Milo, Milo, and more Milo

More deep conversation.

This is what passes for dinner table conversation around here.

How to get your toddler to sleep (not).

Milo has been taking advantage of his new-found freedom to stay up much later, often refusing to wind down until after 9:00. Where once we had a nice, easy bedtime routine, consisting of dinner, bath, jammies, a few books, a song, and then a plop into the crib with a kiss, leaving Milo awake but sleepy, with a binky in each hand and one in the mouth, now we have something more like dinner, bath, jammies, books, songs, kiss, plop in bed with binkies, WAAAAAAAHHHHH, MOMMEEEEEE!!!! MOMMEEEEE LIE DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!! DADDY LIE IN THE BIG BOY BED!!!!!!!!! Lather, rinse, repeat.

This sucks, especially when Mommy and Daddy would sort of like to have dinner and talk to one another about something other than whether the firetruck makes noise or the elephant pees and poops. To try to address the problem, we've added a new element to the routine. We call it "run around until you collapse," and sometimes it works.

Alas, sometimes it doesn't.

Catching up - Father's Day 2009

Milo and Steve shared one of the classic Father's Day activities this year: watching the U.S. Open together. Milo was inspired.

And so was Steve.

Steve's hopes aside, I don't expect golf to supplant the truck obsession any time soon.

Catching up - Touch-a-Truck.

Milo's just fine, thanks, although his parents are TIRED. About a month ago, right after "Milo ride airplane with Daddy" all the way to Wisconsin, to spend some quality time with Grandma Eileen and Grandpa Peter (where, as he continues to remind us, "Stela ate Milo graham crackers"), Milo stopped sleeping. And started climbing out of his crib, even in his sleep sack, which meant the end of the crib and the introduction of a whole new member of the household, the Big Boy Bed. This was by far the hardest transition of Milo's life to date, and involved tears, frustration, exhaustion, and despair on all our parts. But finally, after a week of steady improvement culminating in last night's almost perfect sleep-through, we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Milo's new sleep routine involves a much later and more drawn-out bedtime, eliminating most of the precious evening time I used to use for writing about him here. I'll try to catch you all up a little!

Back when he was still a crib-sleeper, we took Milo to touch some trucks, at an event clearly designed with him in mind. He and his buddy Geoffrey had a mind-blowing time getting up close and personal with a digger, a dump truck, a garbage truck, a horse trailer, a helicopter, a fire truck, and more.

I hope Touch-a-Truck comes back, because it was a pretty cool experience for all of us.

Cars & Trucks & Things That Go!

Milo loves trucks. LOVES them. Every trip in the car puts him in toddler heaven, as he spots BIG TRUUUUUCK! and JEEP! and YELLOW SCHOOL BUS! and MAIL TRUCK! and RV! RV! BIG RV! And of course, there are the BIG! DIGGERS! all over town these days. Most Boulder residents are bemoaning the endless construction on the city's main artery, but not Milo. Between the huge project on Broadway and the major rebuilding project at the junior high across the street from his daycare, he gets to cruise through Digger Central at least twice a day, every day.

This vehicle obsession plays out at book-reading time. Following in his Daddy's footsteps, Milo wants to read Cars & Trucks & Things That Go, over and over and over. I'm sure Aunt Laura wishes she could be here for bedtime every night, to share the fun.

The truck love also manifests itself in Milo's current toy selection. Balls, once the favored playthings, are collecting dust, and the basketball hoop is sorely neglected. It is all vehicles, all the time. If it doesn't have wheels, forget it.

This week, Milo's truck obsession is suddenly being combined with his latest bout of Toddler OCD. It's a little hard to describe, but in the video below, you'll see what I mean.