June in a nutshell!

I feel like every blog post starts with “so it’s been awhile since I blogged…” – so I won’t do that this time. (Even though it has.)

I’ll just start by asking if it is absolutely nuts-o that July will be here next week? What the crap? Where did June go? We’ve been busy!

Milo has now taken SIX trips on an airplane – three to Texas and three to Florida. Most of which require four takeoffs and four landings, since you have to connect everywhere when flying from Asheville. Too bad this tiny traveler can’t rack up some frequent flyer miles!

 Since we last blogged, Milo’s been:

• Visited by Grandma Jan, Grandpa Bill, Aunt Carol and Uncle Fred
• To San Antonio celebrate the short life of Baby Kate. He got to be the only dude at Girls' Weekend and thought it was pretty sweet.
• On a major bike ride/nap for Mother’s Day
• To three breweries. His total count is seven!
• To Dallas for cousin Shannon’s graduation from Baylor School of Nursing
• To the beach! (Charleston, SC/Isle of Palms)
• To Tampa on a last minute Dad’s-out-of-town-for-work-so-why-not trip
• Swimming for the first time! And on his first boat ride!
• To his first Hip Hop (“Kid Hop”) concert
• To a handful of Jr. League meetings with Mom
• To the Audiologist for his first “booth”/behavioral hearing test (better luck next time!)
• To lots of playdates
• To Charlotte to visit the Taliaferros
• To lots of Jazzercise classes
• Back to Dallas to see cousin Molly, Aunt Nicole, Uncle Gregg and Grandma & Grandpa

And it’s certainly a good thing Milo-man is OK with being busy. Come to think of it, we didn’t really give him a choice!

Needless to say, we’re ready to slow down and stay put for awhile. Asheville is an amazing place to be during the summer. It’s warm but not too hot and there is a lot to do! Hint, hint: come see us!!

Oh yeah, and Marc and I celebrated five years of marriage! (But now that Milo’s here, no one cares about us, right?)

Back to Milo.

He’s also growing like a weed and learning new things every week! He’s been sitting up unassisted for about a month, and he’s thisclose to crawling. And I caught him standing in his crib today. Guess it’s time to drop the mattress. He’s finally figured out the Johnny Jump Up and can bounce for hours. Well, not hours exactly. But you know what I mean. He’s eating some solids every day and LOVES puffs (aka: baby crack).

He’s laughing and babbling and overall the happiest little boy. We completely won the lottery by getting this kiddo! It’s clearly not our parenting. Our technique tends to be bumble-around-and-figure-it-out-as-best-we-can. 

Anywho, these pics are way more enjoyable than anything I could write. So… enjoy! 

With GREAT Aunt Carol at Tupelo Honey Cafe in downtown Asheville

 

Caught sleeping on the job! Daddy was less than thrilled.

Celebrating Shannon's BSN in Dallas!

Atop Mount Mitchell during the Mottingers' visit.

Grandpa installed a swing on the patio and Milo loves it!

The graduate and her cousin!

Milo and Grandma Judy!

You guessed it - Milo @ 7 months!

Taking time to chill at the beach.

Another visit to Granny in Florida, another ride on her Rascal.

Milo & Molly (sounds like a TV show, doncha think?)

All the Mott & Song kiddos. Aren't they cute?

A less than perfect pic. It captures 99% of that photo shoot!

On the boat with cousins Savanah and Collin.

Just an ordinary afternoon at the Bywater. In a Team USA onesie. Swinging around the pole.

Kash & Lola: the standoff. (Lola won.)

USA! USA! USA!

This little stinker got caught!

Time is flying by!

Checking himself out at the gym in our building.

Milo visits Daddy at work!

Cheering on the US Men's soccer team while chewing on a hearing aid. This kid is talented!

Milo heads to Norfolk!

Back in April (what?! I clearly have some catching up to do!) we took Milo on his first road trip to see Uncle Gregg, Aunt Nicole and cousin Molly! This was only their second time to meet, the first being back in November or December, when they were just babies! We had a ton of fun enjoying the kiddos. Boy things have changed, though!

