We did it!

Being goofy in the bathtub.
Miles thoroughly enjoys bath time now!

Hanging out with Cousin Corey.
Stacking cups are fun!

Stop stealing my pancakes Coco!

The "before" - prior to haircut.

My little man getting the royal hair treatment.

Goodbye baby curls!

The "after" shot.
Miles is not quite sure what just happened.

I'm happy about my new hair!

Smiley Miles.

Cousin Corey's trying to swipe my food again!

So this week, after much agonizing and many conversations, Saturday morning we decided to take Miles in for his first haircut. We always think he's so adorable but after viewing recent pictures of him we realized his hair was getting out of control! We took him to Kid's Hair in Chanhassen (I was literally second guessing this decision the whole way there). Miles looked like such a little peanut in the chair with the cape draped around him. He was scared but luckily it was over quickly. Without the curls in his face you can see his big beautiful eyes and face. In my (unbiased) opinion he is still the cutest baby in the world to me!

I had 2 mommy moments of realization this week. The first was while we were eating dinner. Miles was happily eating the kale and swiss chard quiche I made and it dawned on me that everyone always loves their own mom's cooking. When Miles is old enough to have these thoughts he'll love my cooking too and think it's great. The second moment was this morning at breakfast. We were listening to the 90s station through our Direct TV and I realized that to Miles all of these songs that Mike and I are singing along to are "oldies."

Our family has had a busy and fun weekend. In between the typical, weekend warrior chores (housecleaning, laundry and yard work) I went to my friend, Amy's, bridal shower, we had a play date with friends Jill and Nova, enjoyed a pancake breakfast at my parent's house, went to my cousin Jennifer's graduation party, and a wedding shower for my cousin Scott and soon-to-be wife Michelle. I love these busy summer weekends and am already planning our family's 4th of July "stay-cation" for next week! Enjoy the videos below.

Happy Father's Day!

Hanging out in my chair.

Miles loves to pull all of his books off the shelf.

A new habit - checking out the bib after meals to see if anything good is left.

Miles loves the fridge!

Sweet boy relaxing outside with mama.

Vroom, vroom!

Hi mom!

Cute baby.

Just watching the world go by.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day everyone! Miles and I made a special breakfast for Mike this morning - biscuits and gravy then Mike and Miles spent some quality time playing on the floor while I finished cleaning the house. This afternoon, Mike spent some needed time alone by road tripping to WI for some beer (he's a hard core home brewer!) and then watched the Twins. Miles loves playing trucks with his daddy and getting rides on his mini car with daddy pushing him along from behind.

This week our family received our first box of organic produce from the CSA (community supported agriculture) we belong to, Cramer Organics. In the box was beautiful lettuce, spinach, kale, swiss chard, 3 varietys of radishes, parsely, kolhrabi and black beans. Getting all of these delicious veggies is not only a healthy choice for our family but is forcing us to eat and cook outside of our comfort zones. For example, tonight we all enjoyed (yes, Miles included) creamy, cooked kolhrabi and sauteed greens. We're looking forward to what we'll receive next week!

Miles' personality continues to emerge more and more everyday. He's currently in a flinging stage; done with dinner - fling food on floor, ready for milk - fling pacifier on floor, done with book - fling it on floor. This is still really new and cute for Mike and I so we try to suppress smiles when Miles flings things around. I can imagine that once our toes get crushed a few times by a flung sippy cup or we've picked up a toy for the millionth time that this new game might get a little old. For now - it's still really cute. I think he's just warming up his arm for a future in baseball. He's very good at throwing his ball and loves to play toss. He also is such a busy guy - Mike and I have been a little lax with baby proofing but Miles is so fast now and into everything (yes, he opened the cabinet doors today and was reaching for the cleaners!) that we need to put cabinet locks on everything and keep the baby gate up. He also surprised us by adeptly motoring up the stairs (I don't really remember teaching him this!) and he also, for the first time, pointed to a picture of a tractor in a book and made the "vroom vroom" sound. Miles surprises me and makes me laugh everyday.

11 Months!

Kickin' back in my new chair. Thanks Grandma Nickolay!

Mom is thinking that it is nearing the time for me to get my first haircut.

Relaxing morning + banana pancakes = happy baby

Me and grandma.

This week Miles...

