Father's Day Weekend

We had a nice relaxing weekend. I love days without plans sometimes and Saturday was one of them. We ended up driving around - which is always nice 'cause we always end up seeing something interesting or finding a neat restaurant/store. We hung out a little bit in West Hartford and had empanadas for lunch. (Yum!) We actually went to the hotel we stayed at when we first moved to Connecticut. They were really friendly and 2 of the ladies that work there became friends of mine. It was nice to visit her =) My friend was so excited to see Miles. It was funny to come in and have employees notice that we got Miles' hair cut. =) I guess Miles is pretty memorable ; )

On Father's Day - we headed out for a little "Rhode" Trip  (har har). It was our first time to Rhode Island - all three of us. This makes State #9 for Miles =) We really didn't have any major plans made, we just wanted to check it out and walk around. We went to Newport, RI and walked around town for a little bit. We had lunch at The Black Pearl and sat outside at their Patio - which was great. We could see many different boats and boat tours where we were sitting. Miles loved seeing the birds fly by and the boats floating away. We also drove to the beach and walked along "Cliff Walk" - which is a path by the ocean with many different mansions to see. It was pretty neat to see how grand those mansions were. Many people were walking and there was a family we crossed paths with with a little girl - and she ended up giving Miles a flower. =) Miles was in awe. haha 

We spent the whole day there and had dinner at a Brazilian tapas restaurant. It was a great day and Miles was zonked out by the time we got home. Super precious. We had a lot of fun and I think Papa had a great Father's Day =)

 

Miles' New 'Do!

Our baby is definitely a toddler now! Miles got his 1st haircut this past Saturday. And it definitely changed his looks! My baby looks so much older now! hehe We think it's so adorable though. Miles did great during the cut. We went to a place specifically for kids. They have cute toys and seats for different ages. Miles got to ride in a red car. =)  He also got a certificate at the end with a lock of hair saved. Very sweet.

It's a Filipino thing to have the dad do the first cut - so I had Tim do the first snip at the salon. The lady who cut Miles' hair was great. She is definitely a pro. My high school friend, Tom, drove from NYC to visit us on Saturday and he got to witness this milestone! He also helped entertain Miles during the haircut by blowing bubbles. haha This was a group activity! Funny thing, Miles was playing with my hairbrush at home before we headed to the hair salon - and he did not want to let go of it. So, he brought it with him - in the car and into the hair salon. Silly goose!

It took a couple of days to get used to Miles' new hairdo, to be honest. When I would go in his room when Miles wakes up, I would just stare at him for a few seconds with a smile. Miles would be giddy and happy like usual - not realizing why I'm just staring. hehe Time really flies by.

Also, here's a little video that I recorded of Miles this morning. Miles knows how to "mano" now. Mano is a gesture done by Filipinos as a sign of respect for the elderly. You would say "Mano po" and place their hand on your forehead. You usually do this to people in a different generation from you. I wouldn't "mano" to my sister or brothers, for example.. just parents, aunts/uncles, grandparents, etc.

Monkey Love!

Almost 14 months old.. and Miles is definitely growing! His bottom molars have broken through and I feel like his top ones are on their way. (He's been pretty fussy lately) Miles is also enjoying his new found skill of walking. I'm pretty sure he loves his independence. We went to a birthday party this past weekend at Tim's coworker's house and Miles walked around the house like he's been there a million times!

Miles and I have been busy at home and out & about in town. We checked out a local Children's Museum today. Miles had a great time. He was laughing and smiling and following big kids around. I'm sure we'll be back there again, since I bought a membership. I'm pretty excited about the membership for it since it allows us free access to many different children's museums all across the US.

Monkey Love. Miles loves his friend, Monkey. He sleeps with it every night and it's so sweet to see his arm around the monkey while sleeping. He loves to hug & kiss the Monkey. I bet he'll name the Monkey something else when he gets older, but for now it's just Monkey. In the morning when Miles wakes up, he'll play and chitchat with his Monkey for awhile before being ready to start the day with me. It's actually very entertaining to listen to Miles in the morning - with his babbling and "singing." Best thing my ears have ever listened to!

