Month 13: All About Miles

You know, I realized I haven’t blogged about Miles much lately. It’s been all me, me, me. So today I plan to rectify that. This space is heretofore dedicated to Miles.

He’s got eight teeth and can point to them when asked. Well, technically, he points to his tongue, but close enough. We just started brushing them, even though the pediatrician’s been telling us to since the first one poked through. And before that, we were supposed to be wiping his gums or some such crap. Come on! Like new moms don’t have enough to do? Besides, baby teeth fall out eventually, anyway.

Miles loves to run around the house, climb on furniture, and scale the stairs. He’s also developing quite a repertoire of dance moves. His favorite is the knee bends, but occasionally he’ll throw in a head bob or a butt wiggle. He does the white man’s overbite, too. And no baby music for him, either. He likes The Gorillaz and Jack Johnson, especially the Curious George soundtrack.

Let’s see, then there’s his prodigious appetite. My toddler eats like a trucker. If I took him to Denny’s, he’d get the Lumberjack Slam. If we went to Bob Evans, he’d order the Sunshine Skillet. (I’m hungry, can you tell?) Too bad for him, he’s stuck with Trader Joe’s frozen fare, for the most part. The other day he ate a huge plate of chicken and broccoli, topped off with some Cheerios and banana. Then, to keep him quiet while I was on the phone, I absentmindedly fed him pieces of a waffle, only to discover when I hung up that he’d eaten the whole thing and was asking for more.

Which brings me to the next topic: his ever-expanding vocabulary. He can and does ask for more frequently, though it actually sounds like “mo, mo.” But he knows I know what he means. He’s pretty much got the B words covered at this point: ball, balloon, bubble, bottle, bye-bye. Though to be honest, he’s a little lazy with his enunciation. They all sort of sound like “buh” or “bah.” Except for balloon—that one actually sounds like a motorcycle: “brrrooon, broon!” We’re working on “frog,” but he gets hung up on the F.

It’s probably a good thing that only his dad and I can understand him, because some of Miles’ words sound dangerously like other, less socially acceptable words. As in, the four-letter kind. Combine “frog” and “duck” and you’ve got a deadly combination. Even his version of “truck” is a little questionable. My friend was trying to teach him to tell the dog to “sit” —another word with the potential for disastrous mispronunciation. He can’t quite get the L sound in “clock,” either.

So, in summary: my baby smiles (a special fake smile for photos), dances, eats like a trucker and talks like one, too. He sure is cute, though!

TIP O’ THE WEEK: I’ve heard good things about the Signing Time DVDs to teach your baby sign language. I never managed to do this with Miles, and now I figure it’s too late. Anyone know the optimal age to teach babies to sign?