The Long Road Home: 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: