My Big 3 Year Old

Making birthday pancakes and out for birthday lunch

My beautiful boy

After his first big boy short haircut

Birthday party fun!

Disclaimer: This post has been in the works for about 3 weeks so any "present time talk" could be a few weeks old.

I just can't believe my baby boy is three years old. Oh it makes my heart clench to think how fast he is growing and I am just so thankful the Lord gave us this precious child.

I was just looking through some photos of him at a year old and it seems like it was just the other day.

All this time I have been thinking of him as a baby and now I'm forced to realize that the chubby legs have become slender and baby babble has become full communicative sentences. I now have this talkative, loving little boy who I love so much it hurts. Ugh, it's late at night and I'm feeling emotional. I need to stop being sappy.

He's just so lovable. Not trying to be the annoying mom who thinks her kid is better than anyone else's but I do think he is fantastic :) Perfect? Of course not. But he is pretty darn special :) No matter what happens in Preston's life, I want him to always know that Mom & Dad are absolutely crazy about him and will always be there for him.

Preston is so fun and entertaining. Just since we moved in our new house in February his vocabulary blossomed and he is constantly spouting off things that just leave us laughing. As sad as it makes me to see his babyhood leaving, it makes me equally as happy and joyful to see this fun age.

He is very smart, loves to count all the time. He counts his food, each step up the stairs, pretty much anything. He counts to 12 correctly and then mixes up the rest to 20 but he's getting there. He knows his letters and we sing the ABC's together...although he doesn't have the order down pat. 

His imagination has taken off and he loves to pretend to be Buzz Lightyear or Woody. He is always running around saying, "To infinity and beyond!" or if we leave a room to do something else he likes to run off and say "to the rescue!" Makes me laugh.

Some big news from the summer is he learned to use the potty and finally gave up the paci (which was for sleeping only). Both terrified me but he did so much better than I ever anticipated. Once he finally "tee-teed" in his little potty and realized what he was actual supposed to do in there, he was trained in just a few days, honestly. He did #2 all by himself when I was in the shower. I was a bit shocked when he told me and sure enough he did! He's had maybe 3 accidents during the day since the summer but he sleeps in Pull-ups at night. He usually stays dry but every now and then he will wet in them. As for the paci, or "blah-blah" as he always called it, we explained that he was a big boy now and pacis were for babies. He was definitely upset but within a day or two it wasn't even a big deal. 

He loves to dance. I guess he gets it from his crazy mama who dances around to random music. I'm just happy that he wants to dance with me. One of our favorite songs to dance to is the Route 66 song that John Mayer sings at the end of the movie Cars. It's our favorite.

And speaking of cars, those are still our current obsession. His birthday party was Cars themed. He began his interest after watching the movie soon after we moved into our new house. We have been collecting the cars ever since then and they are his absolute favorite things to play with. Mommy might share in the collecting obsession too but I think that's okay :) His best friend Carter has the same love for Cars so that's always fun. Carter's mommy shares the collecting obsession with me so that makes me feel better, ha ha, Kim! Who knew two adult women could get so excited about finding a new toy car at the store?!?! Okay, enough Cars talk.

Another thing I love about P is his trying-to-be-serious face. If he's mad or just feeling silly he will get that serious look and look away from us. We always stare back at him with a goofy face and he just busts out laughing despite his best attempts to keep a straight face.

One of my favorite expressions is his closed mouth smile that shows off his dimples. It's just the sweetest little smile and absolutely melts my heart. Those dimples are one of the few physical traits that he got from me. Funny how I used to be embarrassed of my dimples but I'm proud to have them now and I love that my boy and I have them together.

He still loves to eat. His favorites are chicken nuggets, pizza, pancakes aka "panpakes" and waffles, grilled cheese, yogurt, pb&j or pb & banana sandwiches. He LOVES fruit, just about anything. In the summertime we devour watermelon and he also loves strawberries, grapes and bananas. As far as veggies, he likes black eyed peas, corn and green beans. And of course he has a sweet tooth like me and loves doughnuts or "dun-dunts" and anything chocolate..."chock-it". His favorite go-to candy treat is a sucker. Any kind or flavor. Loves them. He still drinks milk daily but he also likes gatorade or sweet tea.

He's so cute when he sits down to eat and says his prayer, "Thank you, Jesus, food, Amen". He will even do it alone if nobody is eating with him and it warms my soul to hear it. We're working on more detailed blessings :)

I want to list of a few more things he says to always remember so here goes.

gone gone - "jone jone"

grocery store - "food store"

spit up - "pits up"

band aid - "and baid"

motorcycle - "motorsucker"

anything that starts with a "c" is pronounced with a "t" (come here - "tum here")  

If we are out somewhere and you ask him what he wants to eat, it's ALWAYS "chicken, fry, ketchup, drink". We sometimes get a "milkshake" tacked onto the end but not every time. Geez...

I know there are more but I can't think of them right now. I'll try to update if I think of them.

He is truly one of the most thankful children. Anything he gets he always runs to Blake or I and says "I love it! Thank you Mommy/Daddy!!!" And it's no exaggeration on the excitement. He kept telling me thank you today when we put up his Christmas tree in his room.

He is such a good big brother. He loves Ella so much and tells us all the time, "I love my little sister." If she cries, he mimics me and tells her "It's okay, little baby" or "Ella, it's okay sweet girl." He usually gets up in the morning before her so when he hears her on the monitor, its "Ella's awake! Let's go get her!" I like to let him go first and watch on the monitor (video) to see what he does and he climbs up on the side so he can peek in and talk to her. It's so precious because she is just as equally excited to see him. This is what happened the other day when I took my eyes off the monitor for a few minutes...

He loves to play with her but he is getting possessive of his toys so we are working on sharing with sister. She is a big fan of his cars so I am constantly telling him to let Ella have one since he tries to sneak them all out of her reach.

And of course it's not a perfect world in our house and meltdowns and temper tantrums do take place and sometimes we want to pull our hair out...just the normal life with a preschooler :)

I wouldn't trade him for anything though.

Well, I guess that's all right now on my boy. I hope to update more often but goodness these babies keep me busy :) Ella's 7 month post is past due so hopefully I will have that one soon!

Happy Half Birthday - 6 Months!!!

Little Sweetie Pie is six months old already. I can't believe how quickly she is growing.

She is reaching milestones so much faster than Preston. I'm sure it has a lot to do with keeping up with her big brother. She wants to be around him all the time. She laughs and squeals at him and she always laughs when he cries. It cracks me up.

At her six month check up she weighed in at 17 lbs 4 oz and measured 25 3/4 inches. She's 65th percentile in weight and between 35th and 40th in length. She's a pretty tiny girl but she's got some big ole drumstick legs :) I love them! The doctor said she is very healthy. They pricked her toe for blood and said she was slightly anemic. We just have to be sure she gets her vitamin daily and takes in cereal once a day.

Moving into food, she is enjoying her solid foods very much. We tried sweet potatoes first, like I did with Preston. She wasn't a fan at first but now she loves them. Not a big fan of squash or peas. She gags at the peas. I tried to mix it with a fruit so she doesn't notice as much. She loves bananas and prunes so I tried to do those together to help balance out her little system. The bananas by themselves seem to make her a little constipated. She also likes apples, pears and carrots. She is doing well with these Stage 1 foods so next trip to the store I will be getting some Stage 2 foods. The doctor says she can have Stage 2 plus some table foods like mashed potatoes or pureed soup. We haven't tried them yet but hopefully we will soon. She gets baby food three times a day, usually about half an hour after she nurses.

She usually takes two naps a day, a morning and afternoon. Sometimes she will take one super long nap instead of the two. Depends on her mood, I guess. She goes to bed around 9:00, sometimes earlier, sometimes later. She will usually get up once or twice by 5:00 a.m. and then sleeps until 7 ish. It was 8 ish until the time changed this week.

One huge milestone is she is crawling! Since 5 1/2 months old she has been army crawling, basically dragging herself around. At first it was short distances but now she is all over the place. She will get on her knees and rock but then flattens out to her tummy. She will also get her entire body off the ground besides hands and feet. She's got good body strength :) She has ventured off the carpeted areas and into the kitchen and hallways. I still get nervous that she will bang her head on the tile floors so I try to keep her contained in her pack and play in the kitchen when she wants a change of scenery. She likes it in there since it's full of toys.

She is sitting up pretty well too. She started out leaning forward a lot but she can completely sit up straight now and usually for several minutes. Eventually she will slump down to her tummy so she can crawl. It's not often she will fling backwards but I try to keep pillows around her just in case.

She loves to play with toys, especially Preston's. She likes to bang them around. She also loves to play with anything crunchy sounding. If she is fussing, I can just hand her a receipt and she is immediately calm and occupied.

