Twenty-three months.

Dear Milo,

On Friday you turned 23-months old! I can't believe you are going to be TWO next month! Thursday was Thanksgiving and we had a wonderful meal together. You even ate some turkey and loved your first taste of pumpkin pie. Your Grandma Carol and Grandpa Bill came to spend the holiday with us and we had a wonderful visit with them. You were so loving with them, full of hugs, snuggles and even called them "Gamma" and "Bampa" you made it pretty hard for them to get on an airplane and go home.



One of your favorite things to do right now is to help. Yes, help. Oftentimes when I see you are playing quietly by yourself, I sneak off to the kitchen to unload the dishwasher, but as soon as you hear me putting away the silverware you come zooming in from the other room frantically yelling, "help!help!" at the top of your lungs. You help with putting away things like the cutting boards and your dishes and you hand me things that go up high out of your reach. You are always very careful and know to treat the breakables very delicately. You also love doing laundry, feeding the dogs and raking leaves. In the morning, you hang out with me while I'm getting ready. You love to go through all of our things on our nightstands. You love to find my wedding ring, which I keep in a special box next to the bed while I'm sleeping, and bring it to me. I love that you love helping us. You love to have a purpose and you are just such a good boy.



Another fun thing is you have learned everyone in the family's proper names. You no longer call Monty "Dog" you call him Monty. You now know that Brody's real name is not Bro-Bro, it's "Broby" though you still choose to call him Bro-Bro most of the time. You know Daddy's name is Erik. And, yes, you know my name is Mindy. You still call me Mama all the time, but if I am being especially silly you will giggle and through your laughs say "come on, Midi" which just makes us both laugh even more.



Earlier this month I did something pretty silly: I took you to a puppet show. I knew it was a crapshoot going into it. Puppets can be a little scary and you tend to get overwhelmed with things like that, but your friends were going and I thought there was a chance you would think it was cool. I didn't want to just assume you'd hate something and not try it (much like vegetables, you must always TRY them first). So anyways, we went. The gal doing the puppet show brought around a puppet at the beginning to introduce to all the kids. It was a flamingo named Mango that was as tall as you. You thought he was pretty cool, even gave him a nice pat on the head. I quietly let out a sigh of relief. When it was time for the show to begin the gal went up on stage behind a curtain and turned on the music. It was a Mother Goose-themed show and you were a little hesitant, but were doing really great. Until... DUN-DUN-DUN. That's what the music did and a little "villain" puppet popped up. A little man. You SCREEEEAAMED! And didn't stop. We were about three minutes into the show. You just kept asking to go home so, of course, I took you home. Since then you have reminded me OVER and OVER, "little man scare you puppet show." I won't be taking you back there for quite a while. Maybe not ever.



You have really started recognizing emotions and you are starting to tell us if you are feeling happy or sad. You are always very concerned with others emotions as well. If we are at the store and you hear another kid crying somewhere you look at me, tilt your head to the side, wrinkle up your nose, nod your head up and down and say "sad." Like you feel exactly how sad that kid is. It is the sweetest thing. You also know if the characters in your books are feeling sad or happy. And you are constantly checking in with us "Mama happy?" Yes, Milo. Mama happy.

Love Always,
Mama

Meet our new family member.

You may have seen my very housewifey tweet a week ago about needing a new vacuum. I got a lot of really great feedback from friends and after a lot of research we decided to go for it. We headed to Stark's this morning and got ourselves a Dyson.



*SWOON* I unpacked that thing as soon as I got home and gave it it's maiden voyage on our 8x10 rug in the living room (which I have already vacuumed three times this week with our old vacuum). Folks, after one pass with the Dyson I had to empty the canister. That's how much crap it got off our rug. Gross. And awesome. Milo had to take a nap soon after, but as soon as he gets up I am going to vacuum the rest of my house So. Hard. I can't wait! I guess I am an official housewife. That's cool. Probably after I'm done vacuuming, I'll fix myself a cocktail and flip through a magazine while the kids watch television. Thanks for being an inspiration, Betts.

Halloween 2009.

This Halloween we were ready. We bought Milo's Halloween costume months ago. Purchased a plastic pumpkin to hold all his loot and Milo received invitations to TWO Halloween parties in our neighborhood. We had it all planned out where we would walk to the parties and trick-or-treat in between and on the way home. Then, both parties got canceled within five minutes of each other. Both kids had come down with the sickness. After our last month of being sick we totally understood, but were disappointed nonetheless.

