Christmas Dinner and Concert at Grace with Miles

The Blue Doors

Our Little Boy Turned 5 Today ..

... and we are still in love. With spouse, child, family and the understanding we garner each revolution with our Miles boy .. Knock it out of the park today, kiddo ..

Simplified Toys

Carrie and I have always joked around about how Miles really only needs some empty boxes, ice trays, ice cubs, old paint brushes and maybe some plastic hangers to have a solid ensamble of toyls to play with. He's just not entirely into the polished, put together and fancified toys that other kids get involved with. Over the last Thanksgiving break, where Miles had a small pre-birthday gift ceremony, I took some video of how he really plays. Enjoy ..

New Miles School Shot

Poor Miles had a bad round of being sick some weeks back and his school picture shows it. When he is in sick mode, you have to grab several reality checks to function with Miles being so low key. His bus driver, teachers and paras all feel rather confused when Miles isn't ripping around as his usual self. This particular week, he did a lot of sleeping to stave off the infection.

Miles Gets A New Aunt Bonny Package

Fall Fun with Miles

New Miles Hobby: Painting Sheets of Stickers

Final Halloween '09 Montage

Why? & Halloween '09 Round 2

Over the weekend Miles began asking everyone 'why?' much to our amazement. We were so overjoyed to hear him utter that question that we couldn't stop explaining to him everything he wanted to know. Whether it was a logical explination to something he knew would be a 'no' or something a bit more plainative. We are ecstatic about the unraveling possibliities of his very small word question and the huge world of verbal possibilities we can explain to him. Also, we hit round 2 of the Halloween marathon taking place this year. He had a trunk or treat event in Belton several weeks back, then a Boo at the Zoo this weekend and a night of passing out candy on Halloween at the house coming up very soon. It's like being around a Beatle when people in public see Miles waltzing around in his Eyeore costume. People go crazy talking to him and screaming from far away when they see him. Luckily, we came across the Eyeore costume this year because all he said to us was that he wanted to be a donkey. It's his first year not being a pumpkin. At any rate, another shot of the rock star strutting abouts in his frestive donkey gear.

Offical Miles Artwork on a Card Via Grace

Miles Donkey & His Best Pal

Miles & His Newly Found Independence

Riding the Language Elevator

In our continued push to get Miles verbally communicating with us and the surrounding world, we had several small breakthroughs recently. This morning, he was clearly saying over and over 'bye dad' as I was getting ready to leave. Then, the other night he was looking at a picture from his speech therapy of a banana and actually said the word. It's these small triumphs from our Miles boy that brings those ever small slivers of hope that one day he will start talking with us. All we can do is keep those fingers firmly crossed ..

Miles Loved the Circus

Once we got over the constant barage of distractions and intense stimulation, Miles really warmed up to the circus. The tigers, elephants and horses were his favorite part. Good times had by all .. Thanks GiGi Judy ..

Miles Opens a GiGi Letter

Schlitterbahn Water Park Fun

Miles Reflection

As we slip further into the fall school year with Miles, it's time for a bit of a reflection what has been going on lately. For the first time, Miles is going full days to school. He goes 4 full days and we have heard from his his teacher, Ms. Connie, that he is doing very well. In addition, he is doing a solid job with his potty training. Overall, he has been working on a variety of skills to better equip him for this world and is trying hard and doing his best at all of them. Also, he has been picking up the acute ability lately of singing songs spontaneously around the house. Quite nice to listen to. Finally, we are really hammering home the use of spoken language instead of sign language. These days Miles is chalk full of change as we keep moving forward at a pace we can comprehend ..

Miles at His First Auction

New Miles Trick

On a day with his big brother, Zen, Miles picked up a new activity. The stair sliding fad is on ..

Miles and His Next Door Nana

In a couple of weeks, our Miles boy is going to have to say 'bye-bye' to one of his biggest joys in our neighborhood. For the past two years, Miles has sprung with glee from our driveway to say hello to our neighbor that we affectionately call 'the next door nana.' They both share an enormous amount of glee from giving each other a hug and saying a mighty hello. This will be a rather momentous change for Miles, but I really wanted to capture a bit of the joy for all to enjoy.

Twirlin' with Miles at the Carnival

City Fun with Miles

First Day of School

Miles & Zen: First Day of '09 - '10 School Year

The New Miles Playground Favorite

Local Media Exposure for Miles

'09 Summer Fun

Zen Films Miles Riding His Bike

Certificate on the Final Night of Summer Special Olympics

Miles Mows the Grass

Capturing an AM Thunderstorm with Miles

miles constructs a toy enigma

Miles is Close to Saying His Own Name

Miles Makes His Own Hot Dog

Miles Really Liked the 4th

Special Olympics

Instead of playing T-Ball this summer, Miles has jumped ship to a new venture: The Special Olympics. His best friend, Charity, is taking part as well. We threw together a small video to give you a glimpse. Enjoy.

