Turkey Teeth

This last week was another adventurous week at the Keyes house! Lots of fun times were had. Miles is still really into the baby and wants to see it all the time. He even tells daddy when he touches my belly to not touch 'his' baby. Too funny! It's been interesting this week; I've heard that when a new baby arrives, sometimes your older child/ren can show some signs of regression, but it seems Miles is doing this already! Not too bad, but definitely bringing up things from the past. He's suddenly started calling us 'mama' and 'dada' fairly often and has begun wanting to drink out of a sippy cup again. He hasn't been drinking out of a sippy for some time now and now always wants one. He's also been using his baby sign language more often lately. He'd pretty much stopped using it since he can get his point across with words now, but this past week, he's been signing 'more', 'eat', and 'drink' that I've noticed.

Miles is also still really into playing basketball and has a great time with daddy about every day! They've even started doing introductions before they begin to play...sometimes this is Miles' favorite part and does like 5 intros!



We had a good time getting ready for the Thanksgiving festivities and Miles helped me make the apple pie we were going to have as dessert!

Mama and Papa Keyes came down to spend Thanksgiving with us and we had a great time! It'd been a while since they were down, so it was real nice to have them here. Miles loved visiting with them! He ended up napping through Thanksgiving dinner with one of his 3 1/2 hour power naps, but he eventually did have a little bit of turkey, which Ahmad had fried.

We had gotten some sparkling grape juice to have too, but didn't get to that with him really until the weekend. We got out our plastic picnic wine glasses and had 'fancy drinks'. He thought that was the best thing ever! We drank them all weekend. On Friday, we took Mama and Papa Keyes to the Children's Museum and showed them all around. Of course we had a blast!

Miles and daddy went down the Yule Slide and then we went to visit Santa. Miles was excited to see him and chose visiting him over the dinosaurs, but as we got closer to seeing him, he changed his mind and didn't want to visit Santa. Too late! We were about 3 people back, so we were going to see him. Miles didn't cry, but he wasn't happy either!

It was a fairly nice and mild weekend and on Saturday, we were able to get outside and get up the Christmas decorations. Well, Ahmad put them up and we watched! Miles loves the lights!



The other night, Miles played pretend in a new way. We were spending time bug-bugging before bed and he decided to act like he was mommy and I was Miles. It was very cute! He offered me some of his water and then sang me the ABCs and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I can see role playing taking off now!

Miles was funny getting dressed this morning. I got out a football type shirt to wear and he insisted, no, he wanted his Colts shirt. I was a bit surprised he even knew he had one, but went to get it. It turned out he really wanted his Notre Dame outfit, so he wore that. Then, when we were getting ready to put on his shoes, he had a bit of a hard time because he didn't have any 'football shoes' to wear with his outfit! I tried to get him to wear the regular ones he likes, but he insisted those were his basketball shoes and he couldn't wear them with his football outfit. I had to laugh! So I tried to get him to wear a blue pair that at least matched, but he didn't go for that either. He did end up wearing the basketball shoes, but after much distress.

This morning was Miles' first official trip to the dentist. We talked about it this weekend and this morning. He was all about going and was practicing how to say "Ah" and how to show the dentist his teeth. He even insisted he would go first (we both had appointments), but once we got there, he didn't want to go at all! He sat very nicely next to me in a chair while I got my teeth cleaned and paid close attention to everything they were doing. Then when it was his turn, he didn't want to show his teeth. He clung to me like he was scared to death! After a few tickles, he warmed up and allowed the hygenist to look at his teeth. He did quite well! She said he had great teeth and it looked like he brushed very well! I was surprised as I was a bit concerned he wasn't brushing enough. She said it looked good and to keep it up. We'll keep bringing him with us and eventually, they will clean his teeth too.

All in all, this week is off to a good start! :)

Big Brother

Miles was bug-buging with me and baby tonight before bed as usual. Then when it was time for daddy's bug-bugs, Miles was very sad to leave the baby. He kissed it goodnight and said "I love you". He pretended the baby was crying for him and he said "that's ok baby, I'll see you tomorrow. I can't hold you right now." and he went to get daddy. My two babies...