She is very vocal. Loves to shriek and squeal and get attention. She yells at me if I leave the room and she wants my attention. Typical girl :)

She is so sweet and smiles ALL the time. You just look at her and she smiles. I love it. She's so precious. I love watching her learn and play. Her tiny hands are always so busy. Being a mama is truly the best. I love my babies so much.

Well, I have pictures to post but I can't get them edited right now and this post has been in the works for almost a week. I will post them soon :)

And Preston's 3 year old birthday update is next!

5 Months!

This month's update will be short and sweet seeing as Ella will be 6 months old on Friday. It seems no matter my intentions, I still fall behind on my posts. Oh well, let's see what we have for our little lady's 5th month of life.

She is still eating about the same, usually every four hours although she will go longer sometimes. Eating is just not the biggest priority to her. I'm sure that will change. We will be starting solids this Friday when she turns six months old. I'm so excited! I bought her a few things already, squash, sweet potatoes, pears and bananas. Preston's first food was sweet potatoes so I may go with that one first. I did give her some rice cereal, only twice though. She did fine with it but it was kind of just a messy pain.

Anyway, since her four month post, her sleeping habits have changed a good bit. She now sleeps in the crib at night and for her naps. It took some adjusting at night time but it wasn't that bad. She starting flipping over on her stomach of course but she decided she likes to sleep that way. I know they are supposed to sleep on their back but what do you do? She has excellent control of her head and moves it back and forth and can completely lift her head and chest off the ground so I'm not worried about her face getting "stuck" somewhere.

For a while she was only getting up once maybe twice between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 5:00 or 6:00 but now she usually gets up twice. Still a working progress.

Naps are going greater than I anticipated. Once she got adjusted to the crib at night I started working on daytime naps. She wasn't a big fan at first. She loved her swing and would much prefer to sleep there but I knew it was time to get her changed over. She would fuss and I would just slip in and return the paci a time or two and she would fall asleep. At first she wouldn't sleep very long but now she will take a nice long 2-3 hour nap, depending on how tired she is. She usually takes two naps a day, unless we're out and about and she gets several cat naps instead.

She started playing in her exersaucer and sitting in her highchair this month and started using the bouncy seat and swing less and less this month. She's growing up already :(

She loves Preston's toy cars. That's the first thing she goes for in the plethora of toys in my floor. Preston is learning to share. Somehow he wants the exact car that she's playing with...hmm...only the beginning.

Well I've more milestones to report but I'll put them in her six month post since technically she was over 5 months when she achieved them. Geez, I'm so behind.

Here's some fun pictures of her 5th month! A much overdue post about Preston is coming soon along with Miss Ella's 6 month post...hopefully within the next week :)

She loves her brother

Two little Auburn fans sleeping through the game lol. This is Ella and her buddy, Luke. He also happens to be her 3rd cousin :)

Trying cereal for the first time

First time playing in the exersaucer. She loves the seesaw just like her big brother did

Apparently he still does :)

Sitting straight up in her bouncy. Eyes closed but still cute

4 Months!

Geez, how I wish there were more hours in a day! The months are flying by so fast and I'm constantly trying to keep up with my posts! Oh well, I'm blessed beyond measure to have such a wonderful family to keep me busy.

Our girl is continuing to grow and change all the time. She's had a busy month learning new things!

First the stats. At her 4 month check up she weighed in at 14 lbs 8 oz and measured 24.5 in in length. Her head circumference was 15.75 inches. I forgot the percentiles that the doctor told me but research on the internet gave me 64% for weight and 45% for length. That sounds about right.

She was perfectly healthy and looked great to the doctor. She mentioned we could start cereal and even solids if we wanted too but if we could wait until 6 months for solids she might have a lesser chance of food allergies. Cereal was more of a messy pain with Preston and he didn't really care for it so I don't even know if I will try with Ella. Who knows, she may like it. I'm planning on waiting until six months for solids though.

Here is a picture of her on the scales. She was so good the whole time...until shots :( Although I will say she was a champ and calmed down pretty soon afterwards.