Miles Has Taken Up A Fishing Habit

Horsin' Around at a Fair

The End of Analog & Our Flat Panel TV

I wove Miles into a bit of a ceremony to witness the end of analog. Also, I put together a sort of a memorial to our broken 42" flat panel TV that Miles threw a Dora head at. A freaky kind of accident in a week full of things breaking all around us. A video has been tossed together to show the end of our beloved TV and the end of lovel analog.

Miles: The T-Ball Player

Long Line of Unexpected

There are many times in a day that you have to relent and allow Miles to be the boy he is with the vision of the world that he wants to create. Rather than ram up against what you might what to do in an activity with Miles, you have to take in a deep breath and allow his brain to lead you in the direction it needs to go. Case in point .. the other day, I just bought Miles a new trove of paints. The next morning, he lept up and began chirping about how he wanted to start painting. So, after we collected all the paints, brushes and paper, we headed out back to get it going. But, there was also a blue Thomas train he was clutching in his hands the whole time we were on a scavenger hunt to do our paints. It was going to be the Thomas train that he was going to paint. At this, I let him do it. Rather than expain to him that paper is the surface he should use, I let him decide. I'm a steward of using a variety of surfaces when I paint, so why should I limit my boy. It actually turned out pretty nice .. he might just have a future in painting small, medium or huge trains.

Miles' Favorite Household Chore .....

The New Big Wheel

Family Pic-Nic Night at Grace

Miles Joy After a Visit to US Toy

Miles with the Stickers & the Lightning

4

The Tale of Miles' Bruises

Miles has a persistently had rows of bruise dots along his legs. His constant falling, smashing into things, dropping things and the other little accidents always dot his legs in a perpetual tattoo. Their appearance is so frequent that I typically forget what a regular kid leg should look like. At any rate, he's always tearing through life with a smile on his face. That's they key ..

the BIG bus

This week, Miles has been living a daily thrill by getting on a newer, bigger bus while his regular one is getting worked on. We had to shoot a video for him to watch over and over and over and over and over again. So .. please enjoy.

Miles & His Best Pal Charity

Miles & Ebeneezer the Donkey

Miles and the Tale of the Canteloupe

Wiffle Ball Spring Action

New Spring '09 School Photo for Miles

Miles is Taking His Own Pictures

Miles has been dabbling in the photogrphic arts the last 6 months or so. Click here to take a look at what is important in Miles' world.

Raw Fizz

Miles has grown quite fond of a cup of alka seltzer next to the ear drum. The more intense the better for our Miles boy ..

Surprise Winter Fun & Music

Lately, there have been two songs soaring through the Miles nomenclature. First, he has to hear a song called 'go-go-go' by 'The 88' when in the car. I really love this band, but he's got me to the point where I can't listen to them casually for a long while because I hear that song so much. The other song is 'piggies' by The Beatles. I had to halt the repetition on this one because it would be sacrelidge to do that to the White Album. At any rate, we dug the recent snow and got our feet cold and wet with all of it. A bit of a video below recapturing the surprise winter fun with Miles .. enjoy.

Dirt & Paint Mush

On the first full spring weekend around the house, Miles made his rounds in style. Between the pool and the mud, he got his hands full of paint. I put a little video up to compound the warm weather Miles fun .. Enjoy.

Speaking without Words

In our IT shop in the school disrict I work at, I answered a knock to our door this morning and had a teacher shoved me a note scrawled on a white writing pad. She was tapping a pen to a request for me to meet her in a conference room to help get a DVD player to work. As I nodded calmly, we headed over wordlessly to the room. I didn't ask or delve any further into why this teacher, who typically speaks in vocal words, wasn't speaking to me except with a medium sized pad of paper and blue pen. As I was tinkering with the cables and TV, she wrote a couple of new directives which I immediately nodded and went along my way. After she wrote that she couldn't talk for 2 weeks due to a strained vocal cord, I smiled and told her my story. I said that my 4 1/2 year old son was non-verbal and I have an easy time decoding gestures, pointing and a host of non-verbal cues. At this, she gave me a broad smile as I went along figuring our how she was going to project her DVD with people speaking to a room of folks that would be silent.

Catchin' Sunshine ..

The Hi/Eye Riddle: DECODED

After careful thought and diligent questioning, Carrie finally figured out what Miles wanted .. the video below explains ..