He did amazing in the car, sleeping from door-to-door on the way there. We left at his bedtime (and arrived in the middle of the night!), which turned out to be a successful travel tactic for us! 

I'm incredibly lucky to have such an amazing sister-in-law! We were blessed to get to experience pregnancy at the same time, and the milestones continue! Milo and Molly are only nine weeks apart - so I've got a great resource for all the "what's next?" questions that I have.

Here are a few pics from our trip! We hired a photographer for some Mother's Day pics for Grandma Jan - those are included at the bottom. I've wanted to share them for awhile, but we couldn't ruin the surprise!

Aunt  NiNi and Uncle G with Milo!

Headed to the Norfolk Zoo with the Burtons!

Fun at the Zoo!

Talking soccer, I'm sure.

Cousin love!

Smooches for Aunt NiNi!

Lovin' on Miss Molly!

Don't we look good with TWO babies?? :-)

The first of many hair pulls, I'm certain. I can just hear her in three years "will you tell Milo to leave me alone?"

Kissing cousins!

Playing airplane with our Daddies!

Mommas' turn!

My favorite picture from the day. You can't tell here, but it was preeeeetty frigid that day...

More blog posts coming soon - we've been busy!!

Jaime

West Palm Beach Baby!

Jeez Louise time sure is passing quickly! My goal was to blog once a week, and here it's been almost three weeks since my last post. Oopsie. 

I learned the hard way a few weeks ago that I am not cut out for single parenting. Marc had a "work" [ski/snowboard] trip to Breckenridge mid-March, and it was just me and Milo (and the nanny, on workdays) for five. whole. days. It may not sound like a lot to you - it didn't to me either - but whoa. Thanks to some amazing girlfriends for the dinners, for the wine, for checking in with me and for getting me out of the house! I maintained my sanity because of you!

So when Marc had another "work" [golf] trip to West Palm Beach - on my birthday, no less - we decided that Milo and I should probably just tag along. Clearly the right thing to do. Marc had work obligations, and I still had work to do, but the appeal of doing it from sunny Florida was overwhelming. So we did! And it was awesome. (Side note: "vacationing" with a 5 month old is waaaay different than vacationing without, but that's another story for another day. I consumed more room service meals than I'd rather admit.) After the cold,cold winter we've had in Asheville, we totally deserved this time in the sun!

Here are some pics from our trip! Milo LOVES being outdoors, and he was [mostly] as happy as a clam! It's absolutely crazy how much I love this kid!

Milo did SO great on the flights. Well, 3 of the 4 of them. Luckily the ones where I had him by myself, he was a superstar. Marc flew back with us on Sunday, and let's just say one of those was rough. We didn't make any friends on that flight. 

A few people have asked how his hearing aids affect him while flying (pressure, popping, etc). In a word [or two]: it doesn't! This was his 3rd trip via plane and the pressure hasn't seemed to have affected him at all! Fingers crossed it stays that way - we have a few trips coming up this summer.

At Guanabanas in Jupiter! Thanks for the recommendation, Miss Caley!

Lots of Momma & Milo selfies!

Lounging at the pool is exhausting! What a life.

Being silly in the hotel room.

Headed downstairs to meet some of Daddy's co-workers.

Toldya there were lots of selfies. I can't seem to help myself. This kid can help brighten even the most un-photogenic subjects!

Loved when Daddy finally got to come play!

Lover of beer. He is his parents' child, after all.

The pool was still waaaay too cold, so we dipped our feet in. Can't wait to go swimming for real!

This kid loves the wind on his face! He also made more than a couple of girlfriends while poolside.

Always taking time to smell [eat] the roses.

Baby's first trip to the beach!

Milo loooves his Daddy!

Mott Family selfie!

Where we stayed. Marc played 36 holes in one day. What?

Testing out Mom's sunglasses.

We traveled with the big boy car seat!

