Whoo Hooo Fall is a Comin'!

Lovin lovin lovin the temps in the 90's with beautiful cool mornings and evenings! We can finally get out! This makes things so nice. Who doesn't just love Fall weather? You gotta soak it up because it's only about a month long around here. :)

In other news, we made another road trip to Houston this past weekend to celebrate my brother Mikey buying his very first home and turning 30 with a combined house warming/birthday party! He lives in Texas City near the Gulf by Galveston, Tx. So it's about a five hour drive. But Preston did much better on this trip and actually slept some. I however did not have a good trip at all! Don't ya know I woke up on the morning we were to head out passing a kidney stone! Yea, you heard that right. We were up bright and early and about 7am I noticed a lot of sudden pain that def wasn't going to be fleeting and def wasn't " normal". But in typical Kristen fashion, nice and stubborn, I was determined to still make the trip, cancelling was not on the menu. So I pushed through the pain and continued to get dressed and ready while sucking down water to help flush things out. I was in severe pain for about 2 hours and then felt some relief, so I thought this was a good sign that I might be out of the super bad part and we could get on the road. Poor choice. The super bad phase was no where near complete. I literally labored from this stone the ENTIRE five hours on the road in the back seat with Preston. OMG. I was in tears, we contemplated stopping at a hospital, and we had to stop frequently because it makes you feel like you have to " push" it out and need to pee. So I walked around convenient stores in the middle of no where crying asking Kevin to help me. LOL it was no bueno. The pain continued the whole weekend while we were at my brother's house. I called my midwife and got her thoughts and advice while I was down there just to make sure she didn't think I was missing something and to see if it could have been something other than a stone. She agreed she thought it was a stone and thought it was okay for me to labor it out unless I needed some narcotic pain medication, then  I would need to seek treatment somewhere. But I didn't want to ruin the weekend with that time suck, so I pushed through by taking a single 500 mg Tylenol once. Kevin said I was crazy for not guzzling it. On the bright side, by the time this Monday morning rolled around I felt 100 times better and went to see my midwife for a urine culture just to make sure there is no infection. But all feels fine now and we still had a great weekend! So glad we made the trip.

In other AWESOME NEWS, Preston got to experience the beach and ocean for the first time! He absolutely loooooved it!! OMG, this boy has not an ounce of fear. He loves loves loves to experience all new things ( except when it comes to food, of course). He is so happy and life-loving, it warms my heart. Love love love this age. The perfect mix of baby and little kid. We had an amazing time with family. It was soo awesome to see my brother Mikey, and love his new house. So totally proud of him.

Here are a few of the things Preston's up to. He changes to much it's so hard to keep up and record them all!

He is full of hugs and kisses...he puckers his lips and it’s so cute!

He signs “thank you” and knows to say 'thank you' when you give him something

He is drinking much better from a cup and will drink most of one cup..about 6 ounces, in one meal sitting and water in between

He likes to stand on anything…chairs, toys, the couch, tables ALL THE TIME

He is taking off his diaper

He likes..no LOVES to play with his penis and calls it his “ Pee Pee” now

He signs sooo many words! 

He is throwing temper tantrums and is very vocal when he doesn't get his way

He loves this little blue bear that Kevin got him from Atlanta. He carries it around and calls it his “ Baby” while he rocks it

He likes to pull the dogs around by their collars

He has fallen off of so many things, busted his lips and head so many times, and got his fingers squished in a door jamb all in the last couple of weeks! Blood blood and more blood! I'm going to be a pro at this! 

He is soooo interactive and mature and expressive. He changes so much and so fast. He is so tiring to take care of but I love this age! The perfect mix of baby and little kid

He still is a very picky eater but we are making a slow transition away from purees finally. My only concern is him not eating any protein in his finger foods, which is why we have supplemented with purees this long. 

He is soo full of change. It is incredibly cool to see everyday. 

Here are some pics of the man at 17 months:

He likes to wear old toilet paper rolls on his arms. LOL

This is how he likes to watch TV...no no no

Subway!

