We finally have the nursery together (almost)! Here are some pics of the airplane-themed digs:







It's been painted for a while, but we finally got around to putting stuff up on the walls. No, we weren't insane enough to attempt the stripes ourselves...it was well worth the reasonable price we paid for someone else to do it.

Miles still seems to be in good spirits about being a big brother, although we have had full-on arguments about the baby's name. I think he may go into a fit of rage each time someone calls the baby anything but Coney Kachow...hopefully that phase won't last long. We've been trying to enjoy our remaining time as a family of three, even though our busy schedules and my preggo-fatigue tend to get in the way. Here's some Daddy-Miles story time:



And some time Miles and I enjoyed outside on rare warm couple of days last week:



Too tired for too much more narration - will post more soon! Only 5 more weeks and change until our family grows by one!

Cabin Fever

Last week was the great Snow-pocalypse of 2011. For those of you not in the central Indiana area, that meant about an inch of ice and 30-40 MPH winds during the week, then a surprise 5 inches of snow on Saturday. We were lucky to not lose power - just lost a little bit of our sanity. Jason was out of school from Tuesday - Friday, and Miles' day care was closed on Wednesday for the first time in the 2+ years we've been taking him there. No "Ice" day for me - as long as there is power/internet, I'm working - but I did work from home three days in a row.

Needless to say, Jason was running out things to entertain the boy for 2 1/2 days, so Miles also was excited to get back to school on Thursday. For once, I was excited to get back into the office too. I felt a bit guilty as I drove him in - the fact that I didn't see pavement until about 3 miles from our house didn't help either. On the way in, Miles told me he was excited to see his best friends Collin and Scarlett - I explained that they might not be there and that a lot of his friends were probably home because of the snow. Boy, was a I wrong! The whole crew was there, so the other two-year-olds' parents must have been about as crazed as we were. ;-)

Here are some pics - Jason's "Charlie Brown" tree, and the inch of ice coating the top of our pergola.






These pics are all we have to offer - the flash is still broken on our camera. Of course, we're out of the warranty, so it will cost more to get it fixed than to buy a brand new camera. Looks like Miles is getting a new toy called Canon PowerShot! The new camera is on its way (NOT a Canon this time), so hopefully we'll have better pics to share soon.

In Coney news, I had another thankfully uneventful appointment last week. Heartbeat is in the 130s, so he must be running out of room to kick and move so much. The nurse said that my latest round of bloodwork for the Anti-M came out great, so I won't need to be tested again until I go in for delivery. Hooray! Only 8 weeks to go...

Respect the Classics, Man!

Amongst the dozens of toys in Miles' repertoire, some of his latest favorites are his monster trucks. A friend commented on how strange that was that our child would be into something so philistine, considering that we also try to expose Miles to the "classics" when we can. Well, there's no escaping our good ol' WT roots, so we're happy for him to make some new trucks friends, as long as he doesn't ask us to take him to the Demolition Derby just yet.

Part of this duality was evident when Miles started asking "What's his favorite song?" for each truck. Luckily, each truck comes with a name/identity, so it was easier to make up a correlating song on the fly. For instance, Taz sings the Looney Tunes theme. Others were more of a stretch - "Captain's Curse" sings "Love Will Keep Us Together" by Captain and Tenille. I'll just have Miles demonstrate the rest of his favorites.

First up is Grave Digger ("Digger" for short), who has his slogan written right on the side, "Bad to the Bone":

Next, a little Alice Cooper for the school bus monster truck:

In the grand finale, it's Predator's Theme. It's a stretch, but "Eye of the Tiger" does say "stalks his prey in the night"...even though you might not be able to glean that from Miles' version:

In other news, I had my 28-week appointment for Conan last week, and all is well! He's still measuring just a few days ahead, and his heartbeat was in the 140s. This appointment was also the dreaded glucola appointment, where you drink the super-sweet drink (not that bad), and they test your blood for gestational diabetes, anemia, and, for me, my anti-M numbers. I came back anemic again, but that's easily solved by popping a pill. The BEST news is that I do NOT have gestational diabetes this time around! I actually spouted "Praise the Lord!" to the nurse when she called to tell me. I am so unbelievably relieved!

