Miles to go before I sleep...

Getting My Helpers Provisioned

2012-02-07T13:19:00.001-08:00

Lately the boys are very interested in helping me work. Lets just go ahead and capitalize on that this gardening season, shall we?

What's more exciting than going outside to do yard work? Going outside to do yard work with your very own tiny set of garden tools! These look and feel remarkably sturdy. I bet the boys will be a "big help" with them!

An Unseasonably Beautiful Day Calls For Yard Work!

2012-02-02T22:52:00.001-08:00

Today the weather was just gorgeous. Sunny and in the 50s on Groundhog Day! We could not resist. We spent hours outside this afternoon starting the "spring" cleanup in preparation for gardening time. The boys did their part, too!

Miles was actually quite effective with this small rake! I gave him sections to clean up, and he worked hard and long, and actually made quite a lot of headway. He was always saying, "What can I do now, Mom?"

Grant did his part by staying happily entertained with outside toys and non-lethal garden tools. It was such a lovely afternoon of fresh air and sun!

Miles's First Nutcracker!

2011-12-10T19:06:00.001-08:00

Today we had the wonderful, magical experience of taking our little boy to see his very first Nutcracker. It was put on by the Classical Ballet Academy in Portland, and it was just such a lovely show! Granty got to stay home with his dear friend Zakiah, and Mommy and Daddy and Miles got to have a special Big People Outing!

Here we are all dressed up and ready to go.

Miles at intermission. He was so delighted!

We splurged for the big Nutcracker doll at intermission. Here Miles is showing us how his mouth works.

Of course our little drummer boy chose the Nutcracker with a drum!

After the show, we got to visit with the Snow Queen. She's one of Jon's students, and she was so sweet and friendly to our little Miles. She even had a piece of Thank-You candy for him!

Picture Backup

2011-12-10T09:32:00.001-08:00

These pictures were on Jon's iPod, so it's sort if a jumble of things that I've been meaning to post but haven't gotten to.

This is how nicely Grant traveled in our bug road trip. He's such a good little traveler!

There was some snow when we got to Aunt Clara's house in Utah. Miles made his first snowman with Daddy!

These birdbath pics were taken in Great Grandma and Great Granddad's back yard. It was so fun to have sunshine in November!

Our next stop was Danville, at Grandma and Grandpa Kilzer's house. The boys set up a little rest area for themselves. It was very sweet!

When we got home, the boys went to a Christmas Fair put on by the FFA at Daddy's school. Grant was distrustful of Santa, but Miles was totally charmed.

Also at the FFA Christmas Fair. Miles got to "drive" a tractor.

Daddy found some fun hats for the boys to try on while Mommy was looking for mittens.

A church near us had a REAL FIRE TRUCK at their Christmas celebration! The boys were so excited!!

This morning we bundled the boys up to play outside. It's 28 degrees, so snowsuits were in order!

Our Big Boy is THREE!

2011-11-12T18:58:00.001-08:00

Thursday, our wonderful big boy Miles turned three. We had a nice birthday party for him today at a local coffee shop. It was such a great place to have a birthday. Nothing overwhelming, but lots of toys for the kids, coffee for the parents, and no worries for ME. I'm really pleased with how it all turned out!

Some views of the finished cake before it got devoured!

Everyone enjoyed their farm animal masks!

Getting settled and doing a little bit of coloring.

Miles and Liam check out the contents of the goody boxes we handed out.

Miles and Maria are waiting for someone to light those candles!

Jen checks out the tractor cake.

Here's the gang singing Happy Birthday to our birthday boy, and the blowing out of the candles. Please excuse the Mommy getting a little teary mid-song. It's not just every day that your firstborn turns 3.

Miles likes his tractor cake!!

Sticky, happy boy.

Miles and his friends enjoy birthday cake together.

Liam helps Miles unwrap a gift.

It's a giant floor puzzle!!

Friends Quinn and Teagan made Miles a special Christmas ornament!

Mater and Lightning from Sofia and Nico! We can never have too many Cars friends!

Maria made Miles a really nice card all by herself. She's a fantastic writer!!

Maria delivers the last birthday gift while Miles does some rocking on this awesome horse.

A sock puppet kit from Terrien! What fun!!

This was our first attempt at a birthday party, and I really feel happy about it. There were enough people for fun, but not so many that it was chaotic. The location had toys, but nothing overwhelming for the kids. I didn't have to get my house company-clean (YAY!). We saw lots of good friends, and the kids were totally exhausted by the time we were done. Now they are soundly asleep, and we can move on to our next big adventure - Epic Thanksgiving Road Trip 2011!! Stay tuned for more updates.

Pre-Birthday Prototype Cake!

2011-11-05T17:13:00.000-07:00

So, some of you know that I'm a big fan of making prototypes of anything challenging I plan on making for a special occasion. For instance, I made a prototype of the baptism gown that all of the children in this generation (on my side) have been baptized in before I used the fancy linens and satins that the finished product was made from. Today I made a prototype of the tractor cake I'm planning on making for Miles's birthday party! This one isn't appropriately colored, and is missing some candy accents, but now I know that I can do it quickly and without a ton of fuss. Yay! Here's the run-down:

This is an ordinary Sara Lee Pound Cake. I've cut it about 4" down, and shaved 1/2" off either side of the small end.

The long end is the cab, the small end is the front of the tractor.

Frosting will be GREEN, because we are loyal John Deere tractor-lovers around here.

Donuts for wheels, the windows will be white chocolate, but here they are cheaper graham crackers.

Candy dots for lights, Pirouette cookies for shovel arms, graham cracker shovel ... And it's a tractor!!

Happy Halloween!!

2011-10-31T22:01:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween from the piratey Kilzers! We had a super fun weekend of parties, pumpkin carving, spooky music listening, and watching the Charlie Brown Halloween special. It's just so much fun having kids who are old enough to have actual fun with Halloween!

Here we are all dolled up to go out Trick-or-Treating with our friends. That's a pirate captain, a couple of swabbies, and a piratey monkey you're looking at, FYI.

Our monkey dropped his candy and needed a little help.

There's a pirate captain sneaking up behind that baby ladybug!

All Trick-or-Treated out!

It's Pumpkin Carving Time Again!

2011-10-30T22:09:00.000-07:00

Granty-Granty Pumpkin Eater took a couple of face-first trips down our friends' back stairs yesterday. He's quite the determined little fellow. Like the scraped up, swollen nose and noggin? That's my boy.

Miles is so excited to be carving his tiny pumpkin!

Mmmm pumpkin!

Miles scooped the guts out of his own tiny pumpkin.

More tiny pumpkin guts!

The finished Jack-O-Lantern!

Happy Halloween!

All the boys, shoulder-deep in Pumpkinstein.

No one told Grant that pumpkin guts are icky.

Miles helps gut Pumpkinstein.

Mmmmm. Sticky.

Dig, dig. Scrape, scrape.

Carving pumpkins is SO FUN!

And sticky.

Grant just can't resist.

Pummmmmmmmpkin guts.

Want some? (No thanks!)

He even had to munch on the hard parts. He just couldn't resist.

Even Baby had to help with the scraping.

I love babies digging guts out of pumpkins.

This pumpkin was HARD HARD to carve!

Pumpkinstein took the longest of all the pumpkins.

Grant tried to get INTO the pumpkin.

Miles took this funny picture of Daddy.

Miles also took this picture.

Did I mention that this bumpy pumpkin was REALLY HARD.

Power tools to the rescue!

The four big pumpkins.

And all four in the dark.

Pumpkinstein and Happy Jack.

Grumpy Bumpy and Mr. Ghosty.

FIVE MINUTES after putting the pumpkins out, this slug found a new home.

Milestones

2011-09-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

Today we had sort of a landmark breakfast. I made Astrid's Zucchini Pancakes this morning, and, of course, everyone loves them.

Granty wanted a fork, so I gave him one. He fed himself his own breakfast today, WITH THE FORK!

And Miles decided he wanted to cut his own pancakes. He got a table knife and cut his own FOUR pancakes for himself.

Exciting new developments for everyone!

Soapbox Derby!!

2011-08-13T17:40:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up to a text from my friend Joanna, saying she was taking her kids up to Mt. Tabor Park today to watch the Portland Adult Soapbox Derby. Not knowing exactly what that meant, but knowing that Joanna is fun and Miles adores her daughter Sofia, we packed up and headed to Mt. Tabor! Let me tell you, friends, I pushed my stroller up, up, up and UP, packed with two large-ish toddlers plus picnic supplies, and my legs FEEEEEEL it.

