9 months old! + A Very Merry Christmas

Miles Dillon is 9 months (and 2 weeks) old, and those are the best pictures I could get because this kid is all over the place!  Our little photo shoot mostly looked like this:

Mobility is pretty much his biggest achievement lately, and Miles takes great joy in quickly crawling around the house babbling to us and the dog, stopping to pull up on all furniture and against doors or walls.  His primary goal is to join Maggie in the dog bed, and overturn the water bowl, but his mean parents never let him have any fun at all.

 Taken on my way to ruin his fun.  We discourage this for Maggie's sake... and because she sheds like it's her job.

Other interests include: closing doors, trying to eat leaves that get tracked in from outside, feeding himself bite-sized pieces of whatever we are eating, petting Maggie, throwing his cup on the floor, removing his socks, clapping his hands, playing with musical toys or anything with pieces that move.

Miles had his 9 month check-up on December 18th, and weighed in at just over 22 pounds (74%) and 28.5 inches long (58%).  His pediatrician is pleased with all of his new skills, which are right on track for his age, and said to keep feeding him table food and start moving away from purees. 

We're glad to have found a doctor who is against "kid food" are looking forward to teaching Miles to love a variety of flavors - except the nuts and shellfish that he can't have until he's older.  Even though there's a new one published every time you turn around, I'm enjoying books and articles detailing how the French teach their children to accept foods that Americans assume they will not like.  Here's hoping we can raise an adventurous eater!

Biscuits and sausage gravy are delicious.

December also brought our annual Christmas road trip, and lots of time with our families.  We exchanged gifts among the three of us on Christmas Eve before we left for Houston, and Miles loves his new activity cube.  He plays with it every day and especially likes closing all the little doors and spinning the beads.  Nick got some shirts, some records, an Xbox game, and grapefruit vodka.  I was happy to get some clothes, and some art prints that I plan to hang in our long-neglected master bedroom.  We decided not to shower Miles with gifts this year, not because he isn't the best baby ever, but because he'll be turning 1 in just 3 months (sob!) and simply does not need lots of new stuff.  Santa brought him a couple of cool books to Grandma and Grandpa's house, and I think everyone else liked the Dog book as much as he does! (Highly recommend it for kids his age and a little older)

 

Wednesday evening, we went to church with the rest of the Dillons and then enjoyed gifts and a big lunch on Christmas Day.  Miles got lots of cool stuff, and had lots of fun crawling around and standing for his audience.

Reading A Charlie Brown Christmas with Grandpa is our new family tradition

On Friday, we drove to Bryan to spend time with the Fergusons and then went to my aunt and uncle's house in Magnolia for our next family gathering.  Miles got so many fun gifts (again) and loves watching all the dogs and older kids running around.

Someone loves sitting with his great-grandma, Nandy

I was not drunk - I would normally crop that face out but the rest of the picture is good so I'm taking one for the team.

On Saturday, we headed back to Dallas and went to my Aunt Monica's house for Christmas with the Moutons.  We were pretty tired and didn't take many pictures, but Miles had more fun with my aunts, uncle and cousins and received even more fun toys and books!

This blurry picture is the only evidence, but we had a good time in Rockwall!

By the time New Year's Eve rolled around, we were all pretty tired and just enjoyed some time at home for the weekend (still in progress).  We can't wait to see everyone again soon, but are hoping for some visitors in Dallas!

Southpaw, and other observations.

When I started this blog, I had grand intentions to record all the little moments we enjoy with Miles and not just a monthly update and picture dump.  It's too bad the whole working mother of an infant situation left me with less free time than I thought I'd have (what was I thinking?), but now that the cuteness is so extreme and our days are so busy, I need to make time for posts like this.

Enjoy the randomness - I hope Miles will, too, one day.

Southpaw
As of right now, one week shy of 9 months, we think Miles might be left handed.  He uses both hands, of course, but tends to feed himself and hold his cup in his left hand.  When I place toys in front of him, he typically grabs with the left, and transfers small things to that hand.  Perhaps he'll grow up to be like his Aunt Carly and we'll just buy special scissors.

What does Miles eat?
What doesn't Miles eat?  After about eight weeks of being careful, we determined that Miles doesn't seem to have food allergies so we declared it semi-open season and started feeding him a wider variety of foods.  We want him to be accustomed to strong flavors and not rely on fruit-laced dishes (or combos of cheese and carbs), so we got to work mixing our own purees (By "we" I really mean Nick 80% of the time) and sharing what we're having, so long as it doesn't have nuts or too much spice.  It turns out that Miles likes to eat:

- Mexican flavors like cumin and onion powder, especially with black beans and chicken or beef
- Yellow curry powder with his veggie and white bean puree
- Yogurt and smoothies
- All fruits, to the point where we sometimes have to avoid sweet things for a day so he'll eat dinner
- Everything he tried at Thanksgiving!
- Whatever we're having, if he can get it in his mouth

You can tell when he likes something because he'll go "Mmmm!" and kick his feet.  And when he's not yet a fan, he'll eat anyway if you let him take lots of water breaks.  It's also funny to see that he's sometimes confused by his cups - he doesn't get that you don't need to tilt a straw cup, and gets frustrated when he's not getting much water.

