Just Chewin and Movin

My little precious newborn is 8 months!

SAY WHAHHAHHAATTT!!?

I had a little crisis when Miles hit 6 months, it was like....no explanation but that I am a mom, and not necessarily a new mom anymore, and my little tootie will be 1 year before I know it.

Now 8 months has hit and I am just in shock. 

I have no more new mom excuses. I should be pro by now.

But somehow I am still....not pro.

Beginner..

And somewhat a panicky mess 99% of the time.

But I pretend I'm good at what I do, and I heard a quote once, something along the lines that if you pretend to be something long enough you will be!

Oh awesome. I'll keep pretending that I'm good at being a mom and sooner or later it will just happen.

That probably could ring true with most of the things I do.

But regardless, my little cheek is 8 months old. And he has started becoming quite the little chump.

He loves eating 3 meals a day. (He has been puking so much at random the past 5 days-maybe because of teething? He doesn't act sick but just cut a tooth. Teeth can do weird things.)

He used to hate apples, bananas, pears, anything fruit related, but loves sucking on oranges.

Now he still loves oranges but also loves applesauce.

He has always hated any type of cereal but I just discovered a trick where if I put apple juice instead of water...walaah he will eat a ton of the oatmeal/rice cereal.

You can tell he is just a teething drooling machine, which I feel like has been ongoing forever.

He puts everything in his mouth. And he will dive at your toes just to get a quick bite.

He has started pushing his lips together and sticking his tongue out...whats that called ppppppppppsphsshhshss ing? Like basically spitting all over. He loves it and does it constantly.

He CRUISES along furniture, and just these past few days has started standing for so long.

He doesn't know what he does when I freak out and clap and say, "Good job baby boo!!!" 

He just smiles and goes about his way, all the while thinking...my mom is insane.

He for the life of him, has the hardest time keeping his eyes open for the flash.

Before I even take the picture, he will squint and be nervous for the flash..haha.

So silly.

He still fists it. He loves having his hands in fists.

So tense.

He loves all kinds of sports balls. Soccer, basketball, baseballs, you name it, he giggles and giggles if you kick, throw, drop, or toss repeatedly. He also reaches out and grabs a ball if you roll it to him. And if you throw a ball at him, he actually goes for it. So he is advanced in sports.....thats what I get from it. 

Well, thats the only way you can describe his obsession with all types of sports balls.

(We hope he is, and if he becomes a total uncoordinated nerd.......I will just be so proud :))

You would think I could get one open eyed picture, but seriously, I took some off because I have SO many closed eyes. He just really doesn't like it. Just like he doesn't like loud sounds. When he was really little the buzzer would just freak him out. He would arch his back and his poor little face was so so sad. So I got him some noise canceling headphones.

And they have saved him.

He slept for about an hour of the game. Which was SO loud by the way.

This was right before he vomited his guts out on Brad. Mostly milky applesauce.

He has so much personality. He will only bear crawl on grass and tile. And FAST. And if he sees the guitar room door is open, he will just book it over there so fast. He loves guitars and he knows what to do when he gets to it, he strums the strings, like he is playing it. He also drums on it, because drumming is his favorite (which really makes sense because Brad was in a band and he was the drummer for a long time). I am really worried he will have one drop of my musical talent which will make him the worst ever. But his chances of being somewhat good are there, thanks to Brad. 

This is right after we were engaged in April 2008 at Velour in Provo. Nice face Brad.

Little did we know, we would be having a sweet babe just 4 years later.

Life is so crazy.

Oh hi sweetie heart.

Miles will be playing doing his own thing then I will come sit down on the floor with a bowl of cereal and you have never seen a baby crawl faster. He loves eating food with mommy. He loves eating what you are eating. So we always pretend to eat his food and then he will want it.

He loves ice cream. He will attack you for ice cream. He will crawl all over you and grab at you and grab at the bowl until you keep feeding him. He is his father's son.

He also loves his mom. :) 

If someone is holding him and I walk by he will lunge at me and grab me, I have to pry him off of me, he doesn't cry if I go away, but he just likes to let me know his love by clawing my face when he sees me. When I hold him after him being with someone else for awhile, he will dig his face into my face and open his mouth like he wants all these kisses. Basically he sucks on my face while clawing my hair and pulling me close. He shows his love very very vigorously.  