But this is what we found. This is the last picture, but I am experimenting with a new uploader, and the order doesn't matter much anyway. This was Miles's favorite part, obviously.

Because this is Portland, we had to have some surly-looking, gothy flag girls.

It's hard to tell from this picture, but the hill we were sitting on was very steep.

Grant enjoyed the dirt.

He really, really enjoyed the dirt.

Two grubby brothers watching the racecars!

This little urchin looks like he doesn't have a mother.

PBJ + dusty hillside = grubby Miles!

It's hard for me to adequately convey to you how VERY dirty this child was when I brought him home.

DIRT!!

Sorry about all the dirt pictures. He was just so happy in the dirt.

Grant, Miles, Sofia. We have reached the age of Calvin Pictures, it seems.

After AN HOUR of walking up and up and up and then finally a little bit of down, I finally found our group in this gigantic park. Baby Nico (in the sling on Joanna) slept the ENTIRE TIME we were there.

And finally, the only picture I have of any actual racecars. These were definitely not the most interesting ones. There were lots and lots of Mario Kart themed ones, of course, tanks, origami cranes, roller coasters, hot dogs ... you name it! It was a lot of fun, and we'll do it again next year!

Summer Visits!

2011-08-12T17:01:00.000-07:00

It's summer, and we've been super-duper busy! I have a TON of pictures, and I'm just not going to caption them all. The first few are cherry-picking pictures from our fantastic trip to Michigan in late June and early July. We had SOOOO much fun being on the farm with the family! And Grant learned to walk while we were there!

________________________________________________________________________________

Next up in our summer of wonderful visits, we have LILY! We had the extreme pleasure of hosting the boys' cousin Lily for a week in late July and early August. We just had so many adventures. Here are pictures of them at a park whose name escapes me at the moment. But it has a really cool climbing structure.

(It's worth noting that Grant can climb this structure and slide down safely all on his own!)

That is no optical illusion - she's REALLY high up there!

This is a nifty slide with no sides, so your legs dangle over the sides. Makes Mommy nervous!!

Miles and Lily played quite a lot of Hi-Ho Cherry-O, much to Miles's delight!

__________________________________________________________________________

Next stop: Tillamook County, Oregon! Lily has been to a lot of beaches, living as close as she does to Lake Michigan, and having had several vacations in Hawaii. But she'd never been to the Oregon Coast before!

Lily was pretty impressed with the size of the mussel shells she found lying around everywhere!

And of course, being Lily, she found the sweet peas growing on the side of the cliff.

We walked through a cave through one of the giant rocks to get to the beach where the tide pools are!

Lily found a home for her sweet peas.

Tide pools!

Nice, big, colorful starfish!

And some ... other things!

Lily checks out a rock completely crusted with sea life.

Oops. The tide was way out, and then suddenly it was NOT way out! Brr!!

Yes, Beth. I DID let her climb that rock.

(But she went up the back, where it wasn't so precipitous.)

Grant LOVED the beach!

I asked Miles to pull Grant's hood away from his face for a picture, and I couldn't get him to let go of it!

Proof that I was really there - and carrying all sorts of gear!

Grant was very enthusiastic about climbing the big rocks.

... and alarmingly good at it.

With utter disregard for fragile sea creatures, Grant sat right down in this pool before we could stop him.

Lily investigates some tiny things.

__________________________________________________________________________

Before we headed home, we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory! Mmmmmmmmmm cheese. We had samples, watched the packing process, and ate ICE CREAM. It was delicious. It smelled a lot like cows, though!

Miles "drives" the Loaf Love bus.

Grant's turn!

Cute kids and pretend cows!!

Oh How The Summer Flies!

2011-07-21T19:33:00.001-07:00

Well, it took long enough to get here, but summer seems to be upon us. Life has been wonderful, busy fun.

After we got back from our fantastic trip to Michigan, we started swimming lessons. Both boys are doing great and loving it, and Mommy is totally exhausted!! I am very happy to report that for the next set of swimming lessons, I only have to be in the water with Grant, and Miles will be ready to do lessons on his own! Yay!

The first Wednesday of swimming lessons was Granty's 1st birthday. We already celebrated with cake and cousins in Michigan, but we hadn't gotten him his present yet. Mr. Water Lover was delighted with his water play table! His brother has been quite pleased with it as well.

And the raspberries are ripe! They just keep on coming. I get a bucket like this every few days.

Grant is always looking for new ways to get into trouble. Climbing into the dumper to reach things is a new favorite. He's really just sitting innocently in the middle of the living room in this one.

What's this guy doing??

He's picking late-season strawberries, of course.

You didn't really think he was putting them in the bucket, did you?

Grant won't be lacking for any soil-borne trace minerals for a while.

And last but not least, here's that beautiful Big Brother enjoying some after-dinner ice cream!

Grant's First Birthday Party - A Little Early

2011-07-03T18:56:00.001-07:00

Remember this guy? This brand-new, squinting at the bright new world guy?

Well he's just getting mighty darned big. See? He's Mr. Stander and Walker now.

We came out to the farm to visit Grandparents and spend some Quality Time with all the cousins, and while the Wisconsin cousins were here ...

We celebrated Grant's first birthday a few days early!! Aunties Beth and Astrid made up this lovely cake commemorating the wonderful beach trip we took to Rosy Mound today.

Grant liked it. There was some mess afterwards.

Fortunately Casey was ready and up to the challenge! He was happy to help, and Grant thought it was pretty fun to get licked clean by giant Labrador tongue.

Monumental Weekend

2011-06-11T23:03:00.000-07:00

I don't even know where to start. There is way too much, and I'm way too tired. I will sum up, post a video, go to bed, and try to add more pictures later.

JON GRADUATED! After three years of Really Hard Work, Jon is now the proud holder of a Master of Science in School Counseling. GO JON GO. My parents and his parents all came to watch his hooding ceremony, and it was all very awesome.

Today, Miles had his first violin recital. It was as cute as you think it might have been, and more. He was totally relaxed being in front of a completely packed house full of spectators, played along like a little trooper, took his bow, and went dancing up and down back to his seat, shouting to anyone who made eye contact with him, "Did you SEE that??" He was very proud and happy, and he wanted it to be his turn again soon.

Cute, right?

Then we went to the St. Paul Strawberry Fest, where we played around on a farm, drank beer and wine, ate BBQ, and Miles got to ride some farm rides.

Next, we went to Eugene for Jon's cousin's daughter's graduation party. What a party! We had so much fun, and Miles got to play on a REAL drum set. I will post pictures and videos later, but now I am going to go to bed.

Growing Growing Growing!!

2011-05-07T08:38:00.001-07:00

This is the scene at my house this morning. Both boys are wearing a new size of clothes AND shoes. And they are sharing a snack of Kix.

Today's Organizational Triumph

2011-05-02T15:50:00.001-07:00

If you've never looked in my cabinets for spices, this will be less meaningful than if you've cooked here before.

I put all my spice jars in a drawer and put labels on top<\b> so I can find things easily!

Finally!

2011-04-30T21:29:00.001-07:00

When Miles was born, Jon and my Dad worked together to make this nice pantry area in my kitchen nook. I asked them to leave the wood bare because I planned on painting it "soon." Haha. Silly Mommy. Well, two and a half short years later, I have finally gotten around to it. I think that it looks much more like something you'd find in a little old house like this now!
I even covered the shelves with sweet flowery contact paper.

Happy Matchy-Matchy Easter!

2011-04-26T09:19:00.001-07:00

Thanks for the super cute outfits, Grandma Kilzer!

2011-04-16T12:13:00.001-07:00

My beautiful family.

Brothers

2011-04-15T15:02:00.001-07:00
This is the scene at our house most days lately. Now that grant is big enough to crawl to the toy bin and get himself up to seated in front of it, he and Miles spend so much happy time sitting there together with their toys. It melts my heart to see how helpful and thoughtful Miles is in helping Grant find things that he can manage and enjoy. I am so proud of these two sweet brothers.

Sandbox!

2011-04-07T18:10:00.001-07:00
We have improved our play porch! Casey moved to the Farm and left this big, empty kennel out here. Today we invested in about $7 worth of sand, cleaned up the box, and now we have a sand box under cover, where no one will get sunburned, and there won't be neighborhood kitty poop problems!

Monkey See Monkey Do!