Eating
Ella eats about every 4 hours, sometimes sooner, sometimes later. It's still surprising to me because Preston was such a big eater and nursed all the time. She is packing on her rolls though despite her tiny frame. She's chunky and petite all at the same time :)

Sleeping
I wish I could say sleep was going great but truthfully we are still having issues. We did move Ella to her crib this month and the first night I put her in there she came right back to our room. Why, you ask? As soon as I laid her down in the crib she flipped over on her stomach and screamed until I picked her up. She hardly ever stays on her back anymore and will flip over as soon as you lay her down. She never did it in the bassinet, I guess because of it's small size, but the crib is obviously more spacious. So anyway, the next night I remembered about her sleep positioner. She did great in it and slept for about five hours the first night. Then she would wake up and wriggle her way down the positioner and then flip herself out of it. I didn't mind since she was sleeping so well but here recently she started waking after an hour or so and flipping out. Needless to say I wasn't getting very much sleep so back in our room she came. She did a little better last night but after a discussion with friends, I am thinking she might have reflux which could be causing the night issues. She has been spitting up tons and I never thought it could be reflux since it didn't bother her. My friends observed her yesterday while they were over for a football game and seem to think it still could be reflux. I'm actually calling the doctor tomorrow to discuss it and possibly try a round of meds to see if makes any difference. As for naps, she still sleeps in the swing or in the carseat while we are on the go. She might catnap on our bed but it doesn't last very long.

Personality and Fun Stuff
She is so noisy! She chatters, squeals in delight and just yells sometimes because she wants too. Typical  girl, lol. She smiles all the time and loves to observe her surroundings. She is very curious. She loves to be walked around. She started playing with toys this month. She was in the swing one night and I would hand her some of Preston's blocks with holes and she would wrap a finger in the hole and hold onto it. So sweet. We bought her a set of girly baby keys and she loves those. It's so precious to see her teeny little hands reach for something. One of her favorite things to play with is Preston's cars. They are perfect size for her to hold so she and Preston can already play together :) Another favorite toy is her toes. She loves to hold onto them and study them. She also loves to lay on her playmat and play with the crunchy flaps. Like I said earlier, she immediately flips to her stomach when we lay her down so we just stick a toy in front of her and she's content for a while. She can move around some on her belly, more of a making a full circle as opposed to scooting or crawling.

Here's a picture of her holding the blocks for the first time...along with her toes. She is a multi-tasker :)

And some more fun favorites of our girl from her fourth month.

3 Months!

I knew I better get a post in pretty quickly since we are fast approaching 4 months already!

Our girl is such a happy little baby. I just can't say it enough. If she is fed and has had at least a power nap, she is just as smiley and happy as can be.

Every morning when she wakes up and sees one of us, she instantly gives this huge grin. I love it. It makes my day (especially since I'm still sleep deprived and usually groggy in the early a.m.).

Her sleeping habits have been a little rough on Mommy over the last few weeks. She is waking more than she was at 2 months old (sometimes 3 or 4 times) and she doesn't want to stay in her bassinet for more than maybe an hour or two. Yes, I know, she needs to be in her crib. The reason for the delay is we just purchased her monitor and haven't set it up yet (it's a video monitor and we have to set up the camera). Anyway, the plan is to get it set up this week and move Miss Priss in there. Hopefully it will help her sleep a bit better so we shall see. Mommy is running on fumes.

It probably doesn't help that we have been painting rooms almost every night in the last week which makes me even more tired and sleep deprived. But I can't complain too much there. It looks so much better! More on that on the DIY blog soon.

Anyway, Ella is such a little squealer too. She will talk and squeal so loudly, especially riding in her stroller. You can usually hear her across the grocery store :)

She loves to watch her big brother now too. I love seeing her smile at him. Just warms my heart. We like to plop her in her bumbo on the table while we eat or race cars and she just watches us intently.

She has earned the nickname Missy or sometimes Missy Moo. Her Daddy started calling her Missy and both Preston and I have picked up on it too. It's hilarious to hear Preston call her Missy Moo. But we are sure to call her Ella a lot too so he doesn't get confused, lol.

She is still nursing well, sometimes one side only and sometimes both. I think she is definitely going to be more petite than Preston. She has such dainty hands and feet (although she has very long fingers and toes). She is plumping up and looking chubbier but she still is small to me. Although that could be me being used to our 35 pound 2 year old that still makes me carry him around.

We don't go back to the doctor until 4 months so I'm not sure what she weighs right now. Her 4 month check up is in just a few weeks though so I will post those stats soon.

Ella still loves her bath time too. She could be fussy and tired and as soon as she hits the tub she is in a great mood.

Her swing is still our naptime place during the day. I really need to work on getting her to nap in her bed but sometimes it's just so easy to stick her in there. If she's tired she goes right to sleep. And then Preston and I can play and have some one on one time. We'll get there though.

