Merry Christmas!!!

Gramma and Pres! Sorry mom, it's the only one I have-you look cute even though your eyes are closed!


I love the look Pres is giving Dyer, it is hilarious!


Pres and Dyer


"No more pictures Titi"


Pres in his Santa suit! So cute! He's playing with one of his new toys!









We had a wonderful holiday! On the Friday before Christmas, Pete and I did our gift for each other, which was to have an evening just the two of us!!! We had a romantic dinner at this great wine bar in College Park. We couldn't stop talking the whole time! It was so great to just be with each other as husband and wife. I couldn't have asked for a better gift(thank you Melanie for taking such good care of Pres!).

Christmas morning, Pete and I have a tradition of making a really big breakfast. Well...we all know that Pete is the one who makes it, but I do enjoy eating it! This year it was fun to include Pres in that! We took our breakfast into his room, and just watched him have his morning play time, while we enjoyed our cheesy eggs and some rare morning family time!

We decided to head over to my parents by lunch time. My mom had bought Pres this really cute Santa suit with a hat and everything. As the dutiful daughter, I put him in it, and to my son's credit, he dutifully wore it until he saw his gramma!!!! After that, he was stripped down to just a t-shirt-which at the moment is his favorite outfit! We had a wonderful time with my parents. My mom really goes all out with the food, and we all had our favorites ready for us (green bean casserole for me, home made lemon bars for Pete). Pres had tons of gifts from his grandparents. They really went overboard! To my surpirse, he enjoyed every minute of the gift thing. He loved the sparkly bows and wrapping paper, as well as the actual gift. He squealed his way through all of his gifts, and then giggled his way as the rest of us opened ours! Pres did not nap all afternoon and was an absolute angel-VERY rare if he hasn't napped. He took a early evening snooze which gave me just enough time to play with my nephew so hard that I made him loose his cookies (literally, it was all cookies!) Pres woke up in time for dinner, and it was a yummy meal! I enjoyed every minute of my time with everyone! Thank you mom and dad for a wonderful (although you really went overboard with the gifts!) Christmas. I have lots and lots of fun gift cards to use (I asked for them in case you are wondering b/c I prefer to pick out my own gift) and can't wait to use the restaurant ones for more romantic nights out with Pete!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as we did!

6 months

Yeah my beautiful baby boy! You have made it through half of a year with your silly patents!!!!!!!!!! You have grown so much! You are such an independant little booger! You love to have your "tummy time" and play on the floor with whatever you can fit in your mouth. You also love when someone is helping you stand up and you grunt and stand on your tippy toes to let us know how big you are! You love the kitties (although they don't like you very much) and you really are starting to be aware of what is going on. Feeding you food has been a blast. So far, the only thing you hate is squash. Your poor face as mommy tried to have you eat it. You kept looking at me as if to say "where are the yummy sweet potatoes?". You are ALL business about your food. No airplane or here comes the choo-choo playing with you. You sit in your high chair and wiggle your arms and legs (it melts my heart) as you open your mouth for me to put the spoon in. If I don't get it fast enough, you give me a little grunt to let me know that I am not giving you the food as fast as you would like (again, it melts my heart!). You are becoming such a little man, and I am so proud of you! Your smile makes the whole world light up for those who see it! Your eyes seem to draw A LOT of attention (even when you wish they didn't). When your daddy comes home from work, you pretend to be shy and carefully turn around and smile at him. When you see your gramma Crotty, you giggle and giggle. Most importantly to me, when you see your momma, you little face lights up!!!! It is such a blessing to me to see that special smile that you give me. You my angel, make it all worth it! Any time I see those beautiful dimples, I am reminded why I spend my days with you (even though the "world" seems to think I am wasting my time). I know that me being there with you, is going to make such a difference for you! I am truly blessed to be your mommy! You just had your 6 month check up and you were so cute. You little picky imp decided to be charming and allowed the nurse to carry you around and introduce you to everyone. It shocked me to see you so friendly!!! You giggled at the doc, and made her laugh!!! She was so taken with you!! You certainly know when to turn it on!! Your stats were as follows:

17.1 lbs
26.5 inches
16 inches around in the head (thank the Lord that you didn't get any bigger!)
You are right where you should be!!!!

As we approach the holidays, I hope you are listening as I read the story of the baby Jesus! My biggest hope for you is that you will accept the truth that is the birth of OUR SAVIOR, Jesus Christ!!!!

