Vacation - Day 2

On Thursday, we woke up to a pretty day. Miles was kind of grumpy. He got up once during the night, and just wasn't acting like himself. As it goes with an 11 month old, let the guessing games begin.....a cold, ear infection, tired from the drive, teething...etc...

We decided to find the Splash pad. We knew about it but somehow missed it on the first day. This totally should have been his speed.

Even though it looks like he's having fun, he really could have cared less. We convinced him to play for a little while.

Then it was off to the beach. I couldn't wait to get some pics of Miles playing in the sand. The sand was pretty but the water was full of seaweed....so much so that we didn't even get in the water. The water was like slime. I'm not much on the ocean/gulf so massive amounts of seaweed quickly scared me off.

We went to dinner at Pineapple Willy's. It wasn't great but we still had fun. Miles still wasn't acting like himself....he seemed to feel puny.

He found another little kid at dinner tonight and stared at him endlessly.

After dinner, we went back to Pier Park for a little shopping.

Play time before bed...

This sums up Day 2 for Miles....

Vacation - Day 1

We left for vacation on Tuesday. We drove to Birmingham and spent the night.

Wednesday morning we woke up and drove to Panama City Beach. Miles tolerated the drive pretty well...although he did start to melt about the time we arrived. We turned him around so he was facing forward for the drive. That's about a month earlier than I wanted to, but I didn't think any of us would survive if he was facing backward for the whole trip.

We are staying at Splash. It's a newer kid friendly resort. Our condo is really nice. The only complaint about the condo is that our wireless Internet hasn't been working so I haven't able to blog each day like I wanted to. It's a lot slower than our home Internet (when it does work) so I'm not sure I'll blog anymore until I get home.

When we arrived on Wednesday, we got a few groceries and tried to settle into our condo. We went to the beach and explored the pools. There wasn't much time for anything that day. So, we got ready and went to dinner. Panama City has a new mall called Pier Park. Actually, I'm not sure how new it is. We haven't been here in 8 years and it wasn't here then. We walked around the mall and ate dinner at the Back Porch. Dinner was yummy.

Miles played peekaboo with a little girl at the table next to us. We asked her parents if she could come to dinner again tomorrow night since she did such a good job of entertaining him.

We shopped for a little while after dinner, got some ice cream, and went back to the condo for a little play time before bed.

That's all for day one.

Like Mother, Like Son

Before Miles was even thought of, when Darrin & I would talk about kids, he would always say that he hoped our kids had my eyes, and I would say that I hoped they had his skin. Darrin has great skin and great coloring. My skin is splotchy, sensitive, and I'm allergic to everything. It seems that Miles may have gotten my skin and allergy issues. He's has already been to the dermatologist twice in his little life. He was diagnosed with Dermatitis, and we were told that he had sensitive skin, but would hopefully grow out of it.

I just blogged about starting him on milk, and mentioned that he had a cold. Turns out that he is allergic to milk :( On Saturday, after being on milk for a solid week, his congestion was getting bad and he had red, raised bumps all over his face. He's had something similar when he was sick before so we just thought it was all related. We almost took him to the doctor b/c the spots on his face were spreading. We also contemplated putting him back on formula until his 1 year appointment with the pediatrician, but I hated to switch him back and forth. It's hard on his little stomach.

So, I decided to do a little research. I'm so glad I did. I read about milk allergies and it was exactly what he was dealing with. We switched to soy milk and within one bottle all the spots on his face were gone. How quickly he improved was amazing. It made it very obvious that a milk allergy is what we were dealing with. We tried some cheese this morning....he loves cheese. We needed to see just how bad this allergy was. The spots and snotty nose came right back.

I'm hoping he will grow out of it, but from what I'm reading, it's not promising that he will. I hate living with allergies, especially food allergies. I really didn't want this for him. Maybe since he will have them from birth, he will never know any different. If you have any experience with milk allergies, I would love to hear from you.

11 Months Going On 16

Miles has decided that he likes to play in his room. The funny thing is....he not only likes to play in his room, he likes to shut the door and play in his room by himself.

On his way in...

Sorry Mom, no girls allowed...

And just like that....

He's growing up!

I feel like he's going to make a "Keep Out" sign with crayons and post it on the door soon.

Randomness

I wanted to wait until after vacation to do some work on my blog.....change the background & the picture...just kind of update things. For some reason, everyone that uses backgrounds from Cutest Blog On The Block had a message today saying that our backgrounds would disappear on Friday. So this is up for a few weeks and then I'll be changing it again.

I've got several pics that don't really go together but they're either too cute not to share, or I want to document something.

Giving the monkey a kiss. Awww....

I think Miles has finally figured out the sippy cup. He's definitely not a pro yet, but he's come a long way.

I don't want to forget that this is how he sits all the time. He crosses his legs in the high chair, the car seat, and even on the changing table.

He's discovered how fun toilet paper is.

We went swimming at my friend, Melanie's house last weekend. It was so nice. I wanted to take Miles swimming one more time before vacation (which is next week!) to let him get used to the pool. I think he's going to love it.

I'm not sure what this pose is all about....

He always prefers a water bottle...

He was A-M-A-Z-E-D by her cat. I guess he's never really seen one. He was looking at the cat here....

This was his view.

And there you have it....randomness.

I also need to document that we are finished with formula. We switched him to milk last week. He likes it the same as formula. He seems to be handling it okay except at night. He has been so gassy at night. The last couple of days we have been mixing the whole milk with skim thinking it should sit lighter on his stomach. I'll probably use 2% for a month and then try whole milk again. He has a cold right now and possibly teething based on the amount of slobber. Lots of change lately. It's caused some restless nights but not too bad. It seems to be getting better. We're hoping it's just an adjustment period.