2011-03-08T14:58:00.001-08:00

Test

2011-02-27T08:36:00.001-08:00
Testing a new post editor

2011-02-22T11:16:00.001-08:00

Daffodils already!
This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!
To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.
Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

2011-02-21T16:00:00.001-08:00

Miles has violin, will travel!
This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!
To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.
Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required.

2011-02-21T13:34:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it's all I can manage to not pick him up and snuggle him. It's almost as good just to snuggle in next to him and join the napping.

2011-02-20T12:24:00.000-08:00

Both of my boys in th Costco cart!
This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!
To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.
Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

2011-02-18T18:43:00.001-08:00

Family bass playing time!

2011-02-17T12:54:00.001-08:00

Miles had a pretty spectacularl spill down the stairs at the Children's Museum.

2011-02-13T13:41:00.001-08:00

Sometimes Grant feels that church is a little long. He's still pretty little, though.
This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!
To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.
Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

Five new teeth in our

2011-02-12T20:17:00.001-08:00
Five new teeth in our house today. 3 molars for Miles, and Granty's first - both bottom incisors! What a day!

2011-02-12T00:19:00.001-08:00

Sometimes a Mommy isn't able to resist taking pictures like this.
This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!
To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.
Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

We Love Sight Words!

2011-01-19T12:13:00.000-08:00
Auntie Beth sent us the wonderful red Short Books for Christmas, and Miles has really been learning to recognize words! He is not "reading," in that he is not sounding out letter combinations - he has just memorized what several words look like. But he can find them in lots of contexts when we're out and about, and I call that reading! Here's a little sample of what he can do!

Sight Words - 1/19/2011 from Margaret Kilzer on Vimeo.

Mommy's Little Helper

2011-01-18T11:23:00.000-08:00

So I am way behind on pictures from the end of our Christmas vacation and things that came after, but that will have to be for another post. I just wanted to put this up.

This morning, our living room was a wasteland of Legos. See exhibit A.

Exhibit A

And then I told Miles that I had [Student] coming soon for a lesson, and would he please help Mommy clean up the living room. I went upstairs to get dressed, and I came downstairs to find THIS:

Exhibit B

Seriously, folks. Miles did all that cleanup ON HIS OWN, having only been asked once. I was totally blown away. What a good, helpful boy I have!!

California - Part 1

2010-12-23T14:56:00.000-08:00
So these first two aren't from California. They are from the morning I was packing up the car. Aren't these two just the sweetest brothers? And isn't Grant's hair just increasingly hilarious?? It looks like he slept in a single hot-roller to get that look.

... And here we begin with our Christmas trip to California. The weather was cooperative, and the boys were amazingly easy for 95% of the 14-hour trip. We could not have been more pleased with how things went! We arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's house in time for dinner, and everyone slept perfectly. It was just fantastic.

Yesterday, we took a nice, long walk down to an awesome park near Dave & Bonnie's house. Grant got to ride in a swing for the first time, and he LOVED it!

See?

Miles wanted to swing with his brother, which was sweet and fun, but there was SO MUCH awesome stuff to do at this park that that didn't last terribly long. And Grant got so relaxed on the swing that I had to take him out because he was falling asleep.

Miles's undisputed favorite part of every play structure is the wheel up at the top. This one is no exception.

Underneath the play structure, there was a nice little table that Jon and Miles sat at for a good, long time, just imagining the kinds of things they were going to eat on their long journey in the ship they were on.

Here's Miles checking some of his rigging. Seems secure.
Sliding is always best when Daddy will go down with you!!

Miles is fairly good at these climbing walls for someone as small and physically cautious as he is.

There was a fun 3-way bouncy toy here that we had some family fun on. With Mommy and Daddy on the other two seats, Miles sure sat high up in the air!

Here he is bouncing with a little girl a bit more his size.

Sadly, after our super fun morning, Miles got really sick yesterday evening. It has been a total, miserable vomit-fest around here, and he still hasn't managed to keep anything but crackers and water down for more than five minutes. GRANDMA, though, managed to turn his frown upside down with this spot-on perfect surprise. When she pulled this Buzz Lightyear doll out from behind her back, Miles was totally agape with speechless joy. He is currently napping with it, and before his nap, he just kept going up to Bonnie and saying "Thank you Grandma. I love you so much, Grandma!"

Miles set Buzz aside for a little while to get some snuggles in with his baby brother. They're so sweet.

And here are my three wonderful, adorable boys.

Days in the Life

2010-12-14T10:42:00.001-08:00
This is not a "themed" post. This is just pictures of the boys doing sweet stuff around the house in the past 2 days.

Grant is 5 months old as of Monday, Dec. 13. Hard to believe it's passing so quickly! He's so bright and perky all the time!

This picture is sideways, but it has such a lovely smile that I couldn't resist it. Look at that Kilzer mouth, too.

Miles has been playing with his Lego Duplo blocks almost constantly these days. Is he a boy or what?

Miles's other favorite toy is his brother. Lots of hugs and kisses go on around here every day!

Grant likes to lie on the floor near where Miles is playing. We pass lots of peaceful time like this. Grant never seems to mind when he wiggles his head off the soft carpet and onto the hardwood floor. The little Lego train Miles has rigged up there is NOT a train, he'll have you know. It's a hayride. Just so you know.

And we all knew this was coming. Miles has discovered the joy of pushing his baby brother around in the back of his dump truck. Grant is not completely certain about it just yet, but it's super cute, and Miles is very careful (and heavily supervised - Jon's reaching hand is just outside the frame there).

And last but not least, Grant has grown out of all the "small" sized diapers Beth made. Now he's wearing the full sized ones that Miles and Henry both potty trained out of. I hope those diapers are ready for another year and a half of heavy use!!

The End of Grandma & Grandpa's Visit

2010-12-14T09:49:00.000-08:00
Before they left, Grandma and Grandpa bought us this nice gingerbread house kit! Miles and I had a great time putting it together! Please forgive our jammies. We didn't know there would be photos taken!

Miles was so careful about placing the gumdrops neatly along the roofline.

... and other places.

He was surprisingly tidy about putting little candies in the corners of windows and such.

Decorating the little gingerbread men was a more abstract affair.

It would just be wrong to decorate a gingerbread house without eating quite a lot of candy!

Grandpa found Miles and me packed into this tiny play tent rather funny.

Miles saw Grandma's travel neck pillow and decided it was a Miles-sized Boppy. He sat right down, put it in his lap, and said "OK, you ready, baby?" and patted the pillow. Of course I had to oblige him. It was very sweet.

This was the last morning we spent with Casey Dog. We let him spend the night in the house after a very thorough bath. I cried a lot that day and took a lot of pictures of my First Baby. After 8 years of having him around, things do seem pretty quiet around here, but all reports have him very happy with all the other dogs in Michigan. We will see him this summer!

Jon saying goodbye before heading for work. He is not scruffing him. He is giving him good scratches.

And here are Grandma and Grandpa and the boys before all the Michiganders got in the car to head back to the farm. It was SUCH a lovely visit. We are all really glad that they were able to come!!

Grandma & Grandpa!

2010-11-30T23:09:00.000-08:00

Grandma and Grandpa Breutzman drove out to Utah to have Thanksgiving with Grandma's sister and parents. "On the way home," they came by to see us! We get to keep them till Thursday, and so far it's really been a wonderfully fun visit! First off, they hand-delivered an incredibly exciting birthday present to Miles:

As soon as he even saw the box, he said "A MOGORCYCLE!" Here's Daddy assembling the nice little balance bike. If you're not familiar with balance bikes, basically it's just a tiny bike with no pedals or training wheels. It's for pushing with his feet so he gets used to balancing on the bike before adding the complication of pedals. Theoretically, he shouldn't need training wheels after getting good on this.

Daddy is still tightening screws, but Miles CAN NOT WAIT to get on!!

And here he is! Sitting astride his very own bike! His legs are just a little short right now, and he needs help, but that will change quickly!

He has spent a huge amount of time riding around the house, gaining confidence by the hour.

Taking a little break from the bike, here are my two lovely boys! Grant is starting to like to "stand up" (with lots of help with the balance part).

Miles can just about never resist the opportunity to hug his little brother. Aren't they sweet?

After bath time last night, Grandpa played a Christmas song before bed, and Miles needed to get up on the piano bench and help him play it and sing along.

I told you he's gaining confidence. This one's blurry because he's zooming so fast!

And OH what fun Miles has been having with his Grandma!

I'm afraid Miles is going to be VERY SAD when Grandma and Grandpa leave. This has just been a really charmed visit, and we're SO HAPPY to have them here!

