SUGAR HIGH!!

We all went down to church twice yesterday. They lured us back in the evening of jazz piano and a BBQ dinner complete with several kinds of macaroni and cheese and desserts (orange cake! Chocolate cake! and the innovative lemonade pie!). The real clincher in our decision to go, though, was the description of the paper-covered tables with baskets of crayons. Come on! Dinner and entertainment for us and our kid? less than a mile from our house? How are we going to turn that one down??
We're so glad we went. Not only was the food and piano sumptuous, but we got to talk to some really kind, smart, welcoming people. Miles was a total charmer, once we got some food into him. He probably had a little too much orange cake, however, and we also gave him some lemonade. Notice his manic expression in these shots. He pretty much ran around and yelled for a long time afterward.





I'm not sure if this is related or not but the past two nights he's been making a habit of "talking"himself to sleep. No yelling or crying or anything unpleasant, just a string of syllables. Could the sugar still be working its way out?

A couple of videos

This is Miles' definition of "dancing." Does each kid make up their own? Where did he get this?




Here's Miles' fishface. I know there are some fishface fans out there:

A toddler in the house???

We have reached that very scary reality in which we can say that we have a talking, proto-talking, sassy little person with a will (and won't) of his own. I wouldn't say he's had a personality transformation exactly... but he kinda has. He's learned to use "nnnn" for "no," and to recognize, understand, and fiercely protest the word "no" when it's directed at him. He also has definite ideas about where and when he's going to go places. I took him to the park the other day and- well- he wanted to do EVERYTHING dangerous he could find to do.

Good morning, world! What do you have for me?

Ooh where does this lead??


Thank you very much but..

I don't need your help.


Yeah, I got this.

Wait, is this all?

You can't catch me!

Look out! here...


I....

Come....
Haha, in your face!

"And the look in his eye
Seemed to say to the sky,
"Now, how to amuse them to-day?"
-A.A. Milne, "Sneezles"

How Prince Miles learned to wear his crown

A photo story. :-)

We went to the library as usual after the farmer's market, and they've reinstated storytime for the school year! So Miles got to hear stories, see other children, play with scarves during music time, color and make.. crowns! (It was a royalty themed storytime). (Just as a parenthetical here, that was the most awesomely diverse storytime session I've ever been to, as in, both ethnically and I'm also pretty sure we were the only people who spoke English as a first language..I love it when Miles gets to see children of all sorts and understand that they're all children like himself)

So Mummy put the crown on Miles for a photo..


But he wants to PLAY with the crown for himself:





First he puts it on, though with untraditional positioning:




Struggles:

...and a breakthrough!



This is how you do it, right?

And Saturday lived happily ever after.

Sunday in the Park with Jon

...and Miles. We finally did what we've been trying in vain to do for over a month: we went to the Duck Pond on Virginia Tech's campus. It wasn't even that crowded (I think a lot of people had football hangovers). Miles may have been walked by a pond with ducks before, but I don't remember it. I've certainly never said, "Look, Miles, ducks!" before and he looked and looked and looked...


After a couple of falls on the tree roots and with a sense that a dip in the pond for at least two of us would be inevitable if we let Miles romp around by the water's edge much longer, we decided to move on to a nearby grassy plane. Miles + Papa:





They have this game about putting the hat on and off.. it's not very sophisticated, but Miles thinks it's one of the top five best games.
Look, they also had a heron!

What a glorious day.

That Kind of Mom, or Rainy Day

Every once and a while in the parenting experience, we actually get to do one of the things we'd envisioned doing before we became parents. It might be taking an idyllic stroller ride, or jumping in the leaves, catching snowflakes on our tongue, watching our child meet Santa Claus or going fishing. I have long cherished the idea that I would be the kind of mother that, when our outdoor plans were ruined by rain (as they were on Saturday), I would make play-dough from scratch for my kid to play with on the kitchen floor. My mother was That Kind of Mother, and I aspired to be that kind too.

Then I became a working mom, I've been a bit concerned lately that I might become a just-good-enough mom. The kind that makes sure her kid eats healthily enough, doesn't watch tv much, and refrains from saying anything too unrepeatable in front of him. It was hugely satisfying to me that, despite the fact that I have an 8-5 job every weekday, on weekends I'm sometimes still up to being That Kind of Mom. (I promise you this wouldn't be the case if I were still teaching).
Behold: the homemade play-dough!


Unfortunately, Miles is 14 months old and not quite ready to be enthralled by play-dough. He's still trying to bust through the baby-locks and open stuff.

I did finally get him to acknowledge it. He enjoyed fitting it into his barrel-o-monkeys barrel.

I discovered with glee, like the child that I am, that you can make monkey imprints with the barrel and the play-dough.

Miles is unimpressed, however. He discovered the broom sitting idle and would not be parted from it for a long time. He was really and truly wiping it across the floor, especially by the cat dish, like he sees me do. I should be touched, I guess :-)

All in all, we spent about ten minutes actually playing with it.

At least I know I can make play-dough on a Saturday.

Miles says hi!

...To the kitty. Who was in the window. He does include us all in his greetings by the end, though. Notice that I have the camera under the table until I know he's not going to go all camera shy on me...

We love the Farmer's Market

Last week makes three straight weeks we've gone to the market! But I didn't really get great shots of the market itself. I'll try to do better. There are so many beautiful sights to be seen!

We had some early fall weather to enjoy as well. Come on apple season!