Mr. Miles loves swimming. He will be so happy and play in the pool or bath WAY past his bedtime.

He loves it. He also loves riding in his stroller. He is just an adventure junkie. He will just crawl around in the bottom of the bathtub like crazy. Then stand up on the side and walk back and forth in the tub. All the while with a foam letter in his mouth. He always has something in his mouth while he is crawling around. He is good at breathing through his nose I guess.

 He is a good traveler and our weekend in Dallas he is just perfect in the car. And I admit, I did the lean over nursing so I didn't have to pump and feed him. I'm getting lazy and I have really stopped caring who sees my boob at this point. Miles has made me care less and less every time I flash someone. I try to cover up and then unexpectedly he will rip off the cover and come off my boob and expose my nipple, entire boob, and milk squirting everywhere. The first 3 times was super embarrassing to all that I flashed. Now I just pretend like it didn't happen, and I've gotten pretty good at just putting my hand over to cover up.

Miles is just a spastic when he nurses. He crawls all over me during it and I just accept that nursing is going to be intense. At night, he nurses perfectly, just because he is half asleep probably. I have a goal to not give up before a year. And I will keep that goal. My mom saw me nursing and she said, "Wow, I don't think you are going to nurse much longer." Ha! That is just Miles, he never sits still and is always diving and looking and exploring. Curious.

I walked out of the front room to put something in my bedroom and walked back in the front room and could hear something in the bathroom, and sure enough Miles was splashing away in the toilet. 

He couldn't decide what he wanted more, the 8 or the camera. Here he decided he wanted the camera.

He has always had this open mouth smile. But he had this tongue obsession because his tooth was just starting to come in and he kept rubbing it with his tongue. He has a dimple like Brad on his left cheek, and I love it, but its very faint.

As he grows I love it, I love the stages of him becoming so energetic and busy. I do not love the bumps and bruises and him crying so hard he doesn't breathe when he bonks over and over again.

But I love his exploring. He crawled underneath his highchair today and then drug it with him as he crawled around because he couldn't get out. Didn't phase him that he was dragging 20 pounds.

He loves watching baby einstein and the duck song, and if he wakes up too early I lay in bed with him while he watches it, usually it ends in him throwing the phone up because he is excited and then it falls on my face and wakes me up. Today he puked a lot and was so whiny, and he just sat on the couch with me for so long and he always rubs/scratches on me with his little fingers. So sweet. One night he laid in bed with me and he put his arm around my neck and cuddled up in between my ear and shoulder, I could feel him breathing on my neck. He was in stink bug position. He is so sweet, but yet so busy at the same time. He will give me a kiss after not seeing me for awhile, by just diving at my face with his mouth open. Usually he hits me hard and I am the one who is like, "OUCHHHY".

I didn't know when he was born that he would be such a joy in our lives. We seriously had no idea how much fun everything would become. We went to a animal shelter in Dallas and he loved the animals, and they were in these rooms that had plastic walls so you could see them. He would just yell and hit the walls and smile and laugh when the dog came up to visit. The little guinea pig wouldn't come up to him and he was yelling so loud, he was basically saying, "WHY WON'T YOU COME PLAY WITH ME!!!???"

He LOVES animals, and has NO fear.

This bulldog was jumping up and licking his feet and being so crazy, licking me and jumping on me. Then we sat Miles by him and he just was so mellow.

He just stayed on his belly and Miles pulled at his face and he didn't budge. We were all in SHOCK.

Miles actually licked him. We were dying laughing.

Miles just leaned right over with his tongue out and licked his nose.

Hmmm....bulldog whose the boss now?

I thought for sure he would eat Miles, but he just stayed on his stomach and let Miles attack him. So cute.

Can you see it? My sister Echo told me that I never talk about this feature of my cheeky boo.

He has a very blue vein that is so noticeable when you meet him right between his eyes.

Ever since he was born. It just connects his eye blood flow okay? You will notice it now :)

I love his leg rolls, I love his drool face. I love his cheeks.

Cheeky is his most common nickname right now. 

It started because of his cute little cheeks.

Now its cheeky love, cheeky boo, cheek cheek, cheeky, cheekilicious. And pumpkin pie.

Mr. Miles will always be a nickname, but cheeky fits him perfect. I love it when he is doing something he shouldn't like pulling the DVD player off the TV stand and I say, "Cheeky!" in a demanding drawn out voice, and he almost throws it and then jumps like he knows he isn't supposed to be doing it and just turns and looks at me and smiles. Little silly pants.