Thanksgiving Weekend

2010-11-30T22:36:00.000-08:00

We spent Thanksgiving at home this year. Jon had some time off from school stuff, if not from work, and we just had nice, quiet family time at home. It was very cozy.

Miles and Daddy are watching some Swedish Chef episodes of the Muppet Show here. Miles LOVES the Swedish Chef, but who doesn't?

Grant enjoyed quite a bit of nursing and snuggling, as usual.

I cooked a turkey and a few fixins for us, and it was delicious! We even used Auntie Mollie's special china.

On Saturday, we rode MAX out to the Zoo for ZooLights! On the way in, of course the first thing we saw was this Boeing sign. I wondered if the whole thing was going to be advertisements, but it wasn't.

Here's the entry gate. Miles started getting pretty excited right about here.

A fire breathing dragon!

Warmly-bundled Miles and his nice Daddy. I am glad to see how reflective the stroller is!!

This life-sized giraffe was animated to pick up a heart from the ground and put it up on top of the blue tree over and over. It was very popular with the giraffe-loving little boy in our party!

This is the Zoo's main lawn, and it was transformed into a really awesome African scene, complete with a river with crocodiles and hippos in it, elephants roaming, and birds of prey flapping their way across the field. It was SUPER COOL.

Some of the walkways were just lined with these densely-lit trees. I can't even imagine how many lights were in each single tree!

Here's a view from the boardwalk as you walk down into the zoo. It was just so lovely and magical! I really want to go back before this is over. Thank you AGAIN so much for the Zoo membership, Grandma Bonnie!!

"Snow" Day

2010-11-23T18:05:00.000-08:00
Today there was a light dusting of snow on the ground, so of course Portland freaked all the way out and cancelled everything that could be cancelled. We took the unexpected time with Daddy to have a nice trip to the Portland Children's Museum, to which Uncle Mark and Aunt Astrid gave us a membership!

While the snow is really a joke, it is rather chilly, so we pulled out some of the nice cozy winter things Auntie Beth sent to us when her kids grew out of them. Grant looks like a tiny, hilarious, purple ninja! Enjoy.

2010-11-17T09:21:00.000-08:00

Miles says "I get stuck Mommy's boot! Mommy help you?"

Passing Down the Love

2010-11-17T09:15:00.000-08:00

Grant's oldest cousin, Lily, was born in 2001. Her nice Grandma Beverly made a stack of little white silkies, which she loved and snuggled for a long time. By the time Miles was born, Lily was done with her silkies, and she passed them down to Miles. Miles wasn't really a blanket-snuggler, but OH how happy little Grant is to have those white silkies! They are just perfect for holding close to his face when he sucks his thumb. Thanks so much for sharing with your cousins, Lily!

Up The Mountain To Play In The Snow!

2010-11-12T17:00:00.000-08:00

Since Grandma is here AND Daddy had two days off, we decided it would be fun to go up to Mount Hood to play in the snow! Auntie Beth had sent us some nice snow suits and boots for the boys, so away we went!

Miles and Grandma had a wee little snowball fight. There was a certain amount of squealing involved.

Daddy and Grant against the awesome backdrop of Mt. Hood. Check out that dark blue sky at noon!

That snow was actually quite deep - occasionally we broke through the surface and fell in up to our knees.

Time for a change inside Timberline Lodge.

While Grant had his post-snow nap, Grant and Grandma had some nice playtime while Mommy taught a violin lesson.

My Big Two-Year-Old

2010-11-11T22:27:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Miles's big 2nd birthday. It's hard to imagine that he's been with us for two whole years already, and that it's ONLY been two years. I can't imagine life without him! We didn't really do a party, but we've been trying to just have a special and fun couple of days. We kicked things off with Miles's very own copy of Mary Poppins, which is one of his favorite things ever. Grandma Bonnie arrived here today as well, but somehow I don't have any pictures with her in them. I will work on fixing that.

Grant wasn't really all that impressed with all the birthday hubbub. He thought Daddy's shoulder was quite nice, though.

Since the very first time we took Miles to Red Robin, we have been planning to take him there for his second birthday. He was just as excited about it as we thought he would be. Here he is showing off his very own hamburger, which he devoured completely.

An oddly serious picture of Miles listening to the waitstaff sing his birthday song. He was really tickled, as we expected.

Digging into the traditional Red Robin birthday sundae. We did help him with it, as it's QUITE large for a 2 year old!

Oops! There go those birthday balloon ears!

Totally non birthday related, but Miles dreamed up and built this Lego airplane all on his own today. W e thought it was pretty great.

Miles has been talking about the birthday song an candles for a really long time now. He was so excited and delighted when those things happened FOR HIM! And yes, I did make my son pink cupcakes for his birthday. The cupcakes are chocolate, and the frosting is a to-die-for mostly butter with some strawberries concoction I learned from a friend.

Cupcakes past bedtime. This is a very special occasion indeed!

... and here comes that sugar rush ...

YAY for being two!!

Here's a look at Miles's present from us. He was really excited! Let's hope it stays that way.

Halloween!

2010-11-11T22:14:00.000-08:00

We did, in fact, all dress up and go Trick-or-Treating for Halloween - we were all monkeys - but I failed in the photo department, and the only people with photographic evidence are the people who were out with us. Too bad! At least I knew where my camera was for Jack-o-Lanterns!

Here's Daddy lighting up the candles.

There are precious few things Miles finds more exciting than candles, so this was pretty cool. Also, he got to pick out what we carved on the pumpkins!

These two have Blue from Blue's Clues and "Boo!" on them.

And Miles adores owls, so he was pretty excited about the owl pumpkin. He didn't care about the haunted house one. That was all me. :)

And here they are, all four lit up and welcoming Trick-or-Treaters! We had ONE person knock this year. Sigh. But we had fun carving our purmpkins!

A Spur of the Moment Zoo Trip

2010-11-11T21:31:00.000-08:00

Last week we had a surprisingly gorgeous day, and Miles asked to go to the zoo. What's a mom to do? Say "No, we're going to stay home and fold laundry even though it's November and it's 70 degrees"? No, I didn't think so. We at lunch in the car and we went to the zoo.

We would never dream of visiting the zoo without stopping by the beloved drum hut, where Miles took his first steps. You can see that this trip was a while ago, because he still has a fluffy diapered bottom. No more fluffy bottoms for our big boy!

Some of Miles's most favorite animals to look at - this is the zoo's smaller giraffe and three Speke's gazelles.

Miles found this little bobcat statue, and spent quite a bit of time riding it. He also told me he was riding a bobcat without my telling him so. He's such a little smarty pants.

And like the drums, we must also always visit the old tractor down by the petting area. It never gets old!

More on That Tiny Violin

2010-10-29T11:08:00.000-07:00
Go Miles Go! I think he's doing great for a little guy who's not yet 2!

Playing Along from Margaret Kilzer on Vimeo.

Apples, Apple Pie, Peas and Carrots

2010-10-15T11:17:00.000-07:00
No, I did not choose to leave out a serial comma in my title. I just meant "Peas and Carrots" as one thing together, and separate from the Apple ideas. :)

So anyway. Last Friday, we went over to my friend Nan's sister's house to pick apples. She's all appled out, and there are still lots of apples on her tree. I came home and, of course, immediately made apple pie. I made lots of extra filling, and I let Miles eat AS MUCH AS HE WANTED. This is what a little boy looks like who has just had as much apple pie filling as he wants. Happy and sticky.

This is the "Peas and Carrots" part of the post.
Miles likes to get himself situated somehwere cozy (like Grant's little glider chair, for instance) and then ask to hold his baby brother. It melts my heart how much this big brother loves his baby. And Grant is starting to be pretty mesmerized by Miles, as well.

Fall!

2010-10-05T15:58:00.000-07:00

This is an old picture taken the day Miles got his hair cut. It is "before," but I forgot to take "after" ones. You can also see Baby's First Black Eye almost healed there.

On Sunday evening, we decided to jump in the car and head for Sauvie Island. There are lots of farms there, but the one we went to is called The Pumpkin Patch.