When Halloween day came, we decided to head to Kennedy School where they had folks lining the halls to hand out candy to the kids. I dressed up as a witch with clothes I had in my closet (fitting, I know) and a hat I found for $5. We carved pumpkins then headed out to Kennedy School. Brody had to stay home, as his plans were foiled by him being sick too. At Kennedy School, we ran into a few friends, loaded up the plastic pumpkin with candy and got to eat dinner with Milo's best girl, Lolo (and her parents) so it all worked out beautifully. Milo even got to try his first piece of candy. He opted for Smarties. He LOVED them. I helped him eat the rest of his candy.

Snip, snip.

During the last few weeks we noticed Milo rubbing his eyes a lot more. Why? Oh, because his hair was tickling them! His hair has been a little slow on coming in, so we've been holding on to every strand he has. But last week we couldn't deny it any longer. He needed a haircut. Lucky for us my stylist, Melissa, who I have been with for about 10 years agreed to do it for us. She is wonderful. Here are the photos from the big event!

Before pic:


Waiting on the couch and being silly:


Not so sure about this haircut thing:


Nice shiny brush though:


And, it's go time:


A little off the back:


And he's ready for a little product:


Tada!


He was such a brave boy! Just a little quivery voice at the beginning, but that's it! Melissa did such a great job. He definitely looks more grown up. Be still my heart. I made it through without crying as well. We saved a few locks of hair in a special little box that I got from a friend's mom at my baby shower. Another milestone behind us. So fun!

21 + 22 Months.

Dear Milo,

Yesterday you turned 22-months old! Yes, you are getting another combined letter this time… but I have an excuse! Really! Oh great, I'm not setting a very good example am I?



But seriously, let's get to that excuse. Just before you turned 21-months old I did something big. I took a trip to New York. Alone. Without you. You stayed home with your dad and Brody while I visited Auntie Jessica and her family in the big city. I had a blast, but that's a story for another time. The thing that affects you is that I was gone. For four whole days. And you know what? We all survived! We all had our own fun and at the end of it we were so happy to come back together and have more fun together. It was just what we all needed. When I got back I was so excited to do all the things we always do together and I just felt rejuvenated. Then, I got sick with a cold. No big deal, I thought, I'll power through. Then the next week it turned to a sinus infection. I got a bit irritated but thought, it'll pass no problem. And it did after about four days. Then two days later I got a stomach virus that laid me out for three days. I had about three days of feeling good, then BOTH you and I got sick with nasty colds! We are now getting over that, but this is all to say that, see? I've been busy! Busy being sick which is not a fun busy at all. So, I am sorry for your combined letter, but I hope you understand.



All this waiting to write the letter is not to say you're not doing anything interesting or exciting. Quite the contrary! You are doing SO many things that are so fun to witness I get overwhelmed thinking about what all I need to write down. You are doing things like talking in sentences, counting to TEN, identifying colors and singing your ABC's. Sure you still skip a few letters in the ABC song here and there and your sentences are a bit out of order sometimes, but wow. You totally blow my mind, kid.



One of my favorite things that happened during these past few months started out to be really annoying. One night about 15 minutes before bedtime your father thought it would be a fun idea to show you his guitar. His real, live, grown-up guitar. The one like your teacher in music class uses. Don't get me wrong. I am all for encouraging your musical interests, I just thought the timing could've been a bit better. You went into the bath whining for more time with the guitar and talked about it incessantly until it was time to sleep. INCESSANTLY.



See, you do this thing where you get a little obsessive about things and don't stop talking about them. Ever. Like, also this month there was a little incident where Brody accidentally poked you in the eye with his finger and we had to take you to the doctor to make sure your bloody eyeball wasn't going to fall out. It didn't. It's fine. It was just a bruise. But going to the doctor is such a traumatic experience for you that you still talk about "Bro-Bro poke eye. Doc help you. Eye OK. It's OK." It's hilarious, but Brody wishes you would let this one go. He felt bad enough when it happened, but now he has to hear about it every time you see him, five weeks later.



Anyway, back to the guitar. So that night when putting you to bed we assured you that you would be able to play with the guitar again in the morning after you woke up. Well, you just couldn't wait that long. You woke up not one, not two, but THREE times that night. Calling from your crib singing and talking, "Eye-a-pay-lellow-tar." (which translates to: I would like to play with the yellow guitar now, please.) So cute. So endearing. So many times woken up. But, that was just that night. Though your affinity for the guitar hasn't died down, the needing to play in the middle of sleep time did. It's still the first thing you talk about in the morning though. Oh, and the songs you play, Milo. They are the sweetest thing to witness. You sit there on the floor with this guitar that is bigger than you on your lap, strumming the strings, rocking back-and-forth and singing. Mostly your songs are the same that you have been singing for a few months now. Our names, friends names, the animals names, but recently you have also been singing about the yellow guitar. You can occupy yourself for quite a while playing music (like, I have time to make coffee while you're playing...sometimes breakfast too). I have burned these memories deeply into my brain. They are so special and dear. Whether or not you become a famous musician some day and I need to relay these memories to the Behind the Music people, I never want to forget how you look, how you sound and how happy you are when you are making your music.



