When in Rome, if I were actually in Rome

Those of you who knew my parents finally decided to go to Italy for our after-Christmas trip were probably expecting this last post of 2007 to tell you all about my trans-Atlantic transit. Instead - surprise! - I'm hiding out at the Hudson in Manhattan with my parents.

It's a long story, people: first, we delayed leaving a day because we were all sick. Then, my Daddy's passport went mysteriously missing; after hours and hours and hours of searching (and missing the last possible flight of that day), my parents found it in the bookcase, between travel guides for Egypt and Chile. I wonder how it got there; maybe the mystery is related to the case of the missing "Happy Feet" rental DVD that turned up in the bookcase between the Scrabble Dictionary and the Sign Language Dictionary last week.

In a separate and completely unrelated note, I've recently developed an interest in helping. I like to put my toys in the big silver trash can in the kitchen, the one with the fascinating foot pedal, and I pitch in and take the silverware out of the dishwasher and set it on the floor for my parents to finish putting up, and after I finish reading I enjoy putting my books - and anything that remotely resembles a book - back in the bookcase. My altruism knows no bounds.

So, as I was saying, we had a couple of hiccups in taking off, and then when we were all ready to leave, there were no seats left on any flights to the greater New York area, because of all the flight cancellations due to weather earlier in the week, so we couldn't make the Saturday night flight to Rome or Milan, either, and my Daddy's airline doesn't fly to Rome on Sundays. But my parents felt that overall household morale was sinking, the longer we waited to leave, so we went ahead and took the very last flight to Newark last night, the only one with any seats, even though it was too late to connect anywhere else, and we're starting our vacation now.

Despite nothing about this trip going according to plan so far, we are having a splendid time together. First, at the Cleveland airport, the electric cart driver offered to take me and Mommy for a ride, and I have never been so excited in my whole entire life. Apparently, I rode in an electric cart one time when I was a baby and Mommy and I flew to see Nonna, but I can't remember it, and at any rate I was too young to appreciate the thrill. I squealed so loudly, the entire way down the concourse, that my Daddy heard me from five gates away. Then, everyone on the plane was so nice that I said "hi" and "bye" to someone in every single row as we went down the aisle, and I shook a few hands, too. Also, my Daddy's cousin Todd was on our plane, so we got to catch up with him when we landed in Newark.

Another cool thing last night was that I got to sleep with my parents! Again, I am told I did it often when I was little, but whatever - I haven't done it in months and it was so exciting. My Mommy said it was like going to bed with a puppy; maybe it was because I was wearing my puppy pajamas - I don't know. Anyway, Mommy had to go nuts on a shuttle driver and make a bunch of people that had jumped in the shuttle in front of us move in order to get us there, but we had a swell night together.

This morning, the fun just kept coming. First, I got to eat a DONUT, IN BED, while I watched THOMAS on TV, and then I got to ride TWO trains!!! Does it get any better than that? When we got to New York and dropped our bags at the hotel, we went out and did a bunch of fun stuff, like play on the swings at the Hell's Kitchen playground, and eat sweet yam fries at Zen Palate, and climb all over the brand-new playscape at Heckscher Playground, and eat a couple of donut holes while dancing in my stroller to the music of the people's boom box on the next bench in Columbus Circle, and then chill in the Hudson lobby with a nice cold cup of milk. After all that fun, I enthusiastically explored our hotel room and then settled in for a two-hour nap before heading back out for a cheese and bean quesadilla at Lime Jungle and a sprinkle cookie at the EuroPan outpost around the corner from our hotel.

I'm just about to drop off to sleep now, but when I wake up I'm going shoe shopping and then having lunch at our family's favorite place in the whole city, Red Bamboo, before I go back to the airport and finally GO TO ITALY as planned, just four days late. I leave you with a few photo highlights of my day:

Surveying the scene at the Hudson

Swinger

Catch me if you can!

I finished this apple juice you left on the table; let's open another one!

Milestone: Tonight I sat at an adult-height table on an adult-height banquette,
without use of highchair or booster seat, and ate my dinner like the big boy I am.


Happy New Year!

The Christmas Photo Spectacular

Merry Christmas to all! Let me just say that if your holiday season has been half as stupendous as mine, you are very lucky indeed. In addition to the events about which I've already posted, I've had a two-day blowout with my friend Desmond, Christmas Eve dinner at my Oma's, Christmas Morning at home, and Christmas Dinner at my Grandma T's! It's been all Christmas, all the time here for the last week-and-a-half, and all I can say is, WOW! (which, by the way, I've been heard saying quite a bit lately).

Desmond and family's visit

Desmond's dad, Randy, played robots with me. He built a huge robot, and I took it apart.
Desmond really dug my activity center!

We got to go to a hockey game together. I screamed at the top of my lungs for the Lake Erie Monsters.