Baby Bug Bugs

This was such a fun week! Very busy and the week flew by, but it was good. Miles continues to gain his independence and insists on doing things by himself, stating, "no, let me do it!". He even was able to do his zipper on his sweatshirt this week for the first time by himself. He was so proud! He's almost got his coat zipper too, but not quite yet. He's got a new saying, "no way!". It's so funny. I guess I say that to him when I'm playing around and he wants me to do something, I'll say either "no way" or "no way Jose". He's picked up on it and says it all the time. Cracks me up. He's doing better on spelling "stop" this week and has it down every time now. He's loves spelling it when we see a stop sign. Today we worked on spelling his name. He got it pretty well, but we'll see if it sticks. He's also doing great on his numbers and to my surprise, after reading and working on them, he was able to identify all the numbers up to 10 except for #4. That one seemed to stump him.

Babies babies everywhere! My cousin, Katie, had her baby boy, Andrew, last week. He's such a cutie pie! Unfortunately after she came home, she went back to the hospital because she started having seizures and it was determined she had some air bubbles in her brain. They aren't exactly sure how they got there; they think either from having to try her epidural 3 times (and possibly entering air that way) or from her pushing for over 3 hours during delivery (and possibly having air enter that way). It was very scary and I'm so glad that she is now back home again. They are keeping an eye on her as the air will take some time to dissipate, but she's on blood pressure medication and seizure medication, so hopefully it will run it's course and she can enjoy being a new mommy. Let's keep them all in our prayers. I also just saw tonight that my good friend, RaeLynn, had her baby! I'm assuming it was today, but need to find out the details. Juliana looks just beautiful! Another friend of ours, Andre and Emily, had their baby several weeks ago, but we still have yet to visit with Evelyn. We hope to be able to do so soon. The only ones left that we know of are our neighbors and me. It's getting so close! Katie is scheduled to be induced in about 6 weeks and I have about 9 left. Wow! I've been able to get lots organized over the weekend and have washed the clothes that are neutral and gotten them put away. Just a few more details and things to buy and I think we'll be all set!

Miles was cheering for ND yesterday and got all dressed up for the day. It almost helped, but not quite. However, it was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed spending most of the day outside watching daddy work in the yard while we played with the neighbors. Good times! Then Miles and daddy enjoyed a game of basketball after getting ready for bed. Miles had such a good time, he kept talking about it before he went to bed and even when he woke up this morning, he told me he dreamed about it last night too. They got to play again today, so that was very fun.

We got to spend the morning outside today as well. It was so nice! Miles was enjoying his new hat one of Ahmad's clients brought back from Disney World for him and checking out what mail there might be (which is a bit of a daily routine for him now).

This evening, Miles was dancing and then daddy joined in. They danced to the Roots and did their routine, although Miles is getting faster these days and daddy has to work to keep up with him now!

Miles is so into the baby these days. He talks to it all the time and says "baby, my baby" and wants to see it, so he pulls up my shirt. He talks to it and pretends the baby may be crying and says "ok, it's ok" and tells it that "big brother is here". He kisses the baby, has me kiss his hands as if he's holding it, and pretends to take care of it. It's so adorable. I was able to capture a few of these moments after we got in from our walk this morning. He's also begun talking about being excited when the baby will come live in our house. He sometimes says the baby is kicking "like this" and proceeds to lay on his back and kick his legs in the air. Before bed, while we are 'bug-bugin', he's begun bug-bugging with the baby and lays down next to my belly and hugs my belly. He tells me to cover them up, so I put covers over my belly and Miles. He lays there and bug-bugs with the baby. So cute. I just know he'll be a great big brother!

