Tiguh Tumin'!

A while ago, Miles invented a tiger that follows us home from Mamma Sues. About 1/2 way home, he'll announce that the tiger is coming and that we need to go faster - super fast in fact. We then get to an intersection where he decides which way the tiger is going to go and which way we will go home. We then make the turn, say goodbye to the tiger and go along on our merry way.

I love that his little imagination has just exploded. You can see it in his playing at home, or with things like the tiger. He also has a game where he turns one of us into a tiger - who then has to chase him. As soon as you get too close, he turns you into a giraffe. No idea - but great fun for all!

Boing!

It seems like the bouncy chair has been the only milestone Amelia hasn't hit earlier than Miles, but she finally has it. She loves being upright, in the center of everything, and bouncing away. As often as Miles amuses her, she amuses herself with this - and certainly entertains the whole family with it, too!

Party Tricks

Last weekend, we went to Half Moon Bay to celebrate Natalie's 3rd birthday. Natalie was a little girl at Miles' daycare who just graduated. He always had a thing for her even though she was the one who bit him. Miles had a blast on the ponies and went nuts in the bouncy house. More interestingly, however, was all the little girls who went nuts on him in the bouncy house - they were literally tackling our little Bubs who mostly took it in stride.

As we left, each of the kids were given a party bag. We didn't do much with the party bags until this past weekend when Miles figured out the little horn blowy thing... much to Amelia's amusement.

Some vids from Soda Springs

I was just clearing out the video camera and uncovered these. For whatever reason, closing weekend was a super magical time, and I still feel that when looking at these videos. I just love how much my kids love one another and how much they love Soda Springs. (Ok, Amelia may not know that she loves Soda Springs yet, but she'll figure it out soon enough!)

2 1/2 years!!!

I can't believe it, but Miles is 2 and a 1/2 years old. Sometimes I look at him, and he is still my little baby, but mostly I see a little boy. His language is exploding and we now talk all the time - real conversations. I am totally surprised by his little memory, and he is picking up concepts really quickly. Some snippets:

• "Look Miles, a school." "Yeah, people going Kindergarten there." "Yeah, kindergarten." "But Mamma and Pop-pop are too big for Kindergarten." "yes, that's true, Mamma and Pop-pop already went to kindergarten. Where are mamma and Pop-pop now?" "On a boat!" (Cruising in Alaska.)
• "Miles, are you done with your blueberries?" (he, looks) "No, just have a little bit left".

He is amazing with his little sister and is constantly jumping out of bed to say goodnight or good morning to her. He is a wonderfully polite little boy and says please, thank you and your welcome all the time. He has even started to say "bless you" when someone sneezes, including himself.

When I count my blessings, I count Miles twice.

Miles wearing his hair like Amelia

And one more guitar one because they ROCK

Guitar Hero

2 weekends ago, we went down to Santa Cruz with the kids, Uncle Doogan, Mamma, Pop-pop, Kylie and Cody. Miles was THRILLED to see his cousins, in fact, when they all met up, Miles was so excited he ran down the boardwalk flailing his legs out to the right and left - just an expression of pure joy.

As we milled about the boardwalk, Miles was disinterested in all the games and other "schlock" the boardwalk promoted - until he saw the stall with guitars. At which point, he made a hard left, crossed pedestrian traffic and waited for one of us to win him a guitar. The game was to throw 2 darts into a star on a board. Tim took a couple of attempts, so did Uncle Doogan - but it was actually me with Amelia in the Bjorn who one him the guitar. I actually threaded the second dart into the back of the first one - like Robin Hood. The kid manning the booth gaped and declared he hadn't seen that before. We hardly noted the rareness of the throw and concetrated on arguing why we had one our little man his guitar.

He then spent the rest of the day walking around the boardwalk and playing. We could hardly get it out of his hands for the ride back, and 2 weeks later it is still his favorite toy. Clearly Miles has a thing for stringed instruments.

In fact, last weekend up in Soda Springs, our caretaker's daughter Brooklyn had her small guitar and she let Miles hold it. I really think this might be his future album cover....

Funny kids

Last weekend we went up to close Soda Springs for the summer. :( It was a gorgeous weekend full of mental pictures. I am not sure if it was that the light was better (which it is in the fall) or if I was trying to capture all the memories to get me through the winter (which I did), but it just seemed like everything was a memory. Miles ran around like he owned the place - and knew just where the ping pong table way, Nick's cabin, and even the lake. On the ride out, I started saying "Goodbye" to everything like the cabin, the meadow, the soda house, and the river. Miles repeated everything, and then started adding his own "goodbye lake, goodbye beach, goodbye trees) so cute! I hope that he grows up knowing how special of a place it is and loving it as much as his parents do.

While in the cabin, Amelia scooted everywhere on the floor. She really became a filthy mess, but couldn't have been more pleased with herself. At one point while I was trying to photograph her excursion, she made the following face:


Obviously not her prettiest, but Miles thought it was so funny, he wanted to imitate it!