Miles is Two!

When he was around 18 months old he was insistent on a couple things: eating at the table like everyone else and wearing pajamas that covered his feet. He loved them:) He's always had a determination about him and as hard as it is sometimes, I hope that doesn't change. I love seeing him work towards something.

He's constantly working to keep up with his brothers. I'm amazed at how well these boys can play together. Miles is so intrigued at watching and holding a figurine, car, or train ect, that he rarely inhibits the other two's play or becomes part of it without being too destructive for the most part. He loves his older brothers and they likewise love him.

Below is a clip of him using scissors. Almost every day the older boys do "worksheets". Some of them require cutting. Well Miles wanted to cut too. So I worked with him for a while. He didn't get it that day but continued trying until the older boys were done. The next day he wanted to try again. We kept at it and pretty soon he could do it. This boy is a determined little one and I loved seeing his perseverance.

This kid loves trains and airplanes. He has an ear for airplanes and trains constantly pointing them out to us. He has a blue helicopter he's taken a liking to these past few weeks and there have been moments when we can't find it. He keeps saying airplane, airplane. I try other planes to see if they suffice but no, they do not. So far we've been able to find his beloved helicopter but I worry the time it goes missing.

His favorite books are Dr. Suess's ABC's, Brown Bear Brown Bear, and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. He loves the alphabet and is obsessed with Oo and Ss. He constantly points them out. Q and C's are O's to him and 5's are S's. He doesn't know a lot of letters (O, S, T, A, R, J, E) maybe more but those are the ones he's accurate on. For J he doesn't call it J but says Jared's name, I don't know how to spell the Jared's name the way he pronounces it because it sounds nothing like it but all know that's Jared to him. For Spencer he calls him Spence. My favorite thing about Miles and his talking is his Yes. It's drawn out and dips in the middle. I l.o.v.e it! I also love how he says thank-you mommy at such considerate times. Love this boy!

A new thing I've noticed about Miles is he predominantly walks on his toes. I've noticed this before but always attributed it to him reaching up to something or trying to be at his older brothers' levels. But one day I noticed he didn't come down on his heals until he was at a standstill. I'm perplexed I didn't realize this before. He sometimes walks with a heal strike but I would say 90% or more of the time he's on his toes running or walking. I don't know if I should be concerned at all, Chris' brother Ty walks on his toes and he's fine but he's mentioned his quads aren't as flexible or something so I don't know if I should work with him to walk on his heals or what. I'll ask the doctor when we go next week. I'm not concerned but would like to see what she says...

Below is a video of his "tip toe" walk. Password: tip toe

Tip Toe from Marjorie Meservy on Vimeo.

Potty training continues. Just yesterday morning I was stoked. He woke up from the night with a dry diaper, hadn't had any accidents the prior day, and I'd just told someone recently that he's only pooped his pants once! Well... I don't know how many accidents he had that day but one of them included his second poop accident. When he forgets to tell me I look at him and furrow my eyebrows and tell him, "No, keep them dry!" He just looks at me brings his hands to his face and smiles or will pat my face and say, "Hi mommy!" I haven't gotten too upset with him yet mainly because he's too cute and innocent. I've been tempted to go back to diapers just because I desperately hate cleaning up after accidents but when I've tried he's refused or lets me put a diaper on just to take it off a minute later and throw it at me. He's really pretty good at it I just wish he was older. It seems the older they are the less accidents occur. But for now, we haven't thrown in the towel yet. We'll see how the new school schedule affects it all.

All the above was written over a month ago. Miles still does not wear a diaper, other than at night, and has done remarkably well. I change underwear a lot. He usually goes a little, says potty, we run to the bathroom and he finishes his job. But this last week we had my mother and father-in-law in town for the week and it was horrible. The night before they arrived he had two big accidents, wetting underwear and pants, and then throughout the week it was uncommon for him to tell me he needed to go. I would look at him and say, "Miles". He'd put his hands on my face and whisper, "Sorry mommy," and then give me kisses and look at me like "am I forgiven?" Very cute, but still annoying. I'm hoping for a better week where I'll be giving him more attention.

And since beginning this post we have also gone to the doctor. Miles is in the 90% for head, 25% for height (33 1/2 in), and 50% for weight (28 lbs). I asked the doctor if they could give me an approximate height for him when older and she said it's not very accurate, but if you wanted something, they say to double a kids' height at two and that'll be their adult height. So 5' 7'' is Miles approximate... we'll see. I also talked to her about his tip toe walking. She said if a child does it 50% of the time or more they like them to start therapy. I told her I thought he did it more than 50% of the time. She asked if he did it while wearing shoes. I couldn't remember (for the past month we'd predominantly been inside because of potty training hence shoeless, maybe he wasn't doing it very much before?) Chris and I decided to try shoes for a month and see if that did the trick and it has. He has a pair of old school Air Jordans that he doesn't toe walk in so we've been wearing those a lot and it seems to do the trick. He occasionally walks on his toes with no shoes but not often enough to be of concern.

Now for some pictures of his actual birthday: