Miles Brown Royal is seven months old!

Wow, seven months has gone so quickly (unfortunately, I'm so far behind on blogging that another month has almost past). Miles shared his day with the celebration of Grandma's day, but I wanted to do another post special for him. Look at this guy, could he be any cuter? Love this baby!

Miles has been sick a little this month, which has been really difficult for him and it has put a strain on his ability to sleep through the night, but it seems that he is starting to bounce back to normal. He hardly ever cries any more, so I know that if he is crying, he really needs something.

In addition to being sick, after teething for what seems like FOREVER, he cut his first two teeth this month, the second a week after the first. I can't ever catch his smile big enough to show them in a picture, but soon enough the teeth will be long enough to see.

He and his big brother were both diagnosed with Eczema in the last couple of weeks. Miles has his right around his mouth and the doctor says we just have to moisturize it like crazy. So far, it doesn't really seem to be helping. Oliver has it on his hand and the doctor was able to prescribe some creme for it which cleared it up within a few days, but it can't be used so close to Miles mouth. Poor baby, sometimes it looks so painful!

Miles REALLY wants to crawl as you may have seen in the videos I've posted recently, but I have been postponing him in hopes of getting our carpet cleaned soon. It seems that I may have waited too long though as now, I can barely keep him on a blanket. Soon baby, I promise!

we have a picture almost exactly like this of Oliver at this age and we called him the ring baby, very fitting! :)

The best part of making frosting...

...is licking the beater!

Oliver's Grandma celebrated her birthday recently, so Oliver wanted to make a cake for her. He LOVED licking the creme cheese frosting off the beater. I still remember licking the beaters whenever we made the cake, but I would never let Oliver do that but secretly I think that is the best part of the cake! :) The frosting must have put Oliver on a high, because later that day, I was getting all sorts of crazy smiles. See Exhibits a, b and c below:

relaxing with Grandma before cake, my baby was sooo tired, he was an hour past his bedtime here.

Helping Grandma blow out the candles. Happy Birthday Grandma! I just want to say how proud I am of my little guy on his cake decorating skills. He wanted to make her a chocolate cake with pink frosting. He helped me make the cake and the frosting, then he frosted the cake and then spaced out the m&m's perfectly. I don't think I could have done a better job!

Miles is into touching peoples noses (I still remember this stage of Oliver's -- so sweet)

I think he might have really thought Grandpa had his nose. Look at that face! :)

Just like my brother...

Oliver and Miles in Oliver's crib

Miles has had a fascination with Oliver's sippy cups since he was very, very young. Sometimes I let him use an empty one to be just like his big brother.

Oliver was sitting in this big chair looking at a book today so peacefully while I put Miles down for a nap, I asked him if he'd stay that way while I grabbed my camera, but he preferred I have a picture of the garbage truck too. Can't believe how big this guy is!

Oliver showing Miles how it's done

Since Miles LOVED Oliver's car so much the other day, I decided to get Oliver's car he got for his second Christmas (when he was 14 months old) out of the closet. It was an instant hit!

I just loved this picture of Oliver showing Miles about the car

It seems like Miles is growing up so much faster than Oliver did, or maybe with two I just have a sense of how quickly these early days seem to pass. Sigh. These two loved riding around our house. Oliver had to be in front otherwise Miles would just about fall out of the car trying to see him. These two boys are so much fun! :)

Miles is getting ready to crawl!

Here is another video of Miles. This time he is getting up on his little feet to push himself forward. I won't be able to keep him on a blanket for much longer! :)

Oliver Clayton Royal is fifty-one months old!

It is my big guys monthly birthday today, but I wanted to get his hair cut before taking his picture and I never did actually take his monthly pictures so this is going to have to be the one, I took it on the 16th instead of the 17 so it is VERY close. We love you OLIVER!

I did however take some pictures of his little brother. Clayton had the day off so he took Oliver to gymnastics this morning while I stayed home with Miles. Miles and I sat next to Oliver's car while he was having his morning bottle and he couldn't stop looking at it. So since big brother wasn't here to object, I let Miles try it out and can I just say he was a natural??? :)

He loved it and I just loved this last one of him hanging his hand out the window. Looks like something his Grandpas would do! :)

Here he is trying a Rice Rusk (from Santa) for the first time.

He really liked it even though the expression on his face doesn't quite show it.

Above you'll find Miles current mode of locomotion when these videos were taken 1/17/11. He would roll, bend, stretch to get where he wanted and it worked too!

And here is part two of the same video where he actually gets the toy! :)

How cute are these two??

Oliver's green thumb

You thought I was going to post a picture of his literal green thumb, didn't you? Nope. Oliver received this grass pot in his stocking for Christmas. He planted it and left it in a sunny place, he has been watering it nearly every day, and a few days ago it sprouted. It is really taking off now. Go Oliver!

Miles wants something...

It's easy to tell when Miles want something, he doesn't cry or whine or anything like that...he just gets really excited and he moves his hands around like crazy. Watch the video below, you'll see what I mean. It is so cute!

The fort

So what do you do when it's too cold to go out and you have an entire house full of toys, but you have nothing to do?

I say let's build a fort! :)

Miles was so patient and even though he wasn't feeling very well, he watched us build the fort from right here in his exersaucer

Oliver's first time in the pillow, cushion, blanket fort

He looks like he just conquered it!

Miles got to come in the finished fort too

I only imagine we will have many more of these forts in our home in the years to come!

The last time and I miss it already!

When Oliver was a baby, I would spend hours rocking him in his room just to get him to go back to sleep and I loved it (most of the time). With Miles, I really haven't had to spend more than a half-hour nursing him in his room to get him to go back to sleep since we did sleep training. So when Miles woke up because he wasn't feeling well early this morning, I tried to get him to nurse back to sleep but he wasn't interested in that at all. I didn't want to leave him awake just lying there as I usually do since he was sick, so I brought him back to my bed to snuggle with me. He fell asleep next to me for two hours and it was so sweet! I LOVE this picture, I just want to snuggle him. I can say it was the last time because I'm so far behind on blogging and he hasn't fallen asleep in my bed since because even though I co-slept with both of our children when they were infants and nursing in the night, I know they sleep better in their own beds so I no longer bring Miles back to my bed in the mornings.

Both of my children are so happy in the mornings and they love spending time together!

Our first snow storm this winter 1/9/11

So we received our first major snow storm last night and this morning, and guess who wanted to go play in it??? Little Oliver was SO excited, and Miles was sick so I needed to stay inside with him and Daddy was sick so he wanted to stay inside so Oliver had to stay inside on Friday and Saturday and enjoy the snow from inside. But when Sunday came and the snow was still there, he couldn't wait any longer. Have I mentioned how lucky my children are to have Clayton for a Daddy, well here is just another example: Clayton was very sick and he got all bundled up and took the little guy outside of a couple of hours and Oliver LOVED it. Clayton said it reminded him that he does not like the cold. You can find pictures of a very happy little guy in the snow below: