Fun for the whole family

Remember that amazing new book line from Hallmark? The incredible Be a Part of the Story interactive storybook? Well. I bought two of them for Milo, a train story titled All Aboard and a Christmas book called A Visit to the North Pole. And Milo adores both of them. He loves answering the questions and hearing Santa or the conductor talk to him. Grandma and Grandpa were impressed, too.

Seriously.
Go buy one for the kids in your life.
They won't be disappointed.

Favorites

Yesterday, for the first time, Milo told me that something was his favorite. I've asked him before what his favorite color was, or what his favorite story was. And he has never been able to answer. I don't think he understood what "favorite" meant. So when he mentioned something about favorites, I decided to ask him about a few others.

"What's your favorite food, Milo?"
"B'nanna!"

"What's your favorite color?"
"Lellow."
"Really? I thought you were going to say blue."
(Oprah-like) "It's lellll-ohhhhh!"

"What's your favorite animal?"
"A bear."

So there you have it. Straight from Milo's mouth. A few of his favorite things.

Any resemblance?

Andrew took these pictures of me and Milo a month or two ago. They're not the most flattering, and the focus isn't perfect, but I like them. Milo and I kind of look a little bit like each other for once. Usually I think Milo just looks like Andrew. Sometimes I think Milo resembles my nephew, Austin. But rarely do I think he looks like me. What do you think? Any resemblance?

Good Timing

My blog hit 28,000 page views today. Kind of a nice coincidence, to get to such a round number on my blogiversary. (Would've been better to get to 30,000 or even 100,000 though. Maybe in another five years...)

Happy Anniversary to Me

Today is the five-year anniversary of the launch of this blog. In celebration, let's NOT go digging in the archives to see what sorts of things were on my mind way back in 2007.

Thanks, loyal readers, for continuing to read. I know you can't get enough information about my children, since that is apparently all I have to talk about these days. (Thankfully, about fifty percent of my readership is the children's grandparents, so they're probably still interested in their bathroom habits and whatnot. Or at least they pretend to be.)

Since I've been a little lackadaisical in posting lately, here are some quick tidbits to quench your lenexicon thirst. (Five of them, one for each year of the existence of this blog.)

1. After pretty much eating whatever I wanted the last few weeks (Halloween candy, anyone?), I mysteriously (ahem) gained back a few pounds. So I decided it was time to get back on the Weight Watchers train. Good timing, what with it being Thanksgiving week and all. I wonder how many points are in pumpkin pie, because you better believe I will be eating some of that come Thursday.
2. Milo just learned how to quote song lyrics in conversation. Daddy is so proud. If you're lucky, you will hear Milo say, "I'm so excited, I can't just hide it." (Yes, he reverses the order of "just can't." Give the kid a break, he's only two.)
3. I ran my first 5K in September. This probably deserves its own post. Maybe it will get one someday. I am also running the Turkey Day run on Thanksgiving morning and the Jingle Bell Run in December. I can't believe it, really. I just started running a few months ago, and I will have completed three 5Ks before the end of 2012. I think that might make me a real runner, a title I never thought I'd have.
4. Now that I've weaned Olive, I really want to go on a vacation. Just a few nights away from those early risers would be amazing. But we need a new water heater, a new roof, and exterior house paint, and we hope to complete the landscaping in the backyard next year. So a vacation isn't looking very likely. Sigh.
5. Our bedroom is inching toward being completely decorated. I don't know why it takes me about two full years to complete projects like this. We now have a headboard and all the furniture we want. Still need to sew the curtains and hang the artwork. I just need about two kid-free days and I think I could finish it all. Any volunteers?

Hooray!

Milo peed in the potty tonight! First time it was totally intentional on his part. He stood, and I tossed a square of toilet paper in for him to aim at. And within 30 seconds, maybe, he peed! And it nearly all went in the toilet!

I cheered, and we called down for Daddy. Andrew came up and saw the pee, cheered, and gave Milo his very first "I peed!" Skittle.

Then Andrew asked him what we do after we pee. Milo said, "Put your penis down." Andrew said, "What else? We flush!" And Milo proudly flushed.

He was so proud. Smiling and cheering right along with us. After bath we called Grandma and Grandpa (left a message) and Nana. Got to tell Nana all about it. She was very excited, too.

I am so proud of him. Yay, Milo!

Hugs All Around

When I got to daycare tonight to pick Milo up, he was over in the corner playing with a pink car. I asked him for a hug. He said "This car needs a hug first." He pushed the car into my open arms, so I obliged, hugging that poor car. Then I handed the car back to Milo and said I needed a hug from him, too. He hugged the car tightly to his chest and leaned into me.

Group hug.

Unrelated to the story, but it's almost a group hug. That counts as being relevant, right?

She's Nine Months Old

What is my girl up to this month? Let's start with the official stats from the pediatrician:

• Weight: 19 lbs (75th percentile)
• Height: 27 3/4" (60th percentile)
• Head circumference: 17 1/2" (80th percentile)

Oh my goodness, Olive is cute as a button. She's bouncy and happy. She's smiley. She has the most stick-up hair you've ever seen, and it just floats around her head. She's just a lovely baby.

She is *thisclose* to walking.She can stand completely unassisted for maybe ten seconds. She can walk at a pretty quick pace holding just one hand. She cruises along like she's been doing it her whole life. And crawling can get her all over before you even know she's moving.

She got her first two teeth. They came through on the same day, and they're growing in enough that you can actually notice them now.

She learned how to wave a few days ago, and it is so stinking cute. I am actually bragging about this new talent to strangers. As if they care. But seriously, it's cute. She flaps her arm, and when she gets excited, she starts flapping both arms. Then she starts bouncing and flapping all at once, with a huge smile. Soooo cute.

She can also give high fives, which is another great party trick.

I am fairly certain she knows the words "Mama" and "Dada" and associates them with the appropriate person. She definitely recognizes her own name, though she can't say it yet.

She can climb stairs, and has now fallen backwards off her first stair. Sad. (She was fine.)

Olive has officially weaned. Or rather, I have officially weaned her. We went down to just nursing in the morning and before bed. Then just before bed. Then it was becoming increasingly clear that she wasn't getting enough milk from me. It was also clear that I wasn't enjoying the biting or the clawing. So I started supplementing the nursing with a bottle every night, and after a couple weeks of this, decided to quit nursing altogether. Last night was the first night without any nursing or pumping, and it's all going fine. Surprisingly, I'm not even that sad about it. A little sad. But I know I'm doing the right thing--the right thing for us, right now. I look back at Milo at this age, when I refused to give him any formula because I was so brainwashed to think it was bad for him. But his weight hadn't been increasing enough, and he had dropped into the 5th percentile. Olive is now 75th percentile, and while any number of factors could be at work here, I attribute the difference mainly to exclusively offering breastmilk vs. breastmilk + formula.

Olive sometimes has stranger anxiety. She cries when someone she doesn't know wants to hold her. She hadn't seen Grandma and Grandpa for a couple of weeks, and she didn't want to go to them at first. Thankfully, Grandma offered her a bottle and a snuggle and all was well.

What else is there to say? I adore her. And I don't know how the past nine months flew by so quickly. Can it really be time to start thinking about her birthday party? Better get a board going on Pinterest...