So proud...

...of my parents! They decided it was time to get healthy and start to exercise! They joined a gym, got a personal trainer and actually followed through. I am so excited for them. I want them around for as long as they can be, so this is wonderful. My mom is looking like a hot chick! She came to visit the other day, and we walked up to the playground. All of the golfers where checking her out (go mom!) Here's a pic of the hot mamacita to show her off!!!!!

He does exist!!!

Sorry it's taken so long to get pics up of Pete with Pres! It is rare to find the two of them together and not on the go!!!! Even these were the best I could do out of 20! The rest were fuzzy from Pete swinging Pres up and down!!!!

Looks like Pres likes sweet potatoes!!!!

Pres having fun!

Putting my BSF lessons to good use already!!!!

The last week has been pretty interesting. It has caused me to go back and do what I call "reminding" to myself of how as a Christian I should act and respond to situations. However, I do believe that sometimes, things are just out of your hands. There is only so much you can do, then it is up the them; in other words, they will be held accountable. Romans 12:18 states, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men." This verse was a great reminder to me, that sometimes, there is nothing that you can do. I like how John Piper breaks down this verse into two points:

1. "We are only responsible for what others hold against us when it is owing to real sin or blundering on our part."
2. We are responsible to pursue reconciliation, but live with the pain if it does not succeed. In other words, we are not responsible to make reconciliation happen." (this comes for his sermon "Getting Right with God and Each Other")

I am called to offer true godly forgiveness.

Matthew 5:21-26 says21 You have heard that the ancients were told, "You shall not commit murder" and "Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court." 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his brother, "Raca," shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever shall say, "You fool," shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. 23 If therefore you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your offering there before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. 25 Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, in order that your opponent may not deliver you to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I say to you, you shall not come out of there, until you have paid up the last cent.

Now, don't get me wrong. Coming to this type of forgiveness for others is always difficult for me. I know it shouldn't be, but some people just take every ounce of patience that you have. Those of you who know me (my FF gals) you know that I can be VERY stubborn...and judgemental, have high expectations, and zero tolerance (to just name a few reasons why these situations are so hard for me!) This is probably the reason that God uses these situations to teach me. I always need to learn the hard way! My hope would be that all parties involved come to understand this as I have. That for them, requires salvation. This would be my prayer and the only way I can see that there will ever be true resolution.

As promised...

Look how long he is getting!




He loves to sit up and look around on our walks! He can barely see above the tray!!!!

5 months

My little guy is now 5 months old! I can't believe it! He is such a big ball of fun now. He loves to play and will spend hours in his room going from place to place playing with his different toys. We have had to say good-bye to our well used bouncer chairs. He hates to lean back and now wants to always sit up, thus creating a no go for the laid back bouncers. It has become such an amusement to Pete and I to see him lean forward and turn his head around to check out everything!

He is now wearing 6-9 month clothes, with the tops being almost too small and the bottoms being too big. He has such broad shoulders (need them with his big head!) and a tiny booty! He's rolling over and loves to be in his walker. He has started to reach out and grab whatever he can get his hands on, so I am becoming very good at quickly taking out whatever he has before he can get it in his mouth.

He is such a personality now and has a clear idea of what he likes and what he doesn't-whether it's people, toys, or activities. The cats have become quite the object of fascination and I can see him plotting for the time when he can chase them down and grab their tales on his own! They better watch out!

Thanksgiving is over, and Christmas is on it's way. I am so excited for his first Christmas! We're not going to decorate here too much, but we will be spending the day with my parents (yeah!), and their house is always quite the sight to see! His first stocking is already out and ready to be hung over there! I've found the baby book that tells the real story of Christmas (no stupid Santa nonsense in our home!) and I can't wait to share it with him!

I can't wait to see what changes this next month brings for Pres! Pics to come soon!

Petard's home!

Whoo-hoo! After weeks of worrying about the adjustment that Preston would have when Pete came home, we have been pleasantly surprised. He welcomed Pete home with the sweetest smile and lots of giggles!!! So many giggles in fact, that it brought tears to my eyes at how much he must have missed his daddy. His night sleep schedule is out of sorts again, but this seems to be the only thing this time! From experience, we know that this up every couple of hours will only last about a week, and we just need to get through it! Luckily I am not alone this time and can trade off the every TWO hours that Pres is waking up. It has been very nice to roll over and make Pete get up! Poor Pete is certainly not used to it, and finally understands my response to how I am while he's gone. I always answer him with just an "I'm tired, good, but tired". He is now experiencing first hand the tiredness that is associated with being up all night, then having a baby ready to rock 'n roll at 5am!

