Preston Santiago

Preston is 14 1/2 months old now and I cannot believe it. Time truly flies! He is such a sweet little thing. He and Dylan are similar in some ways and completely different in others. I love getting to know him as he shows more and more of his personality. He is at such a fun age too. He's doing more tricks and learning more skills every day. I thought I would share some of the fun things he does.

• He has always been so loving, but is getting more affectionate every day. He gives the best hugs and snuggles ever! His "pats" on the back are a little excited, but are meant to show love, not frustration.


• He has such a tender touch. Ever since he was a newborn, he would reach up and touch my face so softly with his little hand. He loves to touch people's mouths and Marcos' goatie. It's cute! He is pretty much that way with everyone and even with his stuffed animals. He's quite caring and gentle.


• He has always had a fascination with his tongue - always! Even as an infant he would stick his tongue out all the time.  Then he got to where he would make motor boat and clicking noises.  Up until recently, he did the "dither, dither" thing. You know the one where they stick their tongue all the way out and pull it back in while they're talking. It makes a noise kind of like that. Now he does the same thing, but keeps his tongue in his mouth. It sounds more like "deeder deeder" or something like that. It's so cute though. He's quite the jabber box and loves making all sorts of noises.


• He's cautious - well about some things. I'll set him down and he stands pretty well on his own, but the moment he realizes he's standing, he dives for me or the ground. He's getting a little more confident, but he definitely likes his comfort zone. He's not quite as brave as his older brother.


• He LOVES to play in the toilet. This is a new adventure at our house. With a first child, you just leave the doors shut, but with Dylan going in and out of the bathroom all day, trying to keep Preston away has been a challenge. For the record, he loves the sink and the bathtub too, it's just the toilet that receives all the negative attention.


• He also loves toilet paper. It's not at all unusual to find the entire roll of toilet paper in the garbage from Preston pulling on it until it was completely unraveled.


• He has a few stuffed animals that he's quite fond of. He loves to watch them and play with them. He's so gentle with them. He'll often just hold one while he falls asleep. He's fascinated with their tails and will just twirl them in his hand. It's so cute.


• Since he's still a crawler, he has had to impravize to be able to carry things around the house with him. He usually sits down, sticks the object in his mouth, then flips onto all fours and crawls to his destination. I LOVE watching this process. He carries all sorts of things this way. My favorites have been water bottles (a little tricky), stuffed animals that he carries by the tail, and a little rubber worm. One day, he carried that rubber worm in his mouth all day long. He'd sit back down, take it out of his mouth, play with it, then put it back in again and take off. It's so much fun to watch.


• Dirt. Okay, with all the outdoor projects we've been working on, the kid has injested far more dirt and sand than I'd like to admit. I try to remind myself that it's a normal part of childhood. He's going to eat dirt no matter what I do...so I usually just let him.


• Tantrums. He's starting to throw tantrums every now and then. He hates to have his diaper changed.  He also fights his carseat at first. Once he's in, he's fine. I think it's the idea that he's going to be stuck somewhere that makes him mad.


• He's still not too afraid of strangers, but he's thinking about it. He'll let anyone pick him up and hold him, but before long, he's diving back towards me. Many times he can't decide who he wants to hold him and he leans towards several different people before he settles into someone's arms.


• He LOVES Dylan. Dylan will be lying on the ground and Preston goes up to him and touches his hair or pats his head or arm. His pats are sometimes too hard, but Dylan knows he's not trying to be mean. Once in awhile, he pulls Dylan's hair and then Dylan gets upset, but they're usually very cute together.


• He's a screamer. He's such a mild-tempered little guy and he's been such an easy baby. Because of this, he's had to become a screamer when he needs something, particularly when Dylan is tackling him. It's a very high-pitched annoying little thing, but I've come to adore it anyway.


• His ups aren't as high and his downs aren't as low as my extreme little Dylan, but he still has them. In general, he is just such a happy little guy though.


• He's working on his bottom two molars. The upper two came in a couple months ago. That will make 12 teeth probably in the next week or so. Luckily, he only seems to use them to eat, not to bite.


• He's always been a great eater, but he knows when he doesn't like something. He'll just spit it out or pull it out of his mouth with his fingers. Strange textures seem to bother him. He'll often assume something's going to be weird and pull it out of his mouth before he gives it a second try. He's funny that way. He doesn't like goldfish crackers at all! I've never heard of a kid that didn't like goldfish crackers.  And no matter what I try, he doesn't like broccoli.

• I love the way he sits on the bottom stair and stands up.  Sit down, stand up, sit down, stand up all day long.  I especially love the proud grin he gets on his face when he realizes he's accomplished his goal.

• He's starting to stand on his own a little bit more.  He's been pulling himself up on furniture for quite awhile, then he realized he could go from sitting on the stair to standing with little effort.  The last few days, he's been trying to push himself up off the ground to stand.  I love to watch this learning process.  He focuses so hard.  Then once he's standing, but not holding onto anything, he's not sure what to do.  He doesn't want to walk without holding onto something.  I can't help but smile at my growing little boy.

Here are a few recent pictures of Preston's life.