Milo, Milo, and more Milo

Milo on the move!

Milo has a new push toy at home! At first, he wasn't quite sure how to use it to his own advantage.




However, he got the hang of it pretty quickly.



The biggest obstacle impeding his progress is not his own pre-toddling skill, but rather the annoying layout of our house.



Sorry, kid. Someday, we'll get that remodel done.

Daddy Sings Bedtime.

Now that Milo is showing some interest in the words and pictures contained in his many wonderful books (as opposed to simply chewing on their delicious covers and corners), we're trying to make a bedtime story part of his nightly routine. Milo also loves music and singing, so Daddy has started combining song and story. The result is too sweet not to share with you.

Fourth of July with the Frei's

In spite of a yucky ear infection* that threatened to cancel our travel plans, Milo had a great trip to Minneapolis for the July 4 holiday. Thanks to the wonders of modern antibiotics, Milo was not only well enough to travel, he was one of the best-behaved and least-fussy babies on a plane full of families. Mommy and Daddy were proud (and very, very relieved).

Milo got to stay with Aunt Laura and Uncle Doug, who hadn't seen him since Christmas and were mightily impressed with all of his new tricks.

He also got to see Grandma Eileen and Grandpa Peter, who were amazed at how much he had learned and grown and changed in just the few weeks since their last visit.

 

Perhaps best of all, he got to exchange kisses and cuddles with Stela, his favorite doggie!

Mommy also got to spend some time with her friend Geri, and meet the very adorable and smiley Ravi. Milo and Ravi are two peas in a pod - happy. social, energetic little guys who love meeting new people and going to new places!

Milo didn't stay up to see any fireworks (and the rest of us skipped them in favor of a hotly contested Sheepshead game), but he demonstrated his patriotism all day long:

And to top off a great trip (and make his parents even more proud and appreciative), he slept the entire flight home. We should travel with him more often!

(Click here for the complete set of photos from the weekend)

*Caused, it seems, by our stupidity in taking Milo down the long, fast slide at the swimming pool. Twice. Lesson learned: fast slides with deep pools at the bottom are for big kids!

Ten months old!

Milo has now spent more time outside the womb than he spent inside it. I still sometimes have flashes of recognition of the Inside Baby (whom we knew and loved as "Crusher"), particularly when he lies on his back and kicks his feet with joyous abandon. But I much prefer this active, energetic little Outside Baby, who showers me with sloppy kisses, dissolves into giggles when his daddy gobbles his neck, and doesn't have his heel stuck in my rib cage.

The latest Milo milestone is a recognizable, in-context word: "BA," for ball. In addition to identifying the ball by name, he can now throw and catch it. Given Milo's height, and the impressive shooting form he's displaying, Mommy and Daddy are thinking "basketball scholarship."

This past month, Milo really has been the Outside Baby! In addition to our big camping trip, he's spent lots of time playing in parks and playgrounds, going on walks and hikes and runs, splashing at the Reservoir and the pool, and dining al fresco - both at home (when we drag his high chair into the back yard) and away (especially at the Boulder Farmer's Market).

This kid loves the great outdoors. He especially loves grass. Much like Pasta Cat (who gets to play in the grass a lot less than Milo does), he flops down on the soft, green lawn, stretches, rolls around, and tries to eat a few blades. Fortunately, unlike the kitty, this doesn't make him throw up later.

Lights, camera,

ACTION!

With our video issues resolved, you can now see how Milo greets us each morning.

For some reason, that seems so much cuter at 6:30 than it does at 4.

In addition to pulling up on stuff, Milo is showing an early predilection for one of his parents' favorite pastimes, climbing! Here, he uses Mommy as a human jungle gym:

And here, he tries to free-solo the Pack & Play:

Technical difficulties.

This post has been delayed by several days, due to video uploading problems that have yet to be resolved. Thus, you will not get to enjoy the pure cuteness of Milo splashing in the Boulder Reservoir, and will have to take my word for it that his first "beach" excursion was a hit. Well, there is this evidence:

While he had a great time splashing in the water and discovering the joy of feeling sand between his toes, Milo otherwise had a pretty tough week. The two top teeth that have been working their way out kicked his butt - literally. The teething pain did a job on Milo's system from head to toe, but took a particularly heavy toll on his poor diaper area. Thanks to the wonders of Marty's Magic Mush, and now that the teeth are finally poking through, he's doing much better.

The video snags also prevent me from showing you what an incredibly mobile kid Milo has become. He crawls fast and far, pulls up on anything and everything, and is so very pleased with his own new skills. He even got kicked out of graduated from Physical Therapy this week! We have somehow survived without installing our gates and cabinet locks yet, but we're running on borrowed time.

Milo Goes Camping.

Perhaps it was overly ambitious of Mommy and Daddy to make Milo's first camping trip a weeklong expedition to City of Rocks (rather than, say, an overnight in Rocky). But we know our boy is adaptable, and he proved more than up to the challenge. Thus, when the trip threw almost every conceivable inconvenience at him, he just laughed.

Among those challenges, we had a 10-plus-hour drive, each way. Milo spent most of the trek either sleeping or singing happily to himself in his carseat. His only real meltdown in the car came about an hour before the end of our 9-hour marathon on the return trip, when we drove all the way from City of Rocks to Steamboat Springs (over 500 miles) in a single day. By that point, he was well over the whole roadtrip thing, and not even an upbeat rendition of You Are My Sunshine could improve his mood.

Before that, though, we had a week of cold, rain, and wind. There were moments of sunshine, and even a few moments of warmth, but for the most part, the weather trended towards awful. While the parents were pretty disappointed not to be able to take full advantage of the City's spectacular climbing opportunities, Milo was unfazed by the chill. He crawled around in the great big tents (ours and his buddy Geoffrey's), hung out contentedly at the base of the crag, and discovered the joy of eating rocks and sticks.

He also learned how to pull up to standing (a subject for a later post). It must have been all that fresh air!

When Milo tired of all the activity, he took wonderful, long naps. And sometimes, he just wanted to hang out in the tent and relax with a good, upside-down book.

While we were able to shield Milo from the cold with many layers of clothing, the high winds proved much harder to manage. On our second to last day, Milo and Mommy hardly ventured outside at all, because the wind was so strong, and so bitterly cold. It rocked our very cheap, and not very sturdy tent all day long. Mommy was terrified the tent would collapse on us (and it did, indeed, fall apart later that evening, fortunately while we were eating dinner in Almo). Milo thought it was hilarious.

He found it less funny after the sun went down, and the wind continued to howl all night long. We all spent a pretty sleepless night, with Milo dozing fitfully between us in the sleeping bag and whimpering at the scary wind and rain sounds. Fortunately, the sun came out the next day, allowing the moms to do some climbing while the dads taught Milo and Geoffrey all about The Joy of Propane Canisters and other dangerous outdoorsy playthings.

That evening, we were finally able to hang out in the sun, grill some brats, and make s'mores by the campfire once the sun went down. Milo passed out long before the marshmallow-roasting began, but at least his clothing acquired the authentic wood-fire smell we associate with camping. Unfortunately, the morning brought a fresh round of freezing rain, so we called it quits and headed back to Colorado.

When we stopped in Steamboat that night, Milo found his second wind. Perhaps it was simply the joy of being warm and clean, but you'd never know from this video that it was hours and hours past his bedtime.

He was pretty thrilled to get home, too, and crawled around the house babbling happily to his toys and room and Pasta Cat. A few days later, the memories of cold and wind have faded, and we can't wait to get back into the wilderness with Milo. Camping with a baby is fun!

(Click here for the complete set of trip photos)

9 months old!

Milo has now been out in the world for as long as he was inside Mommy's tummy! He saw the doctor today, and weighed 19lbs, 9oz, and measured 31 inches tall. These impressive stats have him on the same growth curve he's been following all along: off the charts for height, and right in the middle for weight. Long and lean is still the name of the game, which makes pants-fitting something of a challenge.

Last week, Milo had a wonderful visit from Grandma Eileen and Grandpa Peter. They had so much fun together, they could hardly stop playing long enough to take a picture.


But trust us, there were smiles all around (especially from Mommy and Daddy, who came home every day to a happy, well-rested, well-fed baby and a home-cooked dinner. We begged them not to leave!).

Milo spent most of the week working hard on his gross motor skills. He was trying so hard to crawl, but kept getting tangled up in his own long legs. Instead, he did a lot of rolling and scooting, along with some nifty yoga moves.


Sometimes, he got tired of trying to move around the room, and he had to stop and let out a little steam.


But last night, he finally figure out how to get his knees down and move forward! This was the best Mommy could do to memorialize the moment, but he did it - really! (And then he said "mama" - for reals! But not for the camera, yet.)



Finally, today, he passed a tedious wait at the doctor's lab by crawling from one new and interesting toy to another. He did it again (and again!) when we got home, until Mommy finally captured this milestone on video.



Milo is pretty darn pleased with himself. 


We're alternately thrilled and terrified (but mostly thrilled). Milo's new mobility comes just in time for our big camping adventure next week, when he'll be able to crawl around in the grass and dirt to his heart's content.

A little bit country/A little bit rock & roll.

Really, the title should read, a little bit break-dance, a little bit ballet. Milo's not locomoting forwards yet, but he is on the move.

Sometimes, he likes to do The Worm:

And sometimes, he likes to do The Dance of The Sugar Plum Fairy:

PS: Ah, the eternal eczema spots on his face. We know, we know. They are finally clearing up, thanks to Mommy's peanut-butter elimination diet and a strict regimen of face gooping for Milo. Perhaps some spot-free photos will be secured this weekend!

Happy Mother's Day!

Milo got up early this morning to accompany his Mommy to a 9K Mother's Day race. Milo could have joined me on the course, but I was nervous about navigating the crowd with the jogging stroller, so he decided to hang out with Daddy in the cheering section. That was plenty of exertion for Milo, particularly because we had a little bottle snafu that left him milk-less during the race. Here he is about 5 minutes after I crossed the finish line:

And about 10 minutes after that:

After his post-race snooze, he perked up enough to play in the grass with his buddy Sophia, who ran rode the whole race with her Mommy, Lyn:

There were over 1500 women participating in the race today, most of them mothers. It was pretty cool to see all the fit, strong moms out there, running and walking with and without their kids. But for me, the very best part about it was being there with my kiddo, and realizing (again and again) just how amazing it is to be Milo's Mommy.