Joy, Joy, Joy!

New mama and Corey Samuel!

Proud auntie with the little peanut!

Corey is already giving Uncle Mike "the look."

Seriously, Miles doesn't have enough toys at Grandma & Grandpa Nickolays. :)

Rub-a-dub-dub - Miles in the tub.

Sweet boy getting his hair washed.

It's those eyes that melt my heart!

A recording of Miles videoconferencing with his Gray grandparents.
He is very technologically savvy for his months!

Joy, joy, joy - a new baby is born!
My little nephew, Miles' cousin, is born! October 23rd Rachel and Graham celebrated a happy birthday with Corey Samuel at Fairview Southdale Hospital. I was so lucky to be one of Corey's first visitors and holding such a tiny little bundle brought back so many wonderful memories and emotions of Miles' birth and first few days of life in the world. Sweet baby Corey is a little peanut with light to medium brown hair. He actually has a lot of hair for a baby but not as much as Miles had - but seriously who does? Corey weighs 7 lbs. 12 ounces and is 20 inches long. For those that know Rachel and Graham I'll let them tell you his whole, awesome birth story.

And oh how they grow...
Holding Corey I thought - was Miles once this small? It has been amazing this weekend to look back to Miles' pictures and think that yes, he once was as tiny and to reflect on how much he's grown in these three fast months. Thinking of Rachel's new little family also makes me think of the early days with a newborn - round the clock feedings, loud newborn cries and parental exhaustion. When you're in those moments it seems like your new baby is so fragile and that you'll never sleep again but time really does fly by and before you know it your little 7-8 pounder is a whopping 15 pounds and smiling and cooing away.

Mamarazzi
After feeling weeks of frustration at not capturing all 5000 Kodak moments a day of Miles with our old point and shoot digital camera because of slow shutter speed and the inability to take good close-ups of that adorable face (for every one cute, close-up face shot you see of Miles on the blog think of the 100 I took that didn't turn out) Mike and I made an investment and bought a Nikon D3000 SLR digital camera. While you may not notice a huge difference yet in our photography skills in the pictures I have posted here we can tell a huge difference already. The picture above of Miles laying on his belly in the tub is a shot I've been trying to capture every week for a month with very blurry, unsatisfactory results until today with my new camera - I finally got the shot I've been wanting. I joked with Mike that being a "mamarazzi" might just be my new hobby. We are going to be signing up for some SLR digital photography classes very soon!

Grandparent moments of the week:
Videoconferencing with the Gray Grandparents in Arizona. Playing the "stinky feet" game with Grandpa Nickolay and storytimes with Grandma Nickolay.

A good day
Today was a good day - I know that my sister and new nephew are healthy and being well taken care of at the hospital, we enjoyed a fun Vikings party at the Carlson household where Miles got a lot of love and attention from great-aunties and his feet tickled by his young second cousins and I got to spend lots of quality time with Miles. My favorite moments with Miles today have been laying on our bed with him, tickling his belly and watching that sweet smile (his eyes truly sparkle when he smiles); washing Miles hair in the sink and laughing as he kicks, kicks, kicks his feet in the baby tub; and smelling his clean, soft hair and watching him run his little chubby fingers through his curls. It's these little things that mean the most.

Twitters

Miles is the best cuddler!

Miles, the mini brewmaster, helping brew a maple brown ale beer.

Posing at the pumpkin patch.

Miles' first pumpkins.

A new trick during tummy time - resting his head on the mat and relaxing!

"Ahhhhh, tummy time is much easier when I just rest my heavy head on the floor!"

Smiling at the blocks.

In the spirit of Twitter (140 characters or less) I’m going to keep this short tonight (I’m going to try for 140 words or less) in order to prepare for the week ahead and to maximize Miles-time before the busy week starts. Here it goes...

I survived my first full-time week back in the office. Work is busy which may be a blessing since I don’t have too much time to dwell on how much I miss adorable Miles. Miles LOVES being at grandma and grandpa Nickolay’s house. He plays on his monkey mat, reads books and does the “stinky feet” game (ask Dave) and is very well taken care of there.

