Living in the moment

Grandma Jill visited yesterday afternoon and brought Miles a great book called Little Boy. It's about a little boy who is...well...a little boy. It's describes how the adventures of his day depend on the small things he discovers, such as his yellow cup, a puddle to jump, his starship pajamas, and a big cardboard box. The ending goes something like this ~

Little boy, so much depends on....the way you don't worry, the way you won't hurry, and...your big cardboard box. Little boy, you remind me how so much depends on days made of now.

We will read this book every day to help keep us grounded. To help keep us living in the moment!

Today was a sad day in Owatonna, starting with a wicked storm that downed trees and power lines near Kids Korner and sent all the babies home. Not bad when you're a mommy eager to be home with her little boy...but still a little scary.

Then a small plane carrying at least 8 people crashed at the Owatonna airport, sparing none and leaving families broken and hearts very heavy.

When Tanner and I were sitting beside Miles as he splashed in his pool tonight, it felt so good to be living in the moment. To be laughing at our little boy who decided to skinny dip. To not worry about getting the clothes in the washer or wiping the mess off his high chair... That can wait. Miles' day is made of NOW - of his green turtle pool and his laughing mommy and daddy. We are a lucky family!

A Potts Kid

Miles and I were up early today and decided to play dress up. Here he is wearing my glasses.

Tanner said this is exactly what Miles is going to grow up to look like, thanks to my genes. Hey, just because the Potts crew has bad vision doesn't mean we're a bunch of dopes.

Maybe Miles will be like his Uncle Charlie and never need glasses. A kid can hope!

I could get used to this

Big news from the Grimmius trio......Mommy and Miles get 10 extra hours together every week!

I've trimmed my work schedule down to 3/4 time in order to spend more time with my baby boy. We are all so happy about the new arrangement. When Tanner brought Miles to daycare this morning, he said, "Mommy will see you at 2 this afternoon!" and Miles looked at the other babies and grinned from ear to ear. He better not brag too much or those other babies will start stealing his Cheerios!

To celebrate our first afternoon together, we went to the Riverbend Nature Center in Faribault. It's a great place and I know we'll be frequent visitors. We stayed on the paved trails today, but no doubt will return with daddy and hit some of the bumpy gravel trails (I was worried about getting a flat tire on the BOB...okay, that's a lie. I really was worried about getting lost. I'm not good in the woods.). Better yet, Uncle Charlie and Auntie Angie should cruise the bumpy trails with us! Miles thinks they'd have a lot of fun exploring the wilderness with us.

We saw some turtles, cardinals, and squirrels. We also heard lots of crickets and a variety of lovely songbirds singing their woodsy tunes. Here's a picture of Miles in front of the trail map. Tanner thinks his head looks too big for the hat. In real life, the hat fits just fine. Trust me. I wouldn't try to squeeze a hat on him that doesn't fit. That's just cruel.

Miles took a picture of the swamp. Isn't he a good photographer? Too bad you can't see the turtles. There were whole families of them sitting on logs until they saw a 23 pound baby crossing the bridge. If only they knew how gentle and sweet he is...

Shortly after Miles took his first picture, the battery in the camera died. Guess what we're doing tomorrow afternoon? Getting batteries, of course! Then we might go swimming. Stay tuned! I love this semi-at-home-mom thing.

Just weighing in...

daddy!

Oh, the anticipation!

Wait for it....

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Whew. One more time, daddy?

Miles' diary entry for July 12, 2008

What a fun day! It started with a bath, which is always a great way to start the day. Then before I knew it, there were grandparents all over the place around here...Great Grandpa Charlie came to play and brought along some treats from the Spring Valley bakery. He wears a fascinating watch and has a very delicious pointer finger. Must be from all that digging in his garden.

Gramma Jill and Grampa Larry came to play and brought along some treats (i.e. big people lunch) from Panera. Grampa Larry showed me that he can clap his hands just like me. That will definitely help keep him occupied during retirement! Gramma Jill was very snuggly. She fed me lunch and changed my diaper several times. She's a champ at dirty diapers. She pretends they smell like roses. Thanks gramma!

Grandpa Dave also came to play and brought his great laugh and cool BoDeans tshirt (he was on his way to Rochester to rock out). He was funny, as usual. I like to giggle at his jokes.

After successfully avoiding a nap for most of the day, I crashed as the grand ones left and woke up just in time for supper. Then I took mommy and daddy down to the "river" to feed the ducks. Unfortunately some big, mean geese (daddy calls them worse names) chased away all the cute duckies and stole our bread. I'd had enough and decided it was time to go home and play in the yard. Hopefully some day I'll get a swing set or something. Playing in the grass is fun, but really folks...let's add a little excitement around here.

Oh baby, it's hot

What do we do on hot summer days?

Eat frozen waffles and nap, of course!

Sore booty

Miles has had some extra messy diapers lately...a very painful part of the teething process, as his bottom can't handle the poo. Fortunately Miles' girlfriend Claire had some extra cornstarch in her cupboard -- her mommy is MUCH more prepared for these kinds of situations! The traditional Butt Paste (that's what it's called, folks) isn't meeting the needs of Miles' little cheeks, so we're going for good ol' pure cornstarch. Miles thought it was fun getting a little dusting of the white stuff, and thought it was even more fun getting to play naked all evening. Oh, the joys that come with the hardships in life!

Another bright spot in Miles' day was getting this great homemade stool from his Great Uncle Don and Great Aunt Janet (i.e. Uncle Duck and Aunt Daisy). They are a talented duo! Miles got to play with Hannah's stool (ooh, that sounds bad) in June when everyone was here visiting. He loved it, so needless to say he was overcome with happiness at the arrival of his own stool this afternoon. YAY!!

Here's a flashback to the fun with Hannah's stool...