Milo enjoys being mesmerized by the TV much like the rest of us. Yesterday he was sitting in his little chair (which he uses at random) watching TV and munching on some trail mix. I thought it was a cute scene and took a few pictures. I particularly like how he eats and watches the TV through the transparent container. That is classic Milo!
I finally managed to get my act together enough to get a Christmas post done. Sorry that it has taken so long. This was certainly the first time that Milo has even started to grasp what Christmas is all about. Due to that fact, this Christmas was interesting on so many levels. We hadn’t said much about Santa Claus or the revelry of Christmas around the house. Milo’s aunts took it upon themselves to explain it all, so Milo was well informed by the time the holiday came around. He had decided that he wanted a pair of slippers from Santa. He had received a pair of Elmo slippers last Christmas from his slipper loving Aunt. He has recently started to wear them more often and apparently wanted a new pair. Well, when he woke up on Christmas morning and went out to see what Santa had brought he didn’t see a new pair of slippers. He had the following reaction…
I don’t know if it was surprise, awe, confusion, or disbelief. You can decide. After a bit of coaxing, Milo went over to investigate what Santa had brought. He was excited to find that Santa left a new train, bridge, and track to add to his Thomas the Train Duplo train set. He now has enough engines, tracks, and props to make some pretty impressive track combinations. He also found that Santa had left him a digital camera. What do you think he did? He took a picture of the new train of course 
Now, I can take pictures as well Dad!
Grandma Little uses gigantic stockings…it is a long story as to why, but they are pretty cool. Milo managed to get his picked up and took it to his mother for further inspection.
He seemed very excited to get some new underwear. It is good that he still appreciates the simple things.
He also found a nice set of watercolors in his stocking. He really seems to like them.
And Santa did not forget…he brought Milo a new pair of Scooby Doo slippers in his stocking. Milo was a bit disappointed that they weren’t Elmo slippers, but he managed to overcome the disappointment. He was so excited that he put on the slippers and promptly took a picture of them. Crazy kid. It was funny to watch him snapping photos of everything in the room. He really seemed to enjoy the camera.
We then took a break from the presents to have breakfast and wait for the rest of the family to arrive. In an attempt to start a new tradition based on an old tradition we had a breakfast with all of the fixings…even rice pudding…yum! After breakfast was cleaned up, gifts were distributed and the opening began. Milo was tearing the paper off as quickly as possible. I did get a few actions shots…
He was so excited to get the “great big grumpy guards” book to stop and have his mother read him a few pages. Priorities…priorities…
Finally, the presents were finished. We were all sitting around examining gifts and the like when Milo decided it was time to take a photo of everyone in the room. When he was finished with that task he decided to do a photo documentary of himself. He took a picture of his pajama bottoms and then his belly button. I tried to take a picture of him attempting to photograph his belly, but I was laughing too hard to get a shot off. You will just have to believe me that it was hilarious!
Milo was excited about a number of his gifts. He was quite intrigued by the watercolors and spent a bit of time trying them out. They seem to be a hit. He liked painting.
We also made a trip over to Grandma Turner’s house for Christmas, but silly Dad forgot to take his camera. As a result we don’t have any photos from that excursion.
(We figured that we might as well post our Christmas card for this year to the blog for those of you who bother to read it. It should be sent out soon, so here it is on the blog.)
December 11, 2006
Happy Holidays to everyone! The feedback that we got last year was that people enjoyed our photo holiday card. We are going to attempt it again this year. You will want to be sure to check out our online version because we have some bonus content (most notably a photo montage of our year). Be sure to check it out! To view the web version, please see http://www.scomotle.org/christmas06.html.
This year has been quite exciting for our family. It wasn’t hard to decide on the Little family event of the year. It was……..our summer in the Bay Area. Scott accepted a summer internship with a company in Los Altos, CA. Monica and Milo didn’t want to miss out on the fun of watching Scott actually hold down a “real” job, so they went along for the experience. We set a goal to get out and enjoy ourselves as much as possible. We believe we managed to achieve that goal We also managed to do a few other noteworthy things during the year. Some of our other adventures here in Utah included trips to Zion National Park and the St. George area, Moab, and of course, our fall trip to Bryce Canyon National Park. We did have season tickets to the Real Salt Lake games, but due to our time in California, we were only able to see a handful of games. We were having so much fun in California that we didn’t even bother to come back for the Real Madrid game. We spent the weekend in Yosemite instead.
Now for a bit more detail on the Little family event of the year, our summer in the Bay Area. On the way to California, we took a couple of extra days and went to Yosemite. It was amazing to see the waterfalls in early summer. We especially enjoyed the Mist Trail. The next weekend we went down to Monterey Bay and took Milo to the Aquarium for his birthday. Milo enjoyed that very much and fell in love with sharks! We also went to Pacific Grove and Pebble Beach.
We spent many of our weekends in San Francisco. It certainly came to be one of our favorite places. We made it to see an Oakland A’s game, Coit Tower, Pier 39, Ghirardelli Square, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Palace of Fine Arts, the Marin Headlands, Alcatraz, and many other places in the San Francisco area. The highlight of San Francisco definitely had to be the time we spent on the grass in Crissy Field picnicking, watching the boats go under the Golden Gate Bridge, watching the people go by, and watching the city and bridge light up.
We did spent a few weeks going other places. We went down through Big Sur and witnessed some breathtaking sections of the California coast. We went on another Yosemite trip and saw the Tioga Pass Road, Mono Lake, and Bodie Ghost Town. We went and saw the beach at Santa Cruz as well as several lighthouses along the coast.
On the way home, we decided to take an extra week and go up the Oregon Coast. We had a great time. We saw most of the lighthouses and bridges along the way. We took Milo to the Oregon Bay Aquarium so that he could see the sharks again. After driving the Oregon Coast, we spent a few days exploring the Columbia River Gorge and hanging out with family. The highlights of the trip were definitely the Yaquina Head Lighthouse, our time spent at Crescent Beach, and Fairy Falls. It was a spectacular trip and a fitting way to end our summer adventure.
Milo has been learning so many things that it amazes us. His speech has improved dramatically over the last few months. Most of the time he can form an understandable, grammatically correct (okay, mostly…but it is getting better) sentence. Milo enjoyed being in California as he was able to spend plenty of quality time with his mother at the park and library. His favorite was the “park with water.” He begged to go there almost every day…and went there almost every day Milo enjoys watching movies, singing, and running around. As everyone expects, he enjoys playing games on his computer.
Finally, a few of the boring, requisite details. Scott is still pursuing his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Utah. There have been some rumblings that an actual graduation may be planned for sometime in the first half of 2008 although these dates seem to change on a whim. Much to his surprise, Scott really enjoyed his internship. He worked with a great group and was even allowed to do very interesting work. Monica enjoyed her leave of absence from work that she was granted for the summer. It took some time to adjust, but she enjoyed being with Milo. It was another adjustment to come back to work when she got back to Utah. She still continues to process those words in the evenings for a local law firm. We also decided to take the plunge…we are expecting our second child in May. Monica’s time is spent trying to feel good enough to take care of everything as well as keeping track of Scott and Milo. How will she handle another one?
Scott thought it would be fun to put together a montage of pictures from this year. He used a nice little piece of software that came with his new laptop (a Mac of course) which made the job much easier. The pictures flow in a loose chronological from top left to bottom right. Enjoy!
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Happy Holidays!
Scott, Monica, Milo, & the bun
