Anyway, I thought I’d do “Toy Story” with Myles instead of cars like Qade. While the boy loves his trucks and cars, he’s a huge Toy Story fan, so this works for his 3 yr old pics.

I can’t decide if I like the big grin or the quieter happy face better. He’s just so stinkin’ cute!

The big 3. I have plans to do number poses with them till 5 at least, but since I have the numbers, I may just do them till they decide to move out so mom can’t take their photos any more.

I liked this one because it was a serious moment when he wasn’t really expecting me to snap one.

Gotta love his favorite Scooby Doo’s as he calls his crocs.

Happy boy!

I love this expression!!

Yeah, he’s a little bit silly, and I love him to bits!!

Anyway, it worked out for us to head to Colorado and have the party right on Myles birthday! How often does that happen? We woke up about 2am the morning of and saw fluffy white snowflakes falling, and sure enough in the morning was a beautiful blanket of snow. That was exciting and it took a lot of talking to convince the boys that we didn’t bring gloves/boots/scarves and such to go roll around in it. It was gone by noon so we were able to do some of the partying outside, like piñata. That is NOT an indoor activity, oh no.

Tiffany’s MIL made an amazing cake that was Peter Pan themed. The party had a Pan/Pirate theme and it was fun, but this cake was awesome!! The boys spent some time just gazing at it when it arrived. Myles had his own personal piece with a treasure chest on it and actual edible treasure! It was cool!

Captain Hook came to visit the party and promptly scared Myles to death. The voice might sound a bit like Popeye, but it certainly didn’t LOOK like him. Ha ha!

It took a bit of convincing, but finally Myles warmed up to him a little.

Candles!! Three for my big boy!

The cake was delicious too! As you can see. (On a side note, I made those little “Pan” hats, but I can’t really take credit, Tiffany came up with the idea, I just followed her instructions.)

Piñata time!! Woo hoo!! Myles wasn’t quite sure what to do with it at first. This was a “built FORD tough” kind of piñata as well, and we were all surprised just how long it held up to the beatings of all the kids.

Qade taking a whack at it.

Like ants on a picnic!

Myles and his “loot”

He was very spoiled on his big day! Thanks to everyone who got him gifts!! He has had a blast playing with them all. Thanks Ina for finding the elusive Tonka Truck as well! He loves all the stuff he got.

Us and our birthday boy! He’s resigned himself to being “Free” instead of four for now.

I have a zillion more pictures of his party, and I’m going to post some in the upcoming days. I just can’t not post some of the “game faces” I caught at the piñata and such.

Thanks again Tiff for making it such a wonderful party! Oh, and I have to get the recipe or whatever for the drink with fruit and berries in it that you made. Yum!! Thanks to my amazing MIL, Ina, for the awesome Navajo Tacos she made. I love those!! It was a great party, and the boys had such a good time, and so did we. Ella basically slept through the whole thing, but I think that was best.

I think this will be our wall portrait. He’s so handsome!!

A typical Myles moment! He was getting bored with me messing with lights and things. Ha ha!

Silly boy!

What would you call this expression exactly??

Another Myles moment. I still think it’s so cute how he uses both hands when sucking his thumb. He’s done this since the first day he discovered his thumbs!

Honestly can’t believe how big our littlest buddy is already! Wow!

Just wanna squeeze him! He doesn’t really like to “cuddle” though. Maybe I’ll just tickle him instead!

Enjoying everyone singing “Happy Birtday” to him. Through the day we’d spontaneously tell him happy birthday, and he’d always reply Happy Birthday back.

Passing out HIS gifts to the other kids present.

Carefully opening the gifts. He was a little upset when he’d get the paper off and they were still in the package because he wanted to play with them NOW!!

Giving Daddy the wrapping to throw away.

Excited about the tool box!

That goes with his tool bench!! I think Stu and I were more excited about this gift than the lads will ever be.

We had him “close his eyes” to bring out his little car from the Grandparents Noggle. Qade helped bring it out, he was very excited that “Myles will share his car with me.” Ha!

I think he likes it!

Qade gave Myles his first ride in the car. (Reminds me of Mike Wazowsky from Monster’s Inc. for some reason!)

Cutie patuti 2 year old!

We did cake after the yummy Navajo taco dinner Grandma Noggle made for us! Notice the HUGE gulp of air ready to blow out those 2 candles.

It still took several blows and a little spit to get them both out!

The cake was a hit! Especially the edible confetti all over the top.

Ever since he was itty bitty and started to sit up on his own (after 7 mo or so, he wasn’t motivated at all before that!) we noticed that his “core” was very strong and that he had extremely good balance! Stu would carry him on his shoulders and the boy NEVER would hang on with his hands. He simply balanced his little self on his perch and looked around like he owned the world. Ha! When Qade was that age, he always had 2 hands full of Daddy’s hair as he “rode” up high!