Little Attitude

This morning Miles woke up in his new pjs, with some wild hair. We thought he looked adorable so of course I wanted a picture. He cooperated for two pictures.

Even smiling in one of them...

Then, he was over it and ready for his bottle. This is the new little attitude that Miles has developed. His face turns red, bottom lip pouts out, and last resort is to throw himself forward and just lays there. We quickly ended the misery and gave him his bottle.

Today, I had to pick Miles up in the middle of the day to take him to a doctor's appointment. When I took him back to daycare he assumed the same position in the middle of the floor. I watched for a while thinking surely he would pull it together and forget that I just left. I watched....and watched...finally I had to walk away from the train wreck. His teacher, Amanda, picked him up as I was walking off. I'm sure that set the world right. He LOVES her. Next time, I won't look back.

First Word

It's official....Miles' first word was Da da. He's been jabbering for a while but he wasn't associating anything with the words. Then, it became clear that he knew Da da was Darrin. He prefers to call him Duh, which I find hilarious :) He's also saying Mama now. That's all for now.....Duh and Mama.

Here's a couple of Miles playing. He loves his playroom. I'm excited for all the new toys he'll get on his birthday.

He really shares the love, playing with all his toys. He crawls around the room spending time playing with the puzzles, then the elephant, then the ball blower, then the basket full of goodies....he loves them all.

Relapse

Many of you have asked about my headaches. After a lot of research and experimentation, I really thought the headaches were under control. They have never completely gone away, but for several months they seemed to be manageable. To get to the manageable state, it took regular chiropractor visits, a combination of medicine (Celebrex, Toprol for blood pressure, & a water pill), and no bananas.

In the past 2 weeks, the headaches have come back with a vengeance. I've been having to take pain killers to get through the day. The only thing that has changed is I've been going to the chiropractor less, which you are supposed to be able to do after you have been going routinely for a while. I've done a lot of research about foods that cause headaches and really felt like bananas were the only food that I could link to my headaches. Starting tomorrow I'm going to eliminate cheese and nuts and see what that gets me.

I really don't know where to go from here. It's frustrating b/c I can't seem to find any rhyme or reason....no pattern....no cause and effect. I want to throw my hands up but the headaches hurt too bad to give up. I keep thinking that the farther I get away from when I had Miles the better I will feel. So far that hasn't been the case. I did start working out again last weekend. Tonight was my 5th night in a row. Woo hoo! I'm hoping that might help the headaches.

Just wanted to give an update since so many of you have been faithful to check on me and ask me how I'm doing. Really hoping I stumble across an answer or cure soon.

Milestone

Miles reached another milestone today. He starting eating breakfast & lunch at daycare instead of baby food. For breakfast, he had a donut and pineapple. His teacher said he ate most of the donut but not the pineapple. Big surprise. On the lunch menu....hot dogs, tator tots and watermelon. Apparently he loved the watermelon. They were going to supplement with baby food to make sure he got enough to eat, but they said he was full without it.

We've been feeding him table food for a while. He's been somewhat disinterested. Last weekend he seemed to do a lot better.......eating scrambled eggs, cheese, watermelon, and rice. Still no go on the sippy cup. We're still working on it. He loves to drink out of a cup or water bottle, but when given a sippy cup, he just chews on it.

Never Too Early to Start Brainwashing

This makes Mommy & Daddy incredibly happy.

Family Time

Darrin's brother & his family were in town this week. This is actually the week that we were all supposed to go on vacation together. With my Mom's surgery, we decided to cancel the family vacation. Darrin, Miles and I are going to the beach later this month for a quick trip instead. Since Aaron & Jessica already had the time off work, they came up to visit with us. They live in Florida and with work and a little girl it's hard to get up to visit very often. We try to make the most of it while they are here.

On Monday night, everyone came down to our house. We grilled out and the kids played. This was actually Aaron's first time to see Miles. Darrin was so excited for Miles to meet Uncle Aaron & vice versa.

Uncle Aaron with Miles and Jayci....

All four kids played hard in the playroom.

Aunt Jess and Ava...

Uncle D became a jungle gym...
Ava was unusually lovey that night. I have pics of her hugging everyone...

I love this one...

All the girls minus Jayci. She must have escaped. She's at a very busy age...

We played outside too. Miles wanted to keep up with the girls but didn't like crawling in the grass...

This picture cracks me up. Ava was crying b/c she said she was scared to sit by Jayci. When we asked her why she was scared she said that Jayci would hit her!

Jayci loved the slide....

On Tuesday night, we went to Darrin's parents to hang out again. I purposely didn't take as many pictures. I took so many the night before. Sometimes I have to remind myself to put the camera down and just enjoy the company. I'm always scared I'm going to miss the perfect picture.

Granny & Pa with their grand kids. They love having having everyone together.

Poor Olivia. Darrin is already plotting how he will use this picture against her when she grows up. She went inside to go to the bathroom and came out with her shirt tucked in her panties. Darrin took this picture, and several others, while telling her to "work it" and she did. When we finally told her about her panties, she just shrugged her shoulders, and didn't even fix it! Uncle D may not have as much leverage as he thought.

When we first got there, Miles and I were playing in the floor. When he saw Darrin's Dad for the first time, he jumped out of my lap to crawl to his Pa. He literally belly flopped in the floor. It was adorable. Pa loved it.

We all loved our visit with Aaron, Jess & Jayci. Till next time...