Mr. Miles turned 6! (back in April!) 6 months earlier we had made exciting plans to spend his birthday weekend at a beach house. We almost always go to the beach for his birthday but this was going to be the first time we stayed at a beach house for his birthday. We found the perfect house on the beach that would be super comfortable for our family to party and watch General Conference. We were planning on going up until about a week before Miles' birthday and we were even going to have some out of town friends meet us there then spend the week with us. Then the whole world shut down and plans drastically changed. When I told Miles we couldn't go to the beach for his birthday (which he requests and looks forward to every year) he responded simply with "That's ok, we have a bucket of sand, we can make a beach at home."
Anyway, we had a wonderful home birthday but I'll get into that in a minute. Let me tell you all about how amazing Miles is.
Quarentine-life has brought out the most thoughtful, helpful and compassionate sides of Miles. He has been a dream child and I'm so grateful he has had all this extra time at home to be my helper.
For example, if a brother or parent is hurt, without asking him, he will go search the house to find something to make them happy. He will spend hours helping Max doing yard work. We has been responding the first time when asked to do something The other day, Max and I were sitting on the couch after dinner, exhausted, while the kids ran wild through the house. Miles without being asked, took our shoes, lined them up where they go, brought us blankets and tucked us in. We then proceeded to have a little power nap.
He expresses his gratitude regularly, even for small things. some recent things I've heard include "Thanks for teaching me about the dryer lint, so now I know how to clean it." He is most likely to thank me for dinner, even if it's not his favorite. Another time, after Max helped the boys clean up their room, Miles wanted to thank him by making him a little apple pie and giving him a "love surprise" which I found out means lots of hugs and kisses.
He is one that will come up to you and ask, "How can I help?" It just blows our minds sometimes. I'm not trying to even brag and say how amazing our kid is, I just feel like it's so important to document his kind soul and this point in time that can be so incredibly stressful. He has been bringing much-needed peace into our home recently and for that we are so grateful.
Lots of these poses were his idea! haha!
Miles was really enjoying kindergarten, (and he had the most amazing teacher) then he got stuck with me, but he has adapted quite well. In fact his kindergarten homework is so popular that all his brothers want to do it!
And of course we needed some tree climbing photos because that's been his favorite thing recently.
Miles is still so curious and full of questions, I had to call him out the other day because he was asking question after question while we were trying to watch a movie. We laughed really hard about it.
Miles is a follower when it comes to his brothers. Charlie has always been a leader (and a bit bossy at that) and Miles has always been excited to go along with Charlie's games and ideas and plans, which are often super fun and creative. But this last year Miles started to really find his own voice and speak up with his own ideas. It has ben fun to see, Charlie sometimes doesn't like it, but they still get along really well most of the time.
He also knows how competitive Charlie is and is quick to give up the winning title and just give Charlie what he wants to avoid conflict. haha. He have worked with him to try and understand that he is being very generous but he doesn't have to do whatever Charlie wants.
Miles has been the perfect middle child in our family. He glues the brothers together. He gets along with both of his brothers pretty well. We have the expected squabbles but he really has fun including both of his brothers in all the fun!
He continues to be our most snuggly little boy which Max and I both really enjoy. He has wonderful instincts on when a hug is needed!
I was trying to analyze why I've enjoyed this time at home so much with all these boys and I think it comes down to so much less stress with transitions and waking up early to get places and loading up in the car and trying to be to places on time and the bajillion dr appointments we are going to. We have been able to slow down and let my kids be free spirits. It has been good! It may be a rude awakening for us all when we have to go back on a schedule.
Here is his interview.
Name: Miles
Nicknames: Smiles
How old are you? 6
What is your favorite color? Green
What is your favorite animal? Dolphin
What is your favorite book? "My favorite book is...uh..fox in socks"
What is your favorite TV show? Justin time
What is your favorite movie? Onward
What is your favorite song? "Whenever I hear the song of the birds"
What is your favorite food? "Puffy pancakes, crepes I mean, puffy pancakes and crepes!"
What is your favorite drink? Lemonade
What is your favorite snack? crackers
What is your favorite treat? Bubble gum
What is your favorite outfit? "My favorite thing to wear is my big foot shirt"
What is your favorite game? "My favorite game....TAG!"
What is your favorite toy? My favorite toy is Owly....well, Monkey"
Who is your best friend? "My best friend is...um...Kaleb" (his favorite babysitter)
What do you want to be when you grow up? "Candy bomber...I mean gardener!"
What is your favorite thing to do? "My favorite thing to do it eat"
What is your favorite thing to do outside? "Play tag!"
What is your favorite holiday? "Christmas and New Years Eve"
Where is your favorite place to go? "Sky high"
What is your favorite restaurant? "McDonalds" ( i asked him if he's ever been there and he said "No, but I know it's really fun!")
Where do you want to go on vacation? Camping!
What do you love? Eating!
What did you do on your birthday? I did not eat gum, Eat cupcakes, I got a light up beach ball for one of my presents.
What is Mom good at? "You're good at giving me a bath"
What is Dad good at? "He's good at working at the garden with me."
What is Charlie good at? Charlie is good at doing homework"
What are you good at? "I am good at eating"
What is Edwin good at? "He is good at playing with me"
What makes you laugh? Jokes!
What are you afraid of? "I'm afraid of...the dark"
What do you like to do with your family? I like to go camping with my family"
What do you love to learn about? I love to learn...how to read!"
Tell me a joke? k, knock knock, who's there? banana, banana who? banana splat in your face
What is something you learned this year? "I learned how to love my mommy"
What makes mommy laugh? "Umm....I don't know, Mama laughs cause I do jokey jokes"
What's a nice thing you have done for someone? "Working for a long time with Daddy in the garden at 23rd."
Anyway, his birthday was spent at home on a Sunday. We ate al his favorite foods (biscuits with eggs and sausage for breakfast, crepes for dinner and strawberry cupcakes for dessert.) and snuggled and watched General Conference. (I think it's funny that Miles birthday is often on General Conference weekend in the spring and mine is often on general conference weekend in the fall)
We also had made a piñata well over a year ago that we hoped to use for Edwin's 2nd birthday. It wasn't done in time...(plus his birthday is in the winter, blah!) So we kept thinking we would use it for the next birthday, but I'm not huge on parties, so we didn't. But then we realized we could do the piñata at the beach house and got really excited about the idea. Obviously that didn't work out but we already had the piñata filled so here we are.
Spazzy boys getting ready!
I also feel these photos don't do justice for the loudness coming from such small creatures.
It lasted for two solid rounds so pretty good piñata without being so strong that every one gets bored with it. Also, we were appreciating that our family makes enough of a party, so no need to invite anyone else, ha!
The fruit snacks came flying at me!!!
Miles had requested these pink strawberry cupcakes many months ago so it was pretty fun to finally make them. Then after all that, he didn't love the taste, haha!
We had some cool sunlight coming into our home that evening!
For Miles birthday, he had requested a photo collage of him at each age, and a slideshow of all his photos. He knows how to make me happy and show appreciation for all the photos I'm always taking.
Also, here is his requested slideshow, in case you haven't seen enough Miles' photos. I'm just putting the link here and hope it works and I'm sure if you really wanted to, you could track it down.
https://youtu.be/oT_LF_KLCrs
And That's all, now that school is out and I'm not sharing my computer with my children as much, perhaps I will get caught up on blogging!