Here is his Blue Baby from Atlanta. He loves kissing and rocking this guy

 LOVES BOOKS!

 Man. he loved this sea weed at the beach! Wouldn't put it down.

 ..and the sea weed.

 My two brothers and Preston and Miss Layla. Love getting to see them all!

 Preston absolutely loved Layla's sparkle unicorn!

 First time looking at the ocean

 With brother and Uncle Mike

He found a whole head of broccoli at the beach and thought it was the coolest thing too

 Sooooo excited!!

 Cutest boys ever!

 Preston's 17 month old footprint in the sand for the very first time

 Who doesn't love sea weed?

Love this guy!

I Have a 17 Month Old!

I can't believe it. It already makes me sad that almost a year and a half has passed of Preston's life. Time really does fly by. The sleep deprivation stage seems never ending, but, in reality, a 24 hour day is still a 24 hour day, and time just moves on by. :( Preston keeps taking more and more steps toward leaving babyhood behind. I now know how Mom's often say their 40 year old kids are still their babies. Preston will most certainly always be a baby to me. ...( But hopefully one that leaves home in a timely manner and goes off to be a wise, successful man with a beautiful family) :O

 I think all the extra estrogen I'm producing is really making me an extra sappy mess. Kevin and I were pulling into AutoZone -- totally not sappy--and right as he was about to get out of the car, I turn into an emotional train wreck because on the drive I was imagining Preston starting kindergarten. Kevin thought I had lost my mind. He was shocked I was really crying about it, especially since Preston's not even a year and a half old. I'm already praying for God to intervene when the time comes and keep me from being a schoolyard stalker.

Preston is so beautiful and so smart. If you haven't guessed, I'm over the moon for this guy. I also see how parents can love unconditionally, even when their kids do heinous things and/or make terrible, terrible decisions. I can only imagine some of the poor choices Preston will inevitably make in his life, just as we all have. But turning my back on him despite any of it... I think not. I just don't think it's a part of a mother's makeup. I think it has been beautifully written into each of us by God's own hand. He always always has a plan. So even on your darkest day, you always have your Mamma in your corner. ...Well, ideally. I know our lovely sin nature wreaks havoc on God's design and things don't always play out like God intended. Anyway, you get the point. Okay, I'm definitely a sappy mess.

I think I mentioned that I went to Just Between Friends last weekend. Whew, what an adventure that was. I was one of the first there and literally the very last to checkout and leave. There was a lot I wanted to look at and/or price check/buy so I was a busy little bee the entire time rushing around, because time was limited on that shopping day. I was pretty tired when I left! But Preston got his wardrobe for the next two sizes, some toys and books and we got some good deals on things we will need for the baby, but didn't already have with Preston and learned we really do need them. :) I only thought I was tired after doing all the shopping. The real ' fun' didn't begin until the next day when I had to go through it all, remove the hundreds of safety pins they put in each item, wash all the clothes, sanitize and clean all the toys and books before giving them to Preston....and, then, the beasts of all beasts. Something I've been putting off. Doing the a 'big switch' in Preston's closet. Going through all the sizes hanging in his closet and drawers that he can no longer wear, boxing them up and storing them, and moving in and organizing all his current stuff and the next two sizes. I figured this was the perfect time. All the washing and boxing and organizing of clothes literally took from sun up to sun down with Kevin on Daddy duty all day. Man! But such relief it's all done! I should also mention it's also been on the 'to do' list to go through my THREE full closets and do some serious purging! So I figured, what the heck, it's apparently closet/clothing day, so lets just get it all done. So four boxes later for Preston and THIRTEEN trash bags between mine and Kevin's discarded clothes, we are a lot lighter around here! Love it! So I sold what I could of ours through consignment and donated the rest.