Highlights for the week include: a great ECFE class in which we learned about baby temperaments, Miles’ first visit to a pumpkin patch, dinner with Becky & Mike, and a Vikings party with awesome food.

New changes in Miles this week include: raising both hands in the air and looking at them (looks like he’s driving a motorcycle when he does this), grabbing his toys, talking up a storm and smiling, smiling, smiling.

Sweet Talk

3 months already??!!

All clean after a bath.

Lil' Pumpkin

Whoa, I've got a lot of laundry!

Why does mom insist on putting these silly hats on me?

Sweet boy sent his mama flowers this week.

Guy time.

Sweet talk montage

Work, work and more work

So our little family survived my first week back at work and a new schedule. At the time of last week's blog post I could barely see the computer screen through the tears. On Monday morning, my first official day back, it was hard to say goodbye and the first few people who talked to me at work were met with more tears. Each day though I felt like crying a little less but then the "mommy guilt" set in. I'm coming to realize that I need to wear at least 3 main hats during the week - a mommy hat, worker hat and wife hat. I think it will take me awhile to figure out how to balance all of these new things and be happy and make everyone happy around me.

I worked part time last week and will start back full time this week. This is my busiest season at work so it will be interesting how I handle the stress of work with all of the changes at home.

While I may have been a wreck, Miles had a great week at Grandma Nickolay's house. Mike has also been very supportive. One highlight of my week was receiving gorgeous lilies at work on Tuesday with a card that said "I love you mommy!" from Miles. Mike said that Miles asked him if he could borrow his credit card and ordered me a bouquet online. What a sweetie and so smart!

Mike and I also put in almost a full day cleaning the house on Saturday - yuck! We spent about 6 hours scrubbing light fixtures, appliances and doing the first really thorough cleaning since Miles was born. Is a cleaning person in our near future?

Oh, the Sweet Talk

Miles is talking so much now. The oohs, coos, and goos that come out of his little mouth sound so sweet. He's putting so much effort into smiling and talking now it is the highlight of our days to hear him. Once he started babbling on a consistent basis we wanted to catch him on video but every time we got the video camera out he would get distracted by the camera or the dog and stop. The little video montage above is the result of probably 10 efforts to capture these dear moments on video.

Grandma Nickolay has been taking such awesome care of him while we're at work. His new favorite things at her house include watching the grandfather clock, playing pattie cake with his feet and watching the other babies at story time. We are so, so lucky to have grandparents taking care of him these first three months I'm back to work.

Fringe

Other highlights this week include: going to lunch at the Edina Grill with my mom, Miles and Rachel on Friday. After lunch Miles and I stopped at Fringe, (this was probably not one of the highlights of Miles' week) a new accessories store in the 50th and France shopping district. For all of the MN gals who read this I would highly recommend this jewelry and accessories store - they have tons of great looking items and most are under $2o.

Saturday (after the marathon cleaning session) we took my mom to Christos for dinner as a small thank you for helping to make my first week of work a success. Miles is an attention grabber where ever we go and he got a few comments at the restaurant about how truly cute he is - no arguments here!

Sunday we headed to Rachel and Graham's for a Vikings party consisting of good food and relaxation.

I'm going to sign-off for now - the Sunday night chores are waiting - Miles' bath, prepare for work, ironing (Mike is going to tackle this one), etc. Have a great week everyone!

Too Short

Who's this preppy looking guy playing on the monkey mat?

Whoa! Look what I found!

Last night time bottle with daddy.

Playing with mama all day is exhausting!

Visiting daddy at work.

Ugly Doll.

Miles LOVES his Ugly Doll.

Doing tummy time with pal, Ruby, is fun.

Look at how high I can lift my head now!

I'm not ready for winter yet.

Lounging in the bath. Mom says you can never have too many bath pictures.

What a big boy!

Too Short

Three months is too short of a time to be home with my precious baby. This blog posting will be brief tonight because I'm feeling very sad. (Mike is describing my mood as weepy.) I have absolutely adored most every moment spent with Miles so far and since his birth have not been away from him for more then a few hours a handful of times. Tomorrow I go back to work and little Miles will head to Grandma and Grandpa Nickolay's house for lots of love and care. I know Miles will be fine - it's me who is a wreck about it. I would love it if my full time job were to give Miles kisses and hugs.

