The Cuz - Little Lady Lyla

Introducing...Miles' new baby cousin:

Lyla Anne Kolb

6 pounds, 12 ounces
18 3/4 inches long

Lyla made her grand entrance a 1:55 P.M. on June 24. As much trouble as she had given her mommy in the past, all made it through the day happy and healthy. The new Kolb family of three is now home from the hospital, and Lyla is treating her parents well...a good sleeper and eater!

Miles got a sneak peek of Aunt KK in the waiting room before the surgery - he had to give his cousin a good luck smooch before coming into the world!



And here he is the next day, meeting her for the first time. You can't really tell from the picture, but he was grinning from ear to ear. Granted, it could have been his normal hamming it up for the cameras - there were only about a half-dozen onlookers aww-ing and taking pictures. However, I'm convinced that it's only because he loves his baby cousin!



I'm writing today's post about my boy with a heavy heart...sitting in the airport, ready to leave him for 3 days to go to Denver for work. It's the farthest I've been away from my little dude, but it hurts me more than it hurts him!

Here's one last picture from this weekend - trying to go swimming and not really liking it.

Last Day as an Only

There are no new pics (slackers), but I just wanted to give a quick update. Tomorrow is likely to be the day that Miles' baby cousin is born, so today was his last day as an only grandchild, at least on Mommy's side of the family.

Before the hubbub begins, an update from Miles' doc appointment last week:

• 31 inches tall (90th percentile)
• 22 lbs, 14 ounces (50th percentile)
• Finally above 50% on head size!

Miles had a great time at the Children's Museum with Daddy on Monday. He loved the water table, the dinosaur exhibit, and the trains. He was not so happy about the carousel or the maze of mirrors. Overprotective Daddy didn't like the bigger kids walking all over him, but he's excited to take him back again when he can learn to walk.

Speaking of learning to walk, Miles is well on his way! He is a pro at walking along with his Tonka truck toy, but is still figuring out how to take his first steps on his own. We will be proud once he does, but we're also savoring the non-walking Miles while we can.

He continues to love to say "Buh-bye!" and has moved from calling all food "baba" to calling all food "mama"...not even sure I want a Freudian analysis on that. He also is on his first one-syllable word..."Pup"! We went to the drive-in movies for the first time last week to see "Up", which we like to pretend he's saying as well. Considering he doesn't watch much TV, let alone cartoons, we weren't surprised that Miles was completely mesmerized by the movie.

We'll hopefully be updating soon with pictures of Baby Girl Kolb!

A Bit Phishy in Asheville

The day after Miles turned one, we begrudgingly left Aunt KK and her ouchies and headed down to Asheville. We checked into the hotel and hung out on the patio off our room. If you ignored the cars in the parking lot and tilted your head just right, you had a nice view of downtown up on the hill.


We wandered around downtown and took in some pretty sights. It was a quiet evening there on a Monday, but we enjoyed the leisurely sight-seeing:


Little did we know, but our visit to downtown the next day couldn't be more opposite. The band Phish was playing downtown that evening, and their throngs of fans (most of which who hadn't showered in weeks) packed the entire area, loitering with their hackey sacks and mangy mutts. Luckily, smelly or not, Phish fans are generally a mellow bunch, so it just made for a more interesting and colorful visit. That day was Jason's birthday. We started with an all-you-can-eat breakfast at the Moose Cafe, followed by 9 holes of golf for Daddy.


Wednesday was our trip to the Biltmore - what an amazing place! Miles was such a good boy...we figured we'd only make it part of the way through the house tour, but he let us see all 5 floors of the house without much fuss. He charmed every old man and lady in the place. We had a picnic in the gardens for lunch:


We ate ice cream and the River Bend Creamery:

And we pet lots of animals at the farm (ok, so Daddy and Miles pet them...Mommy stood back and tried not to step in chicken poo):


On the drive back home, we stopped for lunch in Corbin, KY - home of the original KFC. Miles did his best impression of Colonel Sanders, especially for the occasion.


Now it's back to life as usual...Miles has had so much fun playing with his birthday toys. Our house looks like a Toys R Us exploded!

Miles is One!

Miles had a great first birthday last Sunday! Aunt KK will soon be delivering Miles' first baby cousin, so we decided to have the birthday party in Lexington so she could be close to the hospital. Good thing...because she started having contractions that night and went into the hospital the next day. No baby yet...hopefully she'll stick it out until her new C-section date: June 24.

Anyway, the grandparents and aunts and uncles all descended upon a nice park in Lexington for Miles' Big Day.

Miles was unimpressed by the tradition of wearing cheap paper hats on your birthday - someone could have at least gotten him a baseball cap or something!



He quickly cheered up though when we rolled out the cake. He recognized it from his first taste at the picture studio the week before...and he learned not to immediately stick his toe in it this time!



This time around it was even more delicious, because everyone sang and clapped just for him!



Not surprisingly, he got a shload of presents, and he even got to test out a few.



Next chapter - Birthday #2...this time Daddy's birthday and our celebration in Asheville, NC.

The Grand Ol' KY

We've had an exciting couple of weeks! Still trying to catch up, but first, here's what we did on Memorial Day weekend:

Watched Aunt Ashley's soccer game. Miles was so proud of her - she scored several goals!




Took his first carousel ride at Opry Mills...was kinda freaked out.



Checked out the fishies at the Rain Forest Cafe with Granny:



Miles was very good for his sleepover with Aunt Ashley while Mommy and Daddy spent the night in Nashville. He also loved playing with the big kids at the cookout on Sunday and watching his first Indy 500.

In our next episode...birthday celebrations! But first, a word from our sponsors: A&W, Veg-All, and Diet Coke...

51-week Photo Shoot

Miles posed like a supermodel this week when he got his 1-year pictures taken on Sunday. We had much better luck this time around with Portrait Innovations - thanks to everyone who recommended them!

I posted a couple of his best shots below, but you can take a look at even more of the shots by clicking here.

Mine that Boy

I'm actually blogging about events that happened this month!

We made a trip down to Uncle David and Aunt Hilary's house for their traditional Kentucky Derby party. Miles stole the show last year with his baby shower being on that day, so we returned to the Bluegrass state (OK, across the river) to watch the race.

David does online betting, so we were able to put money all on the preliminary races throughout the day leading up to the Derby. I did relatively well - generally broke even. Jason, on the other hand, was almost a complete bust for the day, but luckily was able to win big enough on the post-Derby race to help us come pretty close to even for the day. Miles still spent some time commiserating with his Daddy:



We also enjoyed some non-race fun. Miles made a new friend, Ben, and had lots of fun chasing the big boy around.



Miles also likes to play "Cool Joe." Steps involved: Remove Mommy's sunglasses from top of her head. Place glasses on Mommy's face. Listen to Mommy say "Cool Joe!". Laugh hysterically. Let Mommy place sunglasses on your face. Squirm. Steal glasses. Place glasses on top of Mommy's head. Repeat.