Hi - Eye

Yesterday I learned another huge lesson in the perpetual language interpretation dance that Carrie, Zen and I have to do with Miles. While in Martin City getting Bar-B-Que at the Jack Stacker, Miles began getting very excited at something across the street. He was pointing and hemming about something to do with water and his eye. As I asked him what he wanted, he pointed at a regular tan building across the street in excitement. All the while, he kept pointing to his eye. As I strained to gain his meaning, I was lost. We had no history with the building across the street. It is a home remodeling business and there was nothing more in the frame that was giving me a clue. So, we went in and got our food and made our way back out. I explained to him as we rounded by the building and sped out of sight that I was not sure what he was saying and that we should talk about what he was trying to convey. We could meet that communication compromise. The whole way home he was moaning ‘eye’ and pointing towards the back of the car. This continued in brief intervals throughout the night. Through all of our collective digging into the mysterious riddle, we may have conjured up the notion that he saw a billboard for a commercial that included water and eye wear. Other than that, we are lost and likely going to have to take him back to that building, let him out and allow him the opportunity to solve our riddle and let his small communication dream come true. We’ll let you know if we come into the ‘know’ ourselves. In the meantime, I have attached a raw video that Zen boy recently shot of Miles going though a set of words and sounds that Miles has mastered.

Seasons and Changing

As we wait for spring, we begin invent a bit of our own spring. Lately, we have been taking Miles to the newly opened pool up the way and he loves it. With new wings on his arms and another year tacked on, he gets better at wading around in the waters. A good part of why we are doing this is to tame the tempest that has been flaring in little Milo of late. With age, a new range of emotions have been boiling to the surface and we are fully engaged in helping him explore his speech-less world in more effective manners. So, as we brim in anticipation for more warm days, we give you a brief video glimpse of one of Miles' favorite outdoor activities .. we're not sure what it's called, but we do know how to describe it. This is Miles mixing a variety of bubble flavors into a big, fancy mix. The end result is a huge mess that he loves and is uniquely him in all his little kid ways.

pure goose

The day Miles was born, we spent the first part of that morning running around trying to find the movie 'Winged Migration'. I figured it would be a relaxing DVD to watch in the hospital room as we awaited the arrival of our Miles boy. Every since then, I have held a special affinity for the goose and lately I have tried to absorb the grace of a gaggle of geese flying off at once. Yesterday, I injected Miles with that joy by stopping on the side of the road and approaching a large group of geese on a soccer field. This video is a glimpse of what Miles saw and reason why he said 'more' after the last goose was gone .. enjoy.

A Trip to the Dentist ..

Miles Slides Away in St. Joseph

Jar Jar Binks Morph Via Miles

Miles 'Can' Stack

Building a Snowman with Miles

The Story of Miles and His Bags

iPod Light Saber Fun in Traffic

It has been a trying growth spurt lately with Miles boy. He is not enjoying the act of going down for a nap/sleeptime and we are currently working on effective means to calm him and make it a more enjoyable time of the day. On the sunnier side of the egg, he has been really taking to the new iPod touch in the car. His two favorite apps are an animal game that makes a host of animal sounds and a Star Wars light saber interface. While driving, Miles man's the road with his light saber skills by warding off evil empire traffic that may hedge on our path. A video documenting this deft set of Miles skills is below. On a final note, enjoy the political goodness in the air today .. Miles quite enjoyed the Obama innaguration on TV and knows he saw our President Obama in Kansas City during that sunny fall afternoon.

Hooked on a Spoon Trick

For about a week now, Miles has been completely hooked on a spoon trick that a kid named Marshall does on Yo Gabba Gabba! When his mind starts wandering and finally comes back into a razor sharp exit warp, he'll start pointing at his nose for the Marshall spoon trick. Over the course of a couple of days, I would have to run the DVD we have up and down to the annointed DVD player that was in the room to accomodate his desire to see this trick. Well, that ended when I filmed the TV and slapped it on our laptop and PC connected to the TV downstairs. Now, he can ingest the Marshall trick on a loop as much as he would like. I'm sure he has seen it a minimum of several hundred times and he is captivated each successive time as though it's the first time he has ever seen it. I have put the clip below for your viewing pleasure .. enjoy.

Eating Breakfast with Miles

Jumpin' into 2009

Today we officially came to an end of a very long hoiday vacation around the homestead. Miles finally boarded the bus and got a nice note with good behavior from school. Over this extended break, there were many thrills and a host of needed revelations. One of the coolest things that happened over the break was when Miles got strapped in on his own to take flight in some odd Mall bungee jump affair. All of it was caught on tape for his viewing pleasure and for yours. Enjoy ..