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We have been pretty bad about keeping our blog updated lately! And it’s not that we haven’t been doing much, it’s just nothing really exciting, though we did go for a hike today and used our new backpack. Anyway, on to the stats:

- Length: 29.5″ (50%)
- Weight: 21.5 lb. (25-50%)
- Head: 19″ (90-95%)

Miles continues to change and grow every day. He is so active and into everything. When you put him on the floor, he’s off, speed crawling through the living room, down the hallway and trying to find something that he’s not supposed to have. I’ve finally given up on trying to keep him away from things and have just moved them. It’s amazing how fast he can move. He just is not happy being kept in one spot or given only one toy to play with.

He also is not happy sitting if he can stand, including in the bathtub. He just will not stay seated in the tub and I probably say “Sit down” about 50 times to him each time he’s in the bath, for all the good that it does. He has these little Shrek squirt bath toys that came in the Cheerios boxes and he loves them. Tonight he was standing up (of course) and making them “walk” across the edge of the tub and then smashing them into each other. It was really cute.

Bedtime has been so much better lately. I don’t know if it was due to my sleep plan or what, but I haven’t had to crawl in his crib with him for probably 3 weeks now. I gradually shortened the time I spent in his crib and then I’d just sit next to it while rubbing his back, and soon I could just sit next to him. After awhile, he was ok with me just sitting on the floor and reading and now I don’t even need to be in the room at all. He’ll sometimes cry a little bit, but for the most part he’s ok and he doesn’t do the “mama!” sobbing that he did.

He’s eating more “real” food now, and some days he won’t even try baby food. We give him a bit of whatever we’re eating and some things he’ll eat and other things he spits right out. He’s definitely his daddy’s boy, because most of what comes back out is fruit. Yesterday it was pears and peaches, though he ate some salsa and olives. He loves those Gerber Graduates wagon wheels. He gets excited when he sees the container.

I’m still pretty careful about what he eats. I don’t want him to be one of those kids who only eats hot dogs and spaghetti-ohs (in fact, I would prefer it if he never ate those at all, though an occasional hot dog over the fire is fine).

He is starting to say actual words a bit more in the past few days. Yesterday he was saying “Daddy” and today he’s been saying “hi.” He also will say “all done” when you ask him if he’s all done. I was holding him one time while asking Greg if he was done and Miles said, “all done.” It was cute. The “Miles speak” is still pretty much nonstop. He talks to himself when he’s falling asleep and talks to his toys and animals and the sky and the cats and us and everything. It’s rare for him to actually be quiet. I keep thinking that one day there’s going to be a connection that happens and I’ll go to get him out of his crib and he’ll say, “Good morning, mother, how are you this fine day?” I’m kidding, but only kind of. I have a feeling that we’re going to be playing the quiet game with him a lot!

He’s started “dancing” a little bit lately. We usually have music on when we’re at home and he’ll bob his head to the music when a few songs come on (he seems to like hip hop!). He’s also interested in reading again. For awhile, he wanted nothing to do with books, but his bedtime routine now involves reading him some books, brushing his teeth and then down to bed. He has this set of four Sesame Street books and he loves them. He smiles when you open the package.

Today I was rocking him in the chair right after his nap and remembering when he was a small guy and would just lie in my arms and be rocked to sleep. Now he’ll only tolerate being rocked if he’s half-asleep and only for a minute or two until he’s awake enough to want to get down and play. I also miss being able to cuddle with him in our bed. If you bring him in there now, he turns and flops and kicks and hits and you have to be on guard or you’ll get hurt! My baby is turning into a big boy!

Miles and Percy at 11 months (he wouldn’t stay down for the picture, so this is the best we could do):

Miles developed at a far greater rate in his ninth month than any others, in terms of achieving new milestones and motor skills. Before I explain, let’s get his stats out of the way:

- Weight: 20 lb., 14 oz. (25-50%)
- Length: 29.25″ (50-75%)
- Head: 18.75″ (90-95%)

So he’s still growing at a good rate, which is great! So, what has Miles done in the last month?

As I mentioned previously, he learned to crawl. He went from army crawling to hands-and-knees crawling within just a couple of weeks. Two days after that, he started pulling himself up on things. A few days after that, he attempted to take his first steps by shaking my hands off when he was standing and trying to walk by himself to his toys. At this point, he and I had a little discussion where I told him that he was getting too big and he needed to stop this walking nonsense. He didn’t listen and he’s still trying to stand by himself (he’s managed it for a bit) and walk (still not working too well, but I’m sure it won’t be long).

He also is now talking and understanding more. I mean, he’s always talked and talked and talked, having whole conversations we just can’t understand, but he now knows that I’m “mama” and Greg is “da.” When he’s crying, he’ll sob, “mama!” and it’s so sad. (He doesn’t cry too much, just at bedtime (which I’ll get to in a bit here) or if he bonks his head pretty hard. People are always saying that my head was like a rock and apparently he inherited that, because he’ll bonk his head pretty hard and doesn’t make a peep.) Anyway, when he’s in a silly mood or wants to play, he wants “da.”

