Preston, Preston, Preston

Ah, three year olds. I can already feel the age sneaking up on us. Preston will be 3 on March 15 and I can hardly believe it. In some ways, he still feels so much younger than that to me. He has been so content to let people help him and very much the type to do things at his own pace. But in other ways, I feel it approaching more quickly than I would like. I don't know about the rest of you, but three was hard for me with Dylan. He turned 3 right before Preston was born and I was going through a really rough time in my life. I never knew whether or not to blame the age or our circumstances on that difficult year, but after talking to many moms, I think three can be rough. I have a major love/hate relationship with it though. I LOVE the things kids start to say as they figure out how better to express themselves and I love the fact that they are starting to be able to do some things for themselves and trying to be a bit more independent. What I could live without is the stubbornness that seems to come with the age and the increased mischief. With Dylan, mischief started at 14 months or so and is just barely getting to a bearable stage. Preston, however, has not been the type of child to test every child-proof door or push my buttons until I thought they would burst. He has just been content to go with the flow. Unfortunately I feel that may all be coming to an end. I'm going to miss you, my sweet little 2-year-old Preson!

Yesterday was laundry day. That's right, I try to have days so I don't get too behind with anything. It doesn't always happen, but I try to follow a basic schedule. I went downstairs to get the laundry and bring it upstairs to fold. And there was nothing specific entertaining Prestonian. I came up the stairs to see my brand new roll of paper towels completely unravelled. Preston had a huge grin on his face and was clapping. Apparently he was pretty proud of his accomplishment. GRR.... I grabbed the camera, snapped a shot and put him on timeout. Kind of counter-productive, but I have to document these moments.

It could not have been 30 minutes later and 5 minutes until Dylan came home from school that he took my 1000 piece puzzle I'd been working on (which I had made a pretty good dent in the past two days) and swept it off onto the floor. I was even in the same room. Are you kidding me? I'm not sure if he needed more attention or what. I'll tell you what though. I have never been more excited for Dylan to come home from school before. Preston needed his brother.

I put Preston in his room to think about the puzzle. I didn't know if I could actually handle the off and on that comes with the naughty mat so I just put him in his room. I could hear him crying and then he settled down. I left him there for a few minutes and went up to talk to him. And here's what I found this time. The basket with all of the "baby" stuff like lotion, diaper rash cream, little bags for dirty diapers, etc. was EVERYWHERE! Seriously, child! I don't know how much more of this I can take. And it all took place before lunch. It's no wonder I'm so exhausted and feel like nothing ever gets accomplished. I worked all day long just to get the house looking like it did before the day started. Ahhh...deep breath. This too shall pass.

As a quick update, today got started off rough too. The kid LOVES the kitchen sink. I turn around and he's got a bar stool over there with the scrub brush and water saying, "I scwub it out." He is also obsessed with his little Nemo underwear. No, we are nowhere near potty training, but I got out the underwear to use when the time is right. He LOVES the Nemo ones and figured out how to get them out of his drawer today. Unfortunately, he thought Nemo needed a swim. This is what I found, as well as soaking wet sleeves halfway up his arms. Honestly, child. We have got to find some balance here.

Musical Beds

Dylan is going through a crazy "everything is scary" phase and Preston is going through a clingy "I want mommy" phase. AWESOME! Dylan won't even go upstairs to the bathroom unless he knows he can see me. Sheesh! It keeps me busy for sure. One night, I walked in to check on them after things quieted down and found both of them in Dylan's bed. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I'm guessing Preston was sad and Dylan told him he could lay in his bed. Nighttime can be very frustrating for a very tired mommy at our house. I never know what to expect. I often find one kid or the other next to me in the middle of the night needing a drink or a snuggle. And I have woken up to find Preston's toddler bed empty a number of times. I panic and then do a room sweep and usually find him somewhere on Dylan's bed, on the floor or under Dylan's bed. Crazy kid! One night, Dylan let Preston sleep next to him, but when he started rolling and kicking, Dylan got uncomfortable so he just flipped around. I found one kid's head at the top of the bed and the other kid's head at the bottom. Another day, I found Dylan in the toddler bed and Preston in the big bed in the morning. Who knows? If Dylan is really tired and falls right to sleep, Preston will get sad without his buddy to talk to and calm him down. I knew Dylan was already asleep one night and left Preston in his bed to fall asleep. I could hear him talking to Dylan and and when Dylan didn't respond, he got really sad. He was sobbing uncontrollably. I went to check on him and found him on the floor next to his bed. I asked him what was wrong and through his tears he told me, "Mommy, I so sad." Well that was obvious. All I have to say is I'm sure glad they have each other. They are such cute brothers and it helps to know that they comfort each other. I sure love those boys - bad sleep habits and all!

Dylanisms

Here are just a few funny things Dylan has said the last several months. It is so hard to keep track of them, but I want to remember the stages they go through so much.

• We were on our way from somewhere on the freeway and Dylan got to go directly to a playdate. He was having such a hard time waiting so I had told him he had five minutes left. When he realized we were off the freeway he said, "Oh five. Okay mom, here comes my sprinkle sand" (referring to a sand timer).
• Last fall, Dylan was devastated when he got to school and realized he could tie his shoes but not whistle or snap like some of the kids. He immediately started working on snapping and had it down before long. After that, he conquered whistling. During his "practice period" for learning to snap, we were driving in the car and I had a song turned up for us to listen to. He said, "Excuse me, Mom. Can you turn this down? I can't hear myself snapping."
• Dylan was telling me he loves nerds. He said he loved the blue ones because blue is always his favorite color, he loved the purple ones because they were grape flavor. Then he said, "And white...well, white tastes kind of like the fruit that Lehi had."
• My nephew, Kamyn, was calling binoculars, "nockiers." Dylan said, "No, Kamyn. They're not nockiers, they're bee-knock-clee-ers."
• Dylan was asking me about video games and telling me he understood the ratings on the games and that he would never play M or T. Then he said, "Yeah, video games have ratings but shows don't." I told him TV and movies did have ratings and tried to explain G and PG to him. He looked at me and said, "I guess my troodon brain was upside down." (Troodon's are thought to be the smartest dinosaurs for those who don't follow extinct reptiles the way we do and he always refers to himself as a troodon when he is feeling smart).
• I went downstairs for ribbon and got side-tracked. I went back upstairs and remembered I went downstairs for ribbon. I think that happened 2-3 times. I finally said something to Dylan about losing my mind. He told me I could borrow his troodon brain, but that I needed to make sure I gave it back.
• We were making cake with a can of soda instead of eggs and oil and decided to use Sprite. Dylan said, "Yeah Mom, Sprite is our baking soda, isn't it?"
• During the Thanksgiving break, Dylan was super excited about the Indian name he was given at his school pow-wow. He started referring to himself as White Thunder. I soon became Red Fox, Marcos was Quick Wolf and Preston was Big Buffalo.
• One afternoon the kids were playing quietly outside, taking advantage of the nice weather. I was excited to have a moment of peace. I really should have paid attention when Dylan said he was making a recipe for disaster. It really was! Sand, water, soap and three children in a big tote was not a good mixture. They were all soaking wet, dirty and covered in suds and poor Preston ended up tipping over onto the cement while his stubby little legs were stuck in the wet sand. He had a great big bump on the back of his noggin! Dylan is super creative and a leader by nature, but he can create havoc and make a huge mess so fast it's ridiculous!
• At the beginning of the school year, my friend, Courtney, told me about a conversation that took place between Kambrie and Dylan on the drive home from school. It went something like this. K: Dylan, I decided I'm going to marry Cameron now. D: But you're MY girlfriend. K: I will always be your girlfriend because we're going to be friends forever, but I'm going to marry Cameron. D: (scowl). K: (Deep breath) Maybe we should wait and discuss this tomorrow with Cameron. D: Fine! Meet at the tree!
• That conversation was the beginning of a very long chain of girlfriend moments that makes me very nervous. Now there are at least 5 girls in Kindergarten and several in Primary who want to marry Dylan. Crazy 5-year-olds! I volunteered in Dylan's class for the Halloween party and was smiling when he answered a question. One of the other moms noticed and asked if I was Dylan's mom. When I said yes, she introduced herself as Dylan's future mother-in-law. It took me off guard a bit because I had no idea Abby even liked Dylan. Go figure!
• Dylan is really good at school. Kindergarten really is just a social experience for him. He is getting pretty good at reading and has gotten much better at drawing (one of his weaker areas). He is great at puzzles and really enjoys figuring out ways things can fit together.

Dylan is the same old Dylan he has always been. I wish I could tape record him all the time because I forget his funny sayings by the time I try to write it down. His favorite thing is still playing with animals and dinosaurs and he loves anything that has to do with science. He keeps me on my toes (still) but makes me laugh more than anyone. His highs are high and his lows are low, but we've learned to love the roller coaster! :)

Preston Update

I know. These are probably boring posts for everyone else, but this is my way of journaling and scrapbooking for my kids since apparently I'm not very good at keeping up with that on my own. :) To be honest, I haven't been good at anything the last several months, but oh well. I did manage to write down a few things Preston has been doing and saying the last six months.

• My kids have quite a few nick names. Why? I don't know. Just because we are weird I guess and change their names all the time. One of the nick names Dylan ended up with was Dill-y-bob. I think that one came from my sister. When Dylan first went off to school, Preston would walk around the house looking for him and calling him. "Dee-dee-bob." It was really cute. Then he would come to me and ask "Where's Dy-wan?" I'd tell him he was at school and then the sequence would repeat again. That kid is really used to having an older brother around.
• One day when we had the cousins over for a sleep over, I decided to let Preston watch a movie in my bedroom to fall asleep. He asked me for a piece a bread so I brought it to him, but he wasn't really hungry and was too into his movie. He set the piece of bread next to him and said, "I sit by you pee-sh a bwead? Go na-night." He was tucking his piece of bread in. So cute!
• At some point, he decided it would be more efficient to combine the words want and need (don't we all feel like that sometime) and started saying "I weed-a..." for everything.
• Preston started talking about Bridgette over and over again. I tried to put it into context to figure out who Bridgette was. M: Where's Bridgette? P: Is white dear? M: Do you love Bridgette? P: I love Bridgette. It took me probably a month to figure out he was talking about Big Jet from Little Einstein's.
• Preston would bring me random things and say, "Here Mommy. It's fah you."
• I am such a lame-o. I don't know why but that stupid song from years ago that says, "I love you period. Do you love me? Please please! I want to hold you (in parenthesis)" is still stuck in my head. I randomly start singing that blasted song. One day it hit me and I started singing it and Preston knew all the words. Oh man, kids catch onto everything!
• Preston notices stop signs everywhere we go. "Look mommy, dear's a stop stine."
• He loves the octopus Dylan has in his ocean animals collection. He calls it "o-pa-pus."
• He really is a couch potato. I have to limit his TV or he would watch cartoons all day. But he gets a lot of his phrases from TV. One day we had a balloon and he said, "Did you see my balloon?" M: Yes P: You did? Where? I later heard a similar phrase on the Annie's birthday episode of Little Einstein's.
• Preston loves standing at the top of the stairs and throwing stuff down (usually balls or soft blocks) and yelling "bombs away." I have no idea where he even learned that phrase but it's pretty amusing.
• He calls fruit snacks "snoot snacks."
• Several months ago, Preston bit me when I was picking him up and stopping him from doing something naughty. He hasn't been a biter at all so it caught me off guard and I said, "Did you just bite me? No, no. Time out." and then took him to the naughty mat. After that, every time he was put on the naughty mat, he would cry out in a slow, sad, pathetic voice, "Mommy. Did you just bite me?"
• We had an orangutan outfit for him at Halloween. I thought it was perfect: roomy, warm, easy to put on. He did not agree. He hated it and tried to get it off the entire time. He kept crying out to me in his most pathetic voice, "Help, Mommy. I stuck da monkey." It took some major distraction just to get him to leave it on long enough to go around the church at the trunk or treat.
• Preston has become obsessed with letters. He kind of knows them, but not really. Most of the time he just guesses what letter it is. But he loves playing letter games on Starfall (with Mommy or Dylan) and loves the movie "Letter Factory."