Milo has also been SUPER interested in food, so we decided that this vacation would be a fun chance to give it a go. I'll post the videos soon - they're pretty hysterical. Let's just say we were not successful, and mission: find some food Milo likes has commenced.

This past weekend, we packed up and drove to Norfolk to visit Aunt NiNi, Uncle G and Cousin Molly. Don't you worry, I've got LOTS of pics of that trip to come in my next post. 

Hope you have an awesome Monday! 

'Cause I'm Happppppy!

Just wanted to show how we start each day! He really is this happy every single morning.

Happy Friday! Hope you have an awesome weekend!

Springing Forward!

We've been asked by a ton of people how Milo was doing with his new ears. First of all - thanks for asking! My response, always is: incredible! It's so amazing, in fact, that we don't really even remember they're there most of the time! For real.

Looking back to previous posts, we clearly assumed that this diagnosis was going to bring our lives to a screeching halt. It felt much as if our boy was "broken." This would define who he was.

That couldn't be further from the truth!

Our Milo-man is most definitely NOT broken! He's lively and happy and smiley [most of the time]. His face lights up when Marc gets home from work. He's learning new things each and every day, and these little machines on his ears are simply tools to make that happen.

We got new ear molds last week (set #3 in case you're keeping track!) and they fit so well that we don't even need the pilot caps all the time! We're hoping that letting his head get some air will stimulate some hair growth. :-)

I mean, look at this FACE! C'mon. Seriously?



And meanwhile... we've been busy!

The first weekend in March we took a road trip to Charlotte, where we visited the Taliaferro family. Marc and Justin worked together in Dallas, and Kortney and I lived in the same apartment building (and most importantly - we're all Aggies! Except for Marc, who is luckily an Aggie by marriage). They recently moved from Ohio to North Carolina (and clearly brought the cold weather/snow with them!) They're youngest son, Kohen, was born two days before Milo! And Kash, who's 2 1/2, is a ball of energy and so adorable. They live in a beautiful home in an awesome community, and we had a blast. We're looking forward to seeing them more often!



|And the weekend after that, we headed to Atlanta to visit the Songs and their newest addition, Tommy! Tommy was 5 weeks old and the cutest squishy lil guy you've ever seen. They also have a 16 month old daughter, Grace, who was ever the entertainer with all her tricks! Grace, turn in a circle! Grace, what does Daddy say? "Noooo" Good friends, some delicious meals and a trip to CostCo. (Where I purchased a 1.5 liter tub of my latest obsession - coconut oil. I'll save that for another post.) What more could we want or need?



We also got to meet Carson (and his mom Emily) this week. Carson has hearing loss like Milo, and is almost exactly a month younger. It was great to get together and chat about our experiences thus far. As I've mentioned before, it's incredibly helpful to talk to someone who knows exactly what you're going through.


Milo also got to have a mini playdate with Jacks (while the ladies had some wine and got caught-up!). It's so much fun to see the kiddos interact! Not sure what we'd do without the awesome friends we've made in Avl. It truly does make being so far away from family a little more bearable.


Luckily we stayed put in Asheville this past weekend. It was absolutely gorgeous. Picture perfect. This-is-why-we-moved-to-Asheville type weather. Let's be honest. We're not really "hiking" people, or "camping people." But we needed to be outside. So we walked to the park for a picnic (and some cocktails) and were joined by our friends Lauren, James and Everett (and Baby boy #2 who'll join 'em in July!). It would've truly been a sin to stay indoors this weekend.



Since you've read this far, you've clearly got some time on your hands - so I'm going to ask you for a big favor, one that will only take a second. One of my best friends in the universe gave birth last week to her baby girl, Kate. She was 6 weeks early and is in the NICU in San Antonio. She's improving every day, but can still use your help. If you'll say a quick prayer or offer some well wishes for her speedy full recovery, I'd appreciate it. This is such an amazing little girl, born on a special day to a remarkable woman. We can use all the help we can get.



We're staying put for the next few weeks, and it's business as usual: work, gym, friends, good food, wine, and lots and lots of Milo. (I plan on repeating this sentence often.)

Have a fantastic week!