We got to go on a hay ride out into the vast fields of pumpkins. There was a tractor-pulled cow-train that absolutely blew Miles's mind. There was carnival food and an animal barn. And we got pumpkins! ****************************************************************************************

Meanwhile, little Grant has suddenly gotten so big! We just had to switch him to the larger size of diapers and into 3-6M clothing. Look at those sweet, chubby cheeks! I love the 3-6M clothes. This is what Miles was wearing when he was quite a bit younger, and I have lots of sweet memories of these little outfits.
Also, the eyes are pretty bright these days. Lots of perky smiles and coos.
Also, check out that accomplished thumb-sucking. He's starting to have a permanently-pruney left thumb, which is a-ok with us.
And last but not least, here are the tomatoes I picked yesterday. Yum. I made a very nice spaghetti sauce, and barely made a dent in that bowl. I will have to get creative soon!

2010-10-04T07:35:00.001-07:00

Baby brother smiling at big brother showing him his toys.

2010-09-30T16:06:00.001-07:00

He says "I take a lesson!"

2010-09-30T15:49:00.001-07:00

Thank you Grandpa Dave!!

Pictures for Grandma

2010-09-18T11:57:00.000-07:00

Miles is Still Cute, Too

2010-09-13T17:37:00.001-07:00
Recently Miles figured out how to turn on the flashlight. Now when he's missing stuff, he goes and gets the flashlight and searches under the couches. Then he finds me and asks me to "Mommy getit?" He's cute. And Smart. And I just adore him. Did I mention that?

Grant is 2 Months Old!

2010-09-13T17:00:00.000-07:00
Grant is 2 months old today. I took a bunch of pictures of him just being cute and cheery.
He saw his pediatrician today, and he was declared perfect in every way.
He's 12 pounds even, 23.25" long, and his head is 15.75" around. That's 50th percentile across the board.
Dr. Constein thinks he'll keep his blue eyes.
He also got a bunch of mean old shots, and he's doing just fine this evening. Happy 2 months birthday, Baby Grant!

Getting Bigger

2010-09-09T19:13:00.000-07:00
I just haven't been very good about documenting Grant's growth and changes. I will try to do better from now on. No promises, of course. I do still have two children under two ...
Here's a current, awake shot of Grant's sweet little face. He loves his binky, so not a whole lot of photo opportunities without it.

Here's the diaper change assembly line. Grant is doing some airing out while Miles gets fresh pants. Gosh we have a lot of diapers in our house.

Yesterday It Rained

2010-09-08T09:10:00.000-07:00

We all had very nice naps yesterday with the rain pitter-pattering on the windows. As you can see, Grant is still incredibly cute.

The rain reminded us that Winter is Coming, and we didn't have waterproof stuff for our big boy! So we went out and got a nice warm rain-proof jacket and some awesome dinosaur galoshes. Doesn't he look pleased?

Here are the cute dinosaurs on those boots. Way cute. And Miles can put them on all by himself!

Thursday's Big Adventure

2010-09-02T15:46:00.000-07:00

Well, the Multnomah County Library has the books I want to read, but there are endless holds on all of them. This morning, we decided to head downtown to Powell's City of Books to find some cheap used copies that I didn't have to wait for. Because Jon is always good at making an errand into an adventure (and also because the Powell's parking garage is truly terrifying), he suggested that we take the train downtown. Miles loves riding the train. Everything went fine. It was the good, smooth kind of adventure. On the way there, the trains were backed up for a while at the stop that happens to be where Jon gets his INR done, and I happened to remember that today was the day he was supposed to have a blood draw, so we even stepped off the train and got that taken care of on the way, with the added fun of introducing Grant to the friendly phlebotomists who have been drawing Jon's blood every couple of weeks since before Miles was born. Needless to say, they found him quite lovely! When we were done at the clinic, there was another train just waiting for us.

We got to Powell's and got our books, and while we were there, we had a funny green-screen picture taken of us. We were not, in fact, standing in the middle of Burnside Street, and our name was not actually on the Powell's sign. It was kind of funny trying to get situated for that picture, since Jon was wearing a green shirt. I had to stand in front of him in order for him to not be transparent!

Life is Busy!

2010-08-31T11:53:00.001-07:00
I was was way better at this posting thing when I only had 1 child, but it doesn't mean there isn't cute stuff happening around here all the time. I just love how sweet these two are together. This is not a staged or unusual sight

Miles often wants to hold Grant. He is very gentle and careful, but Grant usually feels a little nervous being supported by such little arms (even though Mommy does keep a hand on the situation). I still think it's cute.

We went to the zoo again yesterday (YAY for the zoo!), and we FINALLY got to see the Amur Leopard! We have only seen her paws poking out from a hiding place in the past, but yesterday she was pacing quite magnificently back and forth in front of the window. Miles thought she was pretty exciting!

On our way to see the giraffes, Miles noticed the African Pygmy Goats, so he and Jon went in to visit with them a bit. They give the kids brushes to brush the goats with, and Miles seemed to really enjoy it. He also enjoys brushing Mommy's hair, so maybe he has a future in aesthetics. :)

Here's Miles just petting a white goat that caught his eye.

And here are some cute zoo videos. They're not from the same day, and one of them is sideways. My apologies.

No Lions! from Margaret Kilzer on Vimeo.

Ride a Train! from Margaret Kilzer on Vimeo.

Milestones - Big Stuff and Little Stuff

2010-08-10T21:48:00.000-07:00

So I meant to have this post up on Tuesday, but I seem to have two children now, and nothing gets done when I mean for it to get done.

TUESDAY was Grant's 4-week birthday and Miles's 21-month birthday. Seems an apt day for a milestone post!

Grandma and Grandpa left in the WEEEEEEE hours of Saturday morning. That's why we have no picture of them with Miles. Grant doesn't care about 4:00 am, though, so here he is saying goodbye to them. Thanks so much for coming, Grandma and Grandpa!

Here are three action shots of some pre-bath Art Time. I think they speak for themselves.

*****

That baby is still sweet. I bet you never would have guessed!

Hee hee. I let Miles have a pack of cards yesterday. He tried really, really hard to put them back in the box before he asked for help. It was very sweet.

*****

When we woke up, we decided it was a good Zoo Day! We've really been loving that membership from Grandma Bonnie!

Since it was Second Tuesday and admission was only $4, the lines were really, really ridiculous. Thanks to our awesome Membership, we just walked past the line and right in the gates, which was ... awesome.

The eagles were very popular with Miles, but the stuff around the eagle exhibit was even more so. Here you can see him in an eagle nest. Not a real one, thank goodness.

Miles saw so many wonderful things at the zoo today, and I saw things I've never seen before. It turns out that I never actually noticed you could turn LEFT when you get into the gates, so I have always gone right. I missed all this awesome native Northwest stuff!
Also there was a big tractor that Miles got to sit on, and there were old tractor seats that the kids could bounce on. I noticed that one of them said "Deere & Co., Moline, IL," so I had to take a picture for Uncle Mark. Aren't I a good little sister?

THIS is what my boy looks like when he gets to ride on the zoo train! Auntie Beth took him on this a few weeks ago when Grant and I were in the hospital, and he was so super excited to go on it again. He cried when we had to wait in line because he was afraid it was going to leave without us.

After the train, we munched on some lunch, stopped by the otters, and made our way home. It is SO AWESOME to have a Zoo Membership. We didn't have to feel like we needed to cram our $24 worth into one trip. We just went, looked at animals while we were fresh and happy, and then we went home! I look forward to many trips like this in the coming year!

I feel like the biggest news in this post is that this afternoon, after Miles was well and truly fed up with his nap, he attempted to extricate himself from his crib without help. This ended in Jon rushing willy-nilly up the stairs to catch Miles with his head dangling precariously over the floor and his feet stuck up in the air over the crib rail.
As dearly as we love the beautiful crib that Grandpa made for Miles, we decided that rather than risk more escape attempts resulting in bonked heads, we would go ahead and move Miles into a toddler bed. Grant is going to need that crib in a few months anyway, and it's probably best that Miles is used to his new bed before his little brother takes over the crib.
He was very excited to go to Ikea and shop for his new bed, and the assembly was just the most amazing thing ever. Here you can see him putting some finishing touches (it was already fully assembled, but don't tell him that) with an Allen wrench.
Bedtime tonight went surprisingly smoothly, and I haven't heard a peep from him so far, but it's only been an hour and a half. It's not like I get tons of sleep at night anyway. I guess now's as good a time as any to try to make a wacky transition, right?

Three Weeks, Three Days

2010-08-06T18:15:00.000-07:00

Grant is helping Daddy get some rest before he has to go to work tonight. Daddy is helping Grant get some rest before he has to wake Mommy up five times tonight before Grandma and Grandpa leave to go back to Michigan (at 4 am - YIKES!). Aren't they adorably sweet?

