Reading with Papa

Papa from DAM FAM on Vimeo.

Watch yourself: 31,000 pictures

Dave's parents came to town! We had great weather while they were here and we all got snowed in together. I'm glad they got to experience our apartment and see that when we have a blow up mattress out, our place practically disappears! Sorry I stepped on your glasses, Mom. There was just no where else to walk or climb. And my spiderman-climb-the-walls talent expired long ago.

All sarcasm and joking aside, it was great having them out for a visit. And I really am sorry about stepping on the glasses. I had prepped Miles for days and days that Grandma and Grandpa Lawson were coming and he was so extremely and appropriately excited. He loved having them here. We only got to show them St. Paul before we got snowed in, so they'll have to come back someday to see Minneapolis.

Just snowing away out there...

I remember the days when Miles wanted to play on that play gym all day long and I didn't want to go get eaten alive by mosquitoes...

The sun came out and the picnic table bench was gone.

Also, Santa made an early visit and miraculously made it in our place despite the fact that we don't have a chimney. He must have come through the heater vent holes/things. Ok, I lied. Santa didn't come. But Grandma and Grandpa Lawson brought enough gifts to make it look like Santa came! Thanks!

Don't the colors green and red just make you feel festive?

We must have been good...

Rounding the corner after nap time to check it out.

Miles, being ever true to himself, was very careful to not make a mess with the wrapping paper he was tearing off. He'd crumple it up and give it to someone or run it over to the trash. P.S. I love that Miles' cheeks giggle/bounce when he runs.

I love this kid's personality. After he'd open a present he'd check it out for a good while. Observe it, play with it, notice everything about it.

When he felt it had sufficient attention/welcome to his world, he'd go get the next present.

See what I mean? Gotta line up the play-doh first... talk about what color they are, count them, love them, etc.

Thanks a ton. Miles really loves all the great gifts he got.

He got this cute Santa ornament from "Grandma Great."

Showing it off.

Admiring it.

Admiring it...

Getting a different idea...

Thinking it would be way more fun to throw it...

Throwing it.

A morning read complete with bed head...

...and "Papa," of course. Miles couldn't get enough.

As you can see, Miles wasn't quite jiggy on the idea of having to stop watching Toy Story to take pictures.

But it all worked out in the end.

I'm glad the dog made it in the pictures, and I'm sorry your head got cut off, Pops. I guess you'll just have to come again if you want a better picture. See you then!

P.S. The morning the rents were leaving, I asked Dave if Miles knew and if not he should tell him. Miles was sitting on Dave's lap and when Dave told him that Grandma and Grandpa were leaving, Miles stuck out his lip in the saddest, most heart broken way possible, turned his head, buried his face in Dave's chest and cried. True love for Grandma and Grandpa.

Miles the bookworm

Miles has always been a big fan of books. He could read them for hours. In fact, maybe about a week ago, after we ate our mid morning breakfast I was sitting right here at the computer and Miles came over to my arm, hugged it while saying "squeeeeeeze," gave me a kiss, said "bye mom" and went up stairs to his room, closed the door and I didn't hear a word from him for at least an hour. I bet he read some books.

Anyway, a few mornings ago Miles was reading on the couch and I realized that I should snap a picture or two to remember Miles and his adorable love for books. He's almost 2 1/2. My, how time flies.

Too cute of a face.

Too cute of a mouth. I just want to snuggle up to it and kiss it.

So serious.

So Miles.

Baby, it's cold outside

I really haven't been like "wow, this is way too cold to handle" yet. I'm sure that day will come. And I'm sure I handle the cold so well so far because I hardly ever go outside. What can I say? I like to stay in this grungy place and find spider eggs instead.

Anyhow, this is the condensation on our bathroom window.

It's frozen.

In other News:
Yesterday I was all proud of myself for teaching Miles the number 13 in learning time so I told him to show Dave what he learned. He's really been loving Dave lately, which is different-- he's a total mama's boy. I love seeing him want Dave to stay home and getting so excited when Dave does come home. Anyway, he was real excited to show Dave the new shape (Christmas tree) and new number (13) he learned. He went and got a piece of paper and a pencil and took it over to Dave and showed off his knowledge of 13 and the shape of a Christmas tree. Then Dave wrote out more numbers and Miles straight up counted to 19 with no help. We were like, "how does he know how to count to 19?" Is that from the sunny days of Sesame Street? He may not actually know numbers 14-19, but he at least caught on to the pattern. Learning time... psh. I thought I was so cool and Miles showed me up.

