Happy Birthday, Olive

Olive's regularly scheduled monthly stats will come soon. Until then, enjoy this video of my girl's first year.

Short Video

I know, I know, I need to do a complete Christmas post. (And a Thanksgiving post. And a Halloween one. Ahem.)

But here is a brief video of Olive sitting with Grandpa Russ on Christmas Day.

Olive Walks: The Video

Get this: Milo and Olive starting walking AT EXACTLY THE SAME AGE.

Yes, it's true. Eleven months and three days.

As you know, Olive has been tossing around the idea of walking for a long time, but hasn't gotten her act together to just do it already. But on Friday, she did. Andrew and I set up camp about six feet apart and helped her stand until she was balanced. Then we would let her go and the other one would encourage her to head his way. Wouldn't you know it, she actually did. She took a whole bunch of steps.

Hooray for Olive!

Funnily enough, we were at the mall. Down in that play area by the carousel. Andrew tried to take a crappy cell phone video, but he had it in still-camera mode and took a probably-blurry-and-instantly-deleted photo instead. FAIL. And also we were trying to keep an eye on our other child. (And yes, sadly, that is what we did for Friday night entertainment: went to the mall for Panera and playtime. Parenthood! It does wonders for your social life!)

But didn't someone say something about a video? Oh, yes, that.

Babbling like a brook

You must watch this. That is, if you like adorable chatty babies, you must watch this. I am completely smitten.

My baby is not a baby anymore

My little man is two years old today. Part of me wonders where the time has gone; how could these last two years have flown by so quickly? But a bigger part of me thinks, how can Milo only be two? He's been part of my life forever, hasn't he?

I'm so lucky to have this guy. He's amazing, so sweet, so funny, so cute. Let me tell you what he's been up to lately.

He has started quoting lines from the books we read, when we're not actually reading them. "Ohhh, call captain," he says (which translates to "'Hello,' calls the captain." from 10 Little Rubber Ducks.) "One Fish (pause) Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Dr. Seuss!" he says. "Stuck in mud!" refers to the dump truck from Little Blue Truck. "Stan back, everybody," he quotes from a fire engine pop-up book. And he knows immediately when I start quoting a book. "What's this?" I say to him as I hold up a strawberry. "Sawberry," he replies. "Is it a red, ripe strawberry?" I ask him, and he begins to smile slyly, like he knows he's in on the secret. "Better watch out," I say, "or the big, hungry bear will get it!" (From The Little Mouse, the Red, Ripe Strawberry, and the Big, Hungry Bear)

Milo also has been singing more songs lately. He adores "Wheels on the Bus" and the Hot dog song from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He's into "Itsy Bitsy Spider," always starting with the line "wash sider out."

Milo is getting really good with his letters and numbers. He can almost spell his name, though he typically leaves off M and starts with I-L-O. He "writes" the letters as he spells them, though they're really just marks on the paper. He can recognize nearly all the letters, but doesn't know them in order. He can count to ten and beyond (we've heard him go as high as thirteen, I think), but often gets the numbers in the wrong order. He is convinced he has eleven fingers, so thank you, Dr. Seuss, for that.

He has finally figured out most of his colors. Occasionally he still calls red things orange, and sometimes gets in a funk where everything is black. But mostly you can ask him what color something is and he gets it right, or, even more awesome, he just names things with a color descriptor. Like, "Thassa my yellow screwdriver." or "Essa blue hammer."

He's pretty good with pronouns, except when it comes to "you" and "me" when referring to Milo. We point at a picture of him and say "That's you!" and he points at the picture and says, "That's you!" And there's just no good way to correct him to say no, "that's me" because that is like telling him the picture is not of Milo but of Mommy. Sometimes he also says "my" when he means "I," like "My brush my teef!" or "My eat it!" Frankly, it's adorable.

Milo loves to do things by himself, but he gives up pretty easily on some tasks. Taking his socks off or pulling his pants up and down, for instance. We encourage him to try, and he does, but very quickly cries "Help me!" and gets frustrated. He can pull his shirt off over his head and he's getting better at brushing his own teeth. All in good time, I suppose.

Milo can be very polite and very impolite. "Hi, Oliff, how are you?" he asks. Then at dinner: "My need more water!" he demands. He fairly readily gives hugs and kisses, though he's quick to tell you no if he's not in the mood. When he burps, he says "Buuurrrp!" Charming, no?

Milo adores bathtime and would stay in the tub all night if we let him. Andrew taught him how to blow bubbles in the water, so Milo is always sticking his face in the water and blowing bubbles. Makes me kind of nervous, but I guess it's a good thing for him not to be afraid of getting his face wet. Milo does not like getting lotioned up after a bath, and his only motivation for holding still for lotion is that he will get a paci when it's all over.

Yes, Milo still loves his paci. He only gets it at bedtime, naptime, and diaper changes. Now that Olive is here and has her own set of pacis, Milo is extra tempted. But so far he's been great about giving Olive her paci and not sticking it in his own mouth. I've only seen him do that a couple times.

Other skills: he is learning to drink from a cup, has pretty much mastered the straw, is learning to walk on a balance beam, is getting faster at running and better at climbing stairs, is excellent at identifying animals and animal sounds and learns new words after only hearing them once or twice, and he has excellent dance moves.

Words can't describe my love for this child. Truly, he has my heart forever.

Milestones

Olive first rolled over from her back to her front when she was just three days old. It had to be a fluke; surely the weight of her massive head propelled her over. But yesterday she rolled over from back to front three times. Not a fluke. The third time I was ready with the video camera. (Which was something I never managed to be with Milo, no matter how many times I tried. I do have many, many videos of him crying and NOT rolling over, however. So I call this a win for the second child!)

Birthday Video: The Remix

I had some issues with my previous first-year video. Let's try it again, this time with different music...

Happy Birthday, Milo

See Milo Walk

Walking! from Megan Langford on Vimeo.

This one's for you, Mimi

The Worm from Megan Langford on Vimeo.

I give you two videos

I know I have been slacking on the picture front lately. To make up for it, I give you two adorable videos. They're new, too—taken just this week.

Baby Giggles from Megan Langford on Vimeo.

Deep Thoughts from Megan Langford on Vimeo.

Our Little Mer-baby

Andrew needed no rehearsal. He just knows all the words. Impressive, no?

Isn't it neat? from Megan Langford on Vimeo.

My 100th post!

Yes, this is officially my 100th post. Originally, I planned to write something prosey and feely about writing, which would likely have only entertained myself. But I am leaving for the airport in about 20 minutes (it's a 3Ms weekend to see Emily's new digs), so instead I'm posting a video of my cat. Incidentally, this also will only entertain myself. And maybe Andrew.