Sunday, May 8, 2011

Spring has sprung...

The weather is warm here and so this weekend we enjoyed the spring temperatures by visiting Great Falls of the Potomac. North LOVES climbing around on the big rocks. It was a lovely day--below are some of the pictures we snapped during our visit.

While there we even ran into a friendly little millipede.
With the warm weather, North has also been able to spend more time playing outside. While grandma was in town for Easter, he got some good bike riding time in.

He also recently got to attend his good pal Zoe's 3rd birthday party (complete with bounce house!)
Recently I had a business trip to Chicago--I missed North and Alan like mad but of course brought back souvenirs--North loved the 3-dimensional model of the Sear's tower that his daddy helped him put together.

We've also enjoyed a recent trip to Baltimore to check out the Aquarium and the Maryland Science Center.
And a recent visit from Nana and Grandad!

Spring is off to a great start!

Tee is overrated...

Other videos I discovered that we'd taken recently(ish) of our little songbird...





Two little monkeys jumping on the bed...

A week ago Jeremy and Carrie and Mila came for a visit. Great fun was had by all--I snapped a few pictures of the fun with my phone...which unfortunately was run over by a car before I downloaded any to our computer...

My poor phone.
Anyways though, Alan also captured a cute video of Mila and North jumping around on the guest bed during their visit so we have some small bit of documentation from their trip here...


Mila and North get along beautifully--it was so nice to see them. We had a lovely low key weekend hanging out. Of course, we miss them already!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Made up songs...

North is a music kid. He loves playing his little drums and poking on piano and keyboard keys and most of all, singing and playing guitar. Often we hear him singing away in the other room while horsing around on some instrument or another.
Last night while we were hanging out in the living room, Alan was poking around on his guitar and North started to make up a little song of nonsense syllables---I grabbed one of our phones and got a bit of it on video.

Painting

North loves to paint. And I love the paint your own pottery places. And so recently Alan had the brilliant suggestion that the 3 of us head to a paint your own pottery place near our house--it was such fun for all of us and we got two great (although admittedly a bit ugly) new bowls. North painted the insides of each bowl all by himself and helped us with the outsides.

Of course there were times when it was necessary that North convert his paintbrush to a lightsaber. Thankfully the paint was all washable.

Our finished products waiting to go into the kiln.





Afterword painting we went to a movie--North loves the 3d glasses and so we never are able to recycle his--he's building a collection and has started insisting on wearing one set OVER another set of glasses.
Unrelated but on our photos from that day, North has also started combining his 2 great loves--Tron and Star Wars-- by insisting that Sam Flynn and Rinzler ride in starships and Star Wars guys ride on lightcycles or motorcycles. Admittedly, Darth Vader does look quite appropriate on his little black bike.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Other recent(ish) adventures...

We haven't taken many photos lately but have been enjoying the first few months of 2011 here in Virginia.
We've seen lots of movies, and gone to lots of restaurants, and just generally been enjoying all of our favorite indoor winter activities.

North still has his killer smile.

And is pretty well potty trained now (thank you grandma!!!!) although we do still put him in a pull-up when he sleeps or we go out. He's been great about not having accidents although, while out the other day when we asked if he would like to use the store's bathrooms he informed us he would "never EVER poop anywhere but our house," so that's going to be a problem.

We have used extreme bribery in our potty training efforts, including lots of Tron and Star Wars toys. A favorite (which admittedly was really more for Alan than North) is a radio controlled light-cycle from Tron--it lights up and can drive up walls and on the ceiling.
Alan playing.

Grandma has been out for a couple of visits--during each of the federal holiday weekends--which has been great. During a previous visit we visited the National Aquarium in DC (much smaller than it's Baltimore counterpart) and had a great time. Last week she was here all week and potty trained North! Her timing last week was particularly welcome as I have a broken bone in my foot (our cat tripped me on our stairs one evening) and having the extra help while I'm not very mobile was a dream come true.

Before the broken bone we took a trip downtown one weekend to check out the Library of Congress (sadly our only trip downtown in months).
Enjoying the chilly day downtown.
And that's it for my photos. More to come as we take more...

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Terre Haute Children's Museum

While in Indiana to celebrate Christmas with our families, we were also able to squeeze in some time with friends--we so dearly miss the friends we left behind in Indiana and our visits never seem long enough to get adequate time with all of those that we love in the state.
One joy on our last visit though was getting to hit the brand new Terre Haute Children's Museum with the McGranahan's. It's such a fabulous new place--North loved getting to explore the space and also get some time with his pal Lincoln.

Giant bubbles that you can stand in! Lincoln and Sam demonstrate.

