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.

One More School Lesson...

So, I thought last night would be the end of my "school" theme, but I just got a doozy tonight that had to have come from school!

Scene: Culver's, Miles/Mommy Date Night. A feast of delicious Butter Burgers are spread out before us.

Miles grimaces with the pained look that graces his face on many occasion. Family members - you know the one. I dare not discuss its origins in mixed company.

I reach over to comfort him - smoothing his back and brushing his hair out of his face. I coo with a maternal sigh, "Do you want Mommy to hold you while..."

Before I even have the chance to complete my loving inquiry, Miles spouts:

"Mommy, keep your hands to yourself!"

Gettin' Schooled

For those of you that don't now, Miles is a big boy who goes to "school". We love his day care, and he loves his teachers and friends there. Whenever we ask him what he did that day, he always tells us "Sing songs. Dancing. Eat." We still haven't figured out the song he tells us he likes to sing with his best buddy Colin. If any of you know what "Dub-dub-die...sit down!" might be, just let me know.

He recently had his official school pictures taken. Here are some illegal downloads because we're too cheap to buy them before he gets his 2-year old pictures taken next month:






And my personal favorite...one I entitled "Suspicious."


He learns lots of things at school. He tells us his favorite song to sing with Miss Callie is the ABC song. Don't mind the visual - the audio gives you a pretty good idea of how good he's getting at his alphabet. As usual, he loves to give a grande finale flourish at the end!

Of course, we also need to stay up to date on current events at home:


And every boy needs a little fun after school!

Knockin' Back a few Moo-skees

The Man of the House is working again this evening, which means you, my dear readers, will benefit from yet another post this month.

With Jason being gone so much in the evenings this past week, Miles and I have been enjoying lots of date nights. We went for ice cream one night - just Wendy's - can't do Frosty Boy without Daddy. We had a pizza/playground night. We even had an evening that didn't involve food, but it did involve shopping! In general, Miles is learning to be a much more pleasant boy in public, and I'm so proud of him! He even behaved at a wedding last night...sort of. If Jenny and Jan don't mind hearing "goldfish" and "Amen!" about 20 times on their wedding video, then we're in the clear. No tantrums!

To reward him for his good behavior, we put him to work:
Miles is finally big enough for his Bubble Mower (thanks, Uncle Bub!), and he wore it out today, which gave us some much needed time to pull weeds and clean the garage a little. It's so nice that Miles is getting big enough to entertain himself, but it also makes me a little sad.

We also had a big afternoon today at Trader's Point Creamery. The first thing we did was take a look at the machine bottling chocolate milk. Miles kept saying the cows were drinking chocolate milk, so he wanted some too. Amid about 40 choruses of "Miles' chock-it milk", we managed to visit the chickens. Miles wasn't too thrilled, especially when the rooster started crowing. Neither was Mommy - I swear Rooster #2 was shooting me an evil chicken grin. We hightailed it to the old/tired cow and baby cows hanging out in the cool of the barn. Miles wasn't so excited about that either. He really started to freak out when we watched them bring the loudly-mooing cows in from pasture to be milked.

I have to side with my boy here - skip the outdoosy, stinky, loud, animal part...and get to the part where we lounge on the patio with a glass of cool chocolate goodness!

Can't believe that my boy is big enough to drink out of his own glass so well - or that he's sporting that darn mustache again:

So, what did we do to wrap up our outdoorsy afternoon? Shopping, of course! Check out Miles' find:

Hippety Hoppety

The Kahls somehow celebrated Easter amidst the hubbub of Butler getting to the National Championship. Yes, I know how close that shot was -- I saw it 812 times after the fact.

Considering we were out until midnight watching the Bulldogs kick some Sparty behind, our 7:30 call to be at church came very early. We still managed to get in a couple minutes to check out the Bunny's stash before heading out.



Peter Cottontail brought just what Miles thought he would - lots and lots of suckers.



Not only did we have to sing both services at church, but Jason played his trumpet and I played my flute. Miles was generally a very good boy - not whining, but a little hopped up on sugar. To calm him down, Jason let Miles fiddle with his trumpet a little bit. He wasn't making noise, and it kept him quiet and out of trouble - that is, until it came time for Jason to actually play his trumpet. Of course, taking away Miles' "toy" led to the Grand Easter Tantrum. As I was carting Miles' butt out of the sanctuary, he screamed the whole way, "MY...DADDY'S...TRUMPET!!!!!!"

Luckily, his cuteness overpowered his orneriness, and everyone kept telling us how adorable he was at the breakfast afterward. I try to stay humble, but I have to admit that this just oozes cute:



Since it was just the three of us this year, we decided upon a delectable Easter lunch of Chinese takeout. Miles then decided to take a little time on the back nine to aid his digestion.




