Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Lots to cover...


My poor sick baby! The text on these pages of one of our favorite books, "Quiet, Loud," says it all for this week. Preston has his first cold and it's been a tough one. It started Friday, and as of this Wednesday afternoon, is still here. I know- I totally jinxed myself by reporting on his new cute, "social cough." I guess it wasn't so social after all, because you should hear the real one he's got going on. His eyes are red and watery, he's sneezing constantly and I'm officially one of those moms whose kid has snot running down their face. I did get him into the doctor yesterday and the plan was to give him these safe for baby, prescription decongestant drops which we did last night. Let's just say that they didn't make him sleep any better. Our personal plan of attack has been to nurse as much as possible since I want him to get as many vitamins and as much immunity from me as he can.


Because of this cold, Preston was unable to meet his new cousin. But he'd still like to say,
WELCOME BABY JACOB!!!!
Look at this precious little one that Preston's Uncle Matthew and Aunt Heather brought into the world on Good Friday. He was 8lbs 2oz and has a head full of brown hair. Preston can't wait until he's just a little bit older so that he can play with him! He is a long-awaited miracle and I'm looking forward to this cold being gone so that P can meet the new addition to the Erb family. Grandchild number 10!

Speaking of Erb Grandchildren, Mark and Nicol find out very soon what they are having! Stay tuned!


For Easter, we traveled to Elkhart and spent the night with Nana on Saturday, then Sunday attended a beautiful church service and brunch with Grandma and Grandpa Roberts and Aunt Tori and Uncle Collin. Preston looked so darn dapper in his button down shirt, khakis, and sweater vest. I can't believe I didn't get a full-length picture. He was in the throws of the cold climax, so I was lucky to get a few brief smiles, but you can still tell he wasn't himself. Poor thing- we felt awful. It was really hard for Kevin and I to see him so sick.





Here are a couple of cute pictures from the evening that Kevin was recognized by the Art Museum. They were taken by Kristin Fisher, whom, as I've mentioned before, Preston is totally enamored with. She is so good with kids and was kind enough to watch him for a few hours that evening during the exhibit before we took him to dinner. Kristin is a very talented photographer so she took these two pictures of him while she was here. SHE added the text and it could be more true. I love how she showed off the brown and blue of his eye in the second one.




Speaking of talented photographers, you all know Betsy by now, and recently, we met on the fly with the boys at P's favorite coffee joint, The Friendly Fox. Well, of couse Betsy had her camera and put together this little photo montage of Preston and Miles... How cute!!!! (And when I say "cute," I'm certainly not referring to my t-shirt and pony tail ensemble. Avert your eyes from me, but check out these little guys!) Enjoy!


Preston had me amazed today at my mom's group as he sat up for most of the entire thing. Yep, there are plenty of babies who sit through that group. Some even as young as 4 or 5 months. But while P has taken his time to sit up, he's certainly adorable when he does it.

Now who can argue with THAT???

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Preston meets a president

Let me begin this blog with a caveat by saying that while Kevin and I are not personally big Bill Clinton fans, we are, however big democracy fans and respect him as a popular past president. And the term "big fans" of Bill is relative, right? I mean- let's face it- there are people out there (some even reading this blog) who really live and breathe the Clintons. Regardless, he still came to Fort Wayne for a talk on Hillary's campaign, so I loaded Preston up and with three of my girlfriends, Holli, Kristin, and Emily, we headed to Fort Wayne's Grand Wayne Center downtown and decided to take in the hoopla for ourselves. It was PACKED full of over 2000 people and somehow, we waltzed right up to the front and got a great spot.
Look how close we were!


A secret service agent (OMG- secret service!) even winked at me with a sleeping Preston on my chest and whispered to ask how old he was. I smiled and whishpered back, "Seven Months. He's a pumpkin." He just nodded and smiled and looked away, forced to do his job, but I knew what he really wanted to do was chat about how cute he was and ask me everything about him. (Seriously, who could blame him?) :)


You can see how close we were to him in this pictures, and at the end, I was able to shake his hand. So- no matter how popular (or UNpopular) Bill Clinton may be, it was pretty exciting that Preston is less than a year old and has already seen a US President in person.


Speaking of big names, I get to brag about my hubby for a minute. Kevin was recently recognized as a participant in "Text and Textures," the most recent exhibit opening at Fort Wayne Museum of Art. It's an amazing exhibit that features what they refer to as, "prominent community leaders with an interest in the arts." AWWW! Kevin was asked to choose a piece of art from the museum's permanent collection and display it with a poem of his choosing. While we couldn't photograph the picture in the gallery on display, I can tell you that it was a large piece by Gene Davis and a poem about fatherhood by William Butler Yeats. Afterwards, his entourage of family and friends hit Biaggi's for dinner in Kevin's honor. Preston was out well past his bedtime and still did great. Here he is at the table with his Aunt Kim:

In the same week, Kevin was also recognized in Fort Wayne's Business Weekly's feature "Career Path." All this publicity prompted his new family nickname, the "media darling." lol.