AND, in true Kristen fashion, you know I love cleanliness and things to be in order. This does make buying things used a lot of work for me. I love, love good deals and think it's important to be wise with your money, and paying retail prices for some stuff irritates me because it can be such a rip off,  so I make the sacrifice for our family to put in the work to clean and sanitize it all for us. But any time we buy stuff used it has to be completely detailed and cleaned. I like things to be as " new" as possible and starting fresh. Plus, imagining others' hand grime, drool...and whatever else on something any of us will be touching grosses me out. Sooo...it was in my head that Kevin's new truck needed to be detailed on the inside. In my defense, it really did need to be cleaned. It was pretty dirty.  Preston and I had to drive it all last week while the dealership was working on my new car. So, I got up early on my sleep-in day of the weekend and went outside and cleaned the heck out of Kevin's truck. Kevin said he really didn't care about it, but I'm of the mindset, if I'm going to own anything, I'm going to take pride in it and it's going to be well taken care of and represent me/us as well as it possibly can.  Anyway, so I got out there with all my cleaning supplies and even though it was in the morning, the sweat started rolling. It was HOOOOOT! oh my. What was I doing, I often thought. But you know me, once my mind is made up, it gets done. So I pushed through, and THREE HOURS later, it looks beautiful and I don't feel gross driving it/riding around in it with Preston. :0 ...and then it was immediately off to a birthday party after a quick shower. Needless to say, last weekend wore me out. But I sure love to accomplish things. I do have to admit it was quite funny to see some of Kevin's frustration with having Preston so much over the weekend. I had to giggle....welcome to my world. Yep, it's taxing and frustrating at times!

The Bean is great. He is moving a lot and Kevin can now easily feel him, too. Can't believe we're 19 weeks. Virtually half way done! Wow, the time has kind of has flown by. I've been continuing to pray diligently over the second half of the pregnancy. Problems started with Preston at 25 weeks. I just don't even want to think about what we would have to do if more trouble arises this time around while I have Preston. So I'm totally not focusing on that aspect, and instead focusing on God's goodness and ability to be the healer of all things. So I really have great peace about it all.

On the agenda for this weekend, absolutely nothing other than Kevin teaching me how to sew! We are keeping the next two weekends completely open and free of no plans, and after that we have another Houston trip planned for my brother's birthday/housewarming party--first house! So exciting!  We're so tired. July and August were crazy!

Preston is still super fab, of course. He's trying to say all kinds of words and sounds and becoming more independent by the second. ...Ohhhh..funny story. If there was ever any question about whether or not Preston got his Mamma's OCD gene, well, it's been confirmed. I mentioned last weekend that he likes to have all of his toys in the toy box and will only play with one toy at a time, and then puts it right back in the toy box..we did not teach him to do this, by the way. Well, after I gave him all of his new toys from JBF he was purely amazed. That night he and Kevin played with them all and had them all strewn about the playroom floor. That's where they stayed all night until the next morning. As soon as I put Preston down on the playroom floor the next day, he went to the center of the room, scanned, and found every single new toy ( there are a lot of them since he got a lot of little cars and trucks, too) and walked them one by one and placed them into a pile. But not just any kind of pile. Apparently he had a certain idea of what a 'perfect' pile should look like. He kept going back to the pile and rearranging the toys. It was HILARIOUS!! I just sat and watched and giggled.

Here are some 17 month old pics of the man!

Okay, this is obviously not Preston. But I could not pass on sharing.  This is about as classy as it comes, folks! So take notes! This is my dear, dear husband who very randomly decided he wanted to ' soak his feet' one evening. But neither of us ever soak our feet, so we don't have a foot soaker. He was dead set on the idea. So this is how he improvised. He took the bottom DRAWER OUT OF THE REFRIGERATOR AND USED IT AS HIS FOOT SOAK! ....while he had a beer. Oh.my.goodness. There's nothing left to say about this.

 Preston has found the glider this week. He now sits and rocks himself. And also stands and tips the whole thing over. :)

He's up and down, up and down, up and down.

 He loves to wedge himself in between this small space between the couch and wall. He does it over and over and over, too...

 New book! He absolutely loves books!

 New Buzz Light year! Def a fav of his new toys.

 New cars...

