Cute baby in aisle ten...

The stars and moons were all aligned today so I took Miles to the grocery store all by myself for the first time ever. (Yes, I"m a very pampered mom.) John has always gone with me, but today, due to the fact our fridge and cupboards were extremely bare and breastfeeding makes me hungry all the time, I headed out by myself with Miles. It went really well, though it sure is hard to focus on shopping when you have a baby in the cart. It's like being instantly ADD or something. Life sure is completely different with a baby. We had fun though and the fact he was in a good mood, made it even better. It was refreshing too, to leave the house without me breaking into a cold sweat trying to pull him out of his carseat while he is crying in the middle of a store's aisle. (which, sometimes feels like I need the jaws of life to pull off. Who knew that car seats had to be so freakin cramped and tight? Ok, one would think that, but they need some kind of quick release mechanism or something.) Of course, I am learning to blow through the grocery store at a pretty quick pace instead of mulling over the nutritional difference between the 99.9% fat free yogurt and the 100% fat free yogurt. Ahhh, those mind boggling debates were for my pre-baby days. Anyway, now if only we would get a super Target out here, life would really be great and I could actually get some clothes shopping done too.

New Sunday Tradition

Here is a photo of Miles wearing a much beloved hand me down from my friend Annie. She has given me tons of great clothes from her two boys, but Miles is having a hard time getting them all worn before he grows out of them. So I decided to do a little fashion show and this outfit really cracked me up. I think he looks like a cute little hippo with the ears on this hood. So flippin cute!

We have new photos posted of Miles. Check them out at: Miles at 12 weeks

Today was a great day. We did make it to the food co-op and that is going to be my new Sunday ritual. We have a great food co-op (natural grocery store) here in Fort Wayne that has a little deli in it and on Sundays they have live music from noon until 2. So we split a sandwhich, an incredibly fresh carrot/beet/apple juice (trust me, it's awesome)and a piece of this great organic black magic chocolate cake. While we snacked we listened to our friend from yoga, Melissa (of the Luna Mary's) sing and Miles even enjoyed his own lunch. (If you can't breastfeed at a food co-op, where can you?)

Once the music started, I actually got tears in my eyes and a bit overwhelmed by emotion. (Yea, I suppose I still have some nutty post partum hormones flowing...) It was a beautiful day, the music was great and I was sitting with my precious little family on a Sunday morning and there wasn't any other place in the world I wanted to be. I wish I had brought my camera because it was one of those moments that felt so good, if I could have bottled it, I would have. It's our new Sunday tradition, though I don't know if I can wait another week for a piece of that chocolate cake!

low blood sugar freak out and a movie

Yesterday John mulched our entire house while I (unfortunatly) worked inside tackleing housework. I would have loved to have been outside with John on such a beautiful day, but alas, I'm trying to get our house back to be at least half as clean as it was pre-Miles.

By dinner time, we were starving, but so was Miles. We had been planning to have a little date night Saturday night, so we prepped for an evening out with baby. If you have hung out with us in the evening before, you know that Miles starts cluster-feeding around 6 PM. So I fed him and thinking he was satiated, put him in the car seat. Nope, he wasn't done! So I fed him again as John and I hung on in a low-blood-sugar-freak-out state and the clock ticked on. We nibbled on some toast, hoping that would get us by until we got to the resteraunt. Once we were convinced Miles was full and asleep, we put him in the carrier and headed off to our favorite Sushi resteraunt. (Yep, Asakusa!)

Well, of course it was at least a half an hour wait, even at 7:40 PM. (That would be karma kicking us in the butts for the countless times we have sat (pre-baby) at a finished meal for hours there socializing hogging up the table.) We considered going to another resterant, but decided to hang in there. Miles was sleeping peacefully in his carrier and lobby hopping on a saturday night is kind of like switching lanes at a grocery store. Once you switch, the other lane seems to fly by. So like idiots, we hung in there. We were fine until this group of women came in and once they saw Miles, they started squeeling with delight and ribbing each other about their ticking biological clocks complete with loud "bang-bang-bang" sound effects of how loud their clocks are ticking seeing our baby. The Asakusa lobby is about as big as our half bath, so they were standing right above him. Of course Miles, previously blissfully asleep, wakes up, takes a look around as if to say, "Where the hell am I?" and starts to cry.

