mlog

Jessica made a responsibility/reward chart for Miles. It has three categories so far: Sleep in My Own Bed, Rock the Toilet, and Pick Up My Junk. He gets a sticker each time he does one of these things, and a reward once he accumulates 5 stickers in a category. It’s simpler than it sounds.

Today he cleaned up his room and it was the fifth sticker, so we took a hint he’s been dropping and snagged him a budget skateboard.

Before anyone contacts the authorities, let me say 1) that he is very well protected by his helmet and pads (so much that I may have him wear that stuff all the time) and B) he will only be skating while one of us spots him.

As soon Miles was geared up and on the board, he says, “Get Stuey! Want Stuey to pull me!” He learned this trick (having your dog tow you) from Todd’s World.

I brought Stuey out on a leash and we tried, but it didn’t work out. But we had fun! Click the photo for more action shots.

Miles is really changing a lot. In fact, this morning in the car he told me:

“I not a baby anymore. I a big boy. I growing up, Mommy.”

The other night we came out of the grocery store and there were HUNDREDS of birds on the telephone wires and flying around above us. Miles was on Ron’s shoulders. We step out the door, Miles raises both hands to wave and yells:

“What’s UUUUUUPPPPP birds?!”

Today he yelled the same thing when we were stopped at a train crossing:

“What’s UUUUUUUPPPPP choo choo?! How you doin’ choo choo? You good, choo choo?”

And he’ll call me from the other room to show me things:

“Hey Mommy! Check it out! My car is stuck!” or “Check THIS out , Mommy. I got a purse. I going to the store. What you like?”

Or he will try on a new article of clothing, run to the mirror and ask, “Why do I look?” (But he means , HOW do I look?)

This morning he recited, almost verbatim, the full text of Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? and he’s counting to 10 in Spanish (with a couple mispronunciations) and he’s almost got counting to 20 down in English.

That kid!

Ron and Miles take a gymnastics class on Saturday monings. There is a pit that the kids can jump in to filled with large foam blocks. He was building with the blocks yesterday. Ron asked him what he was building and he said: “A TV and one couch and another couch.”

At Ikea we were walking through the showroom and stopping at all the little rooms to pretend we lived there. When we were in the bathroom area, we took pretend showers in the shower stalls and washed our hands in the sinks; in the kitchen area, Miles made pizza and opened and closed the oven doors; in the bedroom area he played Goldilocks and tested out every bed; and when we got to the living room area he sat Ron and I down on a big leather couch, pretended to turn on the tv for us and asked us what we wanted for a snack. He then joined us.

We’re going to try turning the tv off more this week. Depending on the day, he will watch anywhere from no tv at all to like 3 hours if it’s cold or raining outside. Yikes! We used to say we weren’t going to let him watch any and now look at us!

Miles is such a handsome little man! Whenever he gets dressed in the morning, I always tell him how great he looks. The other day, Ron dressed him while I was getting ready for work. He came in to my room and with arms outstretched and while turning in a slow circle, he asked, “Mommy? Do I look nice?”