Milo, Milo, and more Milo

Thankful.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our little bundle of joy. We began the day with a breakfast of leftover chocolate birthday cake, just to begin the day of excess on a gluttonous note.

Despite considerable prompting, Milo didn't quite grasp the whole "giving thanks" concept. He does seem to appreciate zoo animals.

After breakfast, we went for our annual Thanksgiving day walk. Milo and Steve were racing to get home in time for the Packers game.

Milo helped cheer the Packers to victory, while simultaneously helping Mommy bake a beautiful apple pie. We were all too covered in flour to take pictures of the latter, unfortunately, but trust us, it was great. After a nice nap, we went to Grandma S-J and Grandpa Bill's house for our feast, with many wonderful friends, including Milo's buddy, Julian. The two boys had a great time riding their hobby horses in circles around the house, stuffing their faces with pumpkin pie, and generally being rambunctious and adorable. Supposedly, there is photographic evidence of all the fun, but it is not yet in my possession.

Thanks to all of you for being part of our lives. We are very, very lucky to have such a great community of family and friends. Even if Milo insists he is thankful for "not anything."

Puzzles are a contact sport.

When Grandma & Grandpa Freiburger moved Up North this spring, they got rid of a lot of Steve's old stuff. And by "got rid of" I mean "shipped to our house." Many of these items (like the 50,000 Vampire cards) are living in the basement, but a few things caught MIlo's eye. In particular, an old San Diego Chargers helmet from Steve's days as a Dan Fouts fan.

Open wide!

Milo had his first dentist appointment this week! He was very nervous about it, which surprised us a little, given his love for the doctor, general lack of fear, and outgoing nature. The dentist and the tech won him over very quickly, though, especially when they gave him a huge, toothy alligator to play with and let him push the buttons on the water thingie and the vacuum thingie and the up-and-down chair. He watched, fascinated, while Mommy got her teeth cleaned, sometimes climbing up to get a closer look. Eventually, he was demanding, "Is it my turn yet?"

And finally, it was. Below, you can see what happened. (The first video is really long, but I was just so proud of my brave boy!)

After the brushing, the dentist confirmed that Milo has almost all his teeth - just a wee bit of those drasted molars still to come.

Belated Halloween recap

Milo had a great Halloween weekend, although it began inauspiciously. He refused to nap, then fell asleep in the car on the way to Grandma & Grandpa's house for trick-or-treating, and was a very, very sad lion when we woke him.

 

The day was saved by Calder and Olivia, my parents' next-door neighbors' kids. They came over to compare costumes with Milo, and helped him get into the Halloween spirit.

 

They also had really cool Halloween decorations in their yard. Milo fearlessly conquered the spider, the snake, and the Vampire.

The kids went trick-or-treating together, with Olivia's guidance.

 

Milo never quite got the hang of saying "trick or treat!" Instead, he asked everyone: "Can I go in your house?" Guess he's not quite ready to do this unsupervised.

On Sunday, we went to the Denver Zoo. We didn't realize all the other kids would be in costume. Fortunately, Milo was dressed as a Packers Fan.

 

And, anyway, someone else was wearing the lion outfit.

 

Happy Halloween (and happy Fall!)

Boots!

Mommy got some new boots, just in time for our first big snow storm of the year.

Apparently, so did Milo.

We now return to our program.

Apologies for the long break in posting - Milo has been busy, busy, busy, and so have we. Immediately after Milo turned 2, we decided it was time for a new adventure, so we piled into an Amtrak train for a 34-hour ride to San Francisco. Aside from the Overnight From Hell, during which none of us slept, the train ride was great, and Milo proved himself to be a delightful travel companion throughout our journey. Here are the pictures.

September and October have included sukkah building, berry picking, a wonderful trip to Minneapolis to meet Milo's newest cousin, Baby Catherine, and see Steve's side of the family, and BASEBALL. Lots and lots of baseball.

Baseball is close to religion in my family, and Milo is keeping the faith. He knows more about the game than plenty of adults we know, can sit through all nine innings with mostly rapt attention (and great enthusiasm), and will occasionally interrupt his dinner with a lively rendition of take me out to the ballgame:

We're still working on the whole not-singing-with-food-in-your-mouth thing.

Even more impressive, Milo has figured out pretty much the entire Colorado Rockies' lineup. This began after we took him to a game in July, around the same time he became obsessed with knowing EVERYONE'S name. He'd wake up in the mornings and ask me, "What the Rockies do last night?" And then we'd go through the box scores: "Tulo get a hit? Brad Hawpe get a hit? Torrealba get a home run?" He'd ask. By the end of the season, he could do this:

He's slowly accepting that the Rockies' season is over, but still having a great time playing the game himself, especially now that he has a brand new Lightning McQueen glove and an official Rockies cap!

I walk the line.

Milo's obsession with Johnny Cash goes back many months, to the first time he saw this excellent Sesame Street clip on YouTube.



For a long time, the only one of The Man In Black's songs he was really interested in singing (or hearing) was that one, Five Feet High. Or, as he calls it, "Two Feet High Rising!" We indulged him for a while, but eventually our patience wore thin, and we started insisting on letting the iPod continue on through the rest of our Johnny Cash collection.

Milo now has a new obsession. And a Birthday Guitar to complement it!






(By the time you read this post, we will be heading off on our 34-hour train-ride adventure to San Francisco. Wish us luck - we'll report back in September!)

TWO!

Milo can tell you exactly how old he is.

Happy (almost) birthday, Milo!

Milo turns TWO on Thursday! It's hard to believe that only a year ago, he was taking his first few tentative steps and saying his first few words (ball, of course, being the first). Now he runs, climbs, jumps, dances, and talks a blue streak, often in complete and complex sentences that crack us up and blow our minds. What an amazing year!

We celebrated the big event with a Great Big Birthday Party on Sunday. Nearly fifty people joined us in the backyard, including all four of Milo's beloved grandparents and lots of wonderful friends.

The kids had a great time playing in the pool.

They also played T-ball. Milo insisted on wearing his Jedi Knight robe dragon towel.

Mommy baked lots of airplane and dinosaur cupcakes, put out tubs of frosting and jars of decorations, and let the kids go crazy.

Milo mostly skipped the cupcake part.

We had to drag him away from the fun to sing Happy Birthday to him!

After almost everyone left, we realized we'd forgotten to do the pinata! Fortunately, Geoffrey and Leif were still there to help us with it.

Happy birthday, sweet boy! I love being your Mommy!

(The complete set of birthday party pics from Grandma S-J is here.)

More fun in the woods.

We've had a busy, busy few weeks. Happily, those weeks have not been the least bit sleep-deprived, as Milo has finally rediscovered the joy of Sleeping All Night In The Big Boy Bed. We are extremely relieved.

A couple of weeks ago, we went camping with Abby and her parents. The kids had a great time sharing Abby's trail mix. By the end of the weekend, she was carrying a big bag of peanuts and raisins. What happened to all the M&Ms?!

We also participated in one of Milo's favorite camping activities: throwing rocks in the lake.

As you can probably gather from our attire, it was a rather chilly and rainy weekend. But we did have some stretches of sunshine and warmth, and the kids had a blast no matter what the weather. Here they are, high-fiving over their success in not having to walk up a mountain by themselves.

We also took some nice family pictures - something we usually forget to do!

When it rained, Milo occupied himself in the tent.

The rain stopped in time for a nice, campfire-side dinner.

This was probably our last camping expedition for 2009, but we're already looking forward to more fun times in the tent next summer! (For the complete set of camping pics, click here.)