• He always says, "I not weave it." For the longest time I thought he was announcing he was not leaving, but it was usually not in the right context. I finally realized that once again he was quoting Little Einstein's saying, "I cannot believe it!"
• He loves to pretend play and will pretend to be a kitty, a puppy or even a dinosaur. His dinosaur roar is hilarious! He sounds like he's trying to clear his throat.
• Whenever he was sad he would say, "Hey mom-may" or "hey pop-pay". He had quite the southern accent going for awhile. :)
• During Christmas, I was trying to get a million things done on the computer. He was "helping" me and kept clicking all the keys. I asked him several times to stop and finally said, "Preston, do you need a spanking?" He replied politely, "No tanks, Mom."
• He used to ask for a peanut jelly shamich and has recently changed it to be a peanut bu-wee (buttery) shamich. He LOVES peanut butter sandwiches and would eat them for every meal if I let him.
• One day he asked me, "Mommy, did you break it branches?" A few small branches had fallen off the tree and I guess he assumed I'd done it.
• One morning he came downstairs so sad. I thought something was really wrong with him until he said, "Mommy, I break it shirt." His pajama shirt had come unbuttoned while he was sleeping and he thought it was broken. It's his favorite pair so he was pretty distraught.
• He says "E-wishes" for delicious. He also uses the word "tasty" a lot when referring to food. "Um, that's tasty, Mommy!"
• When he was sick with a fever, I took him downstairs to give him some medicine in the middle of the night since his fever had spiked again. I set him on the counter while I got the medicine ready and he said, "I want me" (really slowly and in his sad voice). I said, "What?" You want me?" "Yesh, I want me." Later that night when I tried to take him to bed, he said, "I wanna sweep wiff me." The next day, he said, "I want you to hold you." So cute!
• He loves the word yes, but calls is "yesh." He answers with a firm "yesh" when you ask him a question.
• Sometimes he sounds so grown up. He'll say "Ack-sha-wee" (actually) as part of his sentence.
• He has started asking me questions and not waiting for a response. He answers himself in front of me and says, "A course you can."
• He's started talking a lot like me. He says, "You bet," "Wet's take a wook," and "Wook ut I found!"
• Preston was playing with a dragon kite and running with it around the room. He said, "Wook at my dwa-gon fwy (fly) Mommy." Dragon fly. Funny!
• He is so polite. He says, "Oh tanks, Mommy" and then waits for me to say you're welcome and then says, "Oh tanks, Mommy" again. If he doesn't want something he says, "No tanks, Mommy."
• He says, "Exmuse me" or will tell one of us, "You're exmused. You're da be exmused."
• He's started saying "That's credible, Mommy!" meaning that's incredible.
• For whatever reason, Preston is obsessed with the letter H with Q being a close second.
• Every morning he tells me he wants the green shirt, no matter what we end up picking. He seems to know what green is, but if there isn't a green shirt, he usually picks orange.
• The triangle is his favorite shape by far. Why? I have no idea, but even though he knows most of his shapes, he always talks about triangles.
• His favorite treat is pirouette cookies (which Anthony's dad brings). He calls them poco pucks. Actually anything with chocolate can be referred to as poco puck. He'll say, "Mommy, can I have a piece a poco puck?"
• He loves climbing, jumping and galloping. If he's galloping around the house, you can pretty much assume he's in a good mood.

Preston really is such an easy kid. He follows me around the house and is fairly low maintenance (for a toddler). He does love spilling water though and can make a mess like there's no tomorrow, but relatively speaking, he's just a mellow little fellow with a heart of gold. For the most part if he has one toy to play with, he is good for a really long time. But he really has a difficult time transitioning from one activity to another. If he wants to play with his toy and you tell him it's time to leave, he throws his weight and the biggest toddler tantrum begins. He's my sweet, silly, loving, often hard to figure out monkey and I love him to pieces!