This is where he likes to sit this week. He looks so big. He is actually holding our vacuum attachment with a brush on the end. He loves to play with it. But I very randomly found out that the brush on the end brushes Preston's hair perfectly! The baby brush will no longer go through all of his hair, but all of my brushes have bristles too far apart to really comb his hair. So I actually brush his hair with a vacuum attachment everyday. Don't judge me. :)

Much love to you all.

A Big Week

This past week has had a lot going on for all of us. I think I mentioned before, but August has been jammed packed booked! Every day and especially every weekend is super busy. Apparently, everyone wants to host events in August, including us. It's been brutally, and I mean super brutally hot, like 105 degrees, which has made all of our running around more tiring though. I never thought I'd say it, but I' ready for Fall. :)

First things first, Wicker Bean #2 is doing great! I am definitely feeling him move a lot, and even Kevin can feel it now, at 18 weeks, and overall I feel pretty good other than still being more tired than usual. But nothing like what I felt in the first trimester. Goodness, that was the highest level of exhaustion I think I've ever felt! My varicose veins are soo hating this pregnancy. It's making me quite self conscious, but I know it's all worth it, and I'll get them fixed after all these babies.

 We had our level two sonogram with the perinatologist this week at 18 weeks and all looked amazingly perfect. Baby is growing right on track, the placenta and fluid level both looked great, and no abnormalities were seen. And, it's definitely a boy. He sure was giving us some good shots. The  baby measured 18 wks and 2 days and weighed 8 ounces. She also measured my cervix and all is still in perfect shape. She measured it at 4.25 cm, which is ridiculously longer than I have ever been measured. But I was having a focal contraction when she measured it which usually causes an exaggerated cervical length measurement. I usually start at about 3.25 cm, which is probably what I really measured, so I'm feeling confident that at this point I have not gone below that. Based on my history with Preston she said I sit in a 'grey zone' since I did shorten and have preterm labor, but ended up carrying him to term. But given the fact that I'm also hypothyroid (which in uncontrolled scenarios can cause poor growth in the baby) she will monitor me with sonograms once a month until 34 weeks. Good game plan. It sure was lovely to see our sweet baby! He was so active and has the sweetest little profile and fingers and toes. To be able to watch God grow and develop him INSIDE OF MY BODY is truly one of the biggest miracles and gifts of a lifetime. So we will see him again
in a month.

It's a boy!!



Last weekend we did another there-and-back day trip to Houston for my niece, Layla's, 4th birthday party. It truly is exhausting driving 8 hours in a day with a 17 month old, but so worth it to be a part of Layla's sweet life and show her that we love her. I feel like a common thread in all of my posts these day is writing about the exhaustion of being the parents to Preston, but it really is no joke. LOL I'm sure the pregnant part has something to do with it too. But it does make for a truly exhausted Mom and Dad after we go to anyone's house with Preston because Kevin and I literally cannot sit down the entire time we are there. Most peoples houses are not Preston-proofed like ours, so in order to keep him from destroying all of their things or falling down their stairs, we can never take our eyes off of him as he runs their house. This birthday party adventure was no different. Preston has one speed, GO, all the time. So he ran and ran and ran my Pepaw's house relentlessly the entire four hours we were there and tried to pick up every single item that wasn't locked down, including the dog. And since he couldn't pick up the dog, he drug the dog crate around the house. After observing Preston for a bit my Pepaw says to us, " Man, he sure isn't short on energy. Is he like this all the time? ( To which we reply, " Yes".) I sure pity yall!" Okay, the validation felt good, I have to admit. :) But Preston swam and spent time with his cousins, and even got to play with a huge water gun for the first time ( we don't do the gun thing), which he thought was the most amazing toy ever created. It sure was hilarious to watch him carry this ginormous gun around while he ran and played. He refused to put it down.

 Pool time with Dad and Uncle Justin

Sooo happy about this water gun!

 Birthday girl, Layla! Turning four!

 Miss Layla, Uncle Justin and Preston

 Walking the place, which we did over and over and over in the lovely Houston heat with Preston...and his gun. :) Carried it everywhere.

He was quite mesmerized by the pinata.

Now he found a yard stick to tote around.

