So many updates

It's been almost a year and a half since my last post, and so much has changed. Miles turned three years old on September 24. Nearly four months ago, on June 26, Miles became a big brother to his little sister Amelia Belle. We're working on creating a new blog for family updates, and I'll post the link here. Cheers!
~miles' (and amelia's) mom

The most recent photo

Granted, it's not the greatest or most flattering, but it's from this morning at my folks' house. Apparently, it was the only way they could get him into his high chair to eat breakfast.

Feeling guilty...

So I've been feeling very guilty lately about not posting on this blog. Not because I think people are looking forward to reading regular updates on how my son is doing, but because I feel I owe it to him to keep a diary of what he does and how much he means to us.

These last four months have been rather crazy (literally) in our family. I finally quit a job that I had been working at for almost four years, and it was one of the hardest things I had ever done. It was the worst place for me because I was miserable being there, and I was starting to take that home with me. I now work for an amazing company as a recruiter and absolutely love it. They believe in my abilities so much that I am not micromanaged (like I was at my last job) and am getting paid almost twice what I was making.

Because I'm getting paid more, I figured it was time to move back in with my husband. He is a professional fighter and has been living and training in a small town about 90 miles away from where we had been living. Miles and I first stayed at my parents' house, then we stayed with my cousin for a few months. Living together and eating together and sleeping together and laughing together and loving together is the greatest. I can't believe we had gone eight months without it.

So, with looking for a new job, getting a new job, and moving to a new city (and state for that matter) -- all while being a full-time mom -- I have been rather busy. I have a lot of updates and pictures that I will be posting in the near future.

Stay tuned...
~mm~

Before I was a Mom...

I got the following emailed to me by one of my close friends. This is probably going to seem cheesy, but this is a relatively accurate description of what it is like to be a mom:

Before I was a Mom - I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom - I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom - I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom - I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom - I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put it down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt.

Before I was a Mom - I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom. I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much before I was a Mom.

From Miles' Mom to all you other moms and future moms out there (Nic, I'm talking to you).
~mm~

What's new this week...

Miles has a new game that he likes to play called Mama-Miles. When he is exploring the house and I want to know where he is, I call his name. He replies by calling my name. This game continues for about five minutes with intermissions of hysterical laughter by all listening. Unfortunately, there is no Dada-Miles game yet, but Richard is working hard to change that.

Here a list of new vocabulary words and how he pronounces them:

• BALL - pronounced booh
• I LOVE YOU - pronounced aa-iiee-oouu
• AGAIN - pronounced uh-yen
• DOG - pronounced dooh (it used to be just as it sounds, but our cousin has a dog named Blue combined with our dog Doug comes out dooh)

Here's a picture of him after waking up in house that was about 50 degrees:

Happy New Year to all of Miles fans!! May 2006 be as wonderful to you as I hope it will be to us!

~mm~

Miles had a fantastic Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve at our party at home, where he got to say hello to a lot of people he hasn't seen in a while. We woke up Christmas morning and opened our presents, and the auntie DeeAnn made eggs benedict from scratch and even used lemons she's been growing on her own tree!

After Miles, Daddy, and Doug took a nap, we all ventured to Gramma and Poppa's house to open more presents and sit down to a delicious dinner. We didn't get home until after 10pm, and we were so pooped! Miles got so many great presents from friends and family! Santa gave him a hand-painted toy box and some books. Mom and Dad got him a lot of clothes, Gramma and Poppa got him snow clothes and books, Auntie Meghan got him the Baby's First Words DVD, and Auntie Val got him a Power Wheels Ford F-150.

I think he'll have a better grasp next year of what Christmas really is. Right now, he's just coming off of a sugar rush and trying to get back into his sleep routine.

Here are some pictures from my folks' house:


Dirty cookie face!


All gussied up for the big holiday!

My big boy!

It absolutely blows my mind how quickly my son is growing. We took pictures for our Christmas cards (that I just sent out today... yikes!) on Sunday, and Miles looked like such a big boy! Here's a picture for proof:

He can now play, much to the delight of my husband, Dada-What. We all have such a fun time playing, that all the family members want to play. Miles can only say Mama and Dada right now, but he can recognize the names of everyone.