Conan Ka-Chow Kahl

Just a quick update on the baby-naming front, according to Miles...

During our pre-bedtime chat last night, Miles reminded me, "When the baby comes out, his name will be Coney." I explained that we could call him Conan until he was born, but then we'd probably be naming him something different once he arrived. Miles politely explained:

"Yes, and after the baby comes we'll call him...Ka-Chow! Because that's what Wiping Queem (Lightning McQueen) likes to say."

Speaking of names, take the poll at right and let us know how you really feel about the name Conan.

No new pics, but a quick video of Miles playing his new Wii game. It's Diego - just like his friend Jack's - and Daddy bought it for him for continuing to do such a great job on the potty. We've never seen a Diego episode, but it matches his Pull-Ups! He finds it hilarious.

Little BIG Man

When did my boy get so big? Yeah, I'm sure that's not the last time you'll see that phrase here. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Miles utters the phrase, "because I'm a big boy" about 37 times a day, so you think it would have clicked with me by now.

"I get two pieces of candy because I'm two years old and because I'm a big boy."
"I eat yogurt and cereal and toast with jelly for breakfast because I'm a big boy."
"I go the Pacers game and see Boomer and then eat a big, big ice cream because I'm a big boy."

OK, so his big boy phrases do sometimes involve things other than food, but I'm drawing a blank here. I recently read that a 31-month old should be speaking in 3-4 word sentences now...did they mean 3-4 clause compound sentences, because that's what I hear every day!

Miles also has been officially pacifier-free for a week now. At first, I didn't think our plan of giving the paci to baby cousin Gavin would work. Of course, we could only find two out of the three pacis to bring to Gavin's, then we left one of those two in the car. We thought we'd try to give Gavin just the one Colts paci as a symbolic gesture. When Miles inquired next about the paci, we reminded him that we gave the paci to Gavin. Not surprisingly, Miles said, "But what about the red and white paci?" We said we were saving it to give to Gavin...and Miles said ok and slept through the night. The next night, we went through the same thing but instead got, "Where's my blue paci?" Apparently, our lame-o excuse of "we're keeping it safe until we give it to Gavin" is working, because he's only asked a couple of times since then and has given us no fuss!

And the grandaddy of all Big Boy accomplishments...Potty Training! OK, so we're not out of the woods yet, but we are making HUGE strides! Although we've had on-again, off-again success, we were on a hiatus due to some traumatic incidents over Christmas. Then in swooped day care to the rescue! They decided it's easiest to get all the kids on board at once and asked if it was ok to start Miles on the potty regime. Glad they asked Jason instead of me...I would have given them a giant "DUH!" and done a jig in celebration. It's amazing what consistency and/or peer pressure has done. Despite one little accident today, Miles has kept his Pull-Up dry and clean for two straight days!* That phrase even skims over the giant hurdle that he's actually wearing a Pull-Up...something he only did if there was a full moon on the 2nd Thursday of the month before.


* Disclaimer - there are a couples ifs, ands, and butts (ba-dump-bump) to this phrase. First, I wanted to spare you the details of bodily function talk. And I'm not counting some incidents only caused by Miles' stomach bug today (I think). Also, I definitely had to leave out the part where Genius Mommy couldn't figure out the mechanics of boys' potty positions in a public restroom. Oh, and overnight doesn't count. Dry for two straight days...my story and I'm sticking to it.

Our camera has a blown flash (or something), so pictures will be limited. We did manage to get this post-potty one of the BIG boy with his BIG lollipop after a BIG ol'...well, you know.



And we couldn't leave out the little guy! Here's a picture of Conan and my BIG ol' belly! It's still no glowing, posed, side-belly shot like I had with my first pregnancy...Jason had to disguise taking this picture as taking one of Miles. See how I excited I look at the prospect of three more months to go? Comfortable sleep positions are harder to find, picking things up from the floor is a chore, and I've already resorted to asking Jason to take off certain pairs of my shoes for me. It'll all be worth it though!

