Mixed up Milestones

OK, I believe the milestones are supposed to go....sitting, crawling, cruising, walking. But for Miles he started doing an army crawl before he could sit up on his own. Now he is good at sitting, and really fast at his army crawl (which he has been doing for months) and he started pulling himself up onto the furniture and cruising around. I spend most of my day now, holding his hands and walking around the house with him. Needless to say the next milestone I was planning on seeing was walking....NOPE!
Here is my little boy crawling on his hands and knees.....

James and I had pretty much given up on it, we thought he would skip it altogether. It is pretty fun to watch him do it, he is really slow, but I think he realized that its easier to get up on things from there. He also does a bear crawl every once in a while.

Friday Flashback!

Here is part of the Checchio clan in NYC for New Year's Eve 2006. My parents had flown out with my little brothers and my older sister Jen right after Christmas. I was so excited that they were coming back East because we had spent that Christmas in Texas with James' parents, so I hadn't seen my family since Thanksgiving. James and I took the bus up to NYC from Philly. We stayed just a few minutes from Times Square.

It was so cold outside and none of us were properly prepared. Here we are at dinner in Little Italy. My Mom and Joey are wearing the rabbit fur scarves my Dad had gotten all the girls for Christmas....I don't think they are meant to look like a beard Joey.

James and I in front of the tree at Rockefeller Center.

And finally one of my favorite sites....Hershey's in Times Square. I only wish they gave out free samples! We had so much fun on this mini vacation, and I can't wait to see ALL of my family in just a few weeks!

Ferocious Miles is Back!

A few posts ago I commented on Miles' new ferocious expression. Just the other day James and I were saying how it had disappeared. He just wasn't doing it anymore. Well, its back! He was chasing me around the living room today trying desperately to get the camera. I had to post this picture since I think its hilarious.

New Toys

So I think everyone had one of these growing up. They call it a "Rock 'n Stack". I saw it at the grocery store and got so nostalgic that I had to get it for Miles...thinking he would love it.

He quickly disassembled it, tried to put every end of it in his mouth....

threw around all the pieces, banging them on the floor, against his own head and body, and then throwing them at me....


It all lasted about ten minutes (just like James had said) and then he lost interest, and moved on to something else.

Easter Egg-stravaganza!

We had a great Easter weekend. Here we are at Zack and Danica's watching the kids search for Easter eggs. Clar and Chris' little boy Tommy (the cute little thing shown above) quickly discovered that there was chocolate in the plastic eggs. He was surrounded by the eggs on the ground and instead of picking them up, he was taking eggs out of his basket to eat the candy! It was fabulous.

James was walking around with Miles showing him the eggs. He was really good at picking them up and putting them in his mouth.

Then we made the mistake of putting him on the ground to pick up an egg.....

Oh! That was a BIG handful of dirt....good times!

Here are Clar and Danica helping Tommy to find some eggs, and try to distract him from eating all his candy right then and there.....big THANKS to Zack and Danica for inviting us!


Then on Sunday we went to Bart and Katie's for some good ol' egg dying. It was so much fun to feel like a kid again and dye some eggs. They have great new tools for doing it too.


Here is Amy (7 months pregnant, and looking fabulous) She made really detailed and pretty eggs that I had to copy :)


And here is Katie, laughing at my incessant picture taking.

And finally...James, posing for his obligatory "I want to get one of you dying the eggs" picture. He had way more fun then he would care to admit :)

Friday Flashback!

Chad and Jess got married in 2006. We went out to North Dakota for the wedding. It was so beautiful, Jess suprised Chad at the ceremony and sang him a song. I was so impressed, I would never be able to do something like that. I love this picture, not only because it has the cake in it, but because Chad made their cake topper out of styrofoam...isn't it fabulous.

Here we are at the reception. Geordie and Beth were so much fun to hang out with. The reception was a blast. James and I had been watching Dancing with the Stars (I know its lame), so we were a big hit on the dancefloor. Now Chad and Jess are expecting a little girl this spring. So exciting!!

This flashback is from Thanksgiving 2005. We all went pheasant hunting the day after Thanksgiving. Here James is awkwardly, almost femininely, holding his gun. He is sporting one of my Mom's jackets, so that explains the hot pink collar.


Here is my sister Amanda...isn't she beautiful! We started out skeet shooting and she is always one of the best ones. Its pretty impressive and surprising how good she is.

This is my youngest brother Christopher, putting on his game face....it says "I'm not afraid of you pheasant!"

Here is my Mom putting on her game face. She is going to kill me for posting this picture. I love you Mom!

