boo!

we thought that we should capitalize on miles' nickname before he decides that he wants to dress up as some sort of cartoon character. so we dressed up our little monkey as, well, a monkey! he surprisingly liked his costume and put up with the multiple dressings and undressings (didn't fit in the carseat) as we hauled him around town to visit grandpa kroening, clayt & jess, and conrad & sara before eventually arriving at the annual becker halloween bash! he didn't get the concept of trick or treating and, frankly, didn't need the bucket full of candy. so we decided that we would hold off on going door to door until next year or maybe even the year after! lord knows I don't really need the extra calories either! he got a few treats from grandpa, auntie jess & uncle clayt, great grandma and go-go (daycare). grandpa gave him his first piece of chocolate. to that miles says "more!" and I concur!

woke up a little crabby and none too excited about getting dressed.
(can you blame him? check out the leggings!)

hey I look pretty cute!

trick or treat grandpa!

there were some pretty stellar costumes once again this year. we had a contest for "best costume" and my dad won. my parents were the maid and butler for "queen nykkole". so clever. the scary part was that my DAD was the maid. complete with make-up and fishnet stockings. you can thank me later for that mental image. I will try to scrounge up a better photo of him so you can get an actual glance at such a masterpiece. miles took 2nd in the contest, followed by my brother, brian. you will see that he was part of a foursome and they all looked fantastic! I am also on the hunt for a picture of beth, seth, and josiah. they were fire fighters and little josiah was a dalmation!

me (chiquita banana), miles (monkey), and kyle (zoo keeper)

the flintstones
(brian & blair, jen & marc)

seth's brother, noah

all of the guys (that would be my DAD in the middle)

queen nykkole

miles partied until after 10:30 at which time he crashed and woke up at 6:45 the next morning. good thing we had daylight savings time, because that means he actually got about 9 hours of sleep. he still hasn't really adjusted to the new time schedule. clearly this concept was not thought of by a parent. grr. in any case, here are some pictures from the party. when I get some other good ones, I'll post an update.

watching "SIGNING!" (a.k.a. signing time)

miles was intrigued by rock band

cousins - I found these pjs on uber clearance last year

goodnight nykki

northwoods orchard

I have been wanting to get to the orchard this fall and this weekend was our last chance before they all close up for the season. imagine my happiness when the weather cooperated...well sort of. it was sunny and clear, but pretty chilly. I think the temp in the car read 46 degrees. we could see our breath! we had to get to the clinic at 9:20am on saturday morning for miles' H1N1 shot. he was a trooper! he cried hard, but then took a sticker and walked down the hall sniffing and saying "all done". the nurses felt bad for the little guy. anyways, we decided to kill some time while auntie jess, beth & josiah got ready to meet us so we headed to panera for some coffee and treats. thank goodness we had something warm to sip on at the orchard! I had heard of many orchards around town: some a little more commercialized (and expensive) than others. we settled on the northwoods orchard and were very pleasantly surprised!
besides having free admission, they also have a free petting zoo and hayrides for $1. however, with the insanely wet weather we have had as of late, the tractor was unable to navigate the muddy paths. luckily miles was just as happy with some time on the old stationary tractor!

miles' idea of heaven
no tractor crossings today :(

bunnies and goats

so this sign reads "How Tall This Fall?" - but miles wanted nothing to do with standing still...
...but climbing on the hay bales was A-OK!family foto

miles & josiah

"punkins!"
adorable little josiah

after we checked out the rest of the sites we went inside and had some scrumptious freshly-made-before-your-eyes donuts, nachos, and caramel apples.

no words needed

we discovered that one bonus to coming on the last weekend of the season is "buy one get one free" on apples! both jess and beth took advantage of the bargain. we highly recommend this orchard and look forward to visiting next year!

thanks for coming auntie jess!
and when the 17 month old insists on walking/running away?...put him to work!

the sun'll come out

after days & days of clouds, rain, and SNOW...we finally had some lovely weather today. I headed out to take some seventeen month "fall-ish" pictures of miles. we are still hoping to make it to the orchard, but time is running out. he got a little antsy toward the end... thank you bribery & candy corn. I swore I wouldn't use that tactic, but it works EVERY time! he turned seventeen months on the 22nd and has definitely turned into a little boy. he is a walking tape recorder and feels the need to label (say the name for) everything. he goes around saying "dog", "window", "airplane" (when he hears one), "tv", "doggies", etc. what he sees, he says. unfortunately for mom & dad...what he hears, he also says. yikes! he's starting to put words together. he pointed at my sweatshirt when he came home tonight and said "jacket off". he'll be rattling off sentences soon! his new favorite game is to be chased. he says "get you" and runs away. adorable. we are in the final stages of moving him into his new "big boy room" - pictures soon. but in the meantime...I hope these will do. enjoy!

my favorite

leaf

confused as to why this pumpkin isn't orange like his!

miles, what's on your socks? "punkin!"

"peace out"
(this is his newest phrase...thank you uncle brian!)

first haircut

ok so "first trim" might be a more appropriate title. it is obvious that miles doesn't exactly have a head full of hair, so we honestly thought he would be two years old before needing any sort of haircut. however, he has developed something resembling a mini-mullet as of late and both kyle & I decided that this was NOT the look we were going for.
I was going to line up an appointment at some adorable little kiddie cuts salon, but decided that this would a.) be a waste of money given the few strands of hair he needed cut and b.) traumatize miles. he's in a stranger-danger stage and has a meltdown when any sort of person in charge gets too close. exhibit a - he fell apart when I had to stand on the scale at last week's OB appointment. he was sitting in his stroller and apparently got pushed too close to the scale. I wanted to cry too but for a whole different reason of course. oh I digress...we opted instead for a mommy haircut.

miles did GREAT and sat in the stool like a big boy.

both great grandma's observed and nana caught the hairs to preserve in his baby book.

miles was a bit skeptical at times, but we managed to snip off the mullet and trim a couple of stray hairs here and there.
and the best part of the whole experience for miles? candy corn.