God's sense of humor...

Having a child has really made me understand my heavenly Father so much more. I now am beginning to see His love, grace, and forgiveness for us in a whole new way. I can also see that He must have a great sense of humor. He has given Pete and I a son who is the COMPLETE opposite of the two of us. We are both laid back, and tend to just "go with the flow". Pres is very much a type A personality. He likes schedules and consistency and does not do well with change. HA! I have had to learn how to be on a schedule and to keep things the same. This has not been easy for me as I get bored very quickly and will decide on a whim that the couch must be moved to a new place. These types if changes do not go over well with my son, and for the past 6 months all of the furniture has stayed in the exact same place. I have had to take my restlessness out into the gardens, and these change on a regular basis. The upside to this is that my yard now looks fantastic from my constant attention.

I have a story to share that happened yesterday that sums up the differences between us. Yesterday all three of us were playing in Pres' room. We were having fun sitting there doing very little, but hanging out with each other. Pete and I decide to take Pres' foam ball and throw it at the fan to have it fly around the room. I think we were justifying this silliness with the fact that Pres would get a kick out of it. Well...not so much. He didn't even notice. He sort of gave us this look, crawled over to his book shelf, pulled out a book and began to flip through the pages. He was not interested in our juvenile game. He wanted to look at his books. I am only a little ashamed to admit that Pete and I continued on with our game. We had the ball flying all over the room-even on occasion landing on Pres who would pick up the ball, throw it away from himself, and continue reading. Pete and I just kept looking at each other and laughing at this little creature who is such a learning experience for us. I think the big joke in all of this is that Pres has already learned to ignore us!

That poor child is going to be SO embarrassed by the two of us. We will be the ones in flip-flops and a t-shirt, while our son will be in loafers and khakis. I think, in the end, this is all in God's plan. We will help Pres to chill out, and he in turn will gives us the structure that everyone needs.

Motherhood Battle Wounds

Last night, Pres, Pete and I were all playing on the bed. Preston LOVES to do this. He'll just lay back and roll from one side of the bed to the other. He gets a little crazy sometimes and will roll, sit up, and lay down without any thought of where he's at or what he's doing. As a result, I spend a lot of time dodging his head as he flings it back with reckless abandonment! Last night I didn't move fast enough and he nailed me right in the mouth. It caused two of my teeth to go right into my lip. Yuck! Luckily it didn't hurt and Pete was home to grab Pres so I could attend to myself. I think Pete is more traumatized than I was. He was so worried and kept telling me "I can't stand to see you bleed." Sweet hubby! The result of this is that I have a nasty cut in my lip and lips so swollen, they could be Angelina Jolie's!!!! I am having to drink through a straw!!! I can't get my fat lips over the lid of a glass. This morning I woke up pretty sore, but all things considered, I have had minimal pain.

As my little guy becomes a bigger guy, I am sure this will happen more and more. Pres goes into everything he does 100%. There is no in between for him. I admire his spirit and will gladly endure some battle wounds to have him keep his gusto!!!

If any of you reading this have had similar experiences, please share. I'm curious to know what I have to look forward to!

Here comes summer!

Here's some video of Pres' new toy. He loved it!

One of those days...

Today has been one of those days that as a mom, I wish time would stop. Pres has been this big bundle of fun. NO crying, screaming, not napping, or being grumpy with me as I don't get the next bite in his mouth fast enough. He's been such a joy. Literally, as I sit here and write, he is taking his afternoon nap (I didn't even have to put music on for him!) and I am wishing he would wake up and play! These days are so special to me because they stay with me for the days when he cries at everything, won't sleep, and throws his food at me! I think God gives us Mother's these days to get us through the bad. These are the days where I would love to be able to have another one!

To end this post, I am going to say thank you to my beautiful son for being the light of my days (the good ones and the bad!) I love you Pres!

Waiting...I hate waiting

We are still waiting to hear back. It is so frustrating to me! Poor Pete, he's going nuts! I think this Vegas trip came at a great time. Now I need to find something to occupy myself with. I'm two weeks ahead in school, so I don't even have school work to do!

Mother's Day

This Friday, Pres and I went to visit Pete at work. We do that about once a month to surprise Pete and Pres loves to see Pete during the day. We always have to say hello to the bosses and this time was no exception. Pres has been sticking pretty close to me the past week and he wasn't too keen on being around all of these strangers cooing at him. He wanted out of Pete's arms and into mine. His sweet boss made the comment that I must be Pres' "comfort zone". His words struck a chord with me and I began to think about that. I am Pres' comfort zone-if he's sad, hurt, mad, or scared; he insists (loudly most times) to be in my arms. It also got me thinking about my "comfort zone". I would have to say that growing up, being with my mom was always the place where I felt safe (still do for that matter). So...for Mother's Day, I would like to thank all of the wonderful walking "comfort zones" that I have the pleasure of learning from:
Mom
Penny
Susan
Lynne
Aunt Angela
Lydia
Suzanne


Next year I'll be able to add Chrissy to that list! I hope you all had a wonderful day!






Pres and his "comfort zone" all dressed up for our Mother's Day dinner at Lynne's.

And they're off...almost

Tomorrow my girlie's and myself will become husband less for a few days. They are having a "guys weekend". Going to Vegas and gambling with the guys sounds very manly...like they are all dripping with machismo...uh-huuuuuh...not so much. Let me share a conversation that I had the pleasure of over hearing today. It went something like this:

Pete: "...no dude, you can only have a 3 oz bottle of something in a Ziploc bag. That's why I went out and bought the travel toothpaste, I'm really picky about that, I have to use MY kind..."

Ryan: "but what about my cologne?"

Pete: "cologne? What do you need Cologne for?" "you don't have to smell good for me."

Ryan: " no...I just like to wear cologne."

Pete: "OH, we can just go to some mall or something there and just spray some on."

Ryan: "dude...that's a really good idea."


Here is the really funny part. This was just a normal conversation between the two of them. Pete had no idea why I was laughing so hard!!!!! I guess you can domesticate a man a little too much!

All kidding aside: HAVE FUN GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The end of an era...

We are finally retiring Pres' swing. He went from vehemently hating it, to it being the only place he would sleep during his 5th month, to it being his video chair. He's been too big for it for awhile now, but we've been holding off switching it out because it means that we can't strap him in to watch his video anymore. This means no more Preston free morning showers, but it's worth it to see him sitting in his new Elmo chair. That's right...we broke down yesterday and bought him an Elmo chair. He was so cute at the store. He had to sit in it in the cart; so there was Pres sitting in the basket, in his Elmo chair, like he was king of the world! It was really cute! We tried out the Elmo chair this morning, and it went really well. He sat in it for his entire video and gave me time to clean the floors. I was quite impressed. He's not a baby anymore. He's becoming a toddler at lightening speed. Sad for mommy, but exciting for Pres.

10 Months

My baby boy is 10 months old! I can't believe how fast time is going by. Each and every week brings huge milestones. Pete and I find oursleves watching him achieve a new goal and are completely amazed! Last night I was finally getting around to putting his baby pictures in order on the computer. Looking back at those taken the first few weeks, it's hard to believe that is the same little boy. He still has the same perfect skin, big blue eyes and chubby cheeks; but in place of the blob, is an imerging toddler! !
He now has permanent scratches and bruises on his knees from crawling around outside and pulling the cats tails; his tongue can usually be seen sticking out of the corner of his mouth as he "la, la, la" (daddy has the Elmo song wrong and say "lalalala Elmo's world); he is talking up a storm and loves nothing more than to see a picture of a word he knows and pronounce the word over and over again. He says "moo" anytime he sees a cow and I know for awhile he will not say the word cow because it's much more fun to "moooooooooo" at the top of your lungs! He will sit in his chair and do the motions to "If Your Happy and You Know It". It is so sweet to watch him stomp his chubby dimpled, little feet; then pause and grab your feet to make them stomp.

Pres has found the bathroom in a whole new way and loves nothing more than to unroll a whole roll of toilet paper, rip it into pieces, and then throw them around the bathroom floor. If he has no access to to toilet paper (which is a lot now that we put it up), he will then settle for playing in the toilet. This is so gross to me, but I can't keep him out. He has learned to lift up the toilet lid. I've thought about putting a lock on the toilet, but if Pete does as well with that child lock as he does with the one blocking the kitchen trash, then I will have a lot of pee on my floor! Last but certainly not least, if the toilet paper and the toilet are all blocked, then he will just move on the the cottonelle wipes! He'll pop open the container and pull them out one by one, ripping them to pieces in the process. Needless to say, any quiet in my house means that I will soon have a HUGE mess to clean up!




















He is starting to get very good at feeding himself. Spaghetti is still his favorite, but he is enjoying mommy and daddy's french bread and brie! Talk about some expensive tastes!!!! He is finally sleep trained. I didn't think it would ever happen. He has just refused to go with it. The longest night we had, he cried for 4 straight hours!!!! Goodness. Stubborn to a fault that one is-I wonder where he gets it...

He is now more iterested in the slide than the swing and will go down over and over again. This is not a development that brings too much joy to Pete and I. We fight over who has to go down the slide with him. Yuck. It's dirty, too much static electricity, dirty, small, and did I mention dirty?!

He loves ice pops (that's right, we give him ice pops, another parenting no-no silly notion I had before having a little one). He sill sit and share one with us in the eveing. This week, he figured how to suck out all of the melted juice. He was so pleased with himself.

It's hot here and they are refreshing. As a HUGE bonus, he'll chew on the ice and it helps his gums. As far as I am concerned, these are a godsend!!!!!

I'm sure I'm forgetting lots, but I'll write more when I get the great pics from Dick of Pres playing with his new favorite toy-his train set!