Then that night he had his fireman and lego man kissing. That's the first I've seen him do something like that aside from the time he went up to a little girl acting like there was a magnet on his crotch and she was magnetic... that was funny/awkward/concerning all the same. I'm not ready for this kind of stuff. I told Miles 30 times that boys don't kiss boys, only boys and girls kiss (which soon got changed to moms and dads), but he still had Lego man and Fireman make out. And, the kid literally listens to every word we say. Even when it seems like he's not listening, or he's playing with toys in the other room, he's listening. I'm grateful he can't talk clear as a bell-- I'm sure he's picked up on some things from us that would make my jaw drop to the floor.

And so we carry on. Dave's super busy with work and school; I'm semi/occasionally busy with whatever I do and my calling at church; Miles is busy secretly learning to count to 19 and saying "yuhaap!" (yep) which I quite enjoy, and being funny and cute and happy. Our high on Sunday is 1. Yippee!

Guess who paid a visit?

Miles got to meet a new friend on Saturday. You know who.

SANTA!

I tried to prep Miles and get him all excited. He knows about Christmas and presents and Santa and reindeer and loves Christmas music, but I don't think he gets the excitement of it all just yet.

See? He doesn't look very excited. Also not scared.

Checking out his goods.

Happy as a peach. Or how about happy as a raspberry since I think that's a front runner as Miles' favorite fruit. Happy as a raspberry.

I propose a vote

I think it's safe to say that Dave and I have a bit of a crude sense of humor. I know it's not good per se, but at the end of the day, it's still funny and it still makes me laugh. I don't know where we lie on the crude spectrum; too crude, mediocre crude, hardly crude... actually I lied. I know for sure that we aren't "hardly crude." Some decent examples of the crude part of our humor may or may not be found in this or in this or in this or in this.

Yesterday I was changing Miles' diaper, just getting ready to take it off. His belly got all tight and he was obviously pushing something, somewhere. I held his diaper in place and braced myself for what was to come in the ensuing moments. Much to my relief, it was just a big, very audible fart. As soon as Miles got it out and heard it he laughed and laughed like it was the funniest thing he'd heard all week. Which it probably was.

So, this is what it boils down to:

A) Some things are just down right funny no matter who you are.

B) Sense of humor is genetic/hereditary.

C) All boys and men think farts are funny no matter their age.

SIDE STORY WITH REGARD TO C:
My great grandpa George lived to be a few months shy of 106. When he was 100 or maybe late 90s, he was at my house and I was sitting on a couch or chair across from where he was sitting. He was plenty hard of hearing by this time of his life. Anyway, we were just sitting there-- not talking or watching TV... just sitting. I watched Grandpa George obviously lean his weight to one side and rip a huge, long fart followed by him saying in his satisfied deep voice, "Mmmm mmmm mmmm." I think I was surprised at first, but it's been a funny memory every since my one second of surprise wore off.

Realistically, it's probably a bit of A, B and C. But I'll cast my vote with A. What's your vote?

December

December in Minnesota.

There's Frosty's (you know, the snowman) miniature arm/hand.

Seeing all that white and cold makes me want some hot chocolate, Christmas music and a movie (but not at the same time-- I hate conflicting sounds). And a Christmas tree. And Christmas lights. And a fire.

Happy December!

We welcomed December today with me waking up exhausted and laying back in bed for another hour or so while Miles brought books to the side of my bed and read them one inch from my face. Good thing he doesn't like to eat right away. Anyway, who knows what else we did-- just the usual and nothing really worth mentioning. I baked cookies that I had to take somewhere and took a late shower. After Miles skipped his nap but hung out in his bed for a couple hours, I got him going with a dinner and ran upstairs to put on some clown paint (aka make up) so I could be all gussied up for the 12-18 year old girl crowd who would soon eat all my cookies. I came back down, in a bit of a hurry to get going and Miles had dumped his rice all over everything. So, then I got in a really big hurry. Rice was everywhere-- all over Miles, his onesie, his legs, his feet. But like I said, I was in a real big hurry to get out the door so some girls could eat my cookies. So I was barking at Miles for the gigantic mess he made and being a big, fat grouch. I took his ricey onesie off and in the process it got stuck on his upper lip. I was taking it off in such a rush though, that rather than stop to get it unstuck, I just took it off in one swift pull and tore his little connecty thing on his upper lip. Put your tongue up behind your upper lip-- you'll feel it. I felt awful. He bled. It was terrible. It only tore a little bit and I had him lay on the couch holding a cold, wet paper towel up under his lip and it took him about 1 minute before he was telling me "Miwoes better!" The rest of the night went lots better. We even got a couple of the cookies.

So, moral of the story is don't be grouchy on December 1st or at Christmas time or anytime. It doesn't get you out the door any faster.