Thursday, August 28, 2008

Turning one- frustrating or fun?

Last week, Preston had a doctor's appointment for his one year check up. Although it was scheduled for 10 am and we did not see the doctor until 11:15, (GRRR!) it went really well. He's now 19 lbs and just over 30 inches long. Still long and lean- he's actually only in the 5-10%tile for weight, but 50-75th%tile for height. Good thing Daddy came along to this appointment and kept Preston entertained with his cell phone.




Speaking of his doctor, I don't think I blogged about this, but the week prior, we unfortunately discovered that Preston has an egg allergy. The general rule of thumb is that a child can have egg YOLK before they turn, and all of the egg afterwards. (Egg whites are a common allergen.) Well, on the Wednesday before his 1st birthday, I had nothing on hand to make a quick dinner for him, so threw caution to the wind and decided- "what the hell, he's almost one, let's try some scrambled eggs for dinner." Well, within minutes, as we were bathing him after dinner, we noticed a few red spots near his armpits and by morning, the poor thing was covered in hives. He didn't act as though they bothered him or even that he knew he had them, but I took him in to her office, and after a dose of Benadryl, (and a good long nap as a result of the benadryl), they went away. We now are waiting another 3 months to re-introduce them and hope this doesn't mean he has any other allergies. So far, so good. We've been lucky because he really does eat pretty much anything we eat now, although I'm kinda careful with meats because the kid still only has one tooth! He likes a good varitey of healthy foods- loves fruit, does great with yellow veggies and ok with green ones, can't get enough dairy like cheeses and yogurt, and generally enjoys proteins like shaved turkey and ham, and pinches of grilled chicken. His favorites are:
peaches
pears
bananas
avacado
cottage cheese
cream cheese
colby and cheddar cheese
peas
carrots
turkey
SPAGHETTI- his latest and greatest (and messiest)

He is also communicating really well at the table and does the sign for "more" and "all done." Although sometimes he gets them confused, he generally has the idea.
Here's a video of him at the end of his meal- a little zoned out, but having some fun with his peas.



He's picking up a few words here and there and it's so stinkin' cute. He's really into mimicking us these days, too- if we say, "la la la" in a high sing-songy voice, he'll do the same. If we blow raspberries, he'll do that, too. He now has several words... mama, dada, hi, bye, up, and hot. (Hot sounds like "hhhah" but he points to my coffee or a stove and says it with the same inflection that we use when we say it to him.) And just yesterday, I asked him what the doggie says and he said, "ooo-ooof." (Woof-woof.) I also think we are starting to pick up on some affirmative and negative responses like "yeah" and ...unfortunately, "no." hmmm...I'll keep you posted on how that goes.


Sometimes, when he can't get his point across, or we don't allow him to do something, (i.e... crawl on the coffee table), he also communicates by melting down. Enjoy these lovely photos of Preston's more persistent side:



The poor thing- can you imagine how frustrating it must be to know exactly what you want, but not posses the words to tell someone?


Since those pictures no doubt broke your heart, I'll leave you with some better ones from our more fun times throughout the week. By the way, is anyone noticing how MUCH he looks like Kevin lately?



Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Happy 1st Birthday, Preston!



This past Sunday, August 17th, at 6:41pm, Preston turned 1 year old. It was a very bittersweet moment for us as we are very emotional (ok, I am very emotional) about our sweet baby boy becoming a toddler.

We celebrated all weekend long and Preston was SO great. I swear he is becoming more and more adaptable in his ripe old age of one. On Saturday, we drove up to my Grandma Joan's house for his party with my mom's side, and after a few short hours filled with food, playtime, and cake, we headed back to Fort Wayne to prepare for our Sunday celebration with Kevin's family. We both have large families, and the thought of doing one giant party was too much, so we broke it up and it worked out perfectly.

Saturday, Preston shared his cake with Grams, who is a little bit older than Preston, but has almost as much energy. He ate a great meal, played with some new toys and finished off with smashing into his cake.


