Milo, Milo, and more Milo

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.)

ABCs

Milo knows most of his letters, and most of the Alphabet song. The two skills are, according to the Child Development People, unrelated. But Milo's letter-love these days extends equally to spotting As and Qs and Rs and Dub-yoos all over town, and to singing his ABCs. As you can see below, he has the true performer's knack for skillfully disguising forgotten lyrics.

Batter up!

Milo helped us celebrate Grandpa Bill's birthday with a trip to Coors Field.

The Rockies didn't win, but Milo didn't care. He had a grand old time watching the game. He paid pretty close attention, letting us know "he got a strike!" and shouting "batter up!" and asking "where'd dinosaur go?" whenever Dinger, the Rockies' mascot, disappeared from his eagle-eyed view.

Milo was particularly taken with Troy Tulowitzki, the Rox star shortstop. "Where's Tulo?" he demanded, over and over. When the Rockies were on the field, we helped him find Tulo in the infield. When the home team came up to bat, we tried to explain that it wasn't Tulo's turn yet. But Milo knew the real story. "Tulo going potty," he explained.