A Miles Update

Oh, the emotional roller coaster of the 2 year old. Miles is actually pretty happy most of the time, but he requires A LOT of attention. Kind of like a new puppy.

Miles LOVES to dance! He loves music and he loves playing on my drums as well. He will dance to the radio, the boys' robots, and me playing my drums.

Miles is a super helper! There are times I really don't want his help, but he definitely will make sure he is there and ready to work! He likes cleaning walls, rotating laundry, dusting, Swiffering, putting trash in the trashcan, and following me every where I go...at least until Jett gets home from school. Then he follows Jett everywhere.

 Miles is usually happy, but he will throw fits over quite a few things, some being...

1. If he wants a "dappadappa" (which strangely translates to "banana"), you must first hand him an unpeeled banana. After inspection, he will hand it back to you and you must ask, "Open?" With which he will respond, "Open!" You then must open the banana without breaking it. If you do not complete this task perfectly, he will throw a fit and the banana is worthless. Pretty much if he wants anything that must be opened, you must first get the "go ahead" to open it. Otherwise, like I said, it is worthless!

2. If he wants to go outside and you won't let him, no matter what the weather is, he will throw a fit.

3. If you don't let him turn off the bathroom lights after a bath, he will throw a fit.

4. If you don't let him fill up his own cup of water, he will throw a fit.

This is a common look:

Miles' speech is still behind, but he understands everything and tries to talk as much as he can.

Miles is still attached to that stupid bottle and still cannot have cows milk. He drinks a coconut almond milk mix that is actually pretty tasty. He is still a very picky eater. He will eat bananas, raspberries, apple slices (sometimes), chicken nuggets, broccoli, chips, fishy crackers, cut up hot dogs, apple juice, and pretty much anything salty. He still does not like chocolate, cookies, cake, or anything delicious like that.

Miles still loves to be outside and to play, especially at the park. Slides are totally his thing. Luckily it started to warm up and I was able to take him to the park for a little while before the wind picked up.

Miles typically doesn't nap anymore, but every now and then, he'll randomly pass out. Kind of like this:

We actually moved him out of a crib this week so we could give Cruise his own room. Miles never figured out how to climb out of his crib. We waited and waited, but it was almost as the thought never entered his mind! And as much as I wanted to keep him confined, I wanted Cruise to have his own space even more. So now Miles sleeps on the bottom bunk and Jett on the top. Needless to say, I don't think he's been sleeping well.

So there you have it! Miles is independent, attention-seeking, helpful, silly and all around emotional. Gotta love 2 year olds!

Pinewood Derby 2016

Cruise is #13

Cruise had his first Cub Scout Pinewood Derby race this week. He and Dave worked hard on their car and made it weigh exactly 5 ounces. Cruise chose to paint it a metallic blue with a yellow star on the front.

Cruise was really excited but equally nervous. The day before the race, he and I took it to get it weighed at the Scout master's house. Then when we got to the race the next day, he checked in and got his car all ready to go!

His car actually did really well at first, but in the end, he came out in 8th place. I was so proud of him for being such a good sport. He would pat other kids on the back and tell his competitors "good job" no matter who came in first.

 

 

When he didn't get a trophy, he came to me in tears. He took it pretty hard, but he was a good sport and didn't throw a fit. We got home from the race and was still crying when he said he needed some alone time. Poor kiddo. Now he wants to make a track and make a faster car. Ha ha! That kid never gives up. 

Update on Jett

I've been wanting to do a quick Jett post for awhile now. Jett hit a growth spurt about a month or two ago and no longer weighs a buck fifty. He is too heavy for me to easily lift! He also grew out of XS and into S clothes and also needed new shoes. He chose Heelys, which are shoes that have removable wheels on the bottoms. He has gotten really good at riding them around. His front teeth grew in and now he looks like a big kid! My little Jett is gone! But he still is super sweet and funny.

Jett graduated from speech therapy a few weeks ago. He was very excited to not have to leave class for speech anymore. School is going really well and he is getting excellent grades. His teacher loves him and he has some good friends in the class. I get to volunteer at least once a week in his classroom and I love seeing his interactions with his classmates and how hard he works. He tried out for the Storytelling Festival and even though he didn't make it through to the next round, he got a free kids meal at Applebees just for trying (he was pretty proud of that).

