MMMMM!

One year checkup results = healthy boy

Miles visited Dr. B. Bunkers today for his one year checkup. Good news - he checked up just fine! Here are the latest stats:

Weight = 27 lbs (90th percentile, and a 1 lb gain in the last three months. Mommy thought he was going to be at least 30 pounds. Mommy better start pumping iron.)

Height = 32 inches (95th percentile and gain of 1.5 inches in the last three months.)

Head Circumference = 19 inches (90th percentile and no growth in the last three months.)

Depth of Chin Dimple = Not measured this time due to excessive drool pooled in dimple. (Some lady in the waiting room commented on his dimple and I said, "Yes, he gets it from his dad." Tanner was not around at that point. She looked at me and said, "Well you've got a good sized dimple there, too!" Excuse me?! Either she was looking at the wrong chin, or she mistook my massive pimple for a dimple.)

Shots = Hep A, PCV-7, influenza

Dr. B Bunkers was impressed by Miles' friendly demeanor, as the little boy wanted to stand right next to Dr. B Bunkers (who was sitting in a chair) and help him write notes in the chart as we chatted. Miles was also fascinated by Dr. B Bunkers' stethoscope, and thoroughly enjoyed sitting naked on the weighing machine (surprise surprise). It was a good visit - we are proud of Miles as he cruises down the road to toddlerhood, and are relieved to know that he's fine and we're not messing him up (too badly, anyway).

Here he was exactly one year ago today (his first day home):

And here he was on Sunday, as he turned the big 01:

November 23, 2008

It's just after 7:30pm and the birthday boy is sound asleep. Who would've thought turning one year old was so much work? As Grandma Jill said, there's something about being the star of a first birthday party...for Miles, it was just another day in his life. A FUN day with lots of company, goofy hats, bright paper everywhere, and some different toys. Miles was innocent and completely unaware of the fact that the day was all about him (with the exception of about 5 minutes when Angie helped blow out the candles on the cake because it was HER birthday party too!). I have a feeling he'll have a little better idea of how the day works when he turns 2, but we'll see. I've never had a 2 year old before to test the waters :)

Miles had fun bouncing from buddy to buddy today. All four grandparents came, as well as Great Aunt Donna (she won the award for furthest distance traveled, having come all the way from Green Bay), Uncle Will, probably-someday-Auntie Anne, Uncle Charlie, and Auntie Angie. Auntie Angie had a birthday earlier this week, so Miles insisted that her name be on the cake too. (Never mind the long rat-like tail on the puppy...someone must have gotten a little carried away with the chocolate piping.)

We missed Auntie Elisabeth, Uncle Evan, and Cousin Hannah very much. Cousin Hannah surprised no one when she sent this picture to Miles today...

Miles had a blast digging through bags of new toys. Gobble (the turkey) just might be his new best friend.

Except he should probably stay far away when Miles is riding on the fire truck.

The birthday boy also had fun sampling cakes. First, the one he shared with Auntie Angie...

Then, the mini-cake he had all to himself.

Pictures of the cake feast will come later -- Tanner and I were too busy with the birthday boy to take any pictures. But we're pretty sure Grandpa Dave got a few hundred, so stay tuned!

To Miles: We love you, doodle bug. Thanks for being born... Happy Birthday!

November 22, 2008

One year ago at this time, Tanner and I were in bed. We were sleepy from all of the turkey day grub we had devoured, yet wired from the anticipation of becoming parents the next day. The delivery of "baby G" was set to begin at 7am on November 23rd. Originally, the doctor scheduled me for 6am...but a nurse called just as we were getting ready for bed and told me that another pregnant lady was taking priority. Fine with us - who would argue over an extra (childless) hour of sleep?!

"Baby G" had plans of his own, though, and woke me up at 2am with a little back labor. I spent the next two hours going between the living room (where I'd slump over the back of the couch with each contraction) to the closet (where I repeatedly emptied and re-packed my hospital bag because I had no idea what I was doing and figured the contractions were not real. Ha. Not real. Doesn't everybody get unbelievably horrible back pain every two minutes?).

And so started the adventures of November 23, 2007, and the life of Miles Jay Grimmius! Our baby boy is one year old. He's a digit. A cute digit with wild, curly blonde hair. A digit who likes to grind his teeth, chase puppies, bounce on the couch, pull daddy's ears, and sit at mommy's feet while she cooks or goes to the bathroom. He's our little love bug.

A night of drama - take II

Now it all makes sense.

The underlying cause of the first night of drama (see previous post) was rotavirus. Icky, icky rotavirus. Turns out the bug made its way through Miles' daycare center last week, hitting him hardest on Friday. He exceeded Kids Korner's poopy diaper quota and was sent home early. Poor baby. We pumped him with Pedialyte and followed the BRAT diet, although we turned it into the BOAT diet - bananas, oatmeal, applesauce, and toast. He thought that was pretty good. Fortunately he didn't suffer long...about 12 hours, and he was better. Auntie Beesie (aka Dr. Liz) suggested it may be because he's received the rotavirus vaccine. Thank goodness!

Saturday night turned into another night of drama, as Tanner and I started exhibiting symptoms of rotavirus. Tanner said a train could've gone past our house and he STILL would have heard me in the bathroom. Same to you, buddy!
It was a miserable, miserable night. We weren't sure how we could possibly be parents today. Thankfully grandma and grandpa Grimmius were healthy and available. They were here at 7am and had Miles packed up and in the car headed for St. Peter within about 15 minutes.

