2 Months Already!

Liam turned 2 months old over the weekend! I can't believe how fast time is moving. I wish it would slow down a little!! At two months old Liam is:

• starting to smile


• following with his eyes


• responds to his name


• starting to coo


• drinks 8 oz bottles


• sleeping through the night

He weighs 14.1 pounds (95th %) and is 23 inches long (50th%). He also had to receive his 2 month shots. He got a shot in each leg and then one oral vaccine. He did great!

Smiles

Liam is getting bigger every day. It is hard to believe that he will be 8 weeks old tomorrow and 2 months old on Saturday. How does it go by so fast?? He is just starting to smile. MiMi was over watching the boys on Thursday while John and I were at the hospital for my injection. After we got back home, Preston and Carter were still napping so me and my mom got to play with Liam. MiMi has been able to get the most smiles out of him. I can't wait until they get to be more regular and hear his little laugh.

Carter's Video: February 2006 - December 2007

For Christmas 2007, John and I made a video/slide show of Carter's life up to that point. John put in a lot of time and effort into making it a video and we gave a copy to family as a Christmas gift. We decided that it was best to make one every other year since it is so time consuming and it makes for a better video when there is more time to cover. So, I am now starting to go through all of our pictures starting at December 2007 and pulling the pictures and video to include. It will be so much different than the first one we made since we will now have two new children to include. I got a little sentimental and decided to post the video we made of Carter. The quality is significantly reduced so it can be uploaded onto the web so I apologize for that in advance. I hope you all enjoy Carter's first year and a half!

First Steps

At 13 months old, Preston is officially walking. He has been taking steps here and there for about a month but on Sunday (9/6/09) night he took off. He always paces back and forth while holding onto the couch. Well, the other night he got to the end of the couch and just kept going. I was in such shock I couldn't even say anything. I just looked over to John and started pointing. He made it half way across the living room until he fell down. He is so proud. He holds his little hands up in the air in a fist to be sure not to hold on but he knows he can catch himself if he needs to. I am so proud too! What a big boy!

1 Year Old Check Up

I took Preston today to see Dr. Morchower for his 1 year old check up. He weighs 19.3 pounds (25th-50th percentile) and is 29 1/2 inches (50th-75th percentile). His eye sight and hearing was perfect and the doctor seemed pleased with everything.

We talked a lot about how to help Preston adjust to the new baby and all of the changes that are