Jett has a new friend in the neighborhood! We finally got a new family next door to us and they happen to have a 6 year old boy named Brayden. They hit it off immediately and have a lot of fun together. There are about 5 six year olds in our little cul-de-sac area alone, so they all play together pretty much every day now that it's nice out. Jett's pretty popular and has to divide his time among his friends if he doesn't want to play with ALL of them at the same time. Sometimes it's hard being so nice and fun. :-)

Jett loves having a little brother. Sometimes Miles bugs him, but usually they are best buddies. Miles follows him everywhere and Jett teaches him a lot of things (some good, some...not so good). Jett sometimes takes the initiative and will change Miles' diaper (as long as it's not poopy) and get him dressed for the day. They love playing together in the mornings before Jett has to leave for school, and enjoy rough housing and making messes. Jett sometimes asks me if I think he'll be a good dad when he grows up, and I tell him he will be the best dad...to all 15 of his children. Ha ha! Seriously though, he is going to be such a good daddy because he has the best daddy.

Jett is pretty good about completing his chores and will sometimes do a weeks worth in one day so he doesn't have to worry about it for the rest of the week. He really likes cleaning windows and mirrors and dusting. He's not too fond of wiping walls though.


I miss little Jett, but big kid Jett is pretty cool. We love this kid!

Dave's Birthday #31

For Dave's birthday this year, I decided to take him out to a Peruvian restaurant. When he was on the mission, he got to teach and visit many Peruvians and they always had the best food! Ever since he got home, he has been on a quest to find the most authentic Peruvian food and after doing some research, I was able to find a great little restaurant in SLC called Del Mar al Lago. The food was displayed beautifully and the food was even better! We shared a papa a la huancaina, which is potatoes served with a yellow cream sauce and hard boiled eggs served cold. Dave actually had always had it hot, but traditionally it's served cold. I guess he always had it hot because it must be prepared and then chilled for a few hours and the members were always making it quickly so the Elders could eat right away. He swears the warm version is better, but the cold was amazing. We were so hungry, we forgot to get a picture of it before we dug in.

For our entrees, we got Cebiche Mexicana and Lomo Saltado and shared them. Once again, beautiful presentation and even better tasting!

 

 

For dessert, I took him to a French Bakery and Cafe called Gourmandise that Abby told me about. The desserts were many and I was prepared to order one of everything. But I ended up getting an almond horn and Dave got a chocolate and raspberry mousse cake and then I couldn't leave empty handed and wanting more, so I ordered a creme brulee to go.

I looked at my watch and we still had the sitters for two more hours, so I asked what Dave wanted to do, so of course we found ourselves in the fishing section of Scheels. We actually had never been there before, so we walked around the whole place and had fun window shopping. We did leave with a soccer ball for the boys since they have been asking for one and the store brand ball was only $8.

We had an hour left after that and I remembered that Monday was silly sock day at school and the boys don't own any silly socks, so we headed to Target and got silly socks. We got home to find that boys happy and their bedrooms clean. I love our teenage babysitters from our ward. They always do such a great job and always try to leave the house cleaner than they found it.

On Sunday, instead of making him breakfast in bed, we gave Dad what he really wanted, which was to sleep in. So once he woke up, we gave him his presents: the boys had made him cards and then gave him a headlamp that can be detached and reattached to other things like a belt, a backpack or a GoPro. I gave Dave a card and tickets to go see our favorite comic, Brian Reagan, in SLC in a few weeks. So that will be a lot of fun!

Dave got a call from his parents before church and he really loved hearing from them. They also sent him an Amazon.com gift card as well, which he is always excited about. My parents bought him all the Star Wars movies on DVD and he of course has watched them all twice since he got them. 

After church, I got started on the dinner. We invited Abby, Casey and Liev to celebrate both Dave's and Abby's birthdays (since hers is on the 24th). We had my garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, New York steaks, IBC rootbeer, and Abby brought asparagus. For dessert, of course, we had cake! For Abby, a Funfetti, and for Dave, a German chocolate. It was a lot of cake, but just enough for everyone to have a slice for breakfast the next morning. The 6 year old was supposed to take pictures but they didn't turn out very well.

Abby & Casey got Dave a gift card to Cabelas and we got Abby some perfume and I made her a mother's nest necklace. To finish off the night, we watched some old family videos. I think they had a good birthday.