Griffin Henry Blanco

Miles has a new cousin. Griffin arrived on 5/30/08 sometime in the afternoon, measuring 21 inches and weighing 8 pounds, 5 ounces.

Miles is looking forward to meeting the whole clan this summer!

And here is a picture of big brother James.

Nine Months

It has been nine months since Miles made his way into the world. That means he has been out of the womb as long as he was in the womb.

My mother came to visit last weekend and there was a moment when I caught her looking at me playing with Miles. When asked what was up, she said, "I'm just looking at you with him and thinking where did my life go?"

Where did my life go, indeed. It has been a fast trip so far and they tell me it just keeps on gaining speed.

I'm in the midst of the daycare search debacle. Finding good childcare is hard enough but finding good childcare for Miles is even harder. On top of everything a parent looks for, I need to find him a place where he will not get lost in the midst and one in which there is a good enough ratio that they can keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't choke on or lose a hearing aid. It's challenging enough for me to keep the darn things in his ears and I'm his loving mother.



In celebration of reaching the nine month milestone, here's a slide show of him from birth 'til now.
http://cmd.shutterfly.com/commands/pictures/slideshow?site=favphotosofmiles&page=favphotosofmiles&album=53



And here he is modeling his newest Ear Gear, designed to (hopefully) keep him from losing or destroying his hearing aids.

The $4000 Chew Toy

Miles has ruined his second hearing aid. He finds those moments when I turn my back and suddenly he has his hearing aid all the way in his mouth. He ruined the first one last week. In fact, it might have been earlier. I was going to post an entry entitled, "I am a terrible mother." Here's the story.
It was the Saturday before Mother's Day and, as you have read previously, Miles was sick. He had already had a few episodes of projectile vomiting when something would hit his especially sensitive gag reflex and he would puke up everything in his belly. This led to some very exciting breakfasts as Cheerios seem to really set him off. So I had my back to him as I was sending out a Mother's Day e-mail about the "true meaning of Mother's Day." Suddenly, he was puking again and when I rushed over to him, I found the item that was triggering his gag reflex was his hearing aid. After a mild panic and extreme self flagellation, all was fine. But I discovered his hearing aid did not work sometime the following Wednesday.
I found him sucking on the other one yesterday. I think he does it to punish me for not making him the complete and total center of my universe. Fair enough.

The First Real Cold

Miles got his first real cold. It lasted for over 10 days and he spiked the first scary fever of his little life.
We ushered in the first hours of my first official mother's day, like some cruel cosmic joke, in the ER as he woke with a fever of 105.2. Now on antibiotics, he's doing much better.
But it led me to wonder what I would do if he ever got really sick. Not just the cold and flu stuff but something like cancer. Just dealing with his little cold made me feel helpless. He cried for almost every moment of Friday, would cry when he coughed, when he woke with raging fever, when he couldn't eat because he was too stuffy. And he looked to me with those beautiful eyes and asked me to help. And all I could do was hold him, try to nurse him, try ineffectually to reduce his pain a little.
Is this the ultimate lesson of motherhood? To let go of trying to control things? To accept that we are truly helpless?
I had more insight about this a day or two ago but the exhaustion has wiped my brain clean.

Miles shows musical genius

Miles and his dad perform a duet.

Miles embarks on his solo career.