North following Linc through the honeycomb

Farmers

Alan liked the air-zooka
Racing cars
And of course the water table. Always a favorite.

the ghost of christmas past

I have finally managed to download the few photos that we snapped from our trip back to Indiana for Christmas. North loved Christmas this year and was a really big fan of celebrating it multiple times. He, in fact, continues to ask when we will next be celebrating it.
At home we celebrated prior to our departure. Santa appeased us by making a stop over at our house while we were away at work and daycare on his "practice run" for the big night. He brought North a Buzz Lightyear (which North had been asking for for months). Buzz was a big hit for a few weeks and then one morning North woke up insisting that Buzz had growled at him during the night--suspicious given that evening North was sleeping with a dino shaped flashlight that actually DOES growl when turned on--but North insists no, it was not the flashlight, it was Buzz--their relationship has never been the same since. He also got lots of Star Wars guys and a couple of spaceships from Alan and me.
Then we headed to grandma and grandpa's for Christmas day. Santa brought North an Alphie while there and he also got a junior tag reader with books, which he uses all of the time, and a sounds and lights firetruck.
Despite the appearance of his "smile", he REALLY did enjoy opening presents
Buzz Lightyear gloves and hat (North loves these)
Putting in some puppy time with his favorite dogs

After that we celebrated at grandma Milner's where North got a favorite book and Anakin's lightsaber--which he used to battle everyone else in attendance.
Finally, we headed to Nana and Grandad's where North got to spend time with cousins. He got a Playmobil RV which he has really enjoyed.

Madi was so sweet to let North play with her and her princess castle playmobil set

Connor showing North his new DS
Playing with Nana's nativity set

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Hibernation

In these winter months it would seem the Milners have been in a state of hibernation--at least my blog posting has been in suspended animation for bit. But I'll try harder--or at least try to try harder-- to update the post as North is changing so much each and every day and I hate the thought of having none of it documented.
Before I dive into downloading and compressing and then uploading to the blog all of the photos from the past couple months scattered across our cameras and phones, I wanted to at least make one quick effort to have a short post about North and all his current quirks and cuteness of the moment.
His current OBSESSIONS are Tron and Star Wars. And I do mean obsessions. We have a lot of North initiated conversations these days about Sam and Kevin Flynn, Tron, Clu, Quorra, Anakin and Luke Skywalker, Count Dooku, Mace Windu, Yoda, and even Ki-Adi Mundi or Kit Fisto (North loves even the minor characters--sometimes I think more than the stars). He sometimes randomly yells little nerdy Tron things like "I'm not a program, I'm a user!" which is quite hilarious.
He can count to 15 and recite the alphabet and begins to be able to recognize letters.
He sleeps by himself all night long and has become great about going to sleep at a reasonable weeknight bedtime in his toddler bed. He loves to stay up late and sleep in late just like mommy and daddy, which is handy on the weekends.
He uses the potty often (multiple times daily) but cannot be counted on to not go in his pull-up (or underwear) if anything even remotely more interesting than sitting stationary on a potty is going on.
He's chatty and funny and willful and stubborn. He's also pretty shy and gets embarrassed easily. He likes to jump off anything and everything and is utterly fearless about it--seriously he will jump off ANYTHING--if any sort of elevated heights are available, you've got to watch him like a hawk. We've already had a few bloody noses thanks to the arms of the couch and their inexplicable draw as a diving board for North.
He says most things quite well, with proper word choice and adherence to syntax rules, but when unable to do something he says "I cannot how to!," which is really cute because it's one of the only things he says incorrectly. I don't think either Alan or me have the heart to correct him out of fear he will start saying "I don't know how to" appropriately and we'll lose his cute little expression forever.
He has a great memory for the most random of things (did i mention obscure star wars characters?!) which is handy because he often remembers the names of people or things that Alan and I forget.
He likes for all of his pants to have pockets so that he always has somewhere to put his makeshift lightsaber of the moment. there are A LOT of makeshift lightsabers in our daily lives. and he really likes to wear light-up shoes. for the longest time he didn't have a pair that fit and he had major shoe envy at daycare. we eventually bought him a new pair of his own and life is easier.
He loves pizza (really just the crust), peas, corn, rice, Chipotle quesadillas, ice-cream, cookies, and every type of fruit. Because of this the above list is pretty much all we eat anymore.
He really enjoys kicking snow piles. He could spend hours just kicking snow I think. Our snow is mostly melted so this is becoming a more difficult hobby to sustain.
His current best pal is Zoe, a little girl who goes to the same daycare as him. She's also 2 and a total princess, which he likes.
He currently has an unfortunate haircut which is entirely my fault (I'm an awful barber).
Darth Vader!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Christmas Tree!

A couple of weeks ago we put our tree at home up for the holidays.
North loves it beyond reason and can often be found kissing the ornaments and recounting (to no one in particular) the stories associated with each ornament that we've shared with him.
His favorite is the glass ornament that puppy Ender took a big bite out of when she was 6 months old--at the time we feared such calamity as internal bleeding and the need for veterinary intervention--all before we came to the realization that our dog is more goat than dog and has a digestive system which can seemingly process anything.
He also loves the bell that once belonged to his great-great grandmother (who passed away while I was pregnant with him), and the ornament that we bought the year we purchased our first home, and the one commemorating the year I was pregnant with him, and of course he loves the one signifying his first Christmas.

Hmm..I wonder where North gets his killer smile?

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Milner family photos!

While celebrating Thanksgiving with the Milners, Nana invited the incredible Sam of the Roxy Studio over to capture some family portraits.
Sam (as always) got some amazing and funny and sweet photos that perfectly capture our little guy at this fun age of 2. And some great photos of the Milner family.
For whatever reason, North thought this a perfect opportunity to try out his new "smile" (I use the phrase a bit lightly--you'll see what I mean). It is the cutest/funniest thing ever. So glad Sam was there to get him on film.

In all her awesomeness, Sam shared lots of links to our session including:


Enjoy!