He really enjoyed the frosting- just sticking his finger in at first, then getting a bit more with each bite. I don't know that he actually had much of the cake part, but I think he'd settle for frosting for every meal now. I've honestly tried extremely hard to avoid any sugar in his diet, although I am guilty of giving him a taste of nutrigrain bars on occasion. Other than that, the only sugar he's ever really had is the natural sugars in fruit, so imagine what this cake was like for him. And, as if that weren't enough of a treat, he got to play with Grandma's pots and pans.




On Sunday, we had the B-I-G party with all of his grandparents, aunts and uncles, our close family friends and of course, his cousins! We hosted it at our new house so that we had enough room for everyone and had tons of cookout food and outdoor games complete with a kiddie pool and water balloons. It was a blast! I was a little nervous about Preston being tired since he was running short on nap fuel for the day, but the kid was a champ. Or, should I say ham? While he, for whatever reason, wasn't that into his cake on Sunday, (hmmm...maybe because I baked it?) he gave a long and detailed speech for everyone while playing in the frosting. What can I say, he loves an audience. I have no idea where he gets it.







Let me tell ya- Preston CLEANED UP in the gift department. I can't believe how many awesome things he got. In fact, he got so many, I think we'll be storing some away and pulling them out throughout the year in order to keep the novelty strong. Tons of cute clothes- some hilarious onesies designed by the Kings, the motherload of Mini Boden and his super safe Britax carseat (yippeeee!) from Grammy Dawn and Grandpa Tom, money from Papa Sherm and Nana Connie towards his education (THANKS!), cute wooden toys and some not-so-wooden toys which he LOVES from his aunts and uncles, and from Grandma and Grandpa Erb, this amazing Radio Flyer wooden push trike that he's still figuring out, but you can tell by his face how much he loves it already.



I'm a little sad because the day went by so quickly that I completely forgot about two special things we had planned. ** Completely. Forgot. ** One was to ask everyone to write in his journal that we received at our family baby shower over a year ago, and the other was to share a slide show I made him with pictures from this past year. The upside of this is that I was able to include pictures from his birthday weekend to complete the slide show and upload it to YouTube in order to share here.



Even without that fine piece of nearly-professional video, the day was amazing. Thank you to everyone who helped make this past weekend a success! Thank you to my husband who has been an amazing father these last 12 months. I love watching you interact and teach our son how to become a little gentleman. Thanks to our family and friends for your love and constant support as we learn to parent in a positive way. And most importantly, thank you to Preston for being the best baby a mother could ask for. I feel like we've grown together and connected so completely and I'm a better, more complete person because I am your mommy. I love you, my sweet baby boy!

Monday, August 11, 2008

Preston's commercial debut

Family friend Michael Montagano is running for congress and since Preston just so happens to live in the district, he agreed to make an appearance for a Montagano for Congress campaign commercial. This actually lead him to realize his life long dream of becoming an actor, so once the commercial was shot, he left home for LA but has been calling on the cell to keep us updated on all his auditions.

Here's a sneak peak of the commercial:

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

my curious almost-one-year-old.

I am feeling very nostalgic about Preston's upcoming birthday and can hardly believe it's been a year since we brought him home. Some days, it feels like he's always been here, and others like he's still that little newborn that was completely dependent on us for everything.

But dependence is NOT something he's striving for these days. He wants so badly to do whatever he can on his own. He's still nursing, still wearing diapers, not walking on his own, and even with that new tooth- not yet feeding himself with a spoon. But other than that, it's all Preston! He's able to entertain himself for a few minutes at a time these days, flipping through his books or pulling toys out of his box until he's quickly on to the next thing. The speed at which this child tornadoes through our house is amazing to us. His energy is exhausting but charming at the same time. I've learned it's really important for him to get out and about during the day in order to keep him stimulated enough to satisfy his curiosity. It's almost as if he's bored with everything there is to do here at home.

We are gearing up for the big first birthday bash and are really looking forward to a day that will celebrate him with family and friends who love him. Here are some shots of our little curious munchkin taken recently. As you can see- he's busy as usual figuring things out. Enjoy!







Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Baby Behind

How cute is this?