All 4 teeth 10-30

Myles in the yard on his laptop

Thanksgiving

Wearing his Thanksgiving bib that Auntie Loretta bought him. Yum! Okay, he wasn't eating any food. He was teething and licking his gums.

We went to some mommy friend's house for a post-Thanksgiving get together. They went to the garage and grabbed Phoenix's old walker for Myles since he was the only pre-walker there. One-year old Phoenix loved pushing Myles around in it. I'm glad we don't have a free-form walker - Myles would be in constant trouble. He ended up in the fireplace (empty) once!

How do little boys automatically gravitate to cars? Myles loves all balls and cars on sight.

Grandparents visit the Lake

We have an artificial lake here called Lake Balboa. It's great. It's bigger than Lake Artemesia in MD, and it's got great bike and stroller paths.

We bumped in our friend Arielle and Lanessa, the mother of the twins Myles is friends with. It was great for the Harrises to see the stuff and people we talk about so often.

We also went to the Grove and Farmer's Market again since they hadn't been back there in a couple years. We're running out of LA stuff that they haven't seen yet. I guess that means we need to explore our own city some more, huh?

The Grandparents Visit - off to the Zoo!

Mark's parents visisted before Thanksgiving. Myles is lucky to have such active grandparents on his dad's side to sort of help make up for my estranged/absentee mother who has never seen, nor shown interest in her grandson. My dad's been to visit when Myles was first born and so has my aunt on my father's side, but most likely Myles will grown up without a maternal grandmother.

We webchat with Mark's parents weekly and Myles seems to recognize them now on a larger level now that he's seen them in the flesh since he's been old enough to really comprehend.

Here, the first grand is asserting his place in life. Max, the original child, has taken over grandma and grandpa's laps.

First Stop: The Los Angeles Zoo!

Myles hates solids - solid food, that is

Myles hates anything that's real food. Makes a face like you're poisoning him, spits most of it out, clamps his mouth shut. Okay, maybe I should backtrack and use past tense because it appears that magically, at 8 months almost exactly, he likes food! Today he started squash and polished off the jar in the same day! Never has that happened. Usually the day we start the food, we get maybe a tablespoon in him and it takes until the next evening to either finish the jar or throw it out.

He's never had squash before today. My attempt with him and carrots made me not real hopeful about light colored vegetables. But he cleaned it up! The idea of my baby of 3 square meals a day is amazing. He'll still nurse, of course, until he's old enough to not need milk. If we can get him to use a sippy or go back on the bottle (he rejected the bottle and the pacifier at about 4 1/2 months on his own) I can just pump, but since he's allergic to milk still, he can't have formula. He has some special, milk and soy free formula that he used to drink, but I tasted it for the first time last week - Nutramigen - and it's DISGUSTING! It tastes like licking a dirty metal spoon. No wonder he hates it. I wonder if his rejection of the bottle was halfway about what was in it part of the time.

Playdate fun

Teeth

Myles is getting his top 2 teeth now. It's been rough on him, but I think we're finally nearing the end of the teeth acquisition stage for awhile. Hopefully he'll take a break on new teeth after the front 4 are all in. He's starting to get back to his nap schedule - the one that was blown to bits when the first 2 teeth came in.

He's been saying mama a lot too. He's been saying it for at least a month, but within the last week or so it means something. Not actually a reference to me yet, but it at least means "help!" He says dada but it just means he's having a good time doing something.

Time is starting to fly with this baby. He can't crawl yet and I'm secretly okay with that. Once they are mobile it's just the beginning of the end of babydom. He has a circular walker that walks around an activity table - the exact opposite of an exersaucer where he stands still in the center of a donut activity table. In this walker, he attempt to chase Max as he walks past. He can't truly walk yet, so he looks like Redd Foxx in Sanford and Sons, ambling along with his arms out airplane style. He looks like a little drunk, but the dogs motivate him a lot. It has been the dogs that have motivated him to launch forward to a crawl-type position from a tripod-sit. He wants to get Max. Minnie not so much. I think it's Max's tail and the fact that he moves around more than Minnie. Minnie is actually the safer dog for Myles. Shorter hair and no tail to pull. Also, she seems less scared of him. Max is a little more wary. He loves 3 year olds and older, but this little one seems a little wild. They are all doing great together though. We just have to monitor their interactions since Myles is prone to yank hair and poke eyeballs.

What else? I'm been bad about updating this blog since my inlaws have Facebook. I'll try and make up for it by posting a bazillion pictures. Also, I don't know who's still reading the blog since I don't get any comment feedback, so it feels like I'm just blabbing into outerspace for no reason.