Turkey legs
Today Miles' teacher asked if we could start sending him to school in sweatpants because some of his other pants are so tight around the thighs that it's impeding his crawling and pulling up.  I wonder which parent he gets that from??


Miles' First Christmas
We're not going overboard on the holidays this year, but I wanted to get a picture of Miles and Santa.  We did not have time to brave NorthPark, and the line at Bass Pro was 3 hours long, so I we went over to Grapevine Mills and waited about 15 minutes to takes photos with this perfectly good Kris Kringle.  I didn't think Miles would cry, but I wasn't sure if he'd smile.  We lucked out, and he wasn't scared, but pretty much kept that finger in his mouth the whole time.

Pulling Up
This past week, Miles has gone from occasionally pulling up to doing it all day long.  He stands up around the ottoman, the couch, and his little activity table - happily looking around in pride.  It's cute, but a little sad for me.  My baby is growing up!

BFFs
We continue to be so pleased by how well Maggie interacts with Miles.  He loves to pet her and watch her run around, and she lets him touch her and lean on her without any sudden movements... while sometimes licking his hands and face.   We're really looking forward to the day when Miles can run with her since that's pretty much her life's dream.

As for Charlie, well, he no longer steals baby toys and stealth poops in the nursery, and basically acts like Miles isn't there most of the time.  Progress!

8 months old!

As promised, here's Miles' 8 month update - almost on time!!

8 months has been another fun time for Miles, and he continues to be more mobile each week.  We can no longer leave him on his blanket and expect to find him in roughly the same spot when we come back.  In the time it takes to get some water in the kitchen, he can end up under the dining table!

He army crawls pretty fast (tummy isn't off the ground) and is very determined to get his toys and check out all extension cords and bits of lint that he can get his hands on.  He is becoming more interested in his toys and how things work, but his blocks and piano are still the favorites.

A few weeks ago I was putting away laundry and put Miles in his crib to watch his musical Nemo toy so he'd be safe while I went in and out of the garage.  I came back to find this:

He can't get himself to sitting up from laying down yet, so we're not worried about climbing out, but he LOVES to pull up whenever he can and trying to walk while he hold his hands.  I wish time would just stop sometimes - he's getting so big so fast!

Miles also experienced his first Thanksgiving, and spent time with both the Dillons and Fergusons.  He ate turkey, cranberries, stuffing, cheesy rice, yams... and pie.  And loved pretty much all of it!

A sweet neighbor of Grandma and Grandpa Dillon gave him a cool car to ride in, too.  We didn't have room in the car to bring it home, but hopefully soon!

We also took a few family pictures at my Uncle Kelley's house, and Miles got to see even more family:

So far it's been a great month, and we're looking forward to celebrating Christmas with out little guy.  I'm sure he's going to love all the wrapping paper.

7 months old! (In October)

Once again, I am dreadfully late with the monthly update, but I finally got around to creating Miles' 7 month picture!  Here's how he looked in mid-October:

We love our happy little guy so much, and 7 months was a fun time at our house.  He started to become (a bit) mobile, cut both of his top front teeth, and continued to eat pretty much every food we put in front of him - both pureed and soft solids.  He mastered the sippy cup, figured out some of his more advanced toys, and continues to laugh at us and himself.

I took my first work trip away from Miles in mid-October, and he had a great few days with Grandma while Nick attended a company conference at the same time (of course, that's how things work out for us).  I missed him, but I have had some great opportunities at work this year and was glad that he got to spend some quality time with Nick's mom, Diane.

We also enjoyed a food festival in Irving, and a visit from my parents.  Miles took his first trip to Cabela's, and will be camping with Dad in no time.

Halloween was pretty uneventful - we thought it would be tacky to show up with a baby who can't walk or eat candy, so Miles helped us hand out candy to our meager stream of trick or treaters and wore his skeleton sleeper to school.  Then he promptly outgrew it.

The next day, we had our annual Fry-Day party, and had a great time with our friends.  We were able to get almost all of the little boys in our friend group on the same sofa at the same time for a photo - we hope they'll be able to recreate it every year.

I'll be writing up Miles' 8 month post soon, I promise.  We have the picture and everything!