Nest

I came into Miles' room in the morning and found him snuggled up on the floor with all his bedding and friends (Shamu, Fuzzy Guy and Turtle).  He had pulled everything off the bed to make a little nest!

Silliness

Train Ride

This actually took place a few weeks ago and got lost in the shuffle.  We took the train downtown to our new mall which has an awesome play area in the food court.  I think this photo actually captures Miles' personality quite well, a contemplative observer at heart!

A Conversation

 

Miles desperately wanted to have this piece of gum, despite having trouble keeping it in his mouth.  We're about 50-50 on swallow vs. spitting it out when he's done.  He's gotten a bit obsessed with gum in general, insisting on carrying the box around when he catches site of it in the drawer.  I have since moved it to my purse because it was edging toward becoming a bit of a battle.  Out of sight, out of mind, thank goodness it worked this time.  In the meantime, this is a funny little look at him trying to quench his desire before he got the green light from mom!

A Day at the Zoo

 

The best picture I could get of all three kids standing near each other!

And, the usual fascination with drainage covers and holes.  Both Isaac and Miles spent quite a bit of time stuffing those little dried leaves down the holes.

 

A little posing on the tigers.

Beads!

Mimi snuck these Mardi Gras beads into a box.

Favorite things

One of our favorite words lately is 'helicopter.'  Miles has the cutest way of saying it. I can never quite get the pronunciation right, so I shot a little video (top) to remember it by.  Then, Craig was playing with him last week and called me in to his room.  The bottom video is the scene I encountered.  Somehow, Miles started saying helicopter in an even stranger way and the result made us double up with laughter (warning: this may only have been funny in the moment or to us).  Based on the look on Miles' face, I think he also figured out for the first time that he can actually make us laugh.  We thought the whole thing was hysterical and he'll still do it for effect now and again. 

Toes in the water

Contemplating the muddy river.  Mary and I did go for a refreshingly bracing swim, but Miles wasn't interested in getting more than his feet wet.  Completely understandable! 

Muscle Man

 

This took place on our last morning in Moab, on our last trip down to the river.  In this sequence, Miles is showing us his muscles.  Which, if you're going to be throwing rocks around, you definitely need!

Negro Bill Canyon hike

Throwing rocks in the water.  A favorite activity this trip.

We met up with Archie, Penny and Mary on Sunday and they camped with us the rest of the time.

Camp life

Things to bring camping: a can opener!  Craig had to improvise to open this can and I thought "Fun at your fingertips!" said it all!

Enjoying the fire.

Shades

Giving sunglasses a shot

Camping in Moab

On the way to our first arch, I believe it was Landscape Arch.  Miles wasn't too keen to walk on the sand, so there was a fair bit of carrying that happened too.

Climbing rocks!

We went on our first family camping trip May 12-15th in Moab, UT.  I broke it down into a few posts to make it more manageable.We arrived in town late afternoon on a Saturday and were greeted with no open campsites and an entirely booked town.  sigh.  There was some race taking place, so all the hotels were to vacancy or charging exorbitant rates.  double sigh.  We were tired, hungry and wanting to get out of the car.  We did finally find a reasonably priced hotel, got some food and stretched our legs.  The good news?  Having visited every freaking campsite in Moab, we knew exactly where we were headed the next day.  But, alas, those campers weren't leaving.  So, we moved on to site B and thankfully nabbed one of the only sites available with shade.  This is key when camping in the desert.  So, when all was said and done, we ended up in a pretty good spot and were finally able to break out the tent!  

A Conversation

The timer rang indicating it was time for teeth brushing and bed.  We have a new routine here where I do bedtime on the weekend and Craig takes the weeknights.  There is always an adjustment period on Monday because Miles still wants me to part of the equation.  So, the timer rings and this is what follows:

me and craig "there's the timer, it's time to get ready for bed"

M: "tonight's mommy's turn"  (this had been an ongoing topic all day)

me: "no, tonight's daddy's night"

a little bit of whimpering and fussing ensues

me: suggesting a quick snuggle, which was promptly rejected.  I followed this with two choices

"Miles, do you want a snuggle first or to go and brush your teeth first?"

M:  "no, nothing"

me:  "Well, that wasn't a choice, you need to pick snuggle or brushing teeth"

M: again...."no, nothing"

me:  "you need to pick one, nothing isn't a choice"

M:  "I don't like choices"

ha!  Well, there you have it.  That put a quick end to the negotiations for sure!  This was then followed by lots of bargaining.  He didn't want to sleep in his room, it's too scary, he wants to go in mommy/daddy's room, etc.  Thankfully, Craig has gotten quite adept at working through this transition, so he managed to get him into to his own bed with no further fussing or tears.  whew.  

Crazy hair

This has become a favorite word for Miles lately, 'crazy.'  As in, 'the dogs are going crazy' or 'Dad, I want to go crazy with you!'* Another favorite: 'tricky.'  I was trying to coach him on how to pull his bin of trains across the carpet instead of picking it up and he told me, 'the carpet is kind of tricky.'  ha!  Also, different balancing feats, like standing on one leg or sitting on the foot rest of his high chair are considered tricky. Or, sometimes, he'll call it a 'funny trick.' His cars and trains like to do 'funny tricks' all the time-they pile up on top of each other or turn upside down. I've gotten kind of terrible at writing this stuff down and he's gotten to the stage of creating more and more cute little expressions. I'm going to have to keep that pen and paper more handy!

*this involves running like mad around and around our house, getting scared when Dad jumps out from behind a door, throwing oneself on the bed and getting tickled and just general mayhem and laughter!  This would also be a good time to note that Miles has taken a much greater interest in spending time with his Dad.  It's not that he wouldn't, he just preferred me for everything-getting his drink of water, helping him with the toilet, playing cars, etc!  I'm happy to report I spent the whole morning working on a yard sale this past Saturday and Miles didn't seek me out once!  He waved to me out the window, but he was absolutely, 100% content playing with his Dad all morning.  It's even gotten to the point where he's told me to leave a time or two while he's been hanging out with Craig-hooray! A big shift for us here in the Evan's household-nice to feel a little more balance.