Miles is 5 and Alive!

Miles Miles Miles! Oh how he brings excitement to our life!


Miles is as inquisitive as they come, usually spouting off way more questions than I can answer in a lifetime. The wheels in his head are constantly turning and trying to figure out some pretty challenging concepts, many of his questions are related to death, infinity, gravity, space, bad guys and God.

This boy yearns for adult attention. (middle child syndrome perhaps?) He clings to his preschool teachers, grandparents, uncles, aunts, daddy, sometimes his mother, etc. He is the most touchy feely of my kids and likes to climb on and cuddle anyone that will give him the chance.

 Max and I have worked really hard to make one-on-one time with each of our kids and feel like Miles loves this the most. I take advantage of the time I have with just him when Edwin is sleeping and Charlie is in school. Most days we go to the bus stop together to pick up Charlie while Edwin is sleeping. Another mom at the bus stop pointed out that it really appeared that we had a close relationship and when she walks up to us at the bus stop it looks like we're in a Norman Rockwell painting because of how we interact with each other. I felt like that was a very kind compliment as I really do strive to give him the attention he needs. 

Miles is very verbal about who his favorite people are...the rank goes like this
1. Grandma Sharolee/Monkey stuffed animal
2. Max
3. Gwenevere and Grace etc....
I don't think I've ever made the ranks, but that's ok, because he's picked some pretty great favorites.

As we were taking his photos quickly (immediately following swim lessons) He fell in the mud again. This seems to happen a lot with him. Despite that, he is an extremely coordinated and strong kid packed into a tiny package.

FIVE!

Anyway, he still blurts out something every time he wakes up. I just wish I could record this but I never know when he's going to wake up, most of the time I'm not in his room. The last one I remember was something about a bad sandwich. They are seriously so random and hilarious. It s a super fun quirk.

So, speaking of his never ending questions, I decided to document some of them. About a month ago, I sat down to lunch with him. It was just the two of us and I knew he was already in an inquisitive mood so I thought I would just try to write down every question he asked in this 20 minute period. He had no idea I was doing this so all his questions came up naturally as I was really trying to answer them. I know I still missed a bunch of them but here are a lot in a 20 minute time period...

What is bigger than ginormous?

Do ants ever sleep? 

Why do you think charlie likes robots so much?

Is what’s underground real, well I know worms and dirt are real, what else? I know subways are real. 

What if I only had one finger, one toe and one foot? 

Can I have some grapefruit? Why did you spray some grapefruit juice in your hair? Will you have to dry that with your dryer? 

Is it going to be a million infinity more days until you’re dead? 

Can people have infinity stinkers?

Can people die if they’re dead?

How are people alive when they’re dead? How can people see Heavenly Father when they’re dead? 

How many things can you talk about of dying? 

Can you tell me all the things you can say about die? 

What is the Holy Ghost? 

Can bald eagles see space like humans can’t? 

I think that was all I got written down for that particular lunch, and as I tried to answer him, more questions came out. 

Here are some more of his questions and quotes from other days that I felt were noteworthy. 

Why do we always need haircuts?

Why does our hair keep growing?

Why do I always have spit coming in my mouth? 

Mom, what does it feel like to be a woman? 

How do batteries get power?

Why isn’t there gravity in space?

Was that the time mom liked making play dough? (After Max is prefacing a story on how he proposed to me in the snow)  

Mom, if you were a boy, what would your name be? “I don’t know” 

it would be Tim

Mom, there’s something humany about you!

Mom, what if Jesus never stopped making people and heavenly father never stopped answering prayers? 

Mom, the air is going to hurt Edwin if he doesn’t get bacon. 

Mom is your hair poison?

No

Is it poison if you eat it?

No, but it would be gross.

Well I think I’ve eaten it before and I kinda liked it.

After fixing his hair post shower “it looks like a field of dead plants” 

Anyway, as usual we did a survey. So here is a bit more about Miles.

Name: Miles Spencer Baertlein

Nicknames: Smiles

How old are you? a little bit bigger than 4 and a half (He's been saying this for the last 6 months, and we asked him this a day before his birthday) 

What is your favorite color? Green

What is your favorite animal? Peregrine Falcon

What is your favorite book? "can you give me some time to think  about it?" "Oh I know, Oh the places you'll go!"

What is your favorite TV show? "hmmm...I have lots of favorites, it is little einsteins, octonauts, blaze...and all the movies in the world actually"

What is your favorite movie? All the movies in the world"

What is your favorite song? Little Einstein movie songs

What is your favorite food? Crepes

What is your favorite drink? Juice

What is your favorite snack? I think it's applesauce, oh, my favorite fruit snack is actually fruit leathers"

What is your favorite treat? "it's all the treats in the world"

What is your favorite outfit?  pajamas

What is your favorite game? Duck Duck goose

What is your favorite toy? It's my fire chief truck

Who is your best friend? "Okay, my best friends are August and Gwenevere and Grace, both of their families and them, They're actually cousins but they're still nice friends."

What do you want to be when you grow up? "The candy Bomber"
What is your favorite thing to do? Watch shows

What is your favorite thing to do outside? If it's so sunny with no rain dripping down and no puddles, I like to go swimming"

What is your favorite holiday? St Patricks day

Where is your favorite place to go? Disneyland

What is your favorite restaurant? Red Lobster

Where do you want to go on vacation? "Disneyland, to me it just seems like I really love it." (He's never been)

What do you love? Fire Chief truck, I mean TV
 What did you do on your birthday? "I went swimming and I did...ummm....and slime cake....and I diiiiiiid, um um um, brought jello mans to my school." 

What do you do really well? "Duck Duck goose"

What makes you laugh? I want to think about it.....seeing really funny things go by"

What are you afraid of? "Things that are bad"

What do you like to do with your family? "Go to Disneyland"

What do you love to learn about? Games

What is your mom good at? "at being Smart"

What is your dad good at? "Doing work"

What is Charlie good at? "Inventing stuff"

What is Edwin good at? 'Spinning the chair"

Tell me a joke? "Ummm...Knock knock, who's there? Erupting cow, erupting cow who? no it's not erupting cow who, it's erupting cow moo!" 
What is something you learned this year? Swimming lessons
 What makes mommy laugh? Jokes 'chuckle chuckle' stinkers 'chuckle chuckle'
 What's a nice thing you have done for someone? "Letting my mommy watch me do swimming"


Anyway, he felt special all day on his birthday. He made avenger Jello wigglers to bring to preschool and Max got to be the parent helper which made Miles so happy. I got to run a bunch of errands with just one kid and not worry about dropping off and picking up miles so that made me happy. We were able to get some balloons for Miles too. 

Once he got home, we worked hard making his slime cake that he's been wanting for months. and we prepared the crepes he requested for dinner. Something I've done without really realizing it is letting my kids pick and design their own cakes. I'm not one to make pretty cakes and if it turns out super ugly, you can't blame me. ha! And they just love to do it anyway!

We enjoyed a deluxe crepe dinner! (The green stuff is whipped cream left over from making the cake)

and then put the toppings on the cake

The topping is vanilla pudding dyed green, so maybe a little less gross than frosting piled that high?!

 

We then opened gifts, Miles got a froggy umbrella, walkie talkies, water beads, a pedometer watch and a couple creations from Charlie.

We then loaded up in the car quickly and made our way to the pool to swim for the rest of the night. Obviously no pictures were taken but we had fun with the water slide. We stayed until closing (9pm) Then called it a night. Miles had a wonderful birthday and it was the perfect family party!