I love that his hair is finally growing, but he still has a mad receding hair line.

These little hands. Oh they are so busy, and so sweet. When I am nursing him he will grab my skin and just pulse it in his hand. He won't hold still for even a second for me to cut his nails, so I bite them while he is nursing, but somehow Brad and I still have scratches all over our faces from him. Little kitty cat. 

You should try getting him dressed or changing his diaper. He can't sit still. He usually is crawling away as I try to get his diaper on or snap his snaps. Sometimes I just give up and leave him in his diaper all day.

Clothes are overrated. I love his little shoulder muscle. I promise you, he scored so high on that muscle tone test when he was born. The nurses even said he was ripped. Look at that tone!

He has started making so many faces. He gets mad and squints his eyes, he even has started biting his hand when he is mad. 

I have no idea why but this is so funny and he was grunting at this same time. He wanted my camera. And this face is so winning the ugliest face award. Nice job Miles.

He makes me so tired by the end of the day. Today I was trying to fold laundry while he slept, and I just stopped for a sec and then next thing I know he is awake and I was drooling because I fell asleep on the floor for an hour and a half. With some shirts in my hands still. He wears me out.

Sometimes I will go out and realize he has food on his face. Like when I took these pictures then realized he had sweet potato carrot in his eyebrow. He loves grabbing the spoon from me and chewing on it for awhile then throwing it. We spent forever teaching him to throw a little ball....now he throws everything.

He just throws it. Now you know why there is food all over my walls. He just throws his spoon and it bounces and food sprays everywhere. If I am not paying attention he will grab the jar or bowl and it will be all over me and the floor and him in half a second.

Brad will say to me, "How can you be mad at this face?"

And its true.

I love him too much. Now you can see his eyebrow is all red from me wiping it like crazy.

He has been off and on with sleep lately. He has a bad night here and there, but mostly he wakes up once or twice. I don't mind, I love cuddling with him in my bed, and nursing him. Last night I just wanted to cuddle, so I didn't put him back in his bed. But sometimes I just want to sleep so I put him in his bed and he goes right back to sleep. He is versatile. 

I love his dark blue eyes.

I love his little button nose.

I love his determination. And I love how he grunts when he is working on something.

I love how he gets the look in his eye and won't stop until he gets it in his mouth. Usually a toy or paper.

I love how his hair is blonde. 

I love how he is messy and destructive.

I love how he is just so tenacious. 

And curious.

And he doesn't mind if you take a toy, as long as you give him one of equal or better value.

I love how he is a doll, and never stops making my heart melt.

And I love his cry face more than anything.

I love how he looks like Brad, and a Hansen at the same time.

And I love how if I turn my head he is trying to dive off the bed, or get away in anyway possible. Its amazing that he can sit in a car seat/or stroller for so long, just so long as he has something to look at.

We put him on his little rocking horse, and he is so good at it. He rocks it back and forth and bounces all the while.

He gets mad when we take him off.

At 8 months, he loves to be outside, loves animals, loves his dad, loves his mommy, loves swimming, loves music, loves any song you sing and dance to him, giggles when you put a blanket over his head and pull it off repeatedly, and loves giving himself kisses in the mirror.

I always tell people that are getting married to wait to have babies, get to know each other, make sure you take all the vacations you want to go on. And I did that. And now I can't wait to take my kids with me on all my adventures. But I also tell them, that having a baby is one of life's greatest achievements. My achievements up until now, have meant very little in my life purpose. 

Don't get me wrong, I want to have more kids, but for now, I only have one, and he is my world. 

And he is a busy, rambunctious, confusing, and challenging little squirt. But he makes me better, and he makes me want to be the best mom. And I try to savor every minute of life, because it is happening too quickly. So if he cries and reaches out to me while he is in his crib, and he should be going to sleep. You better believe I am going to pick him up kiss him a thousand times and rock him back to sleep. Heck I may even just hold him his entire nap.

I may even take him and lay down by him while he holds on to my face and I drool on his cheek.

Because I don't want him to grow up. And he is going to anyway, and that is why I cry sometimes. When I see how fast he is growing, and I think...I want to spend every second with him. Because next thing I know...he will be one.

And I think I'll cry myself to sleep that night.