Fifteen months of fame

Miles was eating his breakfast this morning - cheese and a waffle with PB Crave - and he was all, like, "You didn't announce the giveaway winner."

And I was all, like, "Thank God you didn't say 'papa' for the 154th time today."

But he was right. I've been riding the marathon high and resting up long enough. It's time to name the winner of the PB Crave giveaway.

No. 42, Julinene, come on down. Shoot me an email, including phone number and address, to hlthystrides at gmail dot com.

Of course, we all know that Miles didn't really say that this morning though he does have a very impressive vocabulary that includes cracker, cheese, poop and ball. I counted his words this weekend, and his repertoire includes nearly 25.

Pretty brilliant if I do say so myself.

Among his other tricks, at 15 months old, dancing this odd little shuffle, throwing away his diapers and throwing the ball ... with his left hand. 

His specialty, though, is throwing tantrums. During a visit to Grammy's (my grandma in Cincinnati), she remarked that the terrible twos are going to be quite rough for me if his early toddlerhood is any indication. We flail, kick feet. There is banging of the head, and I am pretty sure I've gotten smacked in the face. There are mornings when I'm not quite sure I'll even be able to make it to 9 a.m. before taking him to day care. It's a test of will and patience, on both our parts, and, as Grammy says, we all know I'm not the winner.

Like a flip of a switch, though, Miles can turn into his energetic, happy self. He loves to read, grabbing a book from the toy basket and backing up into your lap so you can read. I might make it two pages before he's up to grab another book.

We still struggle a bit sleeping. While we have ditched the bottle completely, Miles will still wake up - on occasion - in the middle of the night for a pacifier. It's the only time he takes it save for when he crawls under the crib to retrieve one while I'm in the shower, and I really don't feel like fighting with him at 2 a.m.

Right now, we have all but four teeth. We're missing the I teeth. The infamous I teeth. The I teeth that I think are coming in and contributing to the snotty nose and snotty attitude.

Or so I can hope. And we know killing hope is a bad thing.