Of all the things about that hunting trip that I will never forget is my niece Taylor. I think she was 7 at the time. Her Dad Bill had shot a pheasant, but it wasn't quite dead yet. She ran up and eagerly asked if she could break its neck!!!!! Isn't that hysterical. I swear we are not a crazy family....well maybe a little :)

Miles at the Park

Here we are at the park again. Miles loves to have us walk him around and around. He even thinks he can do it on his own sometimes, and then gets so mad when he can't. Again....thank goodness for these Sunny Days!

Miles laughing

Here we are during our typical evening routine. When Miles gets really tired he is very easily amused. He loves to laugh and squeal. Please forgive my outfit of yoga pants and a hoodie, I don't have much of a reason to dress up these days. This is just a snipet of the video we took, I think he was laughing for 15 minutes or so. Hope you enjoy!

You are all in trouble....

So I am so excited. I finally have figured out how to put videos onto my blog. I know, I know....how lame am I that it has taken me this long, but in my defense my computer is in serious need of an upgrade. But let me take this time to apologize ahead of time if there are an inordinate amount of videos posted. What can I say, I think my kid is cute. :)

We had an incident...

So yesterday Miles was having a rough day. I had worked early in the morning and Miles woke up a little early, but wouldn't take a bottle from James. From then on, it was an uphill battle. I am sure I can't complain too much, he was still pretty fun, but for Miles it was rough.
OK, that was the prequel, now fast forward to dinner time. Miles ate dinner and I felt like he had a big poop. We gave him some time, but nothing happened so we headed upstairs for bath time. I was downstairs pumping, yep pumping :( And I heard James getting Miles out of the tub. I called up to see if he needed any help and he said no...then immediately after said "Miles just pooped in the tub" So I ran upstairs. I thought of taking a picture, but figured James might be mad if I was snapping shots instead of helping clean up. Needless to say I was right....the boy had to poop. And Miles felt much better. I tried to take some pictures of him to catch a mischievous expression, but he was pretty much all smiles.
 
 

Park Day!

We finally had some sunshine the other day, hooray! It was even warm enough for us to stop at the park during our walk. We took Miles down the slide with us....

As you can see, I thought it was more exciting then Miles did...:)

Miles had a lot of fun watching all the other kids and making us help him walk around. Thank goodness for a little sunshine, hopefully that means that spring is finally here.

Friday Flashback!

This is James and I in Santa Barbara. Ahhhh.... Santa Barbara. The good old days of 70 degree weather even in the winter. (I am incredibly jealous of my sister Jen who still gets to live there) We lived right by the beach and made sure to get there as often as possible.


We can't wait to get back to the west coast. Not only for the weather, but we would love to be closer to family and some great friends we are missing (sorry to all you east coast fans...we are fair weather folk). It is also the place that James and I met and fell in love, so it holds a little bit of magic for the both of us.

To Pass The Time

My mom just sent me something like this via email so I thought it was pretty serendipitous when I saw this on my friend Kyle's page. I was a little mad about the colors because I think some of the names are ridiculous, but it was still fun. And I ran out of countries in my five minutes. I could not think of another one....so you should click on the links below and see how you do!
38

51

Daddy Time

 
Miles and his Dad love to play. Of course it is different than Mom and Miles play. Things are all a little more exciting and daring. Miles can't get enough of James. He follows him around the house whenever he is home so that he can touch his feet. Then James is supposed to pick him up. It's hilarious, Miles will just scoot around and around as James tries to dodge his grasps, but once contact is made then Miles gets vocal and demands to be picked up and played with.
 

West Philadelphia Born and Raised

 
Don't let that Santa Barbara hat fool you (Thanks Maddox and Amanda), our little guy is already a Philly boy through and through. Check out his sideways hat, and his great street-style break dancing. And don't forget to notice the toothbrush clutched in his little fingers. He loves brushing his teeth (no doubt trying to impress his Dad and Grandpa). I love how he is already soaking up the culture around him...ha ha.

This was too cute not to post.

Our Determined Little Man

OK, so here is Miles holding the socks that he had on earlier. He needed to take them off in order to stand and he knows it now. He is so determined to get up onto the furniture that he will do anything to achieve it. I was suprised to find him here, holding his socks, but happy that I had the composure to grab the camera.
 
Here is gearing up to go. He grunts and squeals and he tries to pull himself up. I love this ferocious face of his. It makes me laugh. We are starting to see it more often than any other expression.
 
 
And we are up! So proud of himself, and I am so proud of him. He is getting better and better at it, and is walking alongside the furniture constantly. The only thing he wants to do now is stand and walk around. Its a lot more work for me, but I love watching him accomplish these milestones.