Birthday Boy

  Amid all the Christmas excitement and activities going on in December we were able to set aside a day to celebrate Mr. Miles turning one! I know it's cliche', but seriously, where did the last year go? Deciding what cake to make Miles was easy since he has one true love in life and that is balls. Soccer balls, footballs, big balls, little balls, it doesn't matter, if it's a ball and he can get his hands on it, then he's a happy boy. So naturally we chose to do a little ball party for him. In addition to his basketball cake, I thought it would be fun to make little cake pops decorated like different sports balls. 

 Miles loved them! He almost always is chewing on some type of ball so you can imagine his excitement when he chomped down on a ball to find yummy cake goodness inside.  He DEVOURED it! Before we could stop him he had the whole thing shoved in his mouth and was begging us for another one. 

 As for presents, my mom and dad got him this awesome little sports toys with all different sports stations and balls. It completely stole the show and he hasn't been the least bit interested in any other birthday or Christmas presents since. 

I love this sequence of blurry pictures showing him running and kicking a goal. Even on sports mode our camera couldn't keep up with his enthusiastic excitement.

 His party wasn't anything fancy, just a little family dinner, but we had fun celebrating Miles.
Since I haven't been very good about documenting Miles' cuteness the last few month I am going to purge a lot of facts and stories about him now.

• LOVES balls. 
• Loves books, especially touch and feel books. His favorite book is B is for Bear. When he was 10 or 11 months old I was trying to help him identify eyes by pointing out all the eyes in the books we read.  He missed the concept and started calling books "eyes" for the next week or two. He did eventually learn how to say "book" but still points at most pictures in books and says "eyes".
• Has a special green blankie. Anytime he gets a hold of his blankie his thumb goes straight in his mouth, but he NEVER sucks his thumb without it. When he gets tired he goes to his crib and reaches through the slats to hold his blankie and suck his thumb until I come put him in his crib.
• Is obsessed with emptying every drawer and cupboard within reach.  Also loves to "help" unload the dishwasher. (It's usually while I'm trying to load dishes and is not helpful at all).
• This boy can eat!! He will eat pretty much anything we eat. It is not uncommon for him to out eat Mason and Brynn.
• LOVES the bathtub. Up until he was 11 months old bath time was a stressful ordeal for us because he seemed bound and determined to drown himself even in 3 inches of water and with our hands on him at all times. He must enjoy having his head underwater because he constantly dunks himself. I am dreading the swimming pool with him this summer.
• He is an amazing sleeper and for that I am eternally grateful! 
• Learned early how to climb up stairs and loved doing it, but took an extremely long time learning how to go down.  He seemed to have a huge phobia of going backwards down the stairs. We would turn him around and try gently pulling him down to teach him and he would scream and claw like we were taking him to slaughter. He finally got over the fear and now travels the stairs like a champ.
• LOVES his Grandpa Val. Started calling him "Pa!" without any prompting from any of us. When Grandpa is around Miles doesn't want anyone but him. Let's be honest, we all know it's because my Dad loves sneaking him all sorts of goodies.
• Adores Mason and Brynn and lights up whenever he hears their voice or sees them.
• Puts EVERYTHING in his mouth. We constantly find him with chipmunk cheeks full of treasures. One of his favorite things to carry around in his mouth is a golf ball. Did I mention he has an abnormally huge mouth and can easily fit an entire golf ball in it. I swear he has a secret stash of golf balls because we take them away from him, but he always shows up with another one. It's mind boggling. It's a miracle he hasn't choked by now.
• Plays a darling game of peek-a-boo by putting blankie over face, hiding behind our bed and popping up, or by simply putting he face against any wall or surface and holding really still then popping up and laughing. 
• Has a completely different look than Mason and Brynn. There is no doubt he belongs to us, though, because he is Scott's little mini me.
• Likes music. Shows his enthusiasm for a song by waving his right arm back and forth over his head (imagine like he's waving a lighter). He does this for everything from The wheels on the bus to the sacrament hymn in church. It is quite hilarious.
• Likes being chased around by a crawling and growling Scott.  Recently he has started running straight to his beloved spatula drawer and whipping out a weapon to defend himself with. What can I say, he has great protective instincts.
• He has the most adorable chuckle. For a long time it was how he expressed his approval of things. He would chuckle after every single bit of food we fed him. He would chuckle whenever people talked to him. He would pretty much just crawl around the house chuckling. Now that he is talking more and has found other ways to express his needs and wants we don't hear his constant chuckle, but thankfully he still gives it out pretty generously.

Those are a few things that stand out to me about Miles at 1 year.