We're really going to miss having Grandma and Grandpa here. Miles has been having such a fun time really getting to know some of his relatives, and they have been SO MUCH HELP to poor tired Mommy and Daddy. We've got a week of flying solo before Auntie Erin comes. Wish us luck!

I realize I haven't been as prolific with pictures of Grant as I was with pictures of Miles at this age. I just have so much more STUFF to do, it seems! Here are a few pictures from the past few days.

This one isn't terribly exciting, it just struck me that Grant suddenly takes up so much more space in his carseat than he did just a few days ago.

Miles is still Miles, of course. He still loves to drum. Grant doesn't actually love to hear it, but he'll get used to it for sure.

Drumma drumma drumma.

This little guy is three weeks and three days old. I can hardly believe how strong he is. It took Miles so very much longer than this to even pick his head up briefly, and this afternoon Grant just sat here like this for probably five minutes, just looking around.

Just looking around. He really likes to be on his own and observe things.

My relaxed little guy.

Milk-drunk baby. His baby acne is finally starting to clear up, but it is hot and sweaty these days, so it's slow going.

Just a cute face. Kissable, isn't it?

Look at how LONG my boy is getting! And see all those nice dimples and folds and chins he has suddenly! Grant loves milk.

Finally Found My Camera

2010-08-03T08:18:00.000-07:00
Last week we headed down to Wilsonville to meet with my friend and former boss Lori and her three boys at a water fountain. While all of the older boys (Jon, Miles, and Lori's two older boys Elijah and Mason) played in the fountain, Lori and I sat and rested and visited in the shade with our two tiny guys. Although little Hudson was born 11 weeks ago, he and Grant had due dates one day apart! It will be interesting to watch them grow together.

A crashed-out baby curled up in a boppy. He's starting to get so large and plump! I supposed it's worth noting that he had his 2-week checkup on Wednesday, and in the 8 days since his first nurse appointment, he went from 7 pounds, 14 oz. to 8 pounds, 13 oz., and from 20.5 inches to 21.5 inches. Also his bellybutton stump came off, so now he can have baths in the tub, which is a *night and day* difference in screamability.

Zombies. Miles was tired from peach picking and Daddy was tired from school. So we're not always bright eyed and bushy tailed at our house, I admit.

Sometimes a tired boy just has to watch Blue's Clues with his Daddy at the end of a long day.

Here's why that boy looks so tired. "We" picked some peaches yesterday! What actually happened is that Grandma and Grandpa and Miles and Grant and I went to Sherwood to an orchard, and Grandma and Grandpa picked peaches while Miles and Grant and I waited in the car in the shade and variously napped and played around with the farm cat and took a very leisurely stroll and ate one peach.

Grandma and Grandpa made not one but TWO wonderful peach cobblers!

The gorgeous, delicious end results! Aren't they beautiful? They were at LEAST as delicious as they were beautiful.

Grant's Baptism - From Our Camera

2010-07-23T21:59:00.000-07:00
My beautiful Big Boy all dressed up for his brother's baptism.

A nice little family shot.
I have no idea how this one happened, but it's actually NOT intentional that every single one of us is looking in a different direction from the others.

The four of us with Pastor Bitter, Bonnie and Dave, and Miles's most beloved Auntie Beth.

Settling In

2010-07-23T21:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I think we're starting to get a handle on this having-two-babies thing. NOT that I think we're anywhere near ready to function without an Auntie or a Grandma or Grandpa here to help (I still can't lift Miles, or zoom around and do a bunch of housework), but we're starting to understand the new bedtime rhythms, how to get through the nights when Jon's at work, and just how this tandem nursing thing works.

Wednesday evening was so nice and cool that we just had to get out of the house, so we loaded up the boys and headed for Kenilworth Park. I have a suspicion that this is a park where Auntie Beth might have taken Miles, since when we got there, he started running around calling for her. Once we established that Auntie Beth had gone home to be with her own babies, the fun was able to commence. And Mommy sat on a bench with a camera, like a good little c-section recoverer.

Miles had to take the pokey way up to the top of the slide. There's just so much to explore when you're 1.

Miles loves being up on top of this slide structure. The different posts make different pitches when he bangs on them, and he loves to walk back and forth and listen to them.

But sometimes it's also fun to slide down to Grandma!

Here's what baby Grant thought of his first trip to the park. It seemed much the same as any other place he had been. And yes, it was a cool enough evening for long sleeves and a little cotton blanket if you're 9 days old.

***
A perky face! Grant is starting to have more awake-time during the day. Sometimes we even see his pretty blue eyes. One marked difference between baby Grant and baby Miles: Grant likes to have a binky. Mommy is NOT COMPLAINING.

Here's Miles strumming on his a'tar (otherwise known as a ukulele). I like how seasoned he looks there, with his nice posture and his strummy little action hand.

This morning Miles woke us all up quite a bit too early. Grandma and Grant found that they had to sleep it off on the couch in the midmorning.

We had a very short but nice visit from Uncle Mark this morning! He was on his way home from a crazy business trip, and though he was very tired, he made time to come meet his newest nephew and say hi to little Miles and the rest of us. Thanks for the visit, Uncle Mark!

This is a sweet baby boy. But I think I'm going to need to go back and label the pictures of Miles, because Grant just looks SO MUCH like his new-new baby pictures!

Grant's Baptism - From Grandpa Dave's Camera

2010-07-21T08:57:00.000-07:00

This is the first of two posts about Grant's baptism. These pictures are from Grandpa Dave's camera (thanks, Grandpa!), and the other will be pictures from our camera. Somehow, these pictures don't have any evidence of Grandpa Dave and Grandma Bonnie OR Auntie Beth, but they are in the ones from our camera for the next post!

Miles the extremely handsome and well-dressed Big Brother.
(We were almost able to keep his shirt tucked in!)

A little family photo in the hallway.

Somewhat serious expressions beside the baptismal font.

Accidental funny faces, but I love Miles's expression in this one.

Mommy and Baby

This is how Grant looked 100% of the time we were at church on Sunday - even when his head got wet. Zzzzzz. Good baby!

Mama and Daddy and a new baby boy. Amazing how well he fills that gown up at only 5 days old!

Our brand-new happy family of four.

Miles was pretty excited about the candles up at the front of the church.

Two of my favorite boys.

Miles Goes to the Water Fountain - from Grandpa Dave's Camera

2010-07-20T19:46:00.001-07:00
Here is a nice mish-mash of pictures that Grandpa Dave took on his camera.
We had a really nice day when he was here, so he and Jon and Miles headed downtown to the Jamison Square (I think?) fountain for a little fun in the sun and water.

I also included a couple of pictures of quiet, happy, at-home stuff that happened while Grandpa was here.

Life at our house is very happy lately!

Some Pictures from the Hospital that Didn't Get Posted

2010-07-20T18:40:00.000-07:00

Grant's first picture

I like this one because it reminds me so much of one of Miles's first pictures.

Arrr. He's practicing his pirate scowl.

First time I got to hold my sweet second son. We're in the recovery room here, and if you were waiting for a call, I'm sorry. We tried and tried, but there was no phone reception there!

Into our own room now, resting.

Auntie Beth was the first to come visit Grant in the hospital. She brought Miles to greet his new baby brother!

He's just such a pretty baby.

2010-07-15T14:51:00.001-07:00

So sweet
This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!
To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.
Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

First Day as a Family of Four

2010-07-13T20:59:00.000-07:00

First of all, this is Beth, posting at Margaret and Jon's site. Next, their Blogger uploader doesn't work the way mine does, and it's equally difficult to work with (absurdly difficult AND unfamiliar! Bonus!). So what you get is a dump of some of today's pictures, with some commentary at the beginning.

Margaret and Jon left super-early this morning for their baby-eviction appointment, while Miles stayed with Auntie Beth. Margaret and baby weathered the ordeal just fine (maybe one or two teeny tiny adventures, but nothing major). Miles had a happy fun day at the park while waiting to meet "bruver!"

Already a very thoughtful child, Grant had the foresight to get Miles a present, which he presented as Miles arrived at the hospital to meet "bruver!"... it's a ukelele, which anyone who has met Miles will realize was a SMASH HIT. Miles proclaimed it to be a " 'tar!"... as in, "guitar!"

Miles wasn't terribly sure about the baby at first, but after tootling around in the hospital room for a half hour or so, he asked if he could hold the baby. It was awfully sweet with lots of cute baby kisses (one baby kissing a smaller baby).

