It is amazing to see how much has changed. Most noticeably, his hair!
To see all his monthly pictures side by side, check out One Basket, One Adorable Baby.
Stephen and I are so proud of Miles and how he's grown into a giggly, happy, playful, chatty and all around amazing, easy kid. He's found his independence and thrives on figuring things out on his own. The once "needs a little motivation" has dissipated and now he loves exploring and learning new things. We are pumped to see where the future will take us with Miles and his infectious personality. Just beware - the high pitched squeals are still holding strong and still as piercing as ever! ....Maybe we have a singer on our hands....?
Some big changes on the horizon:
We are transitioning out of formula and into milk! We haven't started yet but plan to slowly mix the milk with his formula and hopefully be fully on milk in a couple weeks. My goal (and hope) is he'll be off by the time we head to Tahoe. Traveling with formula is not so ideal.
Another change? School! He will be starting school for the first time in September. We are finishing up the enrollment forms and then it'll be set. After his party, I have a much better feeling about him playing and interacting with other kids. I think he'll do great. :)
Lastly, his schedule will be changing come the time for school. They are on a one nap per day schedule and he's currently napping twice. I've done some research and kids typically transition to one nap per day at around 18 months. So, he'll be transitioning early. I'm hopeful, but a little nervous about this whole process. We'll see how it goes.
As of right now, our schedule is holding pretty strong. I know it will change, but for those curious:
8:00am: Wake up. Bottle & snuggles
9:30am: Breakfast
10:15am: Nap time
11:30/12:00pm: Usually awake
12:30pm: Afternoon bottle (this has lessened to him eating only 2-4 oz per time instead of a full 6oz)
1:30pm: Lunch
2:15pm: Nap time
3:30/4:00pm: Usually awake
5:00/5:15pm: Dinner
6:00pm: Snack (we call it 2nd dinner. ha!)
7:00/7:15pm: Bottle and the start of bedtime
7:30/7:40pm: In bed
ALL ABOUT MILES:
- Grabbing a smile from him is not hard....making Target runs with this kid pretty fun. "Oh my goodness - look at that face! Look how cute he is!" (What I hear from pretty much every person who stands in line behind us.)
- He's running - like true running - which means he gets places QUICK. We gotta be on our toes with this one. One minute he's playing, the next, he's in the toilet. Lovely.
- He's talking A LOT. While he has no words and makes no sense, the inflections and structure is all there. He's over there talk talk talking and then starts to laugh like he's told a joke. It's pretty cute.
- His sign language has picked up a bit. He knows "More", "All done", "Fish", "Milk", "Book" and is working on "Change". If you sign book, he will find one, bring it to you and sit in your lap. SO cute :)
- Baby food is a thing of the past. Unless it's prunes or yogurt, he doesn't want it. We are onto real food for good now. His only consistent dislike is avocados.
- He has 6 TEETH! That 7th one has been on the horizon for awhile and I'm anticipating it will pop through any day now.
- Flapping his arms means he's excited.
- He's a master at straw cups and camel backs. The tip cups are still a little hard for him.
And just for fun, some behind the scenes photos from this last shoot. It was the HARDEST to date. Why you ask? I was tackling this photoshoot by myself making a few things pretty difficult.
Having him look at me and not the balloons. Yea......no.
Making sure the balloons behaved when he actually DID look at me. NOPE
Trying to be more entertaining and interesting than the grass? Not a chance.
And lastly, getting the camera to focus on him and not the trees behind him? You are talking crazy now. I took about 200 photos and I got maaaaybe 30 that were in focus. It's hard because he wouldn't smile if my face was behind the camera so I was snapping these pics essentially blind.
But, when you capture the face and his true personality is coming through (even if it's the ONLY good one you get), it's worth it :)
It's been so much fun and at times stressful, emotional and challenging trying to navigate our new role as parents, but Stephen and I couldn't be more happy to call him ours. On to the next steps