One of my least favorite parts of being sick all these weeks is that I feel like we've missed out on a lot of Autumn. It has been beautiful here with many sunny, crisp days where the leaves are changing and there is that little bit of sting in the air, but it's still nice enough to be outside doing things. We have gone on a few walks and to the park when possible, but the one thing I was REALLY looking forward to doing with you this fall was going to a pumpkin patch. We had plans to go with friends the day I came down with the stomach virus. I felt bad so I sent you off with your dad to experience it without me. You guys had fun, but it's not the same if we're not all there. So we made plans to go the following weekend. The day you woke up with a 102° fever. So none of us went that week. Finally, last weekend, you and I were both just starting to feel better so I made the decision on Sunday that we HAD to go to the pumpkin patch. Sure it was one of the coldest days we've had since last winter, rain threatened all day and you and I probably should've been napping, but we made the most of it and had a wonderful time. You were even brave enough to go on a pony ride! We left just as the rain started falling from the sky happy, full of doughnuts and hot apple cider with the smell of animals on our hands feeling victorious that we had made it out for such a fun adventure after a week of being home-bound and sick.



One of the other sad parts about being sick is that you and I had a special trip planned to Montana to visit Pop for his 99th birthday and we weren't able to make it. We had so much fun last year and I showed you all of our pictures. We talked about how we were going to ride on an airplane together (you wanted to make sure it was going to be a blue one, not a black one) and how Grandma might let you ride on her tractor. We were going to make a train cake for Pop and sing happy birthday, but we didn't get to do any of that. We will make the trip sometime soon, it just won't be for that special occasion, but it will be special nonetheless.



Milo, something I have noticed recently is that life is so much richer because of you. You really make everything more exciting and special. I notice so much more around me. I want to talk to you about all of it, experience it all with you and hear you talk about it. If I happen to be driving alone in the car (which doesn't happen all that often) and a school bus happens to pass by, or a trash truck, or really anything with a motor I wish you were there with me. I never knew how excited I would be about seeing a boat in the water or a train passing by, but whether you are with me or not I notice these things now and experience them in a different way than before. A more enjoyable way. And those are just the things with motors... there's SO much more than that. Everything feels new again because I get to share it with you now. I guess I just really wanted to say thank you.



Love Always,

Mama

Twenty Months.

Hi, Milo. Hi. HIIIII, MIIILOOOO!! Hi. Hi? Hi, Milo.



I thought I'd start out this letter by giving you a taste of your own medicine. This is how you like to get our attention these days. If we don't immediately acknowledge you, you will work your way into our line of vision until we must give you our attention. It's pretty effective, I must say, and I do appreciate it much more than whining about things.



This month you have been all about flexing your independence muscles. The phrase you repeat over and over is "YOU sit" and by "you" you mean Milo. You point at yourself and say "YOU sit". (We're not really sure how to explain that one to you. I'm sure you'll figure it out sooner or later. Right now we're just enjoying how adorable it is.) You no longer want to sit with us in the chair when we read to you. We have to sit next to you and hold the book like a librarian. It's cool though. We've worked out a compromise where we read like that for one book then we get to snuggle up for the next book. Best of both worlds, I suppose.



You have formed an opinion on what you wear now as well. For the most part, it involves one particular pair of pajamas which you have dubbed "dat kind dog." It's a pajama set that has different dogs all over the legs and a long-sleeved shirt with one big dog on it. It is always a treat when it's dat-kind-dog day. When you wake up in the morning on dat-kind-dog day you will immediately start talking about dat-kind-dog, oh and also your blue shoes (boo shoos). They totally make any outfit and you refuse to wear any other kind. You are happy all morning whilst in your pj's and it's so fun… until the time comes when we need to change for the day. Then the screaming and protesting come. Usually I can talk you into some other outfit, but you will continue talking about those pajamas at every single diaper change and outfit change until the magical day when they are clean again and you get to wear them again.



Your independent streak seems to go away when we get into public or unfamiliar settings though, which is totally understandable. Since you are completely adorable people always try to engage you when we're out doing things. You cling to me like glue, look whomever is talking to you directly in the eye, point to my chest and say "Mama" just to make it clear that you're with me.