I enjoyed the soft pretzels in our suite, so I thought Desmond might want to try one, too.

We were all on pins and needles when the game went into overtime, but our team finally lost. Still, I had such a fantastic time at my first hockey game that I hardly cared.


Christmas Eve

Bailey and I couldn't wait to open our presents!

Uncle Sean and Oma helped me figure out the siren on my new FIRE TRUCK!

Boy, do I love my Oma!

Oma made Bailey and me our very own lounge chairs and a sleeping bag for Spencer.

After such an exciting night, it was soooo hard to go to sleep.


Christmas Morning

I'm still not sure about the paper being on the presents, but I was happy to have Daddy unwrap my presents for me. Ever since I hung out with my older cousin Johnny last month, I have been crazy for cars, and both my parents and Johnny and his family gave me little cars. Mommy was surprised that I knew the difference between emergency vehicles (WEE-oo! WEE-oo!) and passenger vehicles (Vroon! Vroon!).

Legos!!!

I gave Daddy a travel calendar. He showed me pictures in it of places he has been.

I gave Mommy a Lucinda Williams CD, and she LOVED it!

Santa brought me my very own table and chairs, which are my size. I got to eat my Christmas breakfast of raspberry scone and mozzarella string cheese at my new table.

Christmas Dinner

I was really happy to see my cousin Lilli.

My cousin Kyle makes me laugh and laugh and laugh!

Aunt Terry and I opened presents together.

Bailey and Lilli and I all got our very own WAGONS! When I walked out on to Grandma T's porch, where the wagons had been hiding, I let out a big "Woooooooowwwwwwww!!!"

I love to play with my cousin Austin. He even let me try on his cap.

I am pooped after all this celebrating, plus I'm working on another tooth or two, so I'm off to bed. I hope your dreams are as sweet as mine!

Christmas with Nonna

Last night my parents and I went to my Nonna's to celebrate Christmas with her; she is going to see my cousin Johnny next week. I gave her some sock monkey pajamas so we can match when I have sleepovers with her, and she gave me some really cool stuff, including a Mega Blocks Noah's Ark, which has all of these cool animals on it, like penguins, and turtles (with which I slept last night because I refused to surrender them at bedtime). I ate delicious crackers, garlic bread, and raisins - to my mind, the perfect meal - but everyone else had to eat lasagna and pecan pie. I felt bad for them.





When I woke up this morning, I heard another kid in the house! It turns out Desmond and his parents Randy and Jenny had arrived after I went to sleep with the turtles, and we get to spend the whole weekend together. Next time, I'll tell you all about it.

Choo-Choo Dreams

There is so much going on with me, it's a wonder I can even get out of bed. But I do, because I am the kind of guy who doesn't want to miss a thing. Grandpa came to see us this weekend, and I had a great time with him, which I will describe to you later in this post, and I am working overtime putting everything together. For example, the other day Mommy and I were shopping, and I was pointing out everything I saw to her, and she said to me, "Milo, you are just a delight!" I looked up and pointed to the light fixtures and then looked at Mommy to show her I understood she was talking about lights. I don't know why she said I was a light, but it must be one of those figurative things big people say that are nonsensical, like when they call my toes "piggies".

Another thing I've learned this week is about knocking on the door. I love to knock on doors and have people I love open them. I really like saying, "knock, knock!" I'm also known for my love of keys, and my interest in putting them in door locks, but this weekend when we were all going bye-bye, I went to the drawer where my parents put the keys, opened it, took them out, and tried to open the door for everyone so we could get going. I haven't quite figured out how to make the door open, but I'll keep working on it.

Talking and singing are some of my favorite things to do, and I'm getting better at them every day. This week I've started saying "wow" and "grandpa" (which sounds like "umph-ah"), and I've been making up tons of new songs in the car, as well as singing along to some of Daddy's favorite songs that have rhythmic vocals. And in my REALLY big developmental news, this morning I picked up my book Inside, Outside, Upside Down, opened it to the last page, and said, "Mama! Mama!" - which is how the text on that page starts. Does that count as reading? Mommy said that's how she learned to read, and she was really proud of me. I don't know if there's anything better in the whole world than reading, unless it's...

...playing with trains! "Choo-choo!" is one of my favorite words, and one of my Christmas presents from my Grandpa was my very own Thomas the Tank Engine. I can't get enough of it. I took my nap with it yesterday. I played with it all day long and took it everywhere I went. I took it to bed with me last night, and when I woke up in the middle of the night, instead of crying for my parents, I just played with Thomas in my crib. I can push it and it will go all the way across the room, or one of the stronger big people can push the engineer's head down, and it goes all by itself. You cannot imagine how amazing it is.