Miles' Games

Miles is so inventive these days! He has so many little games that he likes to make up and play. Over the weekend, he was lining up shape toys in a line for a net; then he gave me a shape (circle) and him a shape (circle) and we were to hit a ball with the shape as if it were a racket over the line of shapes. He wanted to play tennis! He plays bowling and golf too, although golf and tennis are a lot alike in his world. He's into taking pictures on Ahmad's old digital camera and gets such a thrill out snapping that perfect shot! Although, the majority of them have his fingers in front of the lens. He is on a tickle kick and loves being tickled! He always has, but more so these last few days again. He holds our lips closed and asks if we want a snack and then when we try to respond, we can't! It's hilarious! Then it's his turn and we hold his lips closed and do the same. He cracks up! He also has started holding my eye lids down and having me try to open my eyes. Then he makes me do it to him too. Too funny! When he's learning something new, he goes through the list (of items or whatever he's learning) time and time again until he can remember every last thing on the list or page. He's also recently into Stop signs and loves looking for them. He's realizing there are "ABCs" on the sign too and has identified all the letters. Every now and then he gets it right, but when I asked him tonight to spell Stop for daddy, he said TSOP. Almost! Another funny thing he does is say "Obama" as if it's a bad phrase or word. He knows who Obama is when he sees him and says President Obama. He also calls the flag the "Obama Flag". But, when he talks about his friends at school, he often says "Obama Austin" (one of his friends at school or he'll use another friend's name)! Or he'll walk up to us and say "Obama" as if it's an insult. Not sure where that comes from, but it's kinda funny. Often we get home from school before Daddy is home from work, but if Daddy is home first and I ask Miles what he thinks Daddy is doing, he usually will say cooking. When I ask him what he's cooking, he'll usually say eggs. Then sometimes he'll add pizza on to that. Tonight he wanted to help Daddy cook the eggs. :) He's just so full of ideas these days...can't wait to see what he comes up with next!

Nana's Visit

Last week, Nana and Mommy both had the same day off, so Nana decided to come up and visit. Miles played hooky from school and we went to the Children's Museum and then a little maternity shopping. Miles had a blast at the museum; he's been talking about going for some time now and it'd been awhile since I was there too. They've remodeled and it was nice, but a long walk into the museum now! Our first stop was the carousel and then playing in the tree house and with the 'potato heads'. Nana had to show Miles how they worked, but he checked out the tree house by himself!

Then we checked out the sand and water tables where he had a blast as well! He got his arms soaked though and Nana decided to buy him a new sweatshirt in the gift shop to stay cozy the rest of the visit. After figuring out how to get out of the gift shop, we went and ate some lunch and then visited the dinosaurs. Miles did good with them and liked looking at them until the simulated rain came on. Then he decided he didn't like "wet dinosaurs" and wanted to leave. So we headed home.

After a poor attempt at a nap on mommy's part, we decided Miles probably wasn't going to nap, so we headed out to the stores for some new shoes for Miles and some maternity clothes for me. It's slim pickin's for maternity clothes, but we managed to find a few new shirts at Target. Then we went home and played for a short bit before Nana had to go home. It was a nice day and so wonderful to have Nana visiting. Now we just have to get Grampie up here!

Not napping on Wednesday did have its affect on Thursday and Miles didn't have the greatest day at school. However, that was the only bad day all week, so it was overall a good week! I went to the doctor on Thursday for my monthly check up and all is well. I was a bit concerned about my swelling, but my blood pressure and protein were both good, so she's not worried. I'm already getting on the every 2 weeks schedule though! I can't believe I'm that far along already. Time is flying!

Miles is still loving his Halloween candy and regularly tries to get in his stash to see what goodies he can have. Saturday was a good day too. We started out the morning getting ready for a portrait shoot at JC Penny's. Miles was quite the diva and didn't want to wear anything we picked out. So, we finally had him choose a shirt out of the 10 or so we laid out for him. He chose the most wrinkly shirt! Oh well. We finally got it on him and realized it was also on the small side. At least he was dressed though. We brought 2 other shirts in hopes of getting him to change, but he never did. The photo session didn't go too well and let's just say we aren't planning on going back. It's too bad too, they've done some good photos for us. We weren't overly impressed with Miles' two year old photos either and had the same lady this time. Miles was being shy and she was trying to get him to open up. Which is fine, but we think she was scaring him more than anything! And anytime he was actually doing ok, she wasn't holding her camera. Ug! We wanted to get family photos as well as maternity shots and she probably only took about 4 maternity shots and 18 total photos. We managed to get a few decent ones and did order some, but it was quite a process.