Myles has been climbing things quite well since before this summer. Started out innocently enough with some small chairs/tables/furniture in our house. I remember him being SO frustrated when he couldn’t quite climb onto the couch to follow his big brother. Then the day he finally made it onto the coffee table all by himself, he was so proud!

Stairs and a gate… starts out normal enough, but who could tell where it would lead!

Trying to climb the play house. These photos are all before he was one or walking.

Rock climbing!

Yay, he made it onto brother’s big-boy bed!! Woo-hoo!!

Found him in this wobbly chair which he had climbed into all by himself. He couldn’t figure out how to get down, but he thought he was big stuff for getting in there!

Once he did turn one, the climbing continued to get more aggressive! He doesn’t have even the slightest fear of heights!

Climbing park equipment. This was before he was walking on his own.

More park climbing! Qade was walking very tentatively over this stuff. I think it was because you could see through it too the ground, but Myles was having a blast!

One of Myles favorite perches. My computer desk stool. He especially loves to sit here when they watch one of their “shows.” Ha! Personally I find the couch much more comfy!

This is not very high, but just goes to show that if it looks like it can be climbed, he is going to climb it! This was our picnic at Big Lake this summer!

And another climbable rock!

As soon as we got the play set, he was scrambling up the ladder and hanging from the top part. It humored me, but frightened others who aren’t used to such a young monkey. That boy’s arms are amazing! His dad hoists him up to the pull-up bar and Myles will pull himself up complete with tucked up legs! I just can’t believe how sturdy he is!!

Of course he has had his casualties as his poor little face can attest. The splinter incident was awful!! Then the head gash and ER incident was also less than fun. His little arms and legs generally have little scratches or bruises where his “boyness” shows through. Despite all of that though, it hasn’t dampened his love for climbing! This weekend I took some shots of him climbing a juniper tree near our house. Both boys love to climb in it, but Qade is generally content to stay close to the trunk of the tree and the ground. Not so our little monkey!

Here he is just starting out. And yes, he did ALL of this all by himself!

Scoping out a higher route! He’s quite confident he can do it!

A little stretch here, a little grab there…

Taking his climb very seriously.

Check out the spiderman moves!

Loving the view! While he picks the juniper berries to throw at Mommy.

And lest you worry, Daddy was there spotting the whole time! We do have a monkey, and he does do well on his own, but even though it seems like he’s not just one, we remember that he still is!

Toodle-oo

One thing that he figured out way early (in my opinion) was climbing out of his bed. I know I mentioned that he did that this summer at camp. I should have been more prepared for it to happen because from the time he finally decided to get moving he has been a little monkey trying in every way to keep up with his big bro. His upper body strength is amazing!! Stuart has a pull-up bar that fits in a doorway and he’ll hoist Myles up to it and that little lad will actually do pull ups!!! Oh, and can I just tell you that I am SO jealous of that kid’s abs!! He’s the strongest little guy! Built Ford tough too! He’s like a cannonball! If I’m squatted down to “kid level” to play with them it’s not uncommon for him to completely knock me over! Tough little dude! So all of that to say that since the baby beds weren’t really working anymore we transitioned him to a “big boy bed” about a month ago. He and Qade now have matching beds! It’s cute, though it took me back a few times at first when I’d walk in and see those beds. My “baby” really is gone.

Now I had a feeling that Myles might have a few rough nights learning to sleep-still in that bed. He seems to be an all over sleeper, and sure enough there were a couple of nights when I heard a distinct plop followed by a wail. Poor guy! He recovers quickly though, but one night he had fallen off on the wall side and when I came into his room he was crying, “Stuck!!!” Ha ha ha!! Had to smile over that one! After that I moved his bed completely against the wall so he only has one way to possibly fall off. He did the next night, but the crying stopped almost right away, and when Stu went in to check on him he had just put himself back to bed! Awwww, what a big boy!

We finally have a playset outside with swings and a slide for the kids to release their energy on. Myles was ready to get at it before we even had it ready! He monkeyed right up the ladders and would “hang” from the beam across the top. He’ll pick up his legs and just swing there, looking ever so much like…. a monkey! The slide tends to be a little fast and if he goes down on his bottom he’ll just kind of shoot off the end, which is terribly funny to watch, but he doesn’t like it that much. So he devised a new way for going down on his tummy! Qade has gone down the slide a few times, but our little OCD child prefers to feel in control so it might take him awhile to really enjoy the slide. Myles however has decided it’s the best and he’ll go up and down and up and down. I enjoy watching.