Last Baby Shower

My work gave me and Miles a baby shower on Thursday. Thank you to Jen and Tia (work friends) for hosting a truly lovely event. They made a slide show with pictures of Miles, we had Olive Garden lunch and cupcakes, played a game and everyone was so generous in giving Miles lots of gifts.

After the shower we stopped by Mortenson so Miles could see where daddy works. It's always fun to show your adorable baby off. Who doesn't love a cute baby?!

Ugly Doll

This week Miles discovered his arm. All of a sudden as we were drying him off after his bath on Wednesday his little arm shot straight up in the air and he was mesmerized. Ever since then, when he's lying on his back, his arm and hand is his number one form of entertainment. It's always his left hand in the air - we may have a left-hander....

At our ECFE class this week we made what I've dubbed Ugly Doll - a men's tube sock stuffed with newspaper with my rendition of a face drawn on it with non-toxic marker. Miles adores this new toy. He stares into Ugly Dolls eyes and gives him lots of smiles. He even has started grabbing for Ugly Doll - another developmental milestone.

So Sad

I dread goodbyes and tomorrow... If only I could have another three months, and another, and another...

Road Trippin'

There's a smile for mama!

Little slugger.

Helping mama pack for the cabin.

What a dolly!

Who are these cool dudes at the cabin?

Mama & Miles

Creative use of a Boppy?

Godfather Matt spending quality time with Miles.

Miles loves the cabin!

Uncle Matt, Miles, Aunt Janelle and dog-daughter, Molly.

Grandpa & Grandma Nickolay at the cabin.

That hair!

Miles,
Mama wanted to go on record telling you how impressive your hair as a young baby is in case she forgets to tell you when you get older. Your hair is so dark, thick and wavy and you haven't lost any of it as everyone predicted! You have more hair then most every baby we meet - including the older ones. When mama takes you out we really get a lot of attention - everyone exclaims "look at that hair!"

The cabin

Wednesday night Mike and I hosted a welcome home dinner for my parents to see all of their pictures from a whirlwind European vacation. Rachel and Graham came too. We enjoyed delicious Alaska Halibut (thanks Grays!) and spent the evening chatting about all of their travels including how they met over twenty of our Luxembourg Nickolay relatives.

Thursday afternoon we embarked on Miles' first road trip to the cabin with my parents. Matt and Janelle met us there. We've never traveled with Miles before and the back of the pickup was packed full of all of his baby gear. We joked that if I packed anymore we would need to bring a trailer. (I'll have to trim the packing list significantly when we fly to Phoenix in December or they won't let us on the plane!) The weather was beautiful - sunny and in the low 70s. We mainly relaxed and ate lots of food but also went out on the boat. The girls and Miles also spent a couple of hours window shopping in Park Rapids while the guys went shooting clay pigeons. We'll be seeing Matt and Janelle again in a few weeks when our new nephew, Baby Sievers, is born!

School bells

Mike, Miles and I went to our first Early Childhood and Family Education class on Monday night. There were 6 babies ranging from 7 weeks to 5 months and their parents in the class. The first half of class we spent with the babies doing circle time which includes developmental activities such as singing songs, games like "bang-bang" (bringing two blocks together in front of the baby to the beat of a song) and having the babies focus on a puppet. The second half of class we talked about baby's brain development. Miles' mind is truly in our hands! It was a fun class (Miles and I recognized some of the other babies from the Chanhassen story time) and cool to think that Miles may be going to kindergarten someday with these other little tikes!

It's the little things

Miles is growing and changing so much everyday. He is now completely out of all newborn and 0-3 month clothes. We're on to the 3-6 month sizes! Other developmental milestones he's reached recently include: bringing his hands together in front of him, sucking his thumb, standing up strong on his legs (with support) and saying "ah-goo." We find ourselves saying often "this is the first time Miles has ever..."