But really, the last two days have been non-stop amazing. First, Mommy finished the semester Thursday night, so Friday was the first day of ONE WHOLE MONTH we have together without any school interference. Then, when I got up from my morning nap, Grandpa arrived. I hadn't seen him in about two months, so I wasn't sure if it was okay to hug him at first. But I did recognize him, and I showed him by going over to the scooter he gave me for my birthday and pointing it out to him first thing.

In no time at all, though, we were two peas in a pod, and we read books and went on scooter rides and even did happy dances together. For lunch, we went to the West Side Market, and I got to sit up in the balcony to eat my zucchini empanada, and then Grandpa got an apricot pastry and shared it with me, and it was scrumptious. That evening, Bailey and Aunt Jillian and Uncle Sean came over, and we all went to Sokolowski's University Inn together. Bailey and I got to sit together, and we shared some rolls and banged our spoons on the table in time with each other.

After dinner, everyone came back to my house, and we opened PRESENTS! I'm still not sure about the paper on top of everything, but boy do I love the stuff inside all that paper! I had such a good time and loved everything, but I kept coming back to Thomas. I'm telling you, he is the best. My parents told me that this weekend was just the first of several Christmases I'm having this year, but I can't believe it.

Yesterday, I got to hang out with Grandpa, and we watched "Happy Feet" together, which Grandpa said reminded him of me, because I do a little running-in-place dance when I'm really excited. I even got to eat my lunch in the living room while we watched the movie. Last evening, we went to my Great-Aunt Barb and Great-Uncle John's house, and you would not believe all the trains: I had my Thomas, plus there was a toy one there that Uncle John helped me put together and another one that ran around the base of the Christmas tree that went really fast and flashed its lights and made a ton of noise - it was so exciting. After we came home, I had a little visit with our friend Jim and then I fell into bed with exhaustion.

I was supposed to have a Christmas brunch with my friend Maggie this morning, but I woke up with a fever, which is not fun at all, because I couldn't go out to breakfast or anything cool like that. But Mommy and I are staying home together, and we have been reading all my books that have trains in them, and listening to Christmas music, and drinking chocolate milk - I should be feeling better in no time at all.

Vive la difference

What a difference a year makes: to the left is little old me one year ago yesterday, while below is me exactly one year later. Ah, so much has changed.

A year ago, I was toothless, virtually bald, and could barely hold my head up; now, I have about ten teeth (I'm not letting anyone in my mouth long enough for an accurate count), a luscious head of hair, and I can run and jump and dance and dive across my parents' bed. It's hard to believe I'm the same person!








A year ago, my big social achievements were crying for milk, perking up when I smelled milk, and occasionally smiling. Now, I have a developed sense of humor, I laugh like a hyena, and I can ask for exactly what I want to eat ("apple?", "cheese?", "bread?", "broccoli?"). My consistent spoken vocabulary also includes "Daddy," "ball," "star," "tree," "up," "down," "bye-bye," "hi," "dog," "button," "hat," and countless others, plus I try out new words daily and demonstrate my understanding of words I can't say yet. I can also recreate the sounds made by cows, ducks, sheep, bears, dogs, and monkeys, not to mention trains and cars, and I can give high-fives, wave hello and good-bye, and use the hand sign for "more." The world is my oyster! Not that I can say oyster, of course, but at least I can effectively communicate my desire for it.




My imagination is definitely on the rise. I've been putting on Daddy's hat and Mommy's shoes lately, and I spend ten or fifteen minutes at a time trying to put my toy keys in the front door lock and then pretending to open the door. And yesterday, at lunch, I scooted a french fry across the tabletop while saying, "Choo-choo!"




























I've been enjoying the Christmas trees at Nonna's and Grandma T's, but Sunday morning when I woke up I found TWO Christmas trees in my own house! There's a big tree, with many of the balls that I love on it, and underneath are a bunch of packages in paper that looks like candy that I would really like to investigate. However, my parents have put my old corral around that tree, so all I can is look and point. There's a little tree, though, with stars and snowflakes, that I can touch all I want. And I do.

Sweet 16

Believe it or not, I was 16 months old yesterday! I know, I know, it seems ancient, but I know kids even older than me. It's true! We all just keep growing and stuff. At the bottom of this post is a celebratory morph of me, updated for my new mile-marker. I'll try to update it monthly.


Yesterday morning, my parents and I went to breakfast with Oma and Ono to celebrate Oma's birthday. I practiced saying, "Happy Birthday, Oma!" in the car, but it was a rather big pronouncement for me, and once we got to the restaurant, I was too overwhelmed to attempt it. I did, however, enjoy my french toast and throwing my Hot Wheels on the floor repeatedly (and quite obviously on purpose). Even better was getting both Oma and Ono to wear my owl glasses and say, "Hoo! Hoo!" You've never seen anything so hysterical. I could have watched that show all day.