So the next 10 minutes are spent with Miles breastfeeding in a very cramped lobby and I felt like I was having the life blood sucked out of me. Thankfully, before we knew it, we had a nice private table in the corner where I could feed Miles and John and I could suck down our food like we hadn't eaten in weeks. Dinner out with Miles can feel like the baby olympics as we juggle him while we feed, burp and console him, but it went really well. The biggest part of the success is John helping out by holding up a blanket so I can be descreet and when the bathroom is a "one-seater" he goes with me to change Miles which helps alot. I tell ya, John is such an awesome dad. At one point, when Miles was fussy, John just threw him in the sling and walked around the parking lot for a while. (We really try not to have him cry in a resteraunt.) We even got a compliment on the way out, by a single guy sitting at the sushi bar, who said we did great job with our baby. That really meant alot to us becuase we really don't want to be "that" annoying couple with the crying baby.

It sounds like alot of work for us to just have some sushi, but it's really important for us to get out. I would have had grandma watch him, but I'm trying to store up my pumped milk so I can go to a wedding next weekend. I hardly have any milk at all because my mom has been so great about coming over and watching him while I run out and do stuff, but that keeps my stored milk supply at a "just in time" inventory status.

Once we got home, the three of us, plus pugs watched the movie, The Holiday. It was actually pretty good for a chick flick. One of the characters was a film composer named Miles, so John thought that was pretty cool.

Well, John and Miles have been napping upstairs and Miles just woke up. Gotta run! We're off to the food co-op sometime this morning to pick up some biodegradable laundry detergent for our cloth diapers. (The stuff is called Country Save and is the BEST laundry soap.) The Luna Mary's (we know one of the singers from our yoga class) will be singing at noon in the co-op cafe, so we are hoping to catch that as well.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

It's 12:42 and we are working on getting our little Miles to sleep. He took a 4 hour nap today, so we can't be surprised that he wants to have a slumber party instead of sleep.

John's taking him to the nursery and survey says........he's down and staying down! Time for bed!!!!

BTW, i changed my site so anybody can leave comments. So feel free to leave a smoke signal.

Have a great weekend, we are off to bed!

Rainy day at home

Today was a nice quiet rainy day spent at home. It's been a busy week with a lot of stuff going on and running around town. So it felt really good today to spend it at home and get stuff done around the house.

Some of my favorite moments of my days are when John and I spend time playing with Miles and watching him coo and smile together.





If you haven't seen enough photos of Miles, here are just a few more...






You might recall a few blog entries ago,that there was a photo John took from Stamp's point of view of me sitting in the rocker with Miles. Here is the view from my vantage point. We thought it was kind of a fun pic. My feet are a bit too blurry to really make it work, but you get the idea.





I just saw Stamp run by me and head to bed, so I guess that means it's time for the rest of the King family to get off of their computers and head to bed as well. Nighty night!

Tummy Time!

Shake, Rattle and Roll...

Over the weekend Miles worked on perfecting gripping his rattle and shaking it. As you can imagine, this brings us hours of fun.

Yummm...

Warning: This blog is pretty boring, but it's my day, and it was a pretty good one, so I'm blogging about it.

Today has been a pretty cool day. We got a fair ammount of sleep last night, though Miles did request a feeding at 2:30 AM, but considering he went right back to sleep once he was done, I really can't complain. I was able to get a bath in before noon this morning and do my hair and make up, which to me, is considered a luxury. Then I took Miles with me to go pick up some yummy lunch from Spoons Bistro and take it to go visit my friend Heather and her 3 children at her home. After visiting with Heather, we were off to a doctor's appt. for me. I had gotten a nasty splinter stepping in some mulch this past Sunday and we couldn't get it out. Over the last day or so the tiny particle on my heel has turned into a major pain and seemed to be infected. So even though I was pretty daunted at the thought of taking Miles to the doctor with me, I figured walking around with a splinter in my foot would be even worse. So I took a big breath and brought him along. He was so good and I got to practise even more of my nursing and diaper changing in public skills while waiting the better part of an hour to see the doc.