 Now Mamma and Baby's turn to walk around in the heat. This was towards the end of the day and we both were WORN OUT and hot!

Birthday girl puckering up and posing for her picture.



We also went to Preston friend Chamblee's first birthday party this weekend. Preston has been making the rounds, I tell ya. Seeing him in social environments always amazes me. He is so awesome, yall. He is incredibly social. He navigates though oodles of people in crowded rooms all by himself, never scared or looking for Mom or Dad, and walks up to strangers and interacts and giggles and gives them books to read to him and he'll happily sit on their lap ( albeit for five seconds, as he has to move onto other things) and let them read him a book. HE LOVES BOOKS. He carries one around most of the time and "reads" them. He stays happy the entire time and entertains himself. Yes, we have to watch him to make sure he's not pulling fun things off of shelves and so forth, but he's very independent. I watch him share toys, play nice with the other kids, and take direction from us so well while he's playing with others, and he even cleans up his toys and puts them back in the toy box before getting another one. Yes, I'm super duper biased, but I'm just so impressed by our lovely man, and think he's the gem of all gems. He always just seems such a step above, if I dare admit that. :)

Big girl, Chamblee, turning one!!

Camera died, but I did get a few pictures of Miss Chamblee opening her gifts. :)



I'm sure you gathered, but Preston is doing super well. He's IS A SPONGE and is learning brand new things, seriously, daily. It's totally cool! So we are taking this opportunity to teach teach teach! I don't know that he's ever been in such a fast and obvious learning period. He is just soaking up every single thing and showing off his new skills. So amazing!

Here's what he's been up to:

He can sign the letter, 'A' and 'Z' and say ' Z'

He is showing us that he definitely likes order. He almost won't play with his toys in the toy box without encouragement because he wants them to stay all in the toy box ( HE DID GET SOMETHING FROM ME!) And when he's done with one, he puts it back in the toy box..and not just thrown in Oh, no, he doesn't want it hanging over the edge, it has to be all the way inside. He will go back and fix it if he notices it. He was playing with a toy today, we were standing in the kitchen as I offered him something else to play with. He looked at the new toy, ran into the living room to put his 'old' toy that he was currently playing with back in the toy box, and then ran back to me to get the 'new' toy. So crazy! We do sing the ' clean up' song together and pick up his toys and put them back in the toy box, but I've never made him play with only one toy at a time. So this is not from us, this is all my little OCD baby. :)

He is signing, " No' like crazy

He tells the dogs to " Go" and points for them to go ( I guess he's seen this a time or two)

He puts his finger up over his lips now when he says, " shhhhh"

We are working on the signs for, " cookie, share, banana, and night night ( sleep).

He has mastered  signing 'please' and offers up a please before we give him anything that he asks for.

We count aloud a lot for him and sign numbers, but he isn't quite onto the counting, but he is starting to recognize colors though and be able to point to them.

He signs "Daddy" all the time. Anytime the dogs start randomly barking he runs to the garage door entrance and giggles and says and signs, " Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!". He know that when the dogs typically bark it's because Dad is home and they have heard the garage door open. He loves his Daddy.

He likes to take a wipe and help wipe himself when you're changing his diaper

He loves, loves to give, " big hugs" to us and the dogs. It's super sweet. He also loves to share with the dogs whatever he's playing with or eating. He takes a bite and then lets them have a bite--even if it's a toy.

Today he had a toy and I caught him lifting Eli's paw trying to put the toy into Eli's " hand". Oh my, melt my heart, people. Adorable.

 Sure loves him some Glory

She is so good at tolerating him. :) He just wont leave her alone.

 Big hugs for Glory

One of his favorite places to be, Glory's crate

In and out, in and out...



Preston is such a sweet, sweet boy. He's definitely an explorer and busy, but wicked smart. I just love his mild mannered spirit. He is already so loving and giving, and very open to interacting freely with others. I love these qualities about him.


Well, gotta run, folks, off to Just Between Friends consignment sale today!!! Whoo hooo! It's like a mini vacation! Time without Preston to go shopping for a few hours!