My dear friend Natalie came to the rescue with popsicles and Gatorade. In between our acts of illness and sleeping, we're doing a decent job of staying hydrated. I think we're on the mend...knock on wood. We look forward to a good night's sleep and a fresh, new day tomorrow.

Of course we miss our little guy terribly. Sounds like he spent a good portion of the day chasing Putter (the "puppy") around the house and saying "hi" to him. Now he's snuggled in to dream land at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and will hopefully return home to Otown tomorrow.

Prior to the rotavirus taking control of our lives, we spent a wonderful day in Spring Valley celebrating (Great) Grandpa Charlie's 85th birthday. Photos to come soon -- for now, it's back to the couch.

A night of drama

The evening started out rather normal. Tanner took care of a few things in the garage, I started dinner, and Miles played at my feet with some measuring spoons (how stereotypical is THAT?! Not Miles playing with the spoons, but the other stuff. Wait, I guess a baby playing with measuring spoons is a tad stereotypical too. Great.)

Anyway, we all played and laughed and carried on with life as one big happy family until the last bits of spaghetti were cleaned from our plates. Tanner stood up and rubbed Miles on the back of the head, just as he does every night when he stands up from the dinner table. Miles smiled at daddy just as he does every night when daddy rubs his head while leaving the dinner table. And, as usual, Miles had bits of food tucked between his blonde curly locks. On this particular night, Tanner decided to peel a chunk of something sticky off of Miles' head as he finished the aforementioned head rubbing... What would possess Tanner to do such a thing, especially when it's obvious the kid is going to go directly from his high chair into the bath tub? I don't know. Apparently the big bread/spaghetti/banana goober was ultra sticky and gooberish, because it caused Miles to suffer from excruciating pain. He lost it. Completely lost it. Tanner felt bad. I felt bad. We all felt bad. But...it was pretty funny. He was consoled by the water in his sippy cup, but only for a few seconds at a time. Then he'd revert back to the sad, sad cry. It went something like this...



The bath tub distracted him for a few minutes, and then when Tanner turned the water on to "give him more to splash with", Miles lost it again. Completely lost it. Once again, Tanner felt bad. I felt bad. We all felt bad. But...it was pretty funny. He cried and cried his sad, sad cry while getting his jammies on. I tried coming to the rescue with The Toothbrush (he LOVES playing with his toothbrush), but like the sippy cup, The Toothbrush provided only a few moments worth of peace for the little man.

Something terribly sad was going through that baby's head tonight. I can't imagine the goober-removal or water-running episodes were the true causes of his pain. He normally doesn't react that way...and usually we can get him to switch gears by pretending to cough or sneeze -- or at least by giving him The Toothbrush. Nothing seemed to do the trick tonight, except for some nice warm milk and snuggles before being tucked in to dream land. Hopefully tomorrow is a happier day! If not, I'll be sure to tape it and post a video.

Making progress...

It's Wednesday...

But it feels like it should be Friday. Does anyone else think this week is going by a bit slowly? Why do we get so antsy for the weekend, only to have it go by too quickly? Who doesn't ask themselves - EVERY Sunday night - "where did the weekend go?" Huh. Ponder that one for a while, eh.

Last weekend was typical as it went by too quickly, probably because it was fun and we had nothing scheduled other than a visit to the puppies for sale by Cabela's. The G grandparents thought Miles would like playing with all of those pooches, and they were right...he was in puppy heaven. It's a good thing puppy slobber is invisible, or Miles would have been filthy! Some enzymes in the slobber must have been absorbed into the little learning center of Miles' brain, though, because now he says "puppy" -- puppy puppy puppy!

Then we stopped by Cabela's so he could go hunting (more or less). This is probably as close to hunting as he'll ever get (it doesn't exactly run in the family), so I hope he had fun!

On Sunday morning, Miles enjoyed breakfast on the new plate he got from Grandma Jill (but delivered by Grandma Doreen - it's nice having the Grandmas run in to each other at Target prior to their visits!). He loved the fact that there were bananas in all of the little sections. Oh, the simple pleasures in life!

We wrapped up the weekend by having goulash for supper on Sunday night. That's right. Goulash! MMMMM. Generally I don't brag about my cooking (nor does Tanner brag about my cooking), but I think we'd both admit that I make a mean goulash. This also served as Miles' first meal without mommy and daddy's help (for the most part, anyway). He's slowly making the transition to eating more chunk/finger foods than pureed/spoon-required foods. I think we're going to start putting a shower cap on him while he eats, though -- more food ends up in his hair than in his belly. Hey, it's all part of the fun! Especially when we're talkin' goulash.

Tanner and I liked the goulash, too (my self-portrait didn't turn out as good as the goulash, but I love Miles' little head in the background).

We've also been enjoying the beautiful weather lately. Lots of playing outside! Miles was taken down by his daddy, but got revenge shortly thereafter...

Tanner watched the election results in his sexy slippers+ dress socks + pajama pants + undershirt combo. No comments about the receding hairline, please.

And finally, we found time to play with girlfriend Claire.

Hey, it's only Wednesday!