At the Water Park

The weather has been beautiful, in true Colorado fashion.  Preston and I met our friends Brynn and Jen at a splash park.  It was a lot of fun.  Preston doesn't like to be splashed and so that is a little problem, because we were surrounded by splashing fountains.  He did have fun exploring and being around other kids.  It was such a beautiful day and it was so much fun out in the sun with my favorite boy.

And Then Three Becomes Four

Life has a funny way of going in unexpected directions.  Our life has taken an unexpected direction recently.  On (or around) November 11th of this year, our family of three will become a family of four.  We had a lot of doctor visits, medication, and bad news before Preston came along.  It was really hard for me and Brock as we were trying to add to our family.  This time, however, was more spontaneous.  We've been to the doctor and seen the heart beat and some days I feel terrible, but I'm still in shock.  It's hard for me to accept that this was so easy when the only comparison was difficult.  Needless to say that when it does seem real, we're excited.   Let the fun continue ...

The Petting Zoo

Preston loves animals in any form.  We have a field full of cows that everytime we drive up the road Preston says "Moo, Moo, Moo" until we actually get to the area where they are feeding and we can roll down the window and he can Moo at them.  Everytime we see a dog he points and says " Og, Og".  He also has several stuffed animals that he loves to hug and talk to.  So, now that the weather is nice I took Preston to the Littleton Historical Museum so that he could get up close and personal with some animals.  According to Preston, all the animals say "Moo", but he loved seeing them.   They have little wooden buildings that Preston loved to run circles around.  My Mom accompanied us on the trip as well, she's a good Grandma.  

Who knew that donkey''s said "Moo"

He may have circled this building 15 times, he waved at the sheep each time he passed them

He loved the sheep.  They said "Baaa" and he would reply "Moo"

He's all boy!  He loved the straw and dirt.

Buzz Cut!

Preston's hair has always been a point of discussion.  He was born with a ton of hair and some crazy cowlicks.  The poor kid has had 6 or 7 bad hair cuts, and two good ones from a profession, and he's only 14 months old.   When he wakes up in the morning, there is no amount of water, brushing, or hair product that can control his hair.  Today, after picking orange pieces out of his hair for the 4th time, I decided that the beast needed to be tamed.  The little guy got a buzz cut.  It makes him look older, but it also helps him look like his Mom takes care of him instead of letting him run around with food and other random pieces of who-knows-what in his hair. 

This was the amount of hair that got chopped off

He does smile often, I promise ...

Baby Einstein

Ever since Preston was born, he has loved music.  I have a string quartette CD that Preston has always loved.  When he got bigger he would start making sounds that was him either mimicking or singing along as we would drive.  I'm not sure which one, but it is super cute to hear him and see him just looking out the window making these sing-songy sounds to the music.  I decided to buy a baby Beethoven Einstein CD to see if he would like it.  At first he was more interested in pushing the buttons on the TV and VCR.  Then he really started to like the puppets that will come on the screen.  So, I bought Einstein baby Mozart and Water Babies and he likes them a lot.  He plays with his toys and listens to the music.  He knows what songs show the puppets so he makes sure to look up then.  He will sit on my lap and snuggle with me for a mili-second, too. Sometimes he'll even stand up on our bed and sing along.  Only when he's super tired will he sit still and watch 30 seconds or more of the videos.   



We have a DVD player and a TV in our bed room, so I took a couple pictures of Preston sitting on our bed glued to the TV because the dog puppet on the screen.  He just got done standing and singing.    



He really is such a cute boy ... I'm not bias at all. 

Don't Tread On Me

Last summer I turned in my company car.  It was a sad day when we turned in the Jeep.  We loved the room and the 4 wheel drive in the snow.  It also really helped that my former company paid for all the maintenance, gas, and insurance.  It was a pretty sweet deal, but when I chose my family over my job we had to let a lot of those perks go.  In an attempt to keep debt to a minimum I made a deal with my Dad to buy his car with cash.  It's a 2005 Nissan Altima and it's a good car.  My Dad drove a lot in that car.  By the time I bought it, he had put 130,000 miles on it.  It's in super good shape just lots of miles.  He also chose to put on tires that are 70,000 guaranteed.  Which makes total sense when you're driving as much as my Dad.  The tread on the tires looks fine, but you can tell the rubber on the tires is some seriously hard rubber .  Once you get about 15 mph, there is a dull rumbling, and as you go faster the louder the rumbling gets.  It resembles pretty loud white noise.  It's so loud it's hard to have a conversation, in the car, while driving on the highway because it's so loud.  It's gotten worse as I've been driving around town.  Preston and I are used to it.  I'm pretty sure the rumbling is what mellows Preston out in the car. 

One day I had switched cars with my brother, Jason.  He was babysitting Preston while I went to the hospital to visit my Dad.  Jason was going to drive up to the hospital in my car and then we'd switch.  While I was in my Dad's hospital room I got a call from my brother in a panic (he never panics).  I had failed to warn him about the rumbling sound and he said to me "I really hope I"m not breaking your car right now".  The sympathetic soul that I am, I started laughing.  I then explained the situation.  Jason then told me that he stopped several times to make sure that the car wasn't smoking, or the emergency brake wasn't on, or there was a flat tire.  I still laugh about that panic that was in my poor brothers voice.  Yes, I'll be replacing them soon. 

My handsome boy, relaxing to the sound of the rumbling tires and eating his first sucker

This is "Andy", good car ... bad tires

They look normal, but seriously I may be going deaf because of these bad boys.

Here's looking at you kid!

A couple weeks ago, it was puke-fest 2012 here at Chateau Erickson.  While our sweet son got sick, he was getting sick all over Brock and I.  In turn we would take baths with Preston to get cleaned up, multi-tasking.  Since then Preston refuses to take baths by himself, so Brock and I take turns at bath time.  Meanwhile, I've been spending a lot of time visiting my Dad.  He had open heart surgery and all is well with him, but the recovery road is a long, hard one.  When I'm around my Dad I try and shine my light as brightly as I can to give good vibes and comfort to my struggling Dad. Consequently when bath time rolls around at night I’m exhausted but bath time still requires a Mom or Dad.  Brock is out of town this week, so it's all Mom, all the time.  Tonight we were in the bath tub getting Mr. Preston all cleaned up from his day of fun.  As I was grabbing one of his bath toys, Preston stood up, turned, and farted right in my face.  I started laughing so hard.  It was so funny to have such a crazy sound come out of my sons naked bum, right in front of me.  Since I was laughing so hard, he started laughing so hard that he farted again ... in my face.