Big News! Our girl rolled over right at 3 months old, I think it was 3 months and 1 day to be exact. She had been trying her hardest the few days beforehand and she would get so mad because she couldn't quite get all the way over. But now she's a pro. Sometimes she likes hanging out on her tummy for a few minutes but then other times she flips over and gets furious because she doesn't know how to flip back to her back. It's so cute. I love watching babies accomplish a milestone. Priceless.

Ella is not a huge fan of her carseat. If she is tired she will fall asleep but sometimes she just gets mad being stuck in there. Can't blame her though. I'm sure it's no fun.

We're headed to the beach at the end of the month. It will be our first time traveling with such a tiny one. Preston was ten months old when we first took a vacation with him.

We had our first photo shoot with Ella right when she turned 3 months old. We knew there was a chance of rain but went ahead with our plans since the rain looked like it was going to hold out. And as soon as we took the first shot it started raining, boo! But we went back to the house and still got some great ones of Ella and our little family.

These were taken by Ann Wade Parrish Photography. But before I show the rest of the pictures, here is a side by side comparison of Preston at 3 months and Ella now at 3 months. We used the same bucket and blanket in both pictures. Blake's Maw Maw made this blanket so it's very special to us. I love that Preston looks so big in his - he has always be a sturdy little guy. Ella is just a teensy thing :)

Here are a few more favorites from our photo shoot!

Big Brother

Finally a post about our big boy.

But before I get going here, let me first update on Ella's follow up weight check. We went back to the doctor a week after her 2 month appointment (where she had not even gained 1 oz since her 1 month appt) and she weighed in at 12 lb 3 oz - yay for 7 ounces! We didn't even see the doctor. The nurse gave her the info and said she was just fine. Relief!!!

Okay, back to P.

Preston continually has us laughing these days. He is such a funny little boy. His vocabulary grows daily and he spouts off things I did not even realize he knew or could even say. He has a little trouble with his speech but it's getting better as well. He still says words that others may not understand but usually Blake and I can figure it out and try to help him pronounce it better. 

He is currently obsessed with the movies Cars and Toy Story. We started our collection of the small cars from Cars and I think Blake and I are just as excited about finding new ones as Preston. We have to check out the selection every time we go in Target or Wal-mart...or anywhere else that may have them. He lines his cars up on the kitchen table in a perfect straight line and names them off one by one. And he is so thankful for anything we buy him. Truly. He will tell me all day for the next day "Thank you, Mama!!!" every time he plays with it. Although here recently Daddy has been getting the credit. He bought him a Mack (the big 18 wheeler truck that hauls Lightening McQueen around) and he absolutely loves it. 

He definitely still has a two year old temper. If he's not ready to leave somewhere or if he wants something really bad and is told no, the fits ensue. He is usually quick to get over it though once he realizes we mean business. 

Honestly though, he is such a sweetheart. He loves other kids. He's never been one to hit or pinch or hurt other kids. He is very mild mannered. 

He will come up to me or Blake and hug and kiss us just because he wants too. He will also pat us on the arm or shoulder and it's so sweet. 

We decided to go ahead and change his crib over to a full-size bed. I was scared to take the plunge and change him over since he had no problem with his crib but he has done wonderful! It's been about a month and he loves his big boy bed. And he shows everyone his new bed when they come over. On the third night he fell off one side and cried and scared us half to death but we now have a toddler rail on that side and his bean bag and a foam mattress folded up on the other side. If he falls off the open side he at least won't get hurt :)

He is loving his baby sister. He has shown no signs of jealousy, at all. He loves to kiss her and give her her paci when she cries. And he's surprisingly very gentle with her...although we still have to be careful when he gets too close to her. He could easily squish her. 

Preston loves to swim this year. Last year it was touch and go but he wants to swim all the time now. He also likes sand too. He loves to play on the sanded volleyball court in our neighborhood. Hated the beach last year so I'm hoping his newfound love of water and sand will make for a happy boy at the beach this year. 

Well, the little stinker is bellowing at me from his room so naptime/break time is over. That's another good thing about the big boy bed. He will not get up until we come in there. Old habits from the crib, I guess :) At least we know he won't be sneaking down in the middle of the night.

I will leave you with a few pictures with our fun little guy :)

Mommy's birthday breakfast - excited about blowing out candles

Shopping!

4th of July

About to get a haircut with Daddy

Playing with his trains!

My precious babies

Big Bro, Lil Sis