Preston {3 years}

Preston turned THREE years old this weekend! Where has the time gone?  Something about having a new baby makes your older child seem so, well...old. Here are a few tidbits about Preston at age 3.

I continue to be amazed at how sweet our little boy is. My mom made him a big dinner one night while he was spending the night at their house. He looked at it all and politely said "Thank you for making all this food for me, Ba-Ba!" Also, every morning he comes downstairs and asks me, "Mommy, how's E-line doing?" He's just the sweetest thing and I'm so lucky to be his mommy.

I laugh about the days we were worried he wasn't talking. This boy now talks NON-STOP! I don't think I've ever heard a kid talk as much. He likes to tell me every single thing he is doing, when he is doing it. Sometimes he wears me out. He wants to know "WHY?" about everything! Sometimes there are three whys..."Why Mommy? Why Why Why?" I try to get him to play the quiet game but that works for about 1 second.

He loves to "pretend" and loves to play doctor, restaurant, grocery store, pirates, fireman, etc. Right now he is obsessed with firemen and pretending to be a fireman for hours each day. He wears his fireman hat and boots and goes around the house putting fires out. I can usually get him to do anything as long as I make it a "pretend" game. For example, he hates sitting still long enough for me to clip his nails. So one day I said, "Let's play nail salon and you be the customer needing your nails clipped. I'll be Nancy, the nail lady." I don't know why the name Nancy came to me, but he just loves this game now and I can clip all 20 nails while he sits quietly with a big smile, trying not to laugh at Nancy's funny accent. Now when his nails are long, he says, "Mommy, I think we need to play Nancy."

He likes to play I-spy and we love to eat ice pops on the front porch together. He started pre-school at First Steps this year, and I have been so proud of how well he adjusted to a new school. He goes 3 days a week now, and loves it. Like any 3-year old, he loves to do things by himself ("No- I can do it!") He was potty trained this summer and I was amazed at how easy it was.

His favorite TV shows are Paw Patrol, Caillou, and Fireman Sam. I'm a little sad that he's not as interested in Sesame Street anymore. He loves Peter Rabbit and loves to play like he's Mr. Macgregor and I'm Peter Rabbit.

He's become a bit pickier of an eater than he was, but he still eats pretty well for his age. His favorite foods are oatmeal (he has to have this every single morning), strawberries, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, turkey hot dogs, bananas, apples/applesauce, pears, and he really looks forward to his multivitamin every day. He thinks its candy. I can sometimes get him to eat broccoli and carrots still but they are not his favorites.

Every night at bedtime he wants me to tell him the story of the three little bears. He will think of anything to add more time to our bedtime routine. Ice water, seeing the moon, reading books, telling stories...it could go on for hours if we let it!

Here are some funny "Preston-isms" that I can think of:

• He asked to have the TV on while I let him take a nap on the couch one day. I told him okay, but he had to close his eyes  so he would go to sleep. He said "How 'bout I just leave one eye open so I can see the TV while I sleep."
• One day his eye looked a little red, so I said "Brett, look...Does it look like he has pink eye?" Preston said, "No...it's BLUE eye!"
• I took him with me to one of my doctors appointments when I was pregnant. I told him right before Dr. Dryden came in that she was the doctor who took him out of my tummy. He asked, "Is she going to put me back in there?"
• I set my coffee down on our end table in the living room, and he said, "No, don't put it there--that's the coffee table!" (as he pointed to the coffee table). lol...
• He says "her" instead of "she." For example, "Is her hungry?" "I think her wants to eat."
• He says "at" instead of "to." For example, "Mommy, how about I tell a story at you?"

We have our tantrums and moments like every 3 year old does, but overall I am so proud of the boy he is becoming. I love that kid to the moon and back!

We celebrated with a birthday party at Dewberry Farm on Saturday. It was very low key this year with just a few families and friends, a Kroger cake, some pizzas, and minimal decorations. It was nice to keep it easy on myself. And Preston had a blast so that's all that matters to me! Here are some pictures-

 

Caroline {1 month}

Her pose reminds me of a cheer from cheerleading...already practicing! She'll have to work on her right wrist but the left one is ready to go! ha!

 

It's hard to believe sweet little Caroline has already been in this world for 1 month.  Seriously, time flies when you have a newborn, and it's making me so sad. If I could go back to the day she was born and do it all over again, I would.

This little girl is such a joy. I am not even kidding when I say I have never heard her cry for more than 1 minute (with the exception of when we are in the car-- more on that later). She's the most easily consolable baby in the world. If she's fussing, I just pick her up and put her in my arms and she immediately stops. I remember with Preston there being much more crying in that first month--like inconsolable crying that went on for an hour with nothing we could do to make him calm. I guess it's true that every baby is just different- and that proves true to me every day when I compare the two.