I can't believe how different days & nights are now with Miles compared to the early baby days. Miles has been sleeping through the night for a long time now but it still amazes me to look back at those nursing-throughout-the-night nights. How did I do that?? hah

Memorial Weekend with Friends

We celebrated Memorial Weekend in a couple of ways. First, I ran a 5K on Saturday morning - Miles & Papa watched me finish. It was the Color Me Rad 5K and it was a lot of fun. Definitely not a serious race - and they don't even time you. The whole point is just to have fun and get color bombed! Which is good - because I signed up for it a week before and I didn't train for it at all. I ran the race with Tim's coworker, who I met for the first time. She was nice and I'm glad I got to run with somebody. I was a little worried about the race the night before since I honestly haven't done any form of working out - but I did fine. It gave me motivation to finally start working out in any shape or form, which is a plus =)

 Saturday afternoon, my friends Melissa, Marilen, and Daisy came to visit for the weekend. They live in New York and in DC - so they took an Amtrak to us. (Well, Marilen lives in Michigan, but she was in town visiting her sister) We had a great time with them. We relaxed at home, ate a lot of food and "merienda", watched a Filipino movie at home plus a bunch of random stuff on Netflix, and also went to church on Sunday. I always have a great time with my girl friends and this visit didn't disappoint! Lots of laughing happened! =) They had a nice time at our new place and had a lot of fun with Miles.  I'm so happy they got to visit us. I'm looking forward to seeing more of Melissa since she is a lot closer now.

Here is a video of everyone hanging out at home. Melissa was having a lot of fun with Miles - trying to get him to hug her. haha Enjoy!

Miles is Walking!

It feels like Miles is learning and growing so much and so quickly! Miles has been cruising along furniture even when we were in the hotel. But more and more, Miles was starting to reach farther between things and semi-taking steps on his own. Yesterday, I asked him to walk to me while he was standing against a chair and he took 5 steps to me! It was really exciting =) I told Papa right away and he was excited to see it when he got home. I love Miles' "happy feet" when he would walk towards me. =) So cute.

We've been so busy lately trying to sort out our stuff out of the boxes that were left closed for the time being. We've been cleaning and organizing a lot and it helped that the weather was so nice during the weekend. We're trying to get ourselves ready for our first guests (well, technically, my brother Herman was the guest) that are coming this weekend. I'm so excited! =)

Miles Update: Living in Connecticut

Miles: 13 Months Old

It's amazing that so much time has already gone by. Last time I posted was for Miles' birthday.. and that was a month ago! We are now in our new place. Still unpacking and sorting out stuff. Much harder to do when there's an active baby and work to do. But it'll happen - not worried.


Miles has transitioned so well in every type of change we have put him through. When we stayed in our hotel for a month, he was great. He roamed around a lot and it really gave him a lot of confidence and independence. The hotel employees really loved Miles and how well he interacted with them. It was a bit sad to leave a hotel (first time I've ever said that!) - we made some good friends there. He also did so well with me going to the hospital and getting surgery. it's like he knew what was happening.. and he helped in his own way.


Now that we're in our new place, Miles has definitely grown. He sleeps well, a lot more independent while playing, and loves to have fun & explore. He loves to dance whenever he hears music. Sometimes, Tim and I don't even realize that music is playing and he does (mostly at restaurants) and he'll start dancing. He is very social still and very curious. I love watching him play with his toys and just realizing what to do with them. He is very quick to learn new concepts and I'm just so amazed and proud of him. Recently, I taught him how to use a spoon and a fork. He caught on very well! He uses them daily now. He likes to use the utensils and have me feed him too (food at a quicker rate! haha). He babbles a lot and with different intonation. Talking to him is becoming more and more like a conversation. I feel like I really know what he's talking about most of the time. He responds to a lot of my questions and actually does most of the things I ask him to do.. like "Can you bring Mama the ball?" "Can you put it here? (while pointing in my hand)" "Can you drink your milk?" He also is good at listening to details. If I ask him to look for his soccer ball, he actually looks for the specific ball and not just any other ball. 


I've also noticed that Miles likes to hide stuff or put something in a specific spot. Yesterday, I saw him put his stuffed puppy next to the TV. Then he left and we played in the kitchen .. and then he crawled back to the living room to play with his toys. I was just standing there and saw the puppy.. so I asked him while he was playing with something else, "Where's the puppy?" and he immediately turned and looked up to where the puppy was and pointed to it! He actually crawled, stood up to it (while holding on), took it from the spot, and brought it back to me! I was just speechless. He is a smart cookie! =)


Here are a couple of videos of Miles eating with a fork and with a spoon. Enjoy! =)

Miles turns 1!

Our baby boy is 1!

Our precious baby is technically no longer a baby! He is now a toddler. I can't believe how fast the year went. I can still remember the night I gave birth.. Miles was so alert and sweet right from the beginning. And he has amazed us a million times over in the past year. Tim and I are just so happy and grateful for our baby boy. And I hope he had a great first birthday.