This month we went on a quick family vacation to Seattle. You got to see your Uncle Russ and Cousin Mason. We went to the aquarium, rode on a ferry boat and stayed on the beach. You loved it. You especially loved looking at all the boats on the water, but didn't understand why you couldn't play with them. This led to a two-hour nightmarish episode where we were on a ferry boat, surrounded by water and boats trying to explain to you, an unreasonable 19-month old, that you couldn't play with all the boats you were seeing. Trying to explain scale and spatial relationships to someone your age is a little difficult. We finally bought you a fish to play with in the bathtub and that quelled your cries (strangely enough we could find no boat toys). We were only gone for three days, but it was so fun! It was a nice little family getaway and hopefully we will do another one very soon.



A couple weeks ago you got to go to your first wedding. I am really sad I didn't get a photo of you, your dad and I at that wedding, but you looked really cute. No, handsome. You were all dressed up and very well-behaved (thank you!). You stuffed your face with strawberries during the ceremony then smeared them all over your dad's shirt while you were pointing at him and letting anyone who looked at you know that he is your dada.

Love Always,
Mama

Nineteen Months. (and Eighteen, too!)

Dear Milo,

You turned nineteen-months old on Monday. Whoa! Wait a minute, you say. Hold the phone. What happened to eighteen months? That huge, milestone half-birthday? Well. It happened last month. And, well, it's summer time. We are SO busy having fun, I just haven't had the time to sit down and write your letter. So, you're getting another consolidated letter. I'm sorry. You see, your father and I got a wild hair to paint the bathroom. And if you're going to paint, you might as well change all the fixtures, the mirror and do a light remodel while you're at it, right? So, that's what we've been doing in our spare time. We're pretty much done finally, we just need to hang some towel racks. It was interesting to see how long this project took us with a toddler in the house. In the past we used to do projects like this all the time and would bust it out over a weekend, no problem. You add a few more obstacles to such a project, but we're so glad we did it. You became enamored with the large ladder that we had in the bathroom for weeks and thought it was really fun to see Mama up so high painting (or coloring as you called it).



Besides working on the bathroom we have gotten into full summer swing, starting with swimming lessons again. This year I signed us up for two, two-week, back-to-back sessions. The classes were every day at 4:00 pm. It was a great time to do it as it was always warm and nice to get in the pool. But I tell you, after four weeks of swimming five days a week, I think we were both ready to be done. It is a lot of work to get us both to the pool, dressed, etc. We were both completely pooped by the time we got home. I'm glad we did it though. You seem to be warming up to the water somewhat. You really enjoy sliding off the edge of the pool into the water and on the last day of class you got to go on the water slide which you LOVED. We also made a habit of getting sno-cones after each lesson which was a well-deserved treat for both of us. I look forward to doing these again next year!



We've also been doing a gymnastics class, which you are crazy about! You get the biggest smile on your face as you climb all over the mats, practice your rolls and learn to jump on the trampoline. It has been really fun to watch you become so comfortable with all the different equipment. You are a natural!



We have also been riding bikes together. For Father's Day we gave your dad a new bike with the intention of getting a seat for you. You love it so much! So, we got an attachment for my bike as well and now you can ride on either of our bikes. It's so fun to have you right up front with us. We rode the bike quite a bit to swim class, and now to the store and park to play.



One of your favorite times of the day right now is when Daddy comes home from work. You immediately grab his hand and say, "tsyyee" which is "outside" in Milo-speak. You love to be outside in our backyard. Especially with Daddy. You guys pick out special rocks, fill up buckets with water, water the plants, walk the dog on the leash, have snacks and just chat like crazy. It is really fun to watch you two out there. You are both completely at home outside.



Speaking of chatting, you are doing a lot of that these days. You are exploring all the different ranges of your voice and make us laugh constantly. Your vocabulary astounds me but your comprehension blows my mind. There's no getting anything past you these days.



We have also had some good visits from grandparents over the last two months. Your great-grandad came to visit and got to meet you for the first time. Your grandpa Bill came for Father's Day and your grandpa Bob came just a couple weeks ago. You are pretty shy around people you don't see that often still, but if they are not around you ask about them constantly and talk about them. You will also do little things to let them know they're okay, like say, "Hiiiiyyy" and wave while they have their backs turned. Or you'll try to give them your toy or food.



All-in-all, life with you, my dear Milo, is pretty sweet. We couldn't have asked for a better boy.



Love Always,
Mama