Hanging on a Wednesday afternoon

Ben updating his iTunes library...




Me, hanging out on the bed...





Miles, resting, and watching...


"Minnie", which is his name for all Disney mouse characters.

Bubbles, Boats, and Bandages

We had a busy, fun-filled day yesterday! We went to "the lake" to visit with Ben's family. His cousin Wendy, Aunt Marta, and his cousin's kids Olivia and Cedric (and Olivia's friend Sarah) were in town from the west side of the state. We started the day getting up around 1030 (Miles got up around 730 and watched "Minnie").

Miles and I got ready while Ben went to an appointment.



Miles post bath in my "star" bathrobe and his "bear" towel.

When Ben got home, around 1:30, we hit the road, stopping at McDonald's for lunch and Starbucks for some fuel, ahem, I mean coffee. We arrived at the lake around 4pm due to our several stops and a construction delay. After arriving, we got changed into our swim attire, and headed down to the beach for some water fun.

He LOVES throwing rocks in the water and watching them splash. He entertained himself like this for quite a while.

Then we headed into the water. Don't mind me and my pasty legs and swimwear...

Miles wasn't too sure about it. He kept tyring to climb up me. I brought him in to the point of us being chest deep. We'll have to try a pool sometime and see if he likes that better! I thought he'd like floating in the water...

Then Wendy and Cedric went out in a kayak.

Notice Wendy NOT paddling? Cedric is paddling with his hands from his "seat" in the storage compartment!

Miles wanted to join in the boating fun, and began "dig-dig-dig"ing in the sand/water with and ore.

After a while, he decided that wasn't enough, he wanted to go out in the boat too!

So, we let him climb in. But, again, this wasn't satisfying enough, and he wanted to go into the water. So I took him out a little ways.

He loved it, but kept trying to put his hands in the water, which tipped the boat. I didn't let him tip out, but some day he's gonna have to learn that you can't stand and reach out of kayaks...

We headed back up to the cabin after some swimming and got ready for dinner. Miles wanted to play with bubbles while Ben grilled burgers, brauts and salmon.

He made a big mess, but did a pretty good job blowing bubbles, especially since the bottle says "4+" for age! He ate a lot of bubbles and cleaned the chair :)

We ate dinner, played around, and headed home around 8:30. He went straight to bed after the 90min drive and slept until 11:45 this morning!

Oh, and the bandages...notice all the band aides he has on his arms??? He has a new obsession with them...

Nap time or Play time?

That is truly the question. Miles' crib remains in his room for one reason (well, originally two, but changed my mind). This reason is, he will not stay in his big boy bed for napping. He just gets out and plays. Why he'll stay in it at nighttime and sleep, but not nap time, is beyond me. So, the crib remains. I'd like to take it out sooner than later so he has more room to play during play time.

Recently, after waking up from a nap in his crib, he got into the diaper caddy on top of his "changing tower" (next to his dresser/changing table). He can now reach this from the crib because of how the room is arranged with his new bed. The one thing he chose to play with from his caddy????

Can you guess???
Here's a closer look:

Figure it out yet?

Baking Soda! I use it to pour into his diaper pail to make it less stinky... Now it is all over his crib and makes for salty tasting kisses!

Did you notice something else in the pictures??? Macaroni and Cheese...on the walls!



Please excuse the mess...he's a toddler after all.

It's a little brighter/darker than I'd planned, but oh, well. Can't wait for new bedding. Also, can you see what he did to his blinds? He broke five slats looking out the window. I need to fix that soon. He can climb from his bed to the dresser/changing table...

I haven't put stuff up on the walls yet because I haven't quite decided what to put up (using those scrapbooking supplies I talked about in this post). Not sure if I want to do the whole alphabet some how, just parts, etc. I also need to change the knobs on his dresser and plan to get a foam floor puzzle mat like this to cover some of the flooring. I also need to put his valance (or at least the rod) back up.

On another semi-unrelated note, I'm currently making a baby present for my sister (who is ready to deliver any day/moment now). She is having a girl, and I'm so excited (literally to tears) and had to do something girly, since I'm pretty sure I'll never have a girl of my own, ya know, which I'm totally fine with. My project has been eating up a lot of my free time. I'm catching up on blogging just now, mostly for her (though she's probably sleeping right now...I hope), so she has some entertainment while she's playing the waiting game with her little, I mean big, peanut in her belly. I know she's been wanting to see pictures of Miles' room, so here they are Sis! I'll post pics of my project/baby gift after I know she's received it...but it isn't finished yet!

Hair and Make-up

Miles likes to watch me get ready for work in the afternoons. He shows great interest (to his father's dismay) in my make-up. He has also started getting into it when I'm not around (he can unzip the bag...yikes!). The other day while I was getting ready, I let him have at it with both hair and make-up products. He had a blast. Here are the results:

You may or may not be able to tell that he is on the bathroom counter. We now have to keep the bathroom door closed at all times because he can close the toilet lid and climb up onto the counter, getting into the medicine cabinet, toothbrushes, water, hair dryer, and anything else left on the counter...

Flirt

Flirting with a girl (teenager) at the next table over!

Mayo!?!

#1: Walk down the stairs (like a big boy)

#2: Push


#3: Climb...

#4: To push the doorbell (another favorite thing to do)




#5: Run...

#6: Run...

#7: As fast as you can...

#8: You can't catch me...

#9: Oh, wait, you can catch me...I need a lift!

#10: Open the box

Miles' new favorite thing to do is get the mail, or as he says it "mayo!?!!". Unfortunately, this particular day on which I chose to chronicle his daily adventure to the mail box, the mail man was very late (I think our regular guy was on vacation). So, there were no cute pictures of him proudly bringing the mail into the house to give to me :( Perhaps another day!

I should have zoomed a little more on some of the photos so you could see more of Miles running to the mail box in all his excitement and less of our Eco-friendly, no water necessary, no-mow lawn! (Our pup chewed through the wires of our sprinkler system so our lawn no longer gets watered. I'm looking at the brighter side of things: saves on water, money, and gas for the mower (aka pollution)!)

New paint!

So, I have finally finished painting for the year!!!!! I think I'll paint the cabinets in the kitchen next spring/summer sometime. Anywho, every room upstairs has been painted since we moved in. I don't currently have pictures of Miles' new wall color, but I kept the argyle (on request from Ben) and the color is kind of the color of Macaroni and Cheese. It is a little darker than I imagined, but very bright and fun for a little boy's room. I'll post pics maybe tomorrow.

Here is our new room! I still need to add artwork, the headboard, and some curtains. I may also change out the light fixture for a chandelier. We got new lamps today from Lowes ($20 a piece! and exactly what I wanted). I only had to do one coat of paint on the walls (four on the trim, baseboards, and closet doors).

What do you think? I love the new color!

Here is what it looked like before (with renter's stuff):