And a note from the besotted Auntie... that is a CUTE new baby. Oh, my goodness. Cute. Very. Super-smoochable. He doesn't say all the adorable, dear, sweet things that Mr. Miles does, but he still manages to captures hearts at first glance. Now, enough with the yakking... let's look at pictures!

2010-07-13T17:43:00.001-07:00

2010-07-13T16:07:00.001-07:00

Daddy and his beautiful new boy.

2010-07-13T11:50:00.001-07:00

Grant Arthur Kilzer is here! 8 lb 9 oz, 20.5 in. 14.5 inch head!
This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!
To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.
Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required.

Last Day as a Family of Three

2010-07-12T21:19:00.000-07:00

Well it seems like I've been pregnant for the last thirty or so years, but apparently tomorrow I'm going to stop being pregnant (at least for a while). My belly this time around is incredibly large. Just ... amazingly large. Watch this be a 6 and a half pound baby.

Here is a profile picture ... if you wonder if my back hurts, the answer is "yes, of course!"

We went blueberry picking today! Doesn't everyone go blueberry picking the day before giving birth? We got about 8 pounds of berries before Miles and I gave out. Isn't Miles a sweet little berry picker? I think he probably picked about 14 berries.

Miles got tired when we were on our way home from our Large Outing this afternoon. It's too bad we were in the car and I couldn't really get a good video. He was snoring so loudly. This will have to do.

I had one last lesson to teach this afternoon, so while I was teaching, Jon and Miles went out to find some things for a school project. On their outing, Miles found some sunglasses he couldn't leave the store without.

This is the delicious Dinner of Happiness that Beth made us from some of the blueberries we picked this afternoon! YUM. Miles kept saying (with gusto!) "more treat, please!" There was also a delicious London Broil.

So here we are as a Family of Three for the last time! I can't wait to meet our wonderful little fourth member. Stay tuned for updates tomorrow!

Mama's Big Boy

2010-07-10T15:16:00.000-07:00
Miles looks more and more like a toddler to me these days. Taller, slenderer, and more filled to the brim with adorable personality. I can just smooch and smooch him (because he'll still let me). I can't wait for those of you who are about to visit us to come and spend time with this amazingly wonderful little man.
He's also into some surprisingly Big Boy stuff. We just finished our second round of swimming lessons. TWO entire swimming classes this boy has finished! He had a super fantastic time this summer. Every morning since classes started, he has asked me if we're going to swimming lessons. I hope that he won't be sad on Monday when there are no more lessons. Things should be exciting enough to keep him busy without swimming, though, since Auntie Beth is arriving tonight! I hear she has Big Plans for our boy.

The collection. Miles has now completed TWO levels of swimming lessons! Here are the certificates to prove it!

Independence Day!

2010-07-04T21:38:00.000-07:00

Happy Fourth of July!!

It stays light in Oregon much, much too late for us to think of going to see fireworks with a baby, so we decided to go see a parade this morning instead!
Miles got to see lots of great stuff, including his absolute favorite thing ever: MIXER TRUCKS. There were very tiny horses, big horses, dancing horses, horses that stood on moving trucks, dump trucks, tipper trucks, fire trucks, crazy bikes, shriners on 4-wheelers, mariachis and Mexican dancers ... all the things you might imagine finding in a small town Independence Day parade. Miles had a ton of fun!
Miles got a nice, shiny "Junior Deputy" sticker from someone on a Sherriff's Department float. He's been calling it his "sticky star." He's pretty cute.

Poor Daddy. He worked all night before we got in the car to go see the parade. He was a very good sport, but he just couldn't keep himself awake any longer. Occasionally a big truck would come by and honk its horn and wake him up, but he actually slept through two mariachi bands like this.

***

After the parade (and naps for everyone) we enjoyed cheeseburgers and fries from Burgerville (what's more all-American than cheeseburgers and fries??), a quick trip to the park, and then suddenly it was bedtime. While Miles waited for his tub to fill, Daddy let him play on his bass.

Miles really likes Daddy's bass. It's sort of a pain to move out of the corner, so when he asks to play it, Daddy just usually lifts him up like this and lets him play till he's done. Doesn't he look pleased?

Fun in the (Intermittent) Sun

2010-06-26T23:08:00.000-07:00

We've finally gotten to a part of the year where we have some sun on an almost regular basis. Miles has been taking EVERY opportunity (plus some rainy ones) to ask us to go to the park. Most days, we are happy to oblige!

Recently Miles's nice Daddy decided that Miles needed a playground ball to kick around. They have both been enjoying it equally, I think. Miles really likes to carry it around, and he also seems to enjoy playing the toddler equivalent of fetch.
***

Here's Miles at the playground on a different day. Every trip to the park involves finding a stick and testing out the drummable qualities of various items on the playground. Here he is trying out the ground, a swing, and one of the legs of the swingset.

When we got home, he somehow uncovered the cornerstone of a huge ant colony. There were HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS of ants all over him, so I just peeled him down to his diaper instead of trying to pick them all off. Then he helped me tend my potted tomatoes and basil for a little while. Isn't he sweet?

***

That evening, I heard Miles saying "Hug you Daddy?" and I came around the corner (camera prepared!) to find this super sweet and snugglesome hug.

***

Raspberries are ready early this year! Everything else is late, so I have no idea why we have early raspberries, but I'll take it. Here are the boys picking a bowl of berries together. Later on we mushed them up and ate them on top of vanilla ice cream! Yum!!
***

After coming in from picking berries, Miles saw me making spaghetti sauce. The canned tomatoes I was pouring in made him think of canned green beans, so he got all excited and asked for beans. I opened a can, and he sat there on the floor and kept asking for more until about 2/3 of the can was gone. This boy likes green beans.
***
And this was this morning. Miles was listening to some music and decided he needed this "guitar" to play. I am super excited that he's loving guitars so much recently, because we have a wonderful surprise waiting for him when his new baby brother arrives!!

2010-06-21T17:25:00.001-07:00

A lady at Costco gave Miles this daisy. He says it's a weedwhacker. Vvvvv!

2010-06-18T18:41:00.001-07:00

Miles went to a farm today and helped Mama get strawberries!

2010-06-17T19:43:00.001-07:00

I am trying to figure out how to post from my phone. Bear with me.

Mommy's Technology Fail

2010-06-11T17:09:00.000-07:00
Today is a sad day. Today I tried to download the photos that were sitting on the camera so I could make a long-overdue post, and I somehow managed to delete WEEKS' worth of wonderful pictures of Miles's fun life. At least it was only a few weeks, and not like ... his birth or something. But I still feel awful about it.

Anyway, here are a couple of videos that didn't get devoured.

Here's Miles's awesome improvised cello. We never showed it to him or suggested anything. This is all his idea. Jon just sneaked up and took a little video.
Funny Cello from Margaret Kilzer on Vimeo.

And here he is drumming again. He set this up on his own.

Drumming Again from Margaret Kilzer on Vimeo.
So that's all I have for you today. Little Miles is not feeling well. He's had a fever for 2 days, so we've been taking things very easy. Hopefully I will have some nice pictures and happy news soon.

Catch Up Again.

2010-05-24T18:44:00.000-07:00

So it's been a while, I'm reminded by a certain Auntie. Here are a few pictures that I've had on Facebook but have been to lazy to put here, followed by some Fresh and New pictures from yesterday and today.

Miles got a potty chair recently, and so far it serves as an excellent drum throne.

***

A handsome little blue jeans model.

***

Snuggly, snuggly, cozy reading time with Daddy.

***
And now for the Fresh and New pictures.

Recently when I cook, Miles sets the piano bench up as his own stove. When he's done cooking, he turns his pots and pans over and drums on them. This boy knows how to multitask.

When I got home from Costco today, Miles helped me put away the groceries. First he sat in the bag.

Then he did a little shopping bag yoga.

Then I made some guacamole. It made him say "yummy yummy yummy," and then make this face when there wasn't any more in this mouth.

Jazz Man

2010-05-03T17:28:00.000-07:00
So lately we've discovered that Miles loves jazz. Like ... LOVES jazz. Every time we put something on for him to listen to, he finds and instrument to play along on.

This is a recording of the Benny Green Trio. Miles asked to be put up on the piano bench, and here's what we got.
Miles Loves Benny Green! from Margaret Kilzer on Vimeo.

This is the perfect combination of things: Jazz AND DRUMS!
Miles and Billy from Margaret Kilzer on Vimeo.