The excavation of the splinter from my foot (OUCH!) and the balancing of baby duties during the appointment warrented a much deserved chocolate covered cherry Blizzard from Dairy Queen and Miles seemed to agree as well. We had to kill time while my antibiotic was filled at the pharmacy anyway, so Miles and I had a wonderful little slice of the beautiful afternoon outside on the picnic tables while I enjoyed my favorite blizzard. (For those of you who know me well, yes, my favorite Blizzard flavor has changed!) Miles giggled and smiled as I described to him what kind of treats he'll get to have there next summer. He actually started to lick his lips. ; )

The fun thing about taking Miles out is how other people react to babies. People come up and ask all sorts of questions and look at him like he is the only baby they have ever seen in their life. I mean, I know my own mother looks at Miles like that and so do John and I, but I wasn't expecting other people to be so giddy. It's a really fun thing to encounter and pretty unexpected.

We are home now and Miles is still napping in the carseat from his long afternoon away from home. It's a little after 5, so John should be emerging from his office soon for our evening walk with the pugs. Today was a great day and even though it was filled with pretty mundane errands like going to the doctor or to the pharmacy, with Miles along, it seems more like a successful adventure since I got him out of the house and back with him smiling along the way.

Day in the life....

This is where I spend most of my day. In the rocker with Miles. This is from Stamp's point of view.
Get some sMiles time in...
Wash and fold some dipes...
Baby gaze a bit...
Tickle some toes...
Get in some tummy time, though Miles isn't too thrilled.
More baby gazing...
Snuggles with Daddy...
and plenty of laughs with mom.

That's a day in the life with Miles. I couldn't feel more blessed!

Peace to Virginia Tech

I just wrote a huge blog on my thoughts about the horrible tragedy at Virginia Tech. However, I'm an idiot, didn't save or write my draft in Word and lost it when I clicked back a page.

So instead of an essay on my thoughts, I will say this: I hope that the media can focus on healing, instead of the rambelings of a mad man. I don't want to hear or learn anymore about the killer, but I would love to allow the families of the slain students to tell their stories and inspire us to embrace our lives more fully because their loved ones can't. I pray that a blanket of peace can somehow find it's way to the families, friends and almuni of Virginia Tech.

Not so great news...

We found out yesterday that john didn't make it into the Turner Classic Movies Young Film Composers Competition this year. We both took it alot harder than I thought we would. We had such an amazing time there last year and were really looking forward to experiencing that again. However, our friend that we met there last year, Miles Hankins, (yes, he gave us the idea for our baby's name) made it in though. We are really happy for him becuase we really liked his work last year. John still has two more chances to enter before he ages out of the competition, so he's not giving up.

In other news, we were able to take a nice brisk morning walk with Miles this morning and that really lifted our spirits.

Miles is calling, gotta go!

Bobbi captures Miles

A photographer friend of ours, Bobbi Sheridan (By Bobbi, photography) who lives in Indy was kind enough to swing by last week to snap some photos of baby Miles. Seriously, she is a super busy photographer and took time out of her weekend in Fort Wayne to come see us. We were so honored that she would stop by! It was great to get to know her better as I had just met her once at a wedding she was shooting and have been emailing her and blog stalking since.

Many of you may know her work as I have reccomended her or passed on some of my favorite blog posts to you. She has such a fun and bubbly personality, that I'm not surprised that she ends up being friends with most of her clients.

Well today Miles is the star as she is featuring a few of the shots she captured in her blog today. It was a great start to our day to see the pics.

One of the shots is shown above, but check out her blog, for more pics:

www.bybobbi.com/blog

Her blog is a great one to choose as your favorites and check back often. She updates it daily and it's a lot of fun to check out.

Thank you SO MUCH Bobbi. The pics are great!

New Photos on the Web!

