Miles of Smiles...

I used to call you that, when you were tiny and had just learned to smile. You smiled at everyone and everything. Put a camera in your face, and you grinned. And this year you turned 2, and your smile literally went for miles.

It started at Nana and Booka's house in MN, where you graciously shared a celebration and cake with me, and got to spend some quality time with your namesakes. Hanging with Grandpa Milo and Grandma Julie, reading with Grandpa Milo, running in the yard with Booka to set a fish in his pond! Good thing you got to see
him go in because everytime you went to look for him after that he was hiding under a rock. Nana made one of your favorites, just for you, 'ghetti and meatballs! Booka works hard a teaching you all kinds of bad manners, and we all love it! Nana even got you a new Lightning McQueen suitcase with wheels that fell over and slammed onto their kitchen floor; you were scared of it for a while, but now I have to hide it in the closet because you always want to pull it everywhere you go! You also got to splash in Dandy's pool with Nana, and use your new watering can to water Nana's garden. And nothing beats walking to the parks by Nana and Booka's house with the great
slides and swings. Booka's got you hooked on underdogs now. And one of your highpoints of this trip: going to see your first movie! Cars 2, of course. Booka wouldn't wait so your daddy could take you, he loves to steal those firsts ;) Your eyes were the size of saucers the whole time, but you sat so well through the whole thing.


Then we jumped another plane where we continued the birthday celebration in NJ with Grammie and TomTom, Auntie Heather, Auntie Mandy, Jake and Sam, and the whole Furler Clan. On your birthday, we went to a model train exhibit that you didn't want to leave; you climbed on a play wooden train outside, and you oogled all the different
kinds of trains inside, chugging on their miniature tracks. Then we went to the zoo, and on this trip, your favorite thing was actually a couple of goats that kept nimbling your fingers with their lids through a fence. We ended the trip with rides on the carosel and a trackless train and then a picnic of one of your favorite things, McNuggets and fries! The next day, we had your first pool party at Grammie
Sue and Grandpa Al's house, where you cried about getting in the pool before you realized that it was fun to float in that pink floatie with a couple of your cars. Then you got to eat one of your other favorites: pizza! And you snubbed your nose
at the fancy cupcakes that Grammie and I went to 2 different places to find. But all the other kids at your party loves them, Jake, Sam, Louisa, Henry, and Drew. I don't think baby Clara got to try a bite, though Grammie tried to feed her some.
All your new friends already knew you so well and gave you all your new favorite cars and books! And then you got to drive in TomTom's RV most of the way home.
Between the trains, planes, and loads of different automobiles, oh and the bikes, not a bad celebration for a 2-year-old who loves things that go.


Love you, buddy. Happy belated birthday! Looking forward to seeing so many more!

The perfect day...

Today was one of those unplanned, unscheduled, perfect days. Don't get me wrong, mostly I am a list maker, appointment maker, and schedule keeper, though often late for any and all of the above. But today, we had no plans, we just did what we wanted to do, when we wanted to, and it was great.

Mike worked the obscenely early morning shift and was home by 7:30, and sent me back to bed. Very nice man that he is, realizing I'm next in line to catch the plague that Milo has been surviving, he let me sleep 'til about 10. We then took our time, doing the "what do you want to do?" "I don't know what do you want to do?" dance. We had both looked for fun 4th of Julyish-type things to do, but seems as though most of those happened over the weekend.

So we finally decided to grab some food and go to a park. Milo was on board as long
as there were slides and swings involved. Right as we were walking out the door, Mike got paged in. No worries, we're flexible today. Drop Mike at work, go grap some take-out, go back to get Mike, eat lunch in the car 'cause Milo and I were impatient and hungry. Grab Mike, head to the park. Slide down some slides, relax in the shade. Hey look, there's the ice cream man. Milo's never had an ice cream from a real ice cream truck. Mike holds him up and he points to the one he wants, a perfect "snack sized" option ideal for toddlers with no attention span, even for ice cream. Back to sit in the shade, eat ice cream, then back to the slide and swings.

Gets hot and maybe sunburn-inducing bright. Milo hears a train whistle. Want to see the train? Okay, let's see if we can find it! Sure enough, Daddy's a pretty good train chaser. He finds one that's stopped along the track, and he and Milo get out to take a closer look. Then it starts to move again, and so do we.

Milo falls asleep in the car on the way home, and I join him in nap mode when we get back to our place. Mike's still working overnight, so he too heads to bed shortly. When Milo wakes up from his nap, we meander down to the garage, hop on the bike, and go to water our community garden. Milo hangs out, sits on a towel eating goldfish, then off to help me water the plants, then off to play with his trucks. We take the scenic route home, along the river, check out a momma and some teenage ducklings, feed them a few of the remaining goldfish, go across a cool bridge, and then back home for dinner, bath, and bedtime stories. A great day. Not particularly patriotic, but full of fantastic moments.