What a difference a year makes

This time last year I was in the hospital, in premature labor, trying to keep little Myles in. This year, a much more joyous time. Mark's birthday last year was the worst, they let me out of the hospital and he became the sole everything for the next 3 months while I was on strict bedrest. I'm going to make tomorrow a great birthday for Mark. Shakey's Pizza and 2 basketball games with no interruptions.

Myles has taken to making funny little faces all the time now. He puts on his stink face every time that he's sitting on one of his cars. You can't open his mouth anymore forcibly, so it's hard to check his teeth to see what's going on in there. His sleep has been severely disrupted for the past 3 days and yesterday he would only sleep when being held. The second Mark would put him down, he'd wake up crying, so it's obvious that lots of teething is occuring. I finally got some photos with the help of Mark of his tooth situation. He's making the stink face in every one of them, so don't expect cute photos:

He's got his 4 old teeth, plus the two on the top sides just broke through last night. You'll see that the two farthest ones on top are also tightly outlined and poised to break through soon. So we're up to 6 teeth, soon to be 8. Still not a lot of interest in food, but lots of interest in anything forbidden. So he wants to steal your food if you make it seem like you don't want him to have it. Were you to actually TRY and feed it to him, he'd clench his mouth and fight you all the way.

Lately, I happen to be eating a banana while he's on my lap a lot - or so he thinks. I intentionally eat a banana in front of him, he leans in and takes a bite, although he's not quite sure what to do with it after that. He's also taken to the Gerber wagon wheel puffs. You can give him one of thoses outright and he'll eat it while walking in his walker. He ate one of the tiny puffs yesterday, but that was a fluke. Normally, you put them in his snack tray and he plays with them, but doesn't eat them.

He's enjoying his new Christmas toys. He also dug his knees in pretty well yesterday while crawling. He still won't get up high on his knees, but he's getting closer. He'll probably crawl for

a month or 2 before he's walking.

I got a stomach virus the day before Xmas, so I've been housebound and I'm about to go stir crazy. Also, it's become quite apparent that movies with Myles are almost a thing of the past. He's way too happy and talkative, so I'm probably relegated to te Monday Morning Mommy Matinees only. Tried to go to a 1pm movie with Darcy the other day and he was so NOT going to sleep and so talkative that I just went and got my money back and returned home.

News break: Table food!

Today, he ate some mushy pasta noodles from my chicken noodle soup! Of course, he made the gross-yuck face for the first bite, but he leaned in for more thereafter until I was out of noodles. I had to feed him sitting on my lap with a mat underneath us, into which he ground the first noodle I made the mistake of handing him. Well, the 2nd one. The first I let Max come rescue before he could mash it into the mat. But the 2nd one, he mashed right into the fiber of the mat. After that, I only let him eat off the spoon, which he seemed to like well enough even though it was a super-oversized metal adult spoon.

It's a new year, it's a new blog. Welcome!

It's a new year, and my bun has been out of the oven for 9 months now. I figure it's time to retire that moniker and start afresh. So now it's Mommying Myles, although I foresee issues with that in the future when my next bun comes out of the oven. Oh well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Ideally, that bun would be ready in early 2011. Maybe a nice Capricorn baby. But who knows, we might end up with a late 2010 baby after all.

Regardless, I'm going to have small 2 kids, close in age, which some people fear, but I welcome. I've waited my whole life to have kids. Bring 'em on. There is a finite amount of time that one can do it, so it's about time. I've enjoyed this year immensely. Of course I haven't gotten much done for me, but that's how it goes. Proper motherhood requires a certain amount of sacrifice. And this doesn't last forever. Babies are not small for long. 2 years out an at-home childhood of 18 years is pretty fleeting. This is what I tell myself when I'm about to scream when I'm trapped at home or unable to go someplace I used to be able to go.

I think I am now at the end of the able-to-take-the-baby-to-the-movie phase. He used to go and fall asleep or watch quietly. Now he's a rowdy boy and doesn't want to sit still or miss out on anything. So back to Mommy Matinees on Mondays.

Have a happy new year!