Sunday was very fun! Miles was great at church, especially after he discovered a pack of gum (his latest craze) in my purse. He proceeded to chew each piece throughout church. I was a bit worried how he would do during communion because he had already announced to me that he wanted "some Eucharist". However, he actually walked with me (instead of me carrying him) during communion and didn't try to swipe any from the dish. I was impressed! We went to the store and then home for lunch and a nap. When he woke up it was time to get ready for Amber, Jeff and baby Lauren to come 'tailgate' with us. We had a great time catching up and eating some good food! Miles was very entertained by Jeff and Lauren as well. However, I didn't get my camera out in time to get the tickle photos of Miles and Lauren. He was acting like a great big brother in practice and gave her some toys, turned them on for her, and periodically checked in to see how she was doing. Miles and Jeff played some games, but I'm not sure who won!Today was a great day! Miles was in a good mood all day and had a great time at school. He and Daddy got down the Adam's Family tune because I'm holding the work phone and that's the ring tone. It was too funny! He enjoyed playing with baby before bed and gave it a kiss goodnight. Baby has been very active tonight, up almost since I got home from work. I've also had a lot of braxton hicks tonight, so there must be a lot going on in there today! We're looking forward to another good week of just having fun. Hope to be able to catch up with some friends and family soon!

Seeing Spots

This last week was a good week! Miles has been really good and the hitting phase seems to be over. I'm sure there will be exceptions here and there, but he has only hit once in almost 2 weeks. This is such a huge relief! He's still having more accidents, but hasn't had one in the last 3 days, so perhaps that is getting better too. We've been working hard on getting the baby's room ready and finally have it all painted and the furniture placed. We still have some finishing touches, but it's mostly together. After not being able to get the stripes exactly how we wanted, we decided to ditch that idea and go with polka dots. I'm so glad we did-I love it! Miles is really getting into the baby now and was excited when we were working on the room. He kept telling us to watch out because the baby was coming! When I picked him up from school today, the teacher told me that he was talking about the baby today and said that he was going to be a big brother and have a little sister and her name was going to be Miles. :) We haven't even talked to him about names, so I guess we need to start doing that! He chose to read the Big Brother book tonight, so this must be on his mind.

He's been very independent this week too and insisting on doing things himself-everything from getting dressed or undressed to opening containers, going potty, and cleaning up. It's a fun change, but we sure have to plan extra time now! He's also still insistant on taking all his belongings with him when he leaves for school. Both pumpkin buckets, 3 stuffed animals and 3 blankets. It's so funny! He calls them his stuff and his purse-we think this may be from watching me in the mornings with all the things I usually have to take to work-a bag, computer and purse!

We had wonderful warm fall weather this weekend and were able to get outside on Saturday and Sunday. Ahmad bought a smoker to smoke something (hasn't decided what yet!) for Thanksgiving and had to try it out Saturday. He smoked a chicken and it was delicious! While outside smoking the chicken, Miles decided it was football weather and wanted to play catch with Daddy. He instructed daddy to go get the helmets and he'd get the football. All we have are bicycle helmets, so that's what they wore! Miles even caught the ball a few times!

After playing football for a bit, Miles needed a change of pace and decided he wanted to bowl. The only problem-no bowling set. However, we do have one that he will get either for Christmas or his birthday. I was so tempted to pull it out, but I resisted and got creative instead. We bowled with a ball and papertowel rolls...
Then we headed back into the leaf piles Ahmad had created and had fun messing them up!














Lastly, tonight we introduced him to Connect Four. He wasn't into actually playing it, but did enjoy putting all the "wheels" into the game and found it very interesting that there was one missing and it was always the top right corner that was missing!