• turned 11 months old! Congratulations little buddy!
• was not feeling well on Monday. We picked him up from daycare and he looked miserable.
• had a fever of 101.6.
  
• stayed home with Grandma Nickolay Tuesday and Wednesday and got a lot of TLC.
• was diagnosed with an ear infection.
• continues to grow his top 4 teeth.
• stopped in for a quick play date at a friend's house on Friday and got whacked in the head with a maraca.
• cuddled and played a lot with mama all day Friday.
• stayed in with mom on Friday night while dad went to beer club (and almost won for best home brew of the month!)
• is constantly mimicking us - whether it's making silly noises with our tongues, peeking around furniture or fake coughing.
  
• stayed home with dad Saturday night while mom went to the dinner theater with her mom and sister and saw Footloose (great!).
• helped his parents clean by whipping his washcloth around in the air and then rubbed it on the floors.
• grocery shopped at Trader Joe's and got lots of good deals on healthy, organic foods to pack for lunches.
  
• ate homemade banana pancakes for the first time and gobbled down 3!
• has found joy in squeezing himself into small areas - e.g. the small space between the end table and the chair.
  

Sunshine

Strolling along at the Arboretum with Daddy.

Enjoying the flowers.

"I do not want to keep this darn hat on!"

Strolling in the shade garden is so relaxing.

Group hug at the cabin!

First summer family trip of the year!

Miles and my dad are having a blast - but look at Ruby!
She's having the most fun right now.

One of the guys...

Lounging with Grandma Nickolay on the boat.
(Miles didn't mind the life jacket as long as he had a snack in hand!)

Cruising.

Captaining the ship.

Miles is taking this job very seriously.
(yes - look at that hair!)

Like Godfather like Godson.

Best moment of the day: Watching little man splash and play in the tub after a long car ride home from the cabin. Every few seconds he would stop, put his chubby little hand up on the side of the tub by me, look at me and grin. He is such a sweet boy!

Memorial Day
Our little family visited the Arboretum and enjoyed the gorgeous weather and beautiful flowers. When awake Miles kept trying to pull his hat off but then became so relaxed that he fell asleep (head resting on the side of his stroller) in the shade garden.

The older infant room
Miles moved up to the older infant room (10-18 month olds) this week. He is transitioning with 4 other little guys all born within 1 month of each other. The room is filled with fun, new, interactive toys, a ball pit and a little dinner table about 8 inches off the ground that they all sit around for meal times. The days in this room are much more structured - they all eat and nap at the same time and do group activities. Consequently, during this transition they will continue to put the littlest babies (Miles) down for 2 naps, but Miles is too busy in this new classroom to pause for a morning nap. He has been taking 2 1/2 hour naps in the afternoon but is very tired when he gets home. He also got his first "bumps and bruises" note this week. He was standing by a bookshelf bopping to the music (our tiny dancer loves to groove these days) and he bumped his chin. They applied an ice pack and gave him TLC. He has a little red mark on the underside of his chin - I wish I had been there to comfort him. This change is an adjustment for all of us and hits us during a week in which work is very stressful and not as satisfying as it used to be. Work is work (groan). Thinking about staying home full time with Miles is on my mind more and more these days. We'll see...

Ahhh, sunshine and summer
Mike took Friday off and we headed up north to my parent's cabin Thursday night for a weekend getaway. We started off right at Miles' bedtime and he slept the whole 4 hour trip. We met my parents and Matt and Janelle there. The cabin was full with all of us adults, Miles, Ruby and Matt and Janelle's 2 dogs - there was a lot of action! We had fun sitting in the sun, playing Shoot The Moon (card game), playing a ring toss game, boating, relaxing and eating. Miles loves being outside and enjoyed watching the dogs run around and retrieve balls out of the water. He entertained us all with pressing a music button on a new toy and bobbing his head and shaking his body (dancing) to the music. He also wore a life jacket and took a boat ride on the pontoon for the first time and even got to drive! Also, upon hanging him outside down and tickling him, we saw that he has 4 teeth coming in on top! He'll have a full set by his 1st birthday. Miles played hard all weekend and slept in the pack 'n play wonderfully. On the drive home this afternoon I was worried that he'd be restless on the long ride but he's such a good-natured guy - I sat in the backseat after his nap and we threw the ball to one another, sang songs, gave each other lots of high-5's and just watched the world go by outside the window.