleep in a row and being up for the day at 6am), we are somehow all still standing, and still happy. I have been a bit grouchier than usual, but we are making progress. Milo has cut another tooth (number 5!) and is almost over his cold. Andrew actually got his hair cut, and I got a sufficient amount of cleaning, cooking, and laundry done before Andrew’s brother Bill, sister-in-law Annie, and niece Reina (the Queen) arrived for other brother Ryan’s graduation from med school in DC.

Friday brought a lot of hustle and bustle as we headed to DC to drop off food at Ryan and Kristin’s house in time to make it to the pinning ceremony Ryan put together. We then enjoyed a cookout in 50 degree weather (it was supposed to be a luau). All right, it may not have been that cold, but when the wind blew, it definitely felt that cold! After the cookout, the real fun began as we caravaned in 4 separate vehicles to Arlington to the after-party Ryan and Kristin hosted. On our way there, we were stranded for two hours on the GW Parkway in standstill traffic as they completely shut down the road due to an accident involving two tour buses.

Austin, Andrew’s 5-year-old brother, had decided to ride with us to spend some time with Milo… little did Austin know that Milo has a short fuse when it comes to traffic jams, and combined with a healthy set of lungs… well, you get the gist. My favorite quote from Austin; “How do we get him to stop crying?” Luckily, that didn’t last long, and Austin entertained us with a healthy dose of armpit music and stinky fart jokes, and lighthearted insults (second favorite quote; “Milo smells like a vomit bomb”) before having to get out and pee in the median.

We had a great time at the party listening to Ryan’s tone-deaf friends sing karaoke and give speeches to commemorate each other, then Andrew, Bill, Annie, Reina, Milo, and I headed back to Baltimore to catch a couple hours of sleep before Saturday’s events. As you can see, we were all a bit tired, even the Queen:
(Note the blanket attached to the binky under one arm, pink baby under the other, and sippy cup of milk in the middle)

Luckily, good fortune awaited us in the weather arena all day Saturday… sunny skies, 70-degree weather. A perfect day for a graduation in DC! Milo and Reina posed for a quick picture behind (way behind) the White House (you can also get a glimpse of the Washington Monument off in the distance right above Milo’s head).

All was going great, until Reina robbed Milo at gunpoint.
“Gimme all your milkie and no one gets hurt!”

The actual graduation ceremony was surprisingly enjoyable, with wonderful music, and all kinds of pomp and circumstance. Milo particularly liked the music… and playing with Ginamom, of course! Katie, Andrew’s 9-year-old sister, also helped out a great deal, entertaining Lizzy, Ava, Reina, Milo, and Austin at times!
After the ceremony, we all headed back to Ryan and Kristin’s for a lovely open house.

Towards the end, all of us were a bit loopy.

So that about sums up the weekend for us! We already miss Bill and Annie, and especially Reina, who had taken to pointing to Milo, doing sign language for “baby,” then pointing at him again, repeating, “Baby, baby! Baby!” while smiling ear-to-ear.

Now for the video you’ve been waiting for… the premiere of Milo’s crawling. Yes, folks. He moves forward, like a wind-up toy version of our baby…

… and steals dog toys.