Vegas

We decided a couple weeks ago that we needed a break. We needed to get away from the cold, and Adam really needed a break from work. I got online and found a hotel in Vegas for $100 for 3 nights the following weekend. I booked it and we couldn't wait to get there.

Milo was so good in the car. We stopped a couple times for wiggle breaks, but still made it there in under 6 hours.

The weather was beyond perfect. I was bummed I didn't take flip flops, shorts and capris for any of us. I figured it would be warmer than home, but I didn't expect shorts weather.

This was probably the most productive vacation Adam and I have ever taken. We are completely content to just sit around the hotel the hotel, watch tv, sleep lots and go out for food and little else. Well, bring a 9 month old into the picture and that no longer happens. We left just about any chance we could, while still making sure we were back in time for his/our naps.

In the past, any time Milo sleeps in the same room as me, I get next to no sleep. He has always been so wiggly and grunts and groans all night, that I end up just waiting for him to wake up. He was an angel. I borrowed a pack and play from a neighbor and we put him in the bathroom area (like, 5 feet away from us). I hardly made a peep. He slept the whole night, he woke up early, but at least we made it through the night.

The time that was spent in our room, we had to get creative. Milo discovered the phone book and how easy the pages ripped out, and how easily he could rip them to shreds. I decided that the hotel wouldn't notice, considering it was stuck to the bottom of the night stand from not being moved in so long. He had a blast with it and it kept him entertained for 15 minutes at a time.

The first full day we were there, daddy found us a park to play at. It was FANTASTIC. It had a huge duck pond with hundreds of ducks, and geese and swans. We didn't have any bread to feed them, so they got to eat Milo's gerber apple puffs. They didn't seem to mind and Milo LOVED it. We even got him to say "duck". He loved just watching them, and even tried to reach for them. We loved it so much, we went back the next day. We again didn't bring any bread, but a nice man gave us half a loaf, that Milo tried to eat.

There was also a really cool park. Milo is still too young to enjoy it, but give him a couple years and I don't think we would have ever left it. He loved to swing on my lap and kick daddy. He wasn't too sure about the slides, but loved to watch all the other kids play.

We also walked a little bit on the strip to get lunch one day. Milo seemed to like it, and fell dead asleep on the walk back. We were pretty surprised to see that there wasn't so much almost nudity every where. Every other trip I've ever taken to vegas, there isn't any where to look because of the almost naked women, and even men. This time I saw a lot more Blue Man Group, David Copperfield, Reba and stuff like that.




Our trip was so much fun with just our little family. Who knew this tiny person would change our vacations for the better  in so many ways.

Sick Baby

What does a sick baby look like you ask? Sleepy, cranky, sad, inconsolable, exhausting are all good words to describe a sick baby.

This, however, is what MY sick baby looks like.

Our day started at 7a.m. when Milo woke up (early). I went in and found that he had been sleeping in his own throw up for who knows how long. It was dry and matted in his hair, and his room smelled completely awful. It was SO sad. Now, before you starting thinking how awful I am for letting him scream and cry in the middle of the night after throwing up until he fell back asleep, THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN. The kid didn't make a peep till 7, and I slept pretty lightly last night.

I spent the morning with him trying to slowly get food of any sort to stay down. It only took a couple tries before I stopped trying solids at all and just stuck with milk from mommy, water and once in a while some apple juice. Poor kid.

He is seriously the best baby ever though. He was extra cuddly, and just laid with me for long periods of time. When we weren't cuddling, he was cruisin the house, playing with toys, climbing the stairs and being pretty dang close to his normal happy self. It made it hard to tell if he was still feeling sick or if he was feeling better. By noon he was starting to be able to keep food down, but he was very picky about what he would eat. But that's when he started "squirting" out the other end. Those were some fun diapers. He even "squirted" me in the middle of one change (add that to my 'official mom list').

Daddy came home from work early to help and comfort Milo. They got a nap in and some (calm) play time in. That kid sure loves his daddy. He went down easy and seemed to be feeling better. Our fingers are crossed that tomorrow is a better day. (and as usual, fingers are also crossed that he decides to sleep in. I can hope right?)

Cutest kid ever, right?

Oh ya...

I get so busy with Milo, that I often forget that I'm pregnant. I am now 22 weeks (and 2 days), which means that we have known for 2 weeks and 1 day what kind of baby we're having. I am sorry for leaving (a few of you) you in the dark. Here are a couple pictures that we got from the ultrasound.

Just so you know what you're looking at, HIS little bum is on the right. HE moved HIS legs just as she took the picture, so it's a little harder to tell what you're looking at. But HE is very obviously a BOY

 No profile picture this time, just a skeleton pic. But this is his cute little face

So far this pregnancy is very similar to the last one. I feel like i've popped out and am obviously pregnant, however, when I have Milo, I'm pretty sure some people just think I haven't lost my baby weight yet. I have started wearing my maternity pants because I love them so much. I could still wear my pre-preggy jeans with an elastic, but it's just not comfortable. I'm not sick and I'm not so tired (except for days when Milo decides to wake up early). Overall, this pregnancy is going by sooo much faster than the first, but we are so excited to meet this new little guy in June.

9 months in, 9 months out

**warning, cuteness overload**

Yesterday my big boy turned 9 months old. How on earth has 9 months passed so quickly?! Being pregnant was FOR.EV.ER. Now he's just so big and funny and so so good. I'm not really sure what we did to deserve such a perfect little human in our lives. He has a doctors appointment next week, so we won't know until then his accurate weight and length and what not.

He is a little guy compared to a lot of other babies his age, and even younger ones. He is tall and skinny. He could fit into 3-6 month clothes, except he's too long, and he's been in 12 month pants for a few weeks now. He eats like a champ and will eat just about anything. He is MUCH more interested in the food we are eating than anything else we give him. Lucky for him, I usually let him eat what we eat. I am only nursing him before bed and when he wakes up, but everything in between is real big boy food. He won't eat baby food any more, it's too bland and not enough texture for him. He loves apple sauce, cottage cheese, yogurt, oatmeal, veggies (but usually not plain), crackers, all of his gerber snacks, and really, he's less picky than I am. He is a PRO at using his straw sippy cup, and drinks lots of apple juice with it. We taught him to say "more" in sign language a couple weeks ago, so now when he's eating his little hands will go together, letting us know he needs more, before he's even finished the bite in his mouth.

He loves to clap. If he hears it on tv his face lights up and he claps too. Sometimes he'll clap at his books, or I'll just look over to see him clapping. When he sees that I see him clapping, he gets so excited and gets a look on his face that says "look how big I am!" He also makes this face just about every time he pulls himself up. He gets so proud of himself.

He pulls himself up on anything and everything. When he started to crawl, it wasn't as tiring as I thought it would be. Him pulling himself up wears me out! And now that he can climb some stuff, it takes even more energy out of me. He's on the door of the dishwasher "helping" me with the dishes. He managed to climb out of his crib one night, and he goes up the stairs to catch his kitty.

He LOVES the cat and dog. He gets so excited when he sees them and drops whatever he is doing to try and catch the cat, and the dog goes to him. Camper isn't a huge fan of him, but she also isn't a huge fan of moving, so she ends up dealing with him loving on her for a few minutes. Milo does pretty good about staying away from her face. Tank on the other hand, loves Milo right back and is SO good with him. They play tug of war together and Tank doesn't pull hard or fight to get the rope, just sits and waits for Milo to put it in his mouth. Milo can even stick his hand in the dogs mouth to get the ball and Tank doesn't bite back or fight to get it.



I can't really say that Milo is talking yet, but he's getting better at communicating, I guess you would call it. He uses a lot of the same sounds for some stuff, but it's slightly different and it's always when he sees what he's "talking" about and sometimes he'll even point. He waves and says "hi!" or "hey!"and when we're leaving he waves and says "da! da da!" but you can tell he's trying to say "bye! bye bye". He will pick up the remote or a phone and put it to his ear and say "hey dah!" (hi dad). When he sees Tank he says "tah" or "daw". When Camper comes in he says "kah". Hey and Hi are his most common though, and it's usually when he's trying to get your attention. He's just so smart.

So smart in fact, that I'm pretty sure sometimes he hears the serious conversations we have and then tries to do what we want him to do. Example one. My mom and I were talking about how he still wasn't sleeping through the night. My mom told me that I started sleeping through the night around 9 months. That night, and every nice since (almost 2 weeks) he sleeps 11 to 12 hours a night.
Example two. Not even a week ago, Adam and I were talking about getting Milo off his binky before the new baby comes. Yesterday, he stopped taking his binky. He will chew on it, but won't suck on it and just spits it out immediately when I try to put it in his night. We are finishing the first full day with out it, and it was no sweat for me. Praise the heavens!

This post is getting long (it's more for me than you anyway, sorry), but I will summarize a little more on a few more of my favorite things.

*He gives raspberries. On my face, neck, arm and stomach, just like we do to him
*He has started tickling me. I'll look down and he'll be scratching my leg and waiting for a response, then I realize he's waiting for me to laugh, and when I do, he laughs with me. so cute
*He loves to play with doors. He just sits there for 15 minutes at a time swinging it back and forth. If he gets distracted by something else, as he's leaving the door, it will touch his back and remind him that it is more fun and he will continue swinging the door.
*When he finds the door stopper he thinks that's pretty fun for a while too.
*He can find any cord and be happy. He pulls it tight between his hands and puts it over his head. He does it twice and then it's wrapped around his neck. No worries, he doesn't get to play with them when i'm not right there.

*He LOVES his daddy. He is definitely a mommas boy, but lately he is loving his daddy extra. When Adam comes home Milo will try to get out of my lap and crawl to him.

*He has 3 ALMOST 4 teeth. 2 bottom, 1 top and the other top one is so close I can see the ridges.

*We have playhouse Disney playing most of the day. He doesn't pay much attention to it, but when the Hotdog song comes on on Mickey Mouse, he stops everything to dance and watch. He loves to dance whenever music comes on.
*He gives great big wet open mouthed kisses. Now that he has teeth he bites when he's done. When Adam and I kiss, he tries to kiss us too. ooh he's just too cute.

I could seriously (and sometimes do) go on and on and on about this little boy. He is so much fun and as tiring as he is, I miss him when he's not with me. It's just so hard to believe that Heavenly Father trusts to raise this perfect little boy.

**Milo's 9 Month Stats**
9 months 5 days
17.22 pounds 5.3%tile
28.75 inches tall 65.83%tile
17.5 inch head 24.38%tile