Pres is growing leaps and bounds these past few weeks. He now can sit up on his own (with a lot of sideways falling). He has no interest whatsoever in crawling and uses your hands to pull himself up to stand. As you are holding him, he will take steps to get where he wants to, and has been having a blast going for the cats (much to their absolute horror). He is still very wary of strangers and will happily coo at them as long as they make no attempt to touch him. It they do, then we have a complete meltdown that leaves the poor person apologizing profusely to me, and myslef telling them not to take it personally because he does it to everyone. I have now started to just ask people to please not touch him. It makes me seem like a cranky old lady, but it's worth it to avoid the whole awkwardness of the touching scenario! Really...all of my neighbors are very, very old and all want to squeeze his chubby cheeks. Hopefully he grows out of this VERY soon! When he flashes those big blues and dimpled smile, people can't help themselves (even after I've asked them not to touch). It's like seeing the cute puppy at the pet shop and not being allowed to pet him.

We are headed down to Naples to spend Thanksgiving with the Blanchard/Dean/Teich clan! There will be lots and lots of kids for Pres to squeal at and lots and lots of adults for him to cry at as they all just want to hug and kiss him. Poor little guy has no idea what he's in for! Hopefully our "look first then touch" policy about him will help to ease the "stranger" meltdowns. (Sorry aunts and uncles, hopefully by the time you all read this, he will have let each and every one of you love on him a bit!)

Happy Veteran's Day Daddy!

While our wonderful hero is spending his day watching football and eating chicken wings, my little guy has finally done what I thought was once impossible! He wore himself out!!!! He played so hard, that he just passed out while playing! So my beautiful baby boy, all I have to say is..."I finally got ya!!!!"

playground fun!

Going down the slide! He wasn't too sure of this!




Playing with Grammy!!!!

He's getting so big!!!

The first three pics were taken two days ago. I was finally able to capture Pres sucking in his bottom lip! It's his favorite activity and leads to a constant struggle to keep him from getting a rash there. I'm using lanolin right now, but if anyone has any other suggestions, I'm all ears!!! The three with Pres and I are from today and are mainly for my hubby to see us!


The lip suck!


Hello little Pete!!!!


Don't you love the shirt?! I think it makes him look like he should be in Miami playing checkers with the old men!!!!

teething, scooting, and not sleeping, oh my...

...Pres had his four month check up (and shots) and his stats are as follows:
15.5 lbs
24 inches long
16 inches around for his head!!! (definitely a Dean)

He is cutting four teeth and we are certainly feeling the effects. The constant drool is just disgusting (maybe as a mother I shouldn't say that, but it is), and the only thing worse than the drool is the discomfort he feels. My poor angel will have a good day, then a VERY bad day. On his bad teeth day, he is so uncomfortable that he can't sleep. I've tried chew toys, ice filled washclothes, tylenol, my finger, dishtowels, toothbrush etc, etc...and it all falls short. My motto for these days is "it can only get better!" On his good days, he is tons of fun. He loves to play on his mats and be in his jumper. He'll go for 10-15 min playing by himself now and it gives me some time to sit and relax (really to throw in a load of laundry and sweep)! His favorite activity the past couple of days has been making faces at himself in the mirror. This is hilarious!!!! He finds himself to be just fascinating (again, definitely a Dean)! It amuses me to no end!

The scooting is very amusing as well. He has decided that it is much easier to get around on his back. I will put him on his tummy, and he will roll over onto his back. He will proceed to fling his feet around until he gets enough of a rhythm going to move. Unfortunately for him, this basically only allows him to move around in a cirle much to his displeasure. I am trying to get this on video, but it is hard because as I mentioned earlier he is fascinated with himself and when I am taping him, he can see himself in the lens and then will stop whatever he is doing to smile at his reflection!!!!!

In closing, I would like to send some special thank you's to some special women who have been my saving grace during the past week.

Mom-thank you for coming over and talking with me!!!
Chrissy- can't even put it into words!
Ab- I hope I haven't scared you too much about this baby thing :)
Jax- hugs and kisses
Lydia- thank for letting me know that it is okay to not like motherhood all of the time!!!!

I love and miss you Petard!