Goodbye

Goodbye summer. Goodbye chubby little legs hanging out of onesies. Goodbye bare little tootsies. Fall weather is here and we'll have to wait until Spring to see you again!

Monday Funday!

Story time is exhausting!

Cool dude!

Where's Mike and Miles?
Maze at Centenntial Lakes Park

Enjoying the beautiful weather at the park.

Strolling along the lake.

Miles in the big boy bed.

Someone doesn't look too sleepy!

Grizzly bear exhibit at the zoo.

Checking out the giraffes.

Daddy and Miles.

Since Mike and I first met we would designate certain days throughout the year as "fundays" in which we would do nothing but fun things - no housecleaning, bills, projects, etc. - just 100% pure fun. Unfortunately, as we've gotten older and adult responsibilities bear down on us more and more, these days don't happen quite as often as they used to. This week however we initiated Miles into our tradition with both Monday and Tuesday being our first family-of-three Fundays.

Mike took off of work and Monday we started out the day by going to baby story time at the Southdale library. Miles was again the youngest baby but the librarian leading the group pointed out that you can never start reading to your kids too early. We read 4 books, sang songs and even played instruments. Mike chose the maraca for Miles and he held on to that little thing all through the songs. It was so cute - I wish I would have gotten a picture! All of the activity must have exhausted the little guy because he completely conked out by the end. After story time we had a nice lunch at P.F. Chang's and then it was on to Centennial Lakes Park in Edina. The weather this month has been so beautiful - we've been having July weather in September. It was a great time to walk around the lake at the park - we practically had the place to ourselves!

Tuesday, after a trip to a lawyer to discuss drawing up our wills, (ok, so this wasn't at all fun - just another example of that adult responsibility getting in the way!) we headed to the MN Zoo. It was the first time to this zoo for both the boys. We practically had the zoo to ourselves and really enjoyed the new Russia's Grizzly Coast exhibit. We literally had our noses pressed to the glass of the exhibit watching a grizzly bear hunt for fish in a pond. The bear was pushing off the glass with his paws and trying to trap the fish. Miles slept the entire time at the zoo so missed out on the animal fun but overall our two family fundays were a success.

Unfortunately, the fun stopped for Miles on Wednesday when he had his two-month well baby visit and first round of immunizations. We're happy to report Miles is thriving and is a very healthy baby. His stats:

Height: 22 3/4 inches (50th percentile)
Weight: 13 lbs (80th percentile)
Head: 15.8 inches (55th percentile)

The exam went well until the end when he got his shots. He got an oral rotavirus medication and then 3 shots. Two nurses gave him the shots (2 in one leg and one in the other) while Mike held his arms above his head. The nurse warned us that we would hear a cry from him that we've never heard before and she was right. It was a pain cry and totally heart wrenching. I, as the mama, got to swoop in after the shots to cuddle and comfort Miles. We gave him a dose of infant Tylenol which helped with the pain and he calmed right down. Later in the day though we could tell his little legs were sore and he was having a hard time so we gave him one more dose of the Tylenol. The next day he was back to his normal self. We get to look forward to shots at these doctor's visits every couple of months for the first year. Yeah! (not)

We learned at this visit that breastfed babies don't get all of the vitamin D and iron that they need so the pediatrician suggested we start Miles on a baby daily multivitamin. You just have to squirt 1 ml in his mouth or mix it with a bottle. The problem is the stuff is absolutely nasty - it stinks and tastes horrible and so far Miles has spit up every dose we've given him. (The vitamin also stains your clothing.) We'll keep trying it and hope he gets used to it soon. Too bad it doesn't come in cherry flavor like the Tylenol - Miles lapped the Tylenol right up.

We also had a busy weekend. Friday night the Carlsons had us over for dinner. It was good company and delicious food. Saturday we celebrated Mike and Graham's birthdays by touring the Summit brewery in St. Paul (yes, Miles has now been to a bar AND a brewery) and out to lunch. Today we relaxed and did laundry (exciting).

If you read our blog please participate in the poll above. Mike and I are always going back and forth regarding who Miles looks more alike. Have a lovely week everyone. Goodbye summer!