One Year

It's hard to believe a whole year has passed since Miles was born. He's changing every day and his first birthday was pretty awesome. He was excited and cheerful and made me feel lucky to be his mom.

Summer Saturdays

Miles actually slept in until 8am, leaving me so refreshed that I willingly hiked up to Washington Park in the morning (before coffee) to enjoy running around at the giant playground. We stopped at Zupan's grocery store on the way out and picked up muffins for a snack. Miles gladly shared bites of my oat bran muffin, as if he knew that he'd need some fuel for the morning of play. As soon as we got to the playground, he started bobbing in the backpack -- he knew it was fun time. We unleashed him on the play set and he ran around for a good 45 minutes. When he started staring out into the distance at the other kids playing, we knew it was nap time! He made his little sleepy noises all the way home and went down for a two hour nap! Best Saturday morning we've had in a while.

Eating at the Table

Last night we cooked pasta for dinner with a tomato, anchovy, garlic, and caper sauce that was tossed with tuna and fresh basil. I pretty much assumed Miles would opt for baked tofu or some combination of grapes, cheese, graham crackers, and blueberries. However, when I placed the bowl on the table, he practically jumped out of his seat trying to reach. So we got out his bamboo fork and bowl and I cut up the linguine into bite-sized pieces. He liked it so much that he worked his way through two pretty hefty servings.  


Now this is just a theory, but he was in and out of the kitchen while I was cooking and sampled a few of the ingredients during prep time. He loved picking capers out of the jar himself (and ate probably a handfull) and waving around an extra stalk of fresh basil while chewing the leaves occasionally. So, when we presented him with the pasta the ingredients weren't all that foreign. He tried shoveling the pasta in with his fork, but when that got tedious he just dumped the bowl out on his tray and used his hands. Occasionally, he'd let me sneak in "mommy bites" from my fork that had a nice mixture of pasta, tuna, capers, and basil. It was a spectacularly messy affair, but we all had a blast:

Hammer Time

We've had this toy sitting around for a while, but Miles never really knew what to do with it. I put it away about a month ago and just reintroduced it today. He immediately started putting the balls in the correct spot and after showing him once how to use the hammer, he couldn't get enough. It's like something clicked last week and he's been able to make all sorts of new connections. Every day there's something new to learn.

Eating with a Spoon

Today is day two of our spoon experiment and I have to say it went pretty well. Luckily he's willing to try anything I'm eating at least once -- this morning was oatmeal. Miles pretty adept at getting the spoon into his mouth, but most of the time dumps out the contents before reaching the ultimate destination. We had oatmeal all over the place and decided the only thing to remedy the situation was to rush him to the shower after breakfast. I think we rushed too fast and didn't give him time to (ahem) process his meal and he pooped right on the bathroom rug while waiting for the water to warm up. I nearly collapsed laughing and Jesse had to deal with the fallout. Worth the experiment!

Tortured Artist

Miles has been showing some interest in things that we write with and finger painting with his food. So we decided to find some crayons that would be easier for him to hold and see what happened. He gets the motions, but I'm not sure he makes the connection between crayons making colors on the paper. He'd much rather eat the crayon, which proved to be a very emotional art session this afternoon. We've been seeing this sort of fussiness a lot lately when he doesn't get his way -- especially when having to leave the park and at the end of bath time. I guess he's just nearing that age where independence is going to be the most important trick in his bag.

Spoon Fed

This week I started giving Miles a spoon to hold while eating. Not that I expected him to actually do anything other than chew on the handle and chuck food across the room. I've been helping him shovel food on it for a couple of days but he mostly just lifted it in the air, dumping food on his head. However, yesterday I came home to Miles eating his own ice pop with Jesse following their afternoon jog. Until yesterday, he was unable to understand that you hold the little handle to prevent your fingers from freezing. As a result, popsicles were very frustrating for all parties involved. Now though, they are a treat, as they should be. 

Miles happily gnawed on his homemade watermelon and pineapple pop while Jesse happily ate (and shared) his frozen coconut treat. Miles also liked sharing, maybe even more than eating it himself. As any good dad should, Jesse happily sampled the soggy, runny ice pop and gave up a good portion of his coconut treat to Miles' fingers, and subsequently his hair. We were both pretty amazed at how he seemingly woke up one morning and knew how to use his hands. 

With that in mind, I decided to try a little experiment at dinner. I put a bowl and a spoon on his tray for him to use while he ate. We put pieces of chicken and tofu in the bowl and I expected him to promptly dump it on his head or the floor. But miraculously, he picked up the pieces from the bowl and put them in his mouth. Then, I showed him how to scoop little pieces of chicken with the spoon and pretended to put them in my mouth. He grabbed the spoon and shoveled the food in. Without help! He did it a few more times, mostly turning the spoon upside down before actually getting it there. However, we now know he has the coordination to give it a try (at least a few times) before getting frustrated and clearing his tray onto the floor. 

I didn't get a video because it happened so fast, but trust me, this is huge! A video soon to come no doubt.

Seattle Zoo

We went to Seattle last weekend to visit Jeremiah and Jeovanna and walked over to the zoo. I'm terribly jealous that they have such a great one just a few blocks from their house. Miles loves the animals more and more each visit and now shoves his Farm Animals book in our faces every waking second. He's gotten pretty good at making animal noises (he quacks anytime he sees a duck). As you can see we were watching the "mah ma mah doe dee doe dee loe" at the zoo. English Translation: Elephant. 

Favorites: 11 Months

Miles has a lot of new favorites this month and continues to develop into quite a character. His new favorite food is graham crackers (but bananas still rock the top of the list). His new favorite toys are trucks. And his new favorite book is All About Me! We read it to him over and over and over again. He loves to wave "bye bye" to the little babies as he lifts the flaps open and closes them again. The last page of the book talks about hugs for teddy and his mom. Every time he hears "I have a hug for teddy," he puts his head to the side and throws out his his arms. It's adorable.

One thing that I seem to indulge is his love for my hairdryer. He totes it around the house and makes "grrrrr" sounds. I'm sure the life of the dryer has been greatly shortened from his rough play, but it seems worth it because he's having such a good time.