He knows what his kitties are, and when I ask him, “Where’s the kitty?” he’ll look around for Henry or Josie. For awhile we had checked out a board book from the library called Grover’s New Kitten, and Miles loved it, I think because the little orange kitten looked like our cats. He would sit and hold the book, staring at that kitten. He likes to “read” books now, where he’ll hold them and “talk,” I think because he knows that that’s what you do with a book, you hold and read it aloud. It’s so cute.

We’ve also discovered that we need to start baby proofing. Miles has found power cords and loves them. The laptop cord is a special favorite because if he pulls on it, it comes out of the laptop and he can chew on it. He also loves remote controls, so we cleaned up one of our old ones and that one is “his” remote now. Though he knows it’s not the right one, so he still wants the one that you have.

His top four teeth came in at the very beginning of June, but he’s getting two more on the bottom now, so he’s been kind of crabby and drooly lately.

Last weekend was his first time in the lake down at my parents’ and he seemed to really like it. The first day it was windy and wavy and he didn’t like that at all, but the next day was calmer and he sat in it for a good while. He was sitting on my lap in the water and at one point, he must’ve seen something in the water that he wanted to grab because he face-planted right into the water. I sat him up and wiped his eyes and he never even cried.

Over the last month, Miles has decided that bedtime = EVIL. As soon as he feels you lean over to put him in his crib, he starts crying. It’s so weird because he naps in there just fine. But bedtime? No way. So, we’ve worked out a routine. I climb in his crib (yes, that’s right, I climb in his crib), then Greg puts him in there and I feed him. After he eats, I give him his binky and sit up and rub his back for a minute and then I climb out. If he’s still awake, I sit on the floor next to his crib and fold laundry or read or something, but don’t make eye contact. He falls asleep pretty quickly. He seems to be getting better about this; the first few nights he cried as soon as I climbed out, but lately he’s been alright. This past week, I’ve also been putting him to bed earlier and he does fine.

The weird thing about his sleep routine is that during the day when it gets close to naptime, he yawns and rubs his eyes and looks tired. At night, he does none of this (or rarely does this). One night he was up until 11 and never yawned the whole time. The later it got, the more hyper he got, giggling and thrashing around until I eventually wrapped my arms and legs around him so that he couldn’t move and he fell asleep. I even tried swaddling him in a big blanket, but he busted out of that in 10 seconds.

On the eating front, he’s still been not all that fond of “real” food. His gag reflex is so sensitive that he chokes (and sometimes throws up) almost every mealtime. Since “food before one is just for fun,” he doesn’t actually need to eat any solid food until he’s a year, so I’m not worrying about it.

Below is his picture with Percy (look how small Percy is getting!) and some others from our trip to the park last night:

Enjoying some blended vegetable baby food

At the local park, swinging for the first time

Mommy's turn to push

Not too sure about the slide

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Every time we’re out in public, someone always calls Miles a girl. I know it’s the long hair, but I can’t bring myself to cut it yet. I tell myself he wouldn’t sit still for a cut (which he wouldn’t), but part of it is that he’ll look like such a big boy then, and I still want him to be my little baby.

When you have kids, everyone tells you that they grow up so fast, and while you can *know* that, it’s a whole other thing to actually experience it. I tell myself that I’ll remember how he looks and all the sounds he makes, but when I watch videos of him, even from just a couple of months ago, he seems so much bigger now.

Anyway, so while I just can’t have his hair cut yet, I decided we had to do something about his bangs. When wet, they reached the bottom of his eyes, and we were always trying to sweep them to the side when they’d fall in his eyes. So last night, I finally trimmed them. The problem? The trim makes him look like he’s got bangs and then long hair, kind of like he’s got a pretty good mullet going. So now do I need to trim off his curls? The thought is heartbreaking.

Oh, and last night after his trim, what does he do? He goes and CRAWLS. He’s been doing an army-type of crawl, but he finally figured out the hands-and-knees crawl. So apparently he’s ready to become a big boy, but I’m not. Dear God, I’ll blink and he’ll be off to college. He’s also pulling himself up, so yesterday during nap time I had to lower his crib so that he won’t fall out.

He’s just getting to be too big. I need to figure out ways to keep him a baby for a little while longer.

Here are some pics from the haircut:

Before:

After:

Over a week late, but here are some photos from the July 4th weekend in Nahma. As always, we had a good time seeing everyone, and so did everyone, seeing Miles. The weather was really nice but really, really windy the entire 4 days we were there. The water was also a decent temperature, so everyone was swimming except for Miles. We dipped his hands and feet but it wasn’t quite as warm as his bath. As you can tell, we had him on the beach for awhile and he seemed to enjoy all the beach goers.

We also celebrated Dayna’s 19th birthday with a Mexican Fiesta! It originated from Dayna wanting tacos for dinner and turned into a full blown fiesta complete with burritos, fajitas, tacos, Mexican meatballs, guacamole dip, margaritas, Corona and decorations. It was “muy bien!”