Talking Miles

Miles seems like he has grown up so much in just the past couple of weeks. He's started really being able to express himself and seems more independent. Yesterday, for example, I put him in his high chair for breakfast and reached for the blueberries to give him some. He stared at me and very emphatically shook his head. So, I reached for strawberries instead, and he smiled and started to clap. It is so fun to see him grow up and turn into a person.

He's started talking. I am about as good at keeping a baby book as I am at blogging, but here are some of his first words, in the order he started saying them:

touch
teeth
uh-oh
bath
bubble bath
off
dance

Tonight was the first time I've heard him say "dance," and it's adorable. I was singing him some bedtime songs and he just felt like getting his groove on, then he wanted to do it some more. One of my favorite TV shows (actually, probably the only one I watch) is the BBC's "Death in Paradise," and Miles loves the theme song - it gets the canned heat in his diaper shaking. Between him and Damon, we've had some fun dance parties.

Miles actually had his first ER trip this afternoon. This was the series of events:

I was getting ready to go to the temple. The babysitter had just cancelled, and I was texting around to find another one. The kids were playing upstairs. I heard Miles start to cry in Damon's room. I started up the stairs when the garage door sounded (Steven was just getting home). I opened Damon's door to let Miles out (I figured that's why he was crying), and saw him toddling towards me with blood running down from his forehead and onto the rest of his body. (The girls saw him and screamed.)

I don't know what he hit - maybe the door? - but he had a big split right in the middle of his forehead, perpendicular to his hairline. It looked deep enough that we figured he needed to go in, and in no time our local ER had pulled through again and glued him back together. He was surprisingly cheerful and did not cry the entire time - they said he was probably the happiest patient they had ever had. The doctor also said that his skin is so fair anyway that he probably won't have a scar, which is kind of funny (well, you know, his skin can't get any paler!)

Since I'm on here, I guess I'll say that the rest of us are doing great as well: Damon is potty trained, but not quite putting-his-underwear-and-shorts-back-on-afterwards trained; Carmen's making great strides with reading and loves to practice the piano; Olivia looks like such a big kid now that I hardly recognize her any more. A couple of weeks ago she discovered some old "Girl Talk" books I had and started devouring them. I caught her in the middle of one and asked her about it. "Allison is helping this boy do better in school, and they're falling in love!" Again, it's funny to see my kids grow up and become people. Olivia got invited over to one of her best friend's houses for a play date tomorrow night, so she's feeling very grown up and excited. (We're not ready for sleepovers, but we'll do an evening play date.) Steven and I are happily unremarkable. It's a good life.