My Wild Man!

As you know, Preston loves to sing. He has been singing a couple of songs for months, but now he is singing "Old McDonald," "Ring Around the Rosie," and starting to talk more and more. He can say about 20 words: mama, dada, dog-dog, baba, bye-bye, night-night, up, hot, no, that, mine, yogurt, vitamin, cookie, etc, and says a couple of sentences that he uses quite often: "I want up" and "I want that."

It so unbelievable to me that my "baby" isn't a baby anymore. He is becoming a little toddler and it makes me so sad. He still loves to snuggle when he is tired or sick, but he is otherwise a complete madman, going 120 mph at all times! It is so hard to believe that he will be 18 months old in just a few weeks (where has the time gone?). But then he is such a daredevil and it shocks me that we have kept him pretty well intact these past few months.


He is a huge climber (as seen above) and is now able to open some of the doors in our house. Like Bennett, his favorite door to open is our pantry where he will just stand and shout "I want that" while pointing at something unhealthy. He also likes to get into our baking supplies which I have on a roller cart inside the pantry. Everything on the cart is at his level, so he gets into it all, and has dumped my flour countless times (I have finally wisened up and moved that bag higher in the closet).


He and Bennett are finally getting to the stage where they get along better, though I have to admit that they fight over something at least daily. But it is so sweet to watch them interact with one another. Bennett loves to go into his room first when he wakes up from a nap, and I hear her ask him "Did you have a good nap buddy?" It is obviously something that she has heard me say, but listening to her say it cracks me up. Then last week, the three of us were at church for dinner (Steve was out of town), and she wanted to sit next to him so she could feed him. It was so sweet because she shared everything on her plate with him, and they were both so well-behaved. I was shocked, but it was such a nice way to enjoy dinner. It was much like this video taken tonight.



Anyway, with the weather finally a little warmer, we have been taking walks a few times a week again, and the kids just love it. Bennett jabbers about something the entire time, and Preston just sits and watches it all go by. This should be a fun and exciting summer with the two of them!

More Fun in the Snow!

Bennett can't get enough of the snow! She woke up asking to go outside and build another snowman. So Steve took her out and this is their newest creation! The temperature keeps getting warmer, so I don't anticipate it to last long.

Winter Snowstorm of 2010

All week we have had snow in our forecast, but as I usual, I didn't expect it. Steve always jokes with me about going to the store to buy milk and bread, and I just shake my head. Who is going to survive on milk and bread anyway, especially in this household when Preston is the only one who even drinks milk! Instead what I did was go to Costco to fill up my tank of gas, buy a case of beer, a few bottles of wine and a variety of meat to restock our freezer! (It was something on my "to do" list anyway, but I'll say I did it because of the huge snowstorm).

So far this year, we have been told by our wonderful weathermen that snow was coming a couple of times. So the local schools cancelled classes, and one time TWO days in advance! I understand that the state is not equipped to handle a huge snowstorm, and that the schools don't want the liability (even though most of them don't have a bus system that gets the children to and from school), but come on! Why can't they just wait and see what happens and then let out early if need be. It was as if they heard my pleas, because today they didn't cancel school initially, but instead decided to let out early (11:30) once the snow started to move into the area. So I had a couple of hours to run errands and work out before getting the kids. the snow began mid morning, and kept snowing all afternoon. It was so pretty, huge snowflakes!

Pres came home from school tired and out of sorts, so we put him down early for his nap. Then Bennett, Steve and I ate lunch before getting a surprise visit from Sara and Maria (our nieces). They were out enjoying the snow and wanted Bennett to come out and play. So we all bundled up and built snowmen and had a snowball fight. It was a perfect way to spend the afternoon! One of Bennett's friends, Lily, even walked over to partake in the fun!

After an hour or so, we came in to dry off and relax. Right as we put Bennett down for her nap, Preston awoke from his with a fever. Initially he acted okay, so I wasn't too concerned. But it didn't take long for him to start getting a little fussy, and before I could do anything, he threw up all over himself. So Steve and I did damage control, and then put him in the shower. He once again seemed happy and better, but again he went downhill quickly and started getting fussy and only wanted me to hold him. My back started to hurt, so I passed him off to Steve, but he cried so hard he threw up again. So we cleaned up that mess, changed his clothes again, and then I sucked it up and help him for the next couple of hours. The poor little guy was so pitiful. Finally after several hours, he perked up a little and kept down some gatorade and crackers.

Both kids are finally down at the same time, and my bedtime is rapidly approaching as well. So as much as we enjoyed the early part of the day, I am thankful the day is over. Since it is supposed to warm up some tomorrow, we don't expect the snow to last long. That is the best part of snowstorms in the south...they usually don't stay around for more than a day!

Thursdays

Thursdays for our family are the ONLY day we typically have nothing we have to do. I sometimes have errands, but I try to postpone them to other days and spend Thursdays doing something fun with the kids. Within the past month, I joined a mom's club. It is comprised of mothers of young children that live in three nearby communities, but primarily Homewood, so it has been great. They have a very active calendar, offering something to do for stay-at-home moms almost every weekday (why didn't I learn of this club a year ago??) Since my kids go to "school" three days a week, we don't participate in much, but there is always something on a Thursday, so that has been our new outlet. However today we had a playdate with Shannon and the kids.

The cousins exchanged homemade valentine day cards (which were very cute), and then we walked over to the Homewood Library for storytime. Unfortunately neither of my kids were interested, which shocked me since Bennett loves to read. She was much more interested in doing puzzles. Lately Preston can't be contained unless doors are closed, and since they didn't lock the kids in the room, he was off and running! He was climbing on the stools so he could check out the animals (they have frogs, gerbils, birds and a tarantula), pounding on the computers, carrying puzzle pieces all over and just running. He is a handful, and really hard to manage in an environment like that. Thankfully there were a ton of other children there, so he blended in better than he typically does.

We finally rounded up the kiddos and headed to lunch. Bennett and Preston are so cute together, and I think they really enjoy hanging out. Since we both had to park so far away, we made the older two hold hands so Shannon and I could each carry the little ones. Then they wanted to sit next to one another in the booth. That started off fine, but we could tell that they were going to get into trouble, so we separated them. We are so lucky to have them here, and I am hoping that we'll get to see more of them since Shannon joined the Mom's Club too! Yeah!

Happy Birthday Poppy!

Happy Birthday Poppy! We love you and hope you enjoyed your birthday!

Just Another Day.....

The day went well...though it started VERY early with wake-ups from both children in the middle of the night. We bathed early, had breakfast and went outside to drive Bennett's car and just play in the backyard. Then Pres and I watched Bennett while she half-participated in her dance class before coming home to eat lunch and take naps.

All day I kept bargaining with Bennett to act nicely, eat her lunch, etc so she could go to a puppet show after her nap. Since she minded pretty well all day, we went as a family. They served a light dinner for the kids, and then the show began. Since she only ate the brownie from her dinner, she was hyped up on sugar and she giggled at everything, even things that weren't funny. As the sugar high wore off, she got bored and asked to leave. When we got home, nothing sounded good to her for dinner, so the tears started when we made her eat. Pres was also crying because we strapped him in his booster and force fed him (like we do every night). However, after the end of his dinner, he coughed a little and then up came his entire dinner (so off went the clothes).

Then he went straight for the one cupboard without locks on it so he could pull EVERYTHING out of it. It is truly his favorite thing to do....create a mess. And since I hate a mess, I cleaned it up, only to have him empty it again 5 minutes later. Urggg....