Frosty Christmas

Despite the fact that the house looks like a toy factory exploded (what will we do with TWO boys' gifts?), we had a lovely last Christmas as a family of three.

We continued our Christmas Eve tradition of going to church, although Miles refused to enter the sanctuary for a good 10 minutes until Pastor Mitch gave him a pep talk. He sat well through the children's sermon, but he got shipped off to the nursery before they broke out the fire for the candle-lighting. He's been rather two-year-old-ish lately. Not necessarily naughty, just rambunctious and only wants to do what he wants to, on his own time table. He can put on a deceptive disguise sometimes though:

On Christmas morning, Miles slept until a reasonable hour, thanks to his new alarm clock (thanks Aunt Kat!). Seriously, out of all the gifts he got, this was Mommy/Daddy's favorite. It turns green when it's ok for him to get up, and we've been able to get a good 45 minutes extra sleep every morning.

But I digress...you really care about SANTA! We checked the cookies we left out for him, and he ate them all but one little bite! The reindeer left some of their carrots, so Miles decided to feed the rest to Rudolph.



Santa did not disappoint and brought Miles his flute (although tiny and noiseless), just as Miles has been requesting since before Thanksgiving:



Miles has also been really into "big boy" games lately, so he was happy to get Chutes and Ladders and Cars Memory.



I also got Daddy and Miles a really big boy game - a Wii - for Christmas. Miles wasted no time getting the hang of it. His favorite game so far is baseball.



Grammy and Grandpa Ronald came over later that day for Christmas dinner, and, of course, more presents. Miles had lots of fun spending time with them. Unfortunately, the flash blew on our camera. Guess we'll have to wait for the pics from Gpa Ron - he's a much better photographer than I anyway.

And now, your Christmas Day entertainment:

I still haven't scanned in the Santa picture, but here's a blurry cell phone picture from when Miles met him at my work. Not the nice professional one as promised, but it'll do for now:

And a bonus non-Christmas picture. We took a trip the the Rhythm Center last week. Miles enjoyed it after getting over the initial shock. Note to the Percussion Society folks: ya might want to place the gigundo bass drum and gong towards the end of the exhibit...it might mean less little ones running screaming from your establishment. Anyway, Miles on a full drum set:

Happy New Year to everyone!!

Holidays, Birth-days, and Such

[Insert standard excuse verbiage for not updating the blog in XX days.]

A change for this blog entry - lots of pictures, (hopefully) little words. (Well, little for me.)

Thanksgiving at the Kolbs

Rubbermaid Tote fun with Cuz Lyla:

Balcony scene:

Miles also had fun checking out the Lexington Christmas parade, although it was so cold that he and Daddy only made it outside for a few minutes. They still outlasted the girls - we watched the whole thing from inside the restaurant!


Getting Ready for Christmas

Hamming it up for Christmas card pictures (instead of saying "cheese", his favorite phrase is "Ah-cha-cha-cha!"):

Fun making a Gingerbread House with Nana & Papa while Mommy and Daddy are having fun in Chicago:



A little snack before pre-Christmas dinner with Mommy's family:



Presents!

Miles also has really enjoyed seeing Santa (three times so far!). We'll post pics soon (maybe). He surprised us by not being scared at all! We saw him first at my work, and Miles was literally jumping up and down with excitement waiting to see him. He clammed up when it came time to tell Santa what he wanted, but he's been telling us that Santa is going to bring him a flute. He also saw Santa twice at the mall with Nana and Papa.


Baby Cousin is Born!

Gavin Andrew Kahl - 12/20/2010, 6 lbs 11 oz, 20 inches long.

Miles hasn't met Gavin yet, but he was so excited to hear all about him when Mommy and Daddy came home from their visit with him. He asks every couple of hours, "Where's Gavin?"