Fading Into Fall

This past week has been very busy! Miles finished up the week awesome at school. He didn't hit Wednesday, Thursday or Friday and he was good all weekend! It felt so good! He was good today too and even got 3 stickers! Last week I did buy "Hands are Not for Hitting" and we've read that a few times. He seems to like it alright. I had my eye on a few others on Amazon, but didn't get that far to buy them yet. I still might since I liked their themes. I am not thinking we are quite in the clear yet, but he's been great and really seems to be more aware the last week of his actions. However, on the flip side, he's had an accident every day the last week. I'm not sure what's really going on with him, but I'd rather a backslide in potty training over hitting any day.

I got a bad cold a few weeks ago and have pretty much recovered, but still have a lingering cough (no, it's not swine flu!) and sometimes have a coughing fit. Miles is too cute and comes and holds me to him, patting my back and saying "come here mommy, it's ok, you're ok" until I'm finished. He's such a sweet pea!

Miles is also still so adorable with my belly! He pulls up my shirt all the time and hugs the baby, pats it, and gives it kisses. He talks about when the baby gets bigger, it'll be able to talk to him and play "dunk dunk" (a.k.a. basketball) with him. He says how nice the baby is and how little it is. He pretends to take the baby and hold it and cuddle it. Too cute! He says he's going to have a little brother. We'll see soon enough! The other night, he put a ball down his jammies and acted like he had a baby in his belly too. It was very funny!



I also turned 7 months on Friday! I can't believe how time has flown this pregnancy. I think it did the first time around and this time, it's gone twice as fast. I finally had to take off my wedding ring and right hand ring on Friday too. I knew it was getting close, but all the sudden, that was it. :( Now I'm wearing my fake wedding ring!

Since time is flying and the baby's arrival is getting close, we decided we finally had to buckle down and work on the baby's room. So, we spent much of the weekend painting. We just have to touch up the ceiling and add some circles and then we'll be done. I'm hoping to get to that after I finish posting. We were going to do a horizontal strip around the room in two colors, but after working on that last night, for some reason (Ahmad says he understands why, but it baffles me), we couldn't get the lines to match up despite our best efforts and using a laser level. So, we scratched that idea and decided to do random circles. I'm pretty excited about it! Miles really wanted to help us paint, which we didn't let him do, but he did provide some drum entertainment while we worked!

We took a break and finally also carved our Halloween pumpkins Halloween morning. Miles did quite well considering last year he had about zero interest and wouldn't touch the insides. It took him a bit, but he did reach in there and take out some seeds. He had a pretty good time and tried hard to separate the seeds from the goop so we could bake them. Then he instructed me on how to carve them. The first two were supposed to be happy faces and then an "o" face and then a sad face. He seemed pleased with my artwork!

When we (my brothers and I) were growing up, our dad always had us carve lots of pumpkins because he really liked the seeds. It was very important to make sure we did a good job of separating the seeds from the guts and we had to make sure there were no seeds gone to waste. It became quite a tradition and I'm sure he misses our seeds now! I had to laugh because I found myself saying some of the same things and really trying to get Miles to not play in the seeds because he was spilling them. However, I know how tempting they are because they are so slimy feeling. The mess we made never would have stood up when I was younger!Finally, it was time to dress up for Halloween! Miles instructed his makeup, but was getting tired of holding still by the time I got to his mouth. He also wasn't feeling the bow tie or hat this time around, so those got left at home. I still think he made a very cute clown! I dressed up as well, kinda. I was supposed to be an 8 ball due to my bulging belly, but my message may have been confused. I had someone ask me towards the end of the night if I was supposed to be the Octo-Mom. I had to laugh and say no! Miles did a great job trick or treating and had fun looking for the houses with the light on. He said 'trick or treat' to everyone and followed up with a 'thank you'. Once it got dark, he was finished though and wouldn't get out of the wagon. I think the other kids all dressed up were a it scary to him. We came back and went trick or treating to daddy, who had left us a bit early to come back and pass out candy, and were treated quite nicely! He's
enjoying his candy stash very much!

We finished up the week last night with some Roots dancing, Miles leading the way through the obstacle course he set up. He had a great time, but I had to sit out a round or two!