Even though there are still a ton of photos from this weekend sitting in our camera (thanks to John's looming deadline) we have plenty of photos to share from the past two weeks. Enjoy!

http://www.mettaaudio.com/miles_alexander_king/smiles_9_10/

To view all photos:

http://www.mettaaudio.com/miles_alexander_king/

Miles slept ANOTHER 8 hour stretch last night, but then he wanted to eat about every hour and a half today. So it's give and take around here, but things are going pretty well. Needless to say, since I was nursing so much, I didn't get my goal of getting all the floors swept and mopped, but the floors and the dirt will be there tomorrow. At the end of the day, if my Miles is a happy little guy and he is fed well, I got exactly what I needed to get done. : )

We had lots of family come today, which was really nice. My sister stopped by this morning and we had a nice visit. She even got a nice little snuggly nap with Miles in while I took a shower. Then Grandpa Smith dropped by on his way out of town for a concert. He usually pops in at least once a week to see his little guy. Then later in the afternoon, Grandma Smith couldn't stay away and stayed with Miles while John and went grocery shopping. We returned from our grocery run to a full house of Barb and Bill Zabel along with my mom with a piping hot pizza on the table for all of us. We certainly feel loved!

John is currently arranging a piece of music for a choral group here in Fort Wayne. So I'm hearing plenty of music coming from his office this evening. Miles has been down sleeping since 9:30, so I have been enjoying some rare Internet time.

I better get going. Have a great week and perhaps if we all "think spring" we can will this snow to GO AWAY!!

Saturday night randomness

For my first blog entry, I am going to brag about the awesome streak we are currently having with Miles. Last night we took him to the mall and then out to dinner and he was so good! He slept most of the time and I even nursed him (in public!!) right at the table in the resteraunt. That's a big step for me as I haven't left the house without a bottle of expressed milk and that certianly makes for more prep time. Then we headed to our next destination for our hot Friday night out on the town: Babies R Us. Yes, life has certianly changed a lot for me and John! Miles continue to be so good and slept as we did our shopping. This may not sound like a big deal to you, but the evenings for the past month or so have been Miles' difficult times. Starting around 5 PM, Miles would usually get fussy and want to "cluster-feed." (That's feeding every hour or so for those of you not familiar with the term.) So every evening we usually brace ourselves for an adventure, but last night was pure bliss.

While we waited for our table at the resteraunt we checked out some clothes at Macy's. I am so thankful that my pre-baby jeans and pants fit, but thanks to my new role as nursing mother, my old tops don't fit AT ALL. I currently have about 4 tops in rotation I can wear right now. When I went shopping, I found myself pretty lost. I haven't shopped for clothes (Maternity clothes don't count) in about a year, so I feel kind of clueless. I need to find my style again and start figuring out how to dress this new body of mine. If anybody has some shopping tips on where the good clothes for spring are, let me know.

Back to our evening, once we got home, we fed Miles again, played a little and put him to bed around 11. He then slept for EIGHT hours!! We actually woke up refreshed and well rested! (This is where the bragging part comes in. It's really only sounds like bragging to other parents of newborns.) We spent the morning taking photos (as we usually do because the morning light is so great in our loft.) and just enjoying family time together.

Here are some shots that we captured during the morning when the light is so great in our loft.




Here are some random shots of our life with Miles over the last week:

Our friend Sarah Collman made this adorable t shirt for Miles.




Uncle Chris and Mark got Miles some gifts with a Texas country western theme, including this cow complete with a John Deer Hat and plays country music. Miles and I had a good time playing with it.



Grandma Smith came last week and always does a great job of spreading her attention evenly between Miles and Stamp.



Here's John holding Miles in the onesie that the Turner Classic Movie gang gave to Miles when he was born. (Are they super nice, or what!?!) John should find out any day now if he made it in the top ten of the competition. So we put the outfit, that says "Reach for the Stars," on Miles for good luck.



Speaking of John's work, here's John working in his office while holding Miles. John's getting pretty good at balancing baby and working the keyboard at the same time.



It's almost 11 and Miles is in bed, so I think it's time for me to sign off. Thanks for tuning into my first blog entry!