Myles’ vocab is coming along very well too. He’s saying actual phrases now which is helpful. We had a couple/few weeks of frustration in there when he was trying to communicate to us, but we couldn’t “get it.” Stuart would work with him on saying words because he commented, “He doesn’t know how to say more than one syllable!” Which was pretty much true! He would say “guk-guk” for blanket, now it’s very clearly “bank-it.” He said “bup” for cup, now it’s “cup.” And he’s very good at saying his own and Qade’s name. For awhile when he would call Qade it would be, “Myows, Qade!” He’d have to say both of their names. He’s pretty much got it worked out now though. One thing that thrills me about Myles is his good manners. He has always been SO good about saying thank you for pretty much anything. It didn’t matter if you were giving him a snack, changing his diaper or helping him get his shoes on, as soon as you were done he’d have a hearty “gink-oo” ready to go. It sounds much more like the real words now, and I always smile when I hear him say it to one of his friends or Qade when they hand him something. Another thing he’s been doing for some time now is to say “ess you” when someone sneezes! It’s his version of “Bless you” and he says it so fast after a sneeze that sometimes you can barely catch it, but it totally cracks me up!

We’re still working on both boys to get them to use words when frustrated or needing help instead of whining or throwing a fit. It’s a process for sure, but Myles seems to be catching on pretty well. Sometimes, I think, Qade would rather just throw a big fit, and that’s not cool. Myles though usually really does want whatever-it-is to be resolved so he is quicker to actually use his words and ask for help once we remind him. They are both making progress in their different ways and it’s interesting to me to see how they respond differently to similar situations.

The boys are generally buddies, and while they both like to push each other’s buttons at times (Myles gets a LOT of glee out of getting reactions from Qade let me tell ya!) they really are good friends and play well together. I’m very happy that they are close in age, and I’m hoping that having Qade there as his constant will help Myles through the transition of becoming a big brother. Neither of my lads has been very snuggly lately and I miss that! Myles will like to sit on my lap for short moments, but he doesn’t like to be snuggled. We’ll see how that changes once the little one shows up. I could do with a few more cuddles from both of my boys.

Here’s one of the most recent shots I have of Myles. He’s still a two handed thumb sucker when he’s tired. He uses the fingers on the “other” hand to tap on his top lip, and it cracks me up to watch him because he does alternate fingers till he gets through all but the thumb. Sometimes when I’m trying to put him to bed I just have to not watch because it makes me laugh! Believe it or not I’ve been VERY bad about taking pics since we’ve been home from camp, so this was right near the end of camp this summer. He’s a tired boy, can you tell?

My littlest buddy brings so much energy and joy to each day! I’m so happy to have him in our home and watch him grow and monkey around! Looking forward to seeing him become a fantastic big brother as well. He’s our life lover! Even though he does have stints of grumpies like everyone, most of the time he is a very happy lad, and he LOVES to make just about everything fun! I love that! If only I could be more like my Myles!

Sunday though sang a different tune this time around! I rushed in with Qade to go potty as soon as we got to church and Stu got Myles out of the car. While he was unbuckling him and walking in, he was really talking up Sunday School to Myles and asking him if he would like to go with Qade. Myles answered with his always enthusiastic “Uh-Huh!” and that was that! I came out of the bathroom with Qade and Daddy said, “Follow Qade.” and to my utter amazement he walked right into the Sunday School room and sat at the table with Qade and the other kids!! I told the workers that I wasn’t sure how long he would last and to get us if they needed to. Imagine my surprise when I never once heard a shriek or scream come from that room the whole service! Not only that, but the ladies told Stuart that he had been just great the whole time when we picked them up!! Awwww!! It’s a victory, but bittersweet of course. Even though I want to be able to sit through services with Stuart, it was still a sweet thing to want to be wanted by my lil guy and get to comfort and hold him.

He has really started strutting his independence though. To the point where he now believes it’s unnecessary to hold my hand in parking lots and such. He likes to march on ahead swinging his arms all around. That gets nipped right away though, because parking lots and roads are NOT a place for independent thinking little 20 month olds! Still it’s obvious that he considers himself a big boy and is happy to try his best to keep up with the other kids around camp.

Stu and I were talking this weekend about how big he seems, and how he’s not our baby any more. Happens SO fast! He’s still our littlest buddy and even though he is flexing his “independence muscles” a bit more these days, most of the time he’s rather compliant and very sweet.

I did a “photo walk through” of camp today when we took our walk so I’ll be posting some pics soon of where we are. It’s a pretty place, full of fun stuff like DIRT for the lads to enjoy! Have a great Tuesday! Ta-ta!

I’ll start with my favorite!! FEET!!! Love pictures of feet! (Well, little feet anyway!)

This was the first one I took after he flopped on the backdrop! My kiddos are going to be little cheeses I can tell!

True story: Myles ran around the house the other day with this bucket completely over his head!! He of course crashed, but it was hysterical to watch!

Can you tell he’s under the weather, poor lad!

I love the natural light I get in this room!!

Very intent on his blocks!

And one more for the tootsies!