Video Bonanza! (And some other things)

2010-05-03T11:44:00.001-07:00

Well I admit I've been a little lazy about getting pictures up. But here's my penance. A bunch of cute pictures AND a bunch of cute videos!

One day while I was teaching lessons, Jon and Miles went outside. When I was done, I found them sitting here so nicely coloring on a big piece of paper together. I love it that there's this nice space for play outside!

A few days ago, we decided Miles should have his very own chair, mostly so he's less jealous of the baby's bouncy chair when that time rolls around. Since we were headed to IKEA anyway, we picked up this nice little Miles-sized chair, and he's really been enjoying it!

Here's more of him enjoying that chair. :)

This one is really sad. Last night we got to meet Uncle Mark and his coworker for Vietnamese food before they drove down to Eugene on a business trip, which was just lovely. While we were eating, though, Miles somehow managed to do a face-plant into the edge of the table. It was a VERY upsetting sound, but smart Uncle Mark had the presence of mind to get ice on it VERY FAST, so it didn't turn out as horribly as it might have. Here is Miles after quite a bit of ice and his evening bath. Nice goose egg, eh?

This is a sweet one of Miles making Chester the bear read a book.
Untitled from Margaret Kilzer on Vimeo.

And here's one of him playing the piano WITH and FOR the bear.
Bear Piano Lessons from Margaret Kilzer on Vimeo.

And here's Miles copying the game that Jon had been playing with him just a little bit earlier. To be clear, Jon was throwing Chester, NOT Miles.
Miles counts and swings his bear from Margaret Kilzer on Vimeo.

I know I promised "lots" of videos, but they're being slow to upload. They will be up later. Promise.

Helpful

2010-04-20T12:52:00.000-07:00

Miles has had a sick Mommy for the past few days. Today he and Jon went to our usual Tuesday morning play gym by themselves, and Jon handed him to me while he finished up making them some lunch (I'm still definitely NOT ready for lunch, or even being in the same room with lunch). This is how Miles helped me with my recuperation effort. It's been a really long time since my big, busy boy has snuggled and slept with me like this!

Nude Dude

2010-04-12T21:07:00.001-07:00

Warning! Naked baby! Shield your eyes from all the cuteness!

A little naked car-riding.

Do these socks go with my outfit?

Weekendy Stuff

2010-04-11T16:40:00.000-07:00

Perhaps I should have draped a tarp on the boy and the floor before giving him two crumbly muffins to eat ...

Here are the boys all strapped in and ready to go grocery shopping.

And here they are on their way!
Kilzer Boys on Bike from Margaret Kilzer on Vimeo.

Little Gryffindor

2010-04-10T14:56:00.000-07:00

This is a little sweater I made for Miles when Jon was having his heart surgery. He's finally big enough for it now, and I think it looks quite snappy on him! It's hard to imagine that I had him in that cozy wool sweater this very morning, since it is nearly 70 degrees this afternoon and we have just been pulling weeds in the front yard. Ahh spring, with your fickleness!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T17:17:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter, everyone! Miles got some exciting Duplo blocks from a family a church who was done with theirs. He has been delightedly playing with them.

Here's Miles dressed up for church on Easter morning. We pretended it wasn't 45 degrees and windy and wet and cold!

Oddly, this was the best picture I could get of the Daddy and the boy. Now that Miles can walk, being asked to be still for a picture is just right out!

Miles loves prune buns!

Mmmmmmm.

So if you're wondering what prune buns are, they're a lightly sweet roll filled with stewed prunes. It is far more delicious than it sounds. It's an Easter tradition of one of my friends from college that is too delicious not to carry on! Miles agrees wholeheartedly. I am just ... NOT thinking about the diapers that will come of this. It's Easter. We will enjoy our delicious prune buns!

A Moment of Not Rain

2010-03-31T17:33:00.000-07:00

I don't remember what day it started raining, but today was the first day it hasn't rained in ... quite a while. We took this opportunity to do a little bit of outside work. Miles helped by keeping himself happily entertained in the yard.

Admiring the purple flowers. I need to get more of these, because the ones by the mailbox BAKED last summer when it was so hot.

Miles really doesn't like getting his hands dirty, so crawling in mud is less than desirable. He prefers to scoot.

A funny face. There was a big truck across the street.

Miles says "A plane!" I'm not sure he really saw a plane through the dense cloud cover, but he was excited, anyway.

A big "thank you" to the makers of Spray'n'Wash!!

Needless to say, all these clothes came OFF before the baby got into the house. He is now happy and clean and dry.

Little Stuff

2010-03-28T17:34:00.000-07:00

We haven't really been up to a whole lot out of the usual lately. Miles has just been tootling around, enjoying the life of someone as cheerful and fun as he is.

Every little boy has to try on his Daddy's shoes sometimes. They're still a little big for him.

There are three of Miles's favorite things at work here: taking all the shoes off the shoe rack, stacking, and playing drums!

This artful arrangement of drums was brought to you by Miles. I just took the picture.

Daddy's Birthday!

2010-03-18T19:11:00.001-07:00

Today is Jon's birthday, and here concludeth the 19 days per year that Jon can make fun of me for being a cradle-robber. I made some nice yellow-cake cupcakes with chocolate ganache icing, sprinkles, and a fresh raspberry on top of each one. This is VERY fancy for my standards.

Jon liked them.

Really, we all did. We went out for sushi, then came home and shared some cupcakes. In all, a successful birthday!

Such a Big Boy!!

2010-03-17T09:00:00.000-07:00
Look what my Big Boy can do suddenly!!

Steps! from Margaret Kilzer on Vimeo.

Just Some Cute Stuff

2010-03-12T16:15:00.000-08:00

Several people have asked me if Miles's hair is still curly even after his haircut. Yep! Still curly!

These two boys were just resting quietly together yesterday evening while I made dinner. Aren't they sweet?

I just now turned my head to the right to find Miles playing with the shoe rack (a personal favorite of his) while wearing his bike helmet backwards. I guess he's ready to go somewhere.

Heart Update (and some pictures of course)

2010-03-02T21:47:00.001-08:00

First, the update. Today we drove out to Beaverton to have a special sonographer and a perinatologist have a look at the Little Guy's heart. Everything looks fine and normal! Yay!

And now the pictures:

Miles gets himself into his stroller ... sort of.

Just a nice playing action shot.

Miles took this picture.

Look! No hands!!

A hug for Mama.

Miles Recites His Favorite Book

2010-02-26T09:02:00.000-08:00

Miles really loves "Moo Baa Lalala" by Sandra Boynton. Here he is helping me recite it. Aren't his "L" sounds nice and clear?

Moo Baa Lalala from Margaret Kilzer on Vimeo.

Today's Big News

2010-02-23T17:58:00.001-08:00

For those of you who didn't get the news this morning, we had our 20-week ultrasound today. The big news is that Miles is getting a BABY BROTHER in July!!! Hooray for a pair of boys to run amok and get in the mud together!

See?

Here are the rest of the pictures. Of course they're ultrasound pictures, so kind of hard to see I guess. This baby is squirmy, so it was pretty hard for the ultrasound tech to get good pictures of him!

Feet above his head

A little hand up beside his face

With his hand a little closer to his face, in a fist

Sweet little feet!

Scary Skeletor face! I think he will look better in person. :)

So that's it! I was so excited for today that I only slept about 3 hours and 45 minutes last night. Here's hoping I can do better tonight while I'm dreaming of what life will be like with two wonderful little boys. Grow baby grow! We just can't wait to meet you!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-15T08:40:00.000-08:00
One of Miles's most favorite things in the world is an Irish bodhran (that's the drum he's banging on there). Every single day, he asks his daddy to get it down, and he goes to find the little blunt sticks he's allowed to use with it.

You can see in the above picture that he's up on his knees to reach the drum the way Jon is holding it ... And then below, he's starting to actually stand up a bit in order to reach it a little better. This is pretty exciting, because until now, Miles has been really uninterested in standing up at all.

Standing to Drum from Margaret Kilzer on Vimeo.

***

After drumming, I got a visit from my sweet little Valentine. Do you like his shirt? The picture below is disappointingly blurry, but he has such a sweet look on his face that I couldn't not post it.

***

We didn't do a whole lot to celebrate Valentine's Day. Jon did the dishes the night before so we could wake up to a clean kitchen, and he bought me a new salt shaker (I asked for it) and some ice cream. I made a nice dinner, then we dug into the ice cream. I decided that ice cream was a good first way to let him use his spoon unassisted. He actually did a really good job! Ice cream is quite the motivating substance!