As I mentioned last week, I wanted post a few pictures of him in his high chair. It's a wee-little "space saving" high chair that doubles as a booster seat when the baby is older and sits in on of our dining room chairs. He loves it and now sits with us as we eat dinner and is eating many of his meals in it. In these shots, I mashed up some banana, but before long, he'll have Cheerios and small bites of our table food up there!






No luck on getting a wave on video, but hold on to your hats- this is darn cute! Preston has learned the "social cough" and he thinks it's hilarious when we cough back at him. Here we are hanging out at home early in the week:




Hope everyone is having a good week- we are headed to Elkhart for Easter and ANXIOUSLY awaiting the arrival of Preston's new cousin. Any day now- hurry up, Aunt Heather!!!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

proof of mobility

Here it is- my attempt to show you all what I mean about Preston becoming so mobile. I know I keep posting about it, but seriously- I feel like it has happened over night and we're amazed that it's not some sort of fluke, but that the child is really moving. Watch him pull his legs up to get his knee on the ground in the first video, and in the second one, he's scooting backwards.




My goals for the next week are to video this adorable wave-thing he's doing. Yep- he waves. (sort of) Well, maybe I should say, "this adorable arm-raising thing" when we say "Hi-iiii" in an obnoxious high pitched voice. Either way- I need to capture it because you will melt.
I'll also get a pic of him in his high chair. We finally brought it down out of the attic because I didn't feel like the Bumbo was.... er... um, well, let's just say, the bumbo is not the safest place for him lately.

And I think I've mentioned before that Preston meets with two of his friends, Eduardo and Stella every week at our neighborhood coffee shop, The Friendly Fox. Well, he and his buddies are going to be the next "customers of the month" there. But look at these faces- how could they not be? :)

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Quick catch-up

It's been wayyyyy too long since I've made a post here, but it's not for lack of content, just lack of time. I know, I know- I'll be kicking myself in a few years for not documenting these days more diligently, but I just can't seem to find a free second to blog lately. So, in a nutshell, here's what we've been up to:
Working on the new house!!! Preston has been a doll whenever he's been over there, but thankfully, Grandma Judy has kept him SO frequently, especially on the weekends so that we can continue making headway on the projects we've undertaken. Thank you, Judy!!! I am so blessed to live nearby Kevin's family who are not only willing to help with the construction of the house (having handy brother-in-laws is GREAT), but also to watch Preston. I'll post some pics of our progress soon.


Also, Preston is having a blast being so mobile. Here's an example- I left him on the blanket you see in the middle of the floor, went to get laundry downstairs and found him playing with is diaper pail when I returned, halfway across the room.


In this photo, we had been playing on the floor. Again, he started on the blanket, and while I didn't get it on video, he rolled, played, and squirmed off the blanket and pulled it onto his head. We played peek-a-boo for awhile, which he now loves, so I think he's decided blankets are for playing, rather than laying on.


He's still loving solids, but doesn't seem to care much for the fruits, which has surprised me. I think they may be too tart for him. I'm making all of our baby food, which has actually been easier than I ever imagined. We have a stash of sweet potatoes in the freezer that could feed an army!

As you can see, we are still feeding him every meal in the bumbo seat, and I'm more than ready to break our high chair out of the box. But I'm waiting until we get into the new house, simply because I don't want one more thing I have to hide before a showing here. Speaking of showing, our house hasn't sold yet, so we could use some crossed fingers out there in blog-reading-land! :)

He's finally sitting up for a minute or two at a time! Kevin snapped this picture, taken on Grandma and Grandpa Erb's kitchen table, after a long day of working at the new house. (i.e., excuse my sans make-up face) We are so excited for him...GO PRESTON!!!!!


He's still as social as can be. Last weekend at Aunt Heather and Uncle Matthew's shower, he had a good 30 people in his face for at least 3 hours and didn't fuss once. He's also taken a couple of long naps in his crib this week (please don't let me have just jinxed myself by saying that) - one for 2 hours!!! And he's asleep there now while I type...

It's a Sunday afternoon, so that means we are headed to the new house to do some more work, but before I sign off, here are a few other shots of our almost 7 month old:

With Daddy:


(scooting off the blanket again)



Such a big boy!