I Get a Kick Out of You

The time has come for another round of adorable Miles pictures, just in time for his second birthday. Here are just a few, but you can check out the whole album on Facebook.

If you love these as much as I do, take the kiddo (or middle-aged spouse, family iguana, or yourself in an indulgent new outfit) to Portrait Innovations. I think I've gushed about them before, but they're great with Miles, produce pretty pictures (yeah, my starlet son probably helps), and you get a ton of prints for your money.

So, on to the good stuff!

The crowd favorite:

Representin' the Bulldog Nation:

Playing with blocks:

And knocking them down again:

(Almost) Dos, Deux, Zwei, Two!!

And now...the most controversial of them all:

Jason loves that one. I think he's pretty cute in it, but I also think it looks like he is getting ready to go off to college! Aunt KK calls it his "old man" picture. Uncle Bub probably put it best, like Miles is saying "Evenin' Ladies..." ready to chat up some hot toddlers sporting sundresses and bloomers, drinking chocolate milk out of their sippy cups at the Baby Singles Bar. What do you think?

We have more pictures than we know what to do with, so if I plan to see you soon, please be prepared to take a load off of our hands! We have enough wallets for him to give out to all of Morristown Jr./Sr. High School, I do believe. I'll make sure to write "Don't change. It was fun knowing you. Class of '26!!" on the back of each one.

Next stop - Birthday Party #1 of 3!

A Day for Mommy

The good news for me - we've been able to spend our evenings and weekends with Daddy again. That's bad news for you, my fair readers, because nights together means holes in the blog timeline. Lucky for you that Miles' cold made him too cranky to go to the grocery store tonight. That means Jason has a date with Meijer and I have a date with all of you.

I'll spend this evening's date talking about my date with Miles and Jason on Mother's Day. Did you notice that "Mother's Day" is singular this year? Although the grandmas were in our thoughts, they had other obligations, so this year was all about me, me, me! It was such a great day.

After church, I got a nap while Miles had his. Then, we were off to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Not surprisingly, Miles only lasted through Gaugin's early years and partially through the pointillists. That's 10 minutes, for those of you unfamiliar with the IMA.  Thankfully, it was a nice afternoon and the museum has beautiful gardens.

Miles' favorite part of the day was watching the fishies:

We then went to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants - Claddagh. This is Miles "excited" face - guess he was really pumped about fish and chips.

Not really...I think he was more pumped about wishing Nana a Happy Mother's Day:

It was the best Mother's Day I could have - spending time with my boys!

On a completely unrelated but obligatory Miles progress note, we're in the Potty Prologue. Most days we get a "no" when we ask Miles if he wants to sit on his Froggy Potty (still in the diaper on phase). On Sunday, he got really excited when we told him he could bring his new (ok, garage sale) fire truck with him.

We'll keep you posted on the potty progress...the perfect ending to a perfect date, right? 

Derby Delight

We had a fun weekend down at Uncle David and Aunt Hilary's house at their annual Kentucky Derby celebration.

Miles was only slightly interested in the horsies on TV. After a half-dozen or so races, I can personally see how it loses its luster too. I guess there were plenty of people there (and dollars too) that disagree with us. One of those was Daddy, who flushed several of our dollars away by not winning a single race.

Despite his lack of interest in racing, Miles tried to at least look the part. I tried to enable a repeat performance of Miles' "Little Jockey" shirt from last year, but he refused to take his sweatshirt off the entire time. Luckily, he humored us with the tacky hat for a minute or so:

The best part of the party was getting to spend time with some of Miles' favorite people. Grammy enjoyed her bonus time with him, while Miles enjoyed his sucker from Aunt Hilary:

Miles loved hanging out with his cousin Lyla, escorted by Nana and Aunt KK:

Big (Boy) Ben and Miles had fun playing together...or should I call them Pete and Re-Pete? Miles liked to do and say whatever Ben did, and they did a pretty good job of playing catch, coloring, and playing with trucks. They also were excellent at resting together on Miles' new race car bed:

On an unrelated but equally cute note: Miles' first taste of sushi:

He was ambiguous about it at first but got really excited about dipping it in the "green stuff". I said no to the wasabi, but Daddy wanted to let him try. At first, I didn't think Miles actually got any, so we let him take a bite. Wish I would have gotten a picture of that surprised face! Please don't call Child Protective Services...all turned out ok.