I decorated our hotel room a little bit and bought a few balloons. (Miles loves balloons) I also made some birthday cupcakes for our little guy. Our little celebration became even more special with an impromptu virtual birthday party with family, through Google Hangout. First, my brother, Herman, and I were video-chatting and thought it would be cool to have more people on.. so, my sister downloaded it and my brother in law also downloaded it. It turned out perfectly. Miles got to see his cousins on the computer and laugh with them. They all helped sing Happy Birthday to him while we brought out his cupcakes & candle. And they also got to watch Miles devour his first cupcake! (He loved his cupcake!) I'm so glad it turned out nicely. I was a bit bummed at first when we moved to Connecticut that we couldn't throw Miles a birthday party with kids, but this was perfect. Even the kids online interacted with each other! They loved watching Miles =) I'm really glad Miles had a great 1st birthday. He is such a precious boy and deserved a wonderful birthday =)

Here is a picture of Miles a year ago.. so sweet and fragile.. so amazing.

The next day, Miles and I were just hanging out in the hotel room. Miles has been so active now and crawls around everywhere! He loves to hang out under the table here in our hotel room. Here is a video of him being super cute:

Happy Easter!

It has been a little while since I last posted. We have been in Connecticut for a couple of weeks now. We have been driving around and checking out different areas and restaurants and at the same time looking for a place to live. We recently decided on a rental a few days ago, so we're pretty excited about that. Just recently, I had to go to the ER here because I had some really bad stomach pains that woke up me at 5am on Friday.. and it ended being due to my gall bladder.. I have gall stones and one was stuck. I was admitted to the hospital and ended up staying there overnight. (Not my favorite thing) It has been a busy couple days because of that, but we still enjoyed our Easter today.

I hope everyone had a nice Easter. When Miles woke up, I had him look for Easter eggs around our hotel room. I gave him his Easter basket a few days ago so he would be a little used to it before today =) He was pretty good at seeing the eggs right away. His eyes got huge when we stepped into the living room area with the eggs. It was really cute. This is Miles' 2nd Easter. Last year, he was only a couple of weeks old .. amazing how time flies! Tomorrow, Miles will turn the big 1!

 

Farewell Illinois!

Good bye Midwest! The Khoury Family is officially in Connecticut now. We arrived here on Saturday night. The flights went well. Miles was his usual sweet self on the first flight and entertained the people behind us. During the 2nd flight, he was a bit more fidgety because it was closer to his bedtime. He slept towards the end of the flight, which was good.

We had a great time during our Naperville Vacation. =) It was so nice to hang out with my sister-in-laws. We spent most of our time at my sister-in-law's, Katie's, house. She made us some delicious breakfasts..it felt like I was staying at a bed & breakfast =) Miles enjoyed being able to play with his cousins this week. I'm sure he already misses them now, as we play around in our hotel room just us two. I also got to see downtown Naperville during the week, which is a very cute area! We got to play at a park, walk around downtown, and have dinner there one night.

Our last night in Naperville, we headed over to my other sister-in-law's, Dina's, house. Tim also arrived in Chicago, so he can travel with us back to Connecticut the next day. Miles got to play with his cousins, Mena and Sophia, on Friday and Saturday. Sophia and Miles are so close in age.. and sometimes they sound a lot alike! I'm really glad Miles got to spend some time with all of his Khoury cousins. He got to play with Abbie last weekend for a little bit. I hope he can see his cousins again soon! (Visit us everyone!) =)

We went out to dinner one night and had some frozen yogurt at Red Mango. The kids were being cute and goofy - posing around for pictures. =)

  

Our last day in Illinois was spent with Kareem, Dina, and the kids. Miles was full of kisses for his Aunt Dina!

 

Playing in Naperville

The weather in Illinois has been amazing. It's working out perfectly for our last week here. Miles has been playing with his cousins so much. He loves it. I'm pretty sure his cousin Grace is his hero. haha He laughs and smiles at anything she does! He loves playing with Grace and Gabe. And they are such sweethearts to him. (Melts me!) I'm sure I'll post more pictures of Miles and his cousins throughout the week but I wanted to share some of Miles & Grace playing yesterday at my sister-in-law's house. Katie made a little tunnel/fort for the kids, and they crawled through it. Miles ended up pulling the sheet down, so the kids played on the pillows instead. Miles loved every bit of it.