14 Months and Counting!

Well, we had lots of fun firsts this month!  Some quick highlights...

Miles had his first real haircut!  He's had trims before, but we got out the clippers and did it officially this month!

Pooh face - wasn't happy about the clippers

But it wasn't so bad!

Especially when you get a sucker!

Yes, I did belt him onto the chair - gotta keep the wiggles contained!

Miles went to his first museum, the Arizona Science Center.  We went for our birthdays, and to help him decide what he wants to be when he grows up...

A mad scientist like Aunt Sabrina?  Working the centrifuge

A surgeon?

A physicist?

A freeloader?

An environmental scientist?

A musician?  He's strumming a giant guitar

An inventor?

Or just stay mommy's little boy forever and ever!!!!!

Miles had his first Easter egg hunt and got an Easter surprise from his Grandma and Grandpa Robinson!

The grand surprise!  He's thrilled, even if he doesn't look it...

We had a great birthday!  Thanks for the packages and ecards and love that was sent our way!  We love you all!

Hope you enjoyed the total picture overload!  See you all this weekend in UTAH!

A Month of "R" Life!

Woah sorry, March was crazy busy and just slipped away from me!

Miles is almost walking and is getting better at balancing.  He will take a few steps and then crash, but is getting more and more willing to be brave.  He can stand really well on his own, though, which is nice!

He is also learning more and more how to express himself and what he wants.  He is great at pointing and making little noises that he's interested.  He also knows how to tell me he wants me to stand up and hold him (not sit and hold him), and throws tantrums like a pro already!  He sits down and kicks his legs and "yells" like I am the meanest mom.  I think the phase will be short lived though; he's figuring out that it doesn't work.  He also loves to climb all over everything.  He especially loves to figure out ways to reach light switches.  I also found him on the kitchen table the other day; sorry no picture, I chose grabbing Miles rather than the camera ;)

Look Mom, I can reach the light switches...and unbutton my jammies...and fall asleep when you aren't looking!

 

Miles and I have been going to a little story and song group for babies 0-2 at the public library each week.  He loves it!  At the end there is free play time with the other babies.  It is so good for him!  And I love being able to visit with the other moms, dads, and occasional grandparent.

Andrew and I got to go on a couple dates this last month, some stay at home with our third wheel and some when he was asleep and we even paid a babysitter to come (our first paid babysitter!)  We did an awesome date on St Patrick's day as part of our dates around the world.  These are supposed to be stay at home dates and they have been so much fun so far!  We went to Paris for February and Dublin for March and this month, we are going to Sydney Australia for our birthdays!  For St Patrick's we ate sausage and cabbage soup, Irish soda bread, apple beer, and ate at our bar with shnazzy Irish pub music (though Andrew's rendition of the drunken sailor song is my favorite).

We watched Leap Year to admire the beautiful Ireland  scenery and the hot Irish...accents...  (Haha!)

I had the awesome opportunity to participate in the Lamb of God, a musical oratorial about the last days of Christ's life.  It was so incredible and I recommend anyone who hasn't heard Rob Gardner's composition to look it up online right this second and listen to it.  I love Rob Gardner's music and so will you!

Next month:  backyard re-landscaping adventures!  We're putting in GRASS!

Happy Birthday Miles!

Miles is a toddler now!  Not quite toddling yet, but he's getting around pretty well all the same.  He's crawling so well, can pull up on anything, cruise like a pro (even on the wall...so basically there's no limit to where he can go and what mischief he can get into), and he can stand on his own for quite a while.

We had a little birthday bash on his birthday, and we had a cake-smashingly good time!  We had gifts, cake and ice cream, and lots of birthday kisses!  We were so so happy to be able to skype the Robinson's during gifts and cake.  We had my siblings and parents and grandparents over, and Miles got WAY too many gifts!  Sadly, we got pictures before he ripped them all open, but none after...  He got blocks and Duplos and animal magnets and graham crackers and a PillowPet bear...  But here's the cutie himself:

He also loved getting the ecard from Grandma and Grandpa Bird!  He LOVES doggies so it was the perfect one:

Back to the party...  After the gifts we had food!  Now, I had a crazy mom moment earlier that day and made Miles a healthy cake, which I made into muffins that I frosted with cream cheese frosting.  I tasted it and it was completely disgusting!  However, Miles gobbled them up!  Everyone else had brownies.  We also made YoNanas (one of those machines that grind up frozen bananas and spits it out like ice cream), so we had healthy "ice cream" also!  Miles loved the YoNanas and we did peanut butter flavored and strawberry flavored.  I'm so so excited that Miles can have peanut butter - whoo hoo!  But on to the pictures:

 In short, it was messy but it was fun!  I apologize again that we only got pictures of Miles...I was running around doing stuff so I didn't realize I wasn't taking very good pictures.  After cake and ice cream, we got Miles in the bath to get him off to bed cause he was so tired.  Then he smashed his finger in a cupboard so we had to do first aid, then a balloon popped (any nurses reading this, we only had balloons up on the fan in the family room - not within baby reach!) and traumatized him.  So, bedtime was a little more tense than usual, but we got settled and he slept well dreaming of playing with all his new toys in the morning  :)

We also celebrated Valentine's Day, which was a treat.  I gave Andrew a passport to twelve different countries over the next year, so we can go on a date each month.  So we celebrated Valentine's day in Paris, France, with fondue and french cafe music and we watched "Julie and Julia."  It was really nice  :)  Next month, Dublin!

Hope everyone reading this is well and I will post again soon!

Happy New Year 2014!

We are happy to report that Miles isn't an epileptic and he enjoys ripping up wrapping paper more than playing with the actual gifts.  I think our jobs as parents just got a little easier! This post is probably mostly going to be pictures since they are far more interesting than anything I could write.  Suffice it to say we had an average Christmas with the morning gifts, breakfast casserole (thanks for the recipe Wendy!), and pajamas the rest of the day.  We visited my parents but all extended family parties had been taken care of prior to the big day so it was very relaxing and low-key.

Waiting in line to see Santa!

Not sure about this guy with the huge beard...

Christmas morning!  Stockings!

Sleepy but excited!

Graham crackers - best treat ever!

The haul!  Thanks everyone for the gifts!

We also celebrated New Year's Eve with friends and family!  The party we went to had a mechanical bull and I think that was Andrew's favorite part for sure... New Year's Day we joined my family on our traditional hike.  We climbed to Tom's Thumb, a picturesque look-out that I can say after-the-fact was worth the gargantuan effort it took to see it!  We didn't take Miles so he is not in the pictures, sorry!  Hope you all had a great holiday!!

Lots of boulders and places to climb around at the top

Group pic at the top (minus Andrew)

Additional hidden trail led to "The Ogre's Cave"

Two thumbs up for making it to Tom's Thumb!