I Love Dylan

I seriously love watching kids grow. Some of their stages drive me crazy, but watching children learn and become who they are going to be is so much fun for me. This Kindergarten stage has been fun. I think 1st grade is going to be really hard though. Dylan gets to go to school for a few hours-I get a break and alone time with Preston and he gets to socialize and learn to listen-and then I get him back again. Yes, it's a big fat pain to coordinate, but I'm glad he's not gone all day yet. And I love the way kids start to sound out words and create letters without any help at all. This is what Dylan brought me today. The first one is obviously pretty self-explanatory. He loves me! What else can I say. :) The second one he decided we should put up on our door so the robbers would know they couldn't come in our house. Only people who live here can come inside at night. He asked me to add the part at the bottom of the letter. My aunt had her house broken into in the middle of the night a few months ago and I think it's been on his mind a lot. Poor kid! Anyway, here's to Dylan who makes me absolutely crazy one minute and then makes me laugh, smile and get all teary-eyed the next.

The best letter a mom could hope to receive :)

Christmas Surprise

Christmas

I am the biggest blog slacker lately. Christmas just put me over the edge this year and it was all I could do to get through my normal stuff. And no, I haven't read any blogs for awhile either. I promise to catch up soon.

We did have a really good Christmas though. Christmas Eve we ended up just hanging out at our house with the fam, which was a nice, quiet change. We usually spend Christmas Eve with Marcos' family, but his mom had to work so we took advantage of no plans and kept it simple. That day, Anthony and David came over and we exchanged gifts. Anthony got the kids plasma cars (wiggle skate cars) and they were thrilled. Dylan picked out a gorilla for Anthony that goes with the wholly mammoth he has and I made a movie for David about our year with Anthony. That night, we got a take 'n bake pizza, watched a Disney Christmas movie together and then read a few stories about the birth of Christ. We had the kids in bed by 8:30 and I was finished with Christmas and in bed by 9:30. And it's a good thing too since I had the world's most excited child who could not sleep at all most of the night. At 1:30, Dylan came in to tell me he thought he heard hoof prints on the roof. I told him he'd better go back to bed then so he did, but he was back in my room by 2:00 telling me he was sure he had just heard jingle bells outside his window. Again I cautioned him to go back to bed, but he had already looked down the stairs and realized Santa had been here already. I reminded him we weren't opening presents and sent him back to bed again...only to find his eager little face pressed against mine moments later. I caved and decided to let him sleep in our bed. It didn't help though. He talked and asked questions about Christmas and Santa for another hour until I gave up and headed down to the family room to sleep on the couch and let him watch Polar Express. Luckily Santa wraps his gifts since we had to pass the living room on the way.

We opened presents in the morning and Dylan was excited as usual. One of the best things about that kid is his excitement towards life. And then there is Preston who was content to have a mouth full of candy and a ball or light in his hand the whole time. Couldn't have cared less. He was just happy to be alive - as always! Dylan got snow pants, gloves, books, a magna doodle and a nerf gun and got a knight castle from Santa. Preston got socks, gloves, books, a magna doodle and a cash register and got a rocket (from Little Einstein's from Santa). Dylan made me a plate at school, which was my absolute favorite gift. He drew our family on it. It took me a minute to figure out what he had done. He drew Anthony and his stuffed animal dog, Ethan on their too. For a minute, I thought he had the wrong family. :) Just kidding. It was so cute and sweet. He really does think of Anthony as his brother. We ate our little breakfast casserole and then got ready for the day.

We went to lunch at my mom's and it was definitely a crowd. We had 6 of 8 kids there (3 of my mom's and 3 of my step dad's), spouses, kids, and even invited David, Anthony and Leona (Anthony's grandma). It was a delicious meal and great company. Everyone loved their gifts and had a great time. The boys (old and young) headed off for a spontaneous sledding trip, which left the moms and younger kids to chat and play. GREAT! The kids were not prepared with boots or gloves, but at least had coats. They came back pretty frozen but had a great time.

After that, we left the party to head to Laura's house for the party with Marcos' family. Preston took a nap on the way, which was perfect. We had pizza and appetizers for dinner. We watched a Christmas story on TV, opened presents and visited for awhile. The kids had a great time and did not want to leave, even though it was late!

The day after Christmas, we went to my dad & Suzanne's house. We had a good dinner, the kids played, we opened a couple presents and had a good time. The boys even made a bonfire, although it was freezing even bundled up by the fire! What a great Christmas!

For those who care about the details of our Christmas, you can find pictures here.