3 day weekend...

So, the new layout designed by Alan is awesome, huh? I particularly like that he gave our son laser-beam eyes.

North and I have been on a bit of an extended vacation it seems. First, we were both sick and so missed daycare/work Monday-Thursday (with the exception of a brief Wednesday pop-in to take care of a rush project). This involved us both turning into Pixar watching, lazy, runny-nosed, coughing, feverish zombies for several days. Seriously, we both pretty much only moved about 3 feet for an extended period of time. Just lazed around on the couch and baby bean-bag watching more TV than we had watched since he has been born in 1 long dose. To give a sense of HOW MUCH this was here's a catalog of our viewing: Cars, Finding Nemo,Up, James & the Giant Peach, Cars, Finding Nemo, 9, Monsters Inc, Cars, Finding Nemo, Bug's Life, Cars, Finding Nemo, The Complete He-Man Animated Series (an excellent Christmas present), Cars, Finding Nemo, Elmo in Grouchland, Cars, Finding Nemo, Curious George, Cars, Finding Nemo, Monsters versus Aliens, and oh, did I mention Cars & Findinging Nemo? Ugh. If I never see another animated movie again, particularly Cars or Finding Nemo, that will be fine with me. Unfortunately, North feels exactly the opposite. He totally became a junkie and now that he's healthy we're attempting to wean him back to our TV free lifestyle. It could be a bit of a rough road ahead.

Here's a photo from the zombie days:
Needless to say, by the time Friday hit and we were both feeling better, we were totally stir crazy and eager to get out of the house. Just in time for a 3 day weekend!

First on our agenda was haircuts! As Alan mentioned below, the 3 of us headed to the barber and North and Alan got haircuts together. North screaming on my lap intermittenly but overall, pretty good. Alan was also pretty good during the process.

Aren't they handsome with their short hair?
Then, we headed to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis to meet up with Sam, Levi, and Lincoln and start making the most of our year pass. North loves Bloomington's own Children's museum, Wonderlab, but since we go there most every weekend this winter, he was excited to be back at the bigger museum for new adventures.

He had fun petting the dinosaurs!

and of course playing in the water

and tunnels

and he and Linc were interesting home-makers. Here they are mowing the kitchen.

superb parenting skills

Dinosphere!

Hanging out with the crocodile in Egypt

and visiting the market

Trains!

Glass sculpture

Afterwards we hit PF Changs. North is a big fan. He ate his weight in rice I think.

A picture I've been meaning to get forever. Alan and I in our wedding shoes and North wearing his baby Chuck Taylors.

The next day, North and I headed to the Zoo with Grandma, again to capitalize on our year pass.

North LOVED the marine house as usual. He is always mesmerized by aquariums so we spent quite a bit of time in front of those and then spent at least 15 minutes squeaking at all the penguins as they zoomed by the glass in front of him. I even caught him with his lips pressed up to their glass. I think he was trying to kiss them.

Tigers!

Monkeys!

Bears!

and of course, North's favorite--Turtle (or tortoise as the case may be)!

This fake snake "squirts venom" (water). North was not impressed.

Here he is angrily telling on the snake!

And finally, another "turtle".

Back to work/daycare tomorrow!

Haircut Weekend

This weekend we all went to Big League Haircuts and North got his first ever real haircut. There were TV's at each station but he sat across from me and screamed most of the time, so he didn't watch Spongebob while I didn't watch football. We'll be going back there when he learns to control himself in public. I really didn't care for his haircut at first, but changed my mind after watching him try to get a chicken nugget stuck in it. Plus it's pretty cute. You might notice the blog looks different as of this weekend also, I meant to add a rocket in the background but I forgot. North hasn't seen it yet but he'll probably say "Cars?...Nemo?...Up?...Monsters?"

-Alan

A new year already

I keep meaning to update this poor blog but never seem to find time.
Things in our little household have been good but busy it seems.
North talks more and more and more. He loves to play and run and jump (a skill he's working on). He has discovered movies and is a big fan--particularly of "Cars" and "Nemo"at the moment.
He gives kisses and hugs now regularly when asked, sometimes even when not, which is amazing.
He's a great little snuggler. He and I have been home sick for 2 days and all the cuddling time has been fantastic.

We had a great Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.

This is sure to be a ridiculously long post as there are about a million photos on our camera so, without further ado here are some of my favorites from the past couple of months:

First up--Thanksgiving(s)

Hamming it up for grandma and grandpa:

North loved playing with Grandma's Santa hats. And having a great time being silly with Uncle Adam at Nana & Grandad's:

So many electric toys! North discovered he's still too small to reach the pedals on them but had a great time looking around them.

Sweet Baby Claydon is getting so big!

Saying hi to Aunt Angie!

Connor is growing up so fast! Here he is hanging out with Great-Aunt Lorie.

North got to visit with Great-Aunt Rhonda & Great-Uncle Bruce too.

Also, of semi-recent ocurrence is the sale of our house in Terre Haute! On the night before closing, we had our last visit to the place with Grandma & Grandpa who snapped a couple of pictures for us.

Bye house!

And of course, we have some messy eating pictures. Because as I've said before, we simply can't help ourselves from taking them. Someday I'm sure North will be thoroughly embarassed by the preponderance of these in existance.

Black Beans!

And speaking of future embarassment...
And, the joke that NEVER gets old in the Milner house is North's "toy" from Jeremy--the fake poop. Here he is sharing it with Sam, Levi, and Linc:

In other news, Alan has been brewing his own beer for about a year now and is starting to get pretty good (and also quite adventurous) at it. Fairly recently he and Levi made their first batch using all grain methods. This involves the use of open flames and a large cauldron--rather exciting.

This brings us to Christmas(es)! North got lots of toys and books and clothes and a potty and even a year pass to the children's museum and zoo for Christmas and we were able to get together with family, which is always nice.

Crazy, present opening flurry with Grandma & Grandpa on Christmas Day!
Showing off for Grandpa!

Sleepy boy on Christmas night--we got home late Christmas Eve and it took us a few days to get back on a normal sleep schedule!

The next morning was Christmas round 2 at Nana & Grandad's. Another crazy, present opening flurry!
Claydon is a party animal!
And North had fun trying to keep up with Connor & Madi!

After the new year, North's old friend Gabe was in town from Lisbon, Portugal (along with his parents Elizabeth and Rob). It was amazing to see how much bigger Gabe was since last they played. I think North enjoyed his time with his old friend. Here are some photos from that visit (for some reason every photo we took that day was blurry--turns out we're pretty poor photographers):

Playing at Wonderlab!

Also after the New Year, we got to go to a dinner party at Sam & Levi's to eat some of Levi's DELICIOUS paella. Yum. North enjoyed it too since he got to spend time with his BFF Lincoln.

And here's the last photo we have on the camera at the moment--taken this week (he has a cold but is still a total sweetheart)

Whew--caught up!