Like if I tell him to give something to Papa, he'll go right to my dad, and he knows exactly who Gramma is. He can somewhat say Papa, but it mostly sounds like a quite "puh" sound.
He has recently added "ball" to his expanding vocabulary list, except he pronounces it "booh!"

As always, he can still say our dog's name, Doug. And Doug knows that's his name because he always comes when he's called.

I'll have new pictures after the holiday, so stay tuned. I wonder what Miles is going to get from Santa Claus...

MILES IS WELL!!!

Miles is finally better after being sick for almost three months will all sorts of illnesses. He has slept through the night for three nights in a row! I'm so ecstatic I don't know what to do with myself. As I've mentioned before, there is nothing more frustrating to a parent than to have a sick child, so I've been going insane for the last few months. I have my sweet little angel back and couldn't be happier.

So, Miles has a new game that he loves to play. We call it Mama-What. Here's how it goes:
Miles: "Mama."
Me: "What?"
Miles: "Mama."
Me: "What?"
Miles: "Mama."
Me: "What?"
Miles: "Mama."
Me: "What?"
Miles: "Mama."
Me: "What?"

We could be in the car, in the grocery store, at the dinner table... anywhere he feels like playing. It's quite amusing for about two minutes, and then it starts to irritate any bystanders. It especially irritates my husband, who for the last three days has tried to get Miles to play Dada-What, but Miles isn't having it.

Last night, we were over at my cousin's house for dinner, and Miles picked up our friend's fishing hat, which looks more like a brown camo hat. He loved it and wouldn't take it off, until of course, I tried to take some pictures of him. These are the only two that sort of came out okay.


What a ham!



Laughing at Auntie Joy.

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes for Miles to get better. They worked!
~mm~

Thanksgiving...

We visited Richard's family in California this weekend and had a great time. There were over 30 people there!! Miles had a blast playing with the kids and making us grown-ups laugh. He likes to wrestle the kids and dance with the adults. I love that he is so totally outgoing.

On Friday, we visited some friends in Pleasanton and then were off to San Francisco. I was craving some crab cocktails (which is weird the day after Thanksgiving, I know), so we were off to the wharf. We also got clam chowder in bread bowls that Miles loved.

We walked up and down The Embarcadero and did some window shopping. This picture was taken at the coffee shop inside the bread factory.


We were going to come back to Reno on Friday night, but there was a storm passing through the mountains, so we crashed at my cousin Susan's house just south of Sacramento. Miles had fun playing with her two dogs and kids.

He was so great the entire trip! I thought he would be miserable in the car for hours at a time, but he proved me wrong in the greatest way possible. I couldn't be happier. I wonder how he'll be on an airplane...

Pre-sick photos

Here he is with his little camo hoodie and his fat face.


Waving at the camera! Say cheese!

When will he be well!?!

His impetigo has since gone away, but now Miles has a mild touch of bronchitis and had the stomach flu this weekend. I feel bad because Richard gave him the bronchial infection, and I'm the one responsible for the flu. I had it so bad that I was completely evacuated of any stomach contents within three hours. That was no picnic, let me tell you.

Richard, on the other hand, had a cold about a month ago that turned into a sinus infection that then turned into acute bronchitis. He has the weakest immune system, and because he's working out and training three times a day, his body hasn't had the time it needs to get well.

So my poor little baby has had the worst few months. I was miserable with the flu and Richard has been miserable with his cough, but my poor sweet child had both on Friday night. He would only sleep if I was rocking him, so I got NO SLEEP that night. I remember sitting on the couch at 3:30am in tears - I was physically, mentally, and emotionally spent. I've never been that exhausted and have never felt that helpless.

He still isn't sleeping well and was awake last night from 3:30am to 5:30am. He was in an okay mood, but he was somewhat fussy becuase he didn't fall asleep until 10:30pm although I tried to get him to sleep at 9:30pm.

I can't wait until he's his happy, cheerful self. I almost forget who he normally is because all of his health issues have taken over his otherwise wonderful disposition.

God, Buddha, Higher Power, if you are reading this, please do what you can to give my baby back to me. I miss him!