We then hunted down eggs that the Easter Bunny hid in the front yard. Miles still looks for eggs every time we go out to the car.



Finally, Miles got to enjoy some non-sugary treats as a reward for his excellent egg hunting skills:



It was a good day.

Butler Campus Tour Guide

Hi. My name is Kristin, and I'll be your tour guide for today's visit of Butler University. My assistant tour guide is Miles Joseph Kahl.

Let's start our tour today at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse. Its most notable feature is the original urinals...straight outta 1928.



Moving inside, Miles will demonstrate how to inbound a pass onto the original court. I guess Gene Hackman was born right here, in the middle of the basketball court.



Next, we'll move along Lake road, past the carillon and fountains. No need for a picture stop - nothin' to see here.

Here, we see Butler Observatory, home to Indiana's largest telescope and a multitude of nerds from across the Midwest.



Straight ahead, you'll see Robertson Hall. This building houses the Alumni, Admissions, and Financial Aid offices. They take cash, charge, or credit...payable over the next 20 years, in my case.



In the distance, you can see Lilly Hall, home to Butler's college of fine arts, and the Pharmacy building. Butler's doctor of pharmacy program requires most students to spend 6 years in that building. Not surprisingly, the music students also average a 6-year stint at Lilly before graduation as well.



We move throughout campus, past Atherton Union, and Indiana's first Starbucks. A $3 cup of coffee seems like a small price to pay - that's only 0.01% of the cost of annual tuition. [Lecture I've given 928 times for anyone who tells me Butler is too expensive - maybe I only had poor and talented friends, but I never knew of anyone who paid full price to attend.]

In front of Atherton, we have a collection of student-painted bulldogs, representing each of Butler's colleges. Miles' personal favorite is "Amadogus Mozart".



Miles demonstrates Butler's fourth most popular sport, soccer, which ranks behind basketball, water polo, and cricket. You'll also see Irwin Library behind him. Its architecture is known to represent a bookshelf, lined with books. Today's students have never cracked open a hard copy book, now that we have iPhones and the internet, so we've been instructed now to say that it was designed to look like the opening credits of the Muppet Show. Oh, wait, Butler students were not yet born when the Muppet Show aired. Let's just say it looks like Miley Cyrus' house.



Here we have Clowes Hall, home to arts and other public events serving the city of Indianapolis. Former U.S. Presidents have spoken on its stage, and famous performers have demonstrated their craft here. Its most famous performance happened in August 1996, when a then little-known Kristin Woodling first graced its stage as a Tina Turner impersonator in front of an audience of hundreds.



Finally, the crown jewel of Butler's campus, Jordan Hall. It was one of the first buildings built when Butler moved to Fairview in the 1920's. It was named after Jordan Sparks of American Idol fame.



Thanks for visiting Butler with us today. And remember, GO DAWGS!

R U a Bulldog...or an Easter Bunny?

Um, in case you haven't heard...THE BUTLER BULLDOGS ARE IN THE FINAL FOUR! I wish I could say Miles has watched every minute of every game, but he's been much more interested in his sandbox, legos, and golf lessons from Uncle David. He'll have the rest of his life to be obsessed with basketball! Jason and I spent a load on tickets (that haven't arrived yet BTW), so Miles will be spending Saturday with Grammy. He can't wait!



We can't leave out the good ol' Buckeyes, though. We cheered for them too. Miles is finally saying "Go Dawgs!" instead of "Go Bucks!"



Miles also spent his first time away from Mommy and Daddy for more than a night. He had fun hanging out with his cousin Lyla, Nana, and Papa while we escaped to Las Vegas with Aunt KK and Uncle Davy. Here's Miles giving Nana her thank you flowers:




We've finally been blessed with spring weather, which means playground time and trips to the Frosty Boy. Here's Miles on his new favorite - the monkey bars! Amazingly, he wasn't turned off to them after getting kicked in the face by a big boy going across the monkey bars the other day! All was fine, but it was our first semi-major playground incident.



We prepared for Easter tonight by dying eggs. Miles had lots of fun and stuck his hand all the way in the blue dye! Needless to say, it was also bath night tonight.



We dropped a couple eggs, which Miles enjoyed because he actually got to eat a hard boiled egg tonight. He wolfed it down in about 30 seconds - glad we don't have to worry about what to do with the other 11 next week. He also decorated them with stickers, and I'm sure that the Easter Bunny will love admiring them before he hides them on Sunday. Here's Miles preparing for the big day. In case you need the transcript, he's saying "Hop" ad nauseum, then "Bunny" as the finale:

And here is Miles after dying eggs, proclaiming "I did it!"

Final Miles moment...the look I get when I tell Miles to say "Cheese!" for the camera. I think I'll stick with candid shots from now on.