One of the things that has been the most surprising to me with Caroline is how quickly she nurses. With Preston, each nursing session would last at least 30-45 minutes. With Caroline- literally on average 8-10 minutes total. I keep worrying that she is only "snack feeding" or not taking enough, but she regained her birth weight in 3 days and at her 2 week checkup was already 11 pounds, 3 ounces! (Preston was 10 lbs, 15 ounces at 2 weeks). She is over the 100th percentile and not even on the charts! I guess I don't need to worry about her getting enough milk, and just enjoy the fact that she's a quick eater. This is especially wonderful in the middle of the night. She just wakes up once- around 2 or 2:30- and she's done eating, burping, and being changed...we are all back to bed within 15-20 minutes. Yes, you read that right! It's truly a miracle and so different from my experience with Preston when I was up all night.  I laugh because this little girl even burps herself--she will finish eating and then let out the cutest little burp before I can even put her on my shoulder to burp her. I know. She's pretty much amazing.

Another strange thing but also very nice about Caroline--she has very rarely ever spit up! (only once or twice) What is up with that? I remember with Preston all my shirts constantly smelled like spit up and we went through blankets and burp cloths like crazy. I'm a little sad that my adorable 20+ monogrammed burp cloths have not gotten used yet--but I guess it's still early. I can't remember--do they start spitting up later on or isn't it usually in the first month? Hmm...I guess it's nice and I shouldn't complain. Or maybe this is normal and Preston had undiagnosed reflux as a baby?

Another significant difference in my two babies--With Preston being attached to the pacifier from the minute we first gave it to him at 8 days old, I thought for sure all my babies would be "suckers." This one will NOT take a pacifier! I'm a little confused by this as I relied on the pacifier so much when we would go places and he would cry and I could just give him the paci. There are definitely pros and cons to the pacifier use, but it's just different this time not having it to rely on. Makes me nervous to go places. Speaking of which...My perfect little baby has one imperfection. She absolutely hates the car. As soon as we start driving, the screaming starts. This makes for very stressful drop-offs and pickups for taking Preston to school. If she took a pacifier, that would help with this problem, but because she doesn't, and I obviously can't get her out to console her while I'm driving, I just have to listen to my poor baby scream. It's terrible. This started when she was 2 weeks old and I'm hoping it is just a phase. I know most babies fall right asleep in the car. For this reason, I mostly stay home all day, but I'm okay with that for right now.

Our chunker only wore newborn size diapers in the hospital, and she started size 1 when we came home. She is quickly outgrowing them and we will start size 2 in a few days when we use up all the 1's. She lost her umbilical cord at just 5 days old which I thought was freakishly early (usually more like 1-2 weeks). We never found it, hmm...Winston?!!

As for her schedule--ha! What schedule?! I have to laugh when I read Preston's 1 month post. I can't believe he was already so scheduled! I'm not sure if it's a second baby thing or I'm just spoiling her because I know she's probably my last, but I let this girl do whatever she wants. I've completely thrown out the Baby Wise book and am just going with my motherly instincts for this child. If she wants to drift off to sleep in my arms right after she eats- who cares? I let her. I definitely am feeding her on demand- so sometimes she eats 10 times a day still and at different times every day. I used to make Preston wait to eat until it was 2 1/2 to 3 hours later, by distracting him with other things. No wonder he was a fussy baby! When she starts rooting, I feed her. My life is actually easier this way as I've relieved the pressure of having to do what a book tells me. And she already sleeps great at night, so why does it matter? I don't know- I might be completely doing this all wrong this time but it feels right to me. I'm actually enjoying this newborn stage and not just "getting by."

Preston is still absolutely in love with "E-line." (He can't quite seem to say Car-o-line.) As soon as he wakes up and comes into my room, he says "Mommy, how's E-line doing?" He wants to hold her all the time and can't stop kissing and hugging her. I had to call Brett in the room one time because I was nursing and Preston was literally smothering us. Ha! He's such a sweetheart!

Of course, now that I've put it out there to the world how easy my baby is--I'm sure I've jinxed it and she will quickly become a little monster. I'm knocking on wood now. No matter what though- I am thankful for an easy first month!

Loves: Her sound machine- specifically we keep it on ocean sounds (She's going to be super bummed when she wakes up one day and realizes she doesn't live at the beach!), bath time, her big brother, squealing like a little pig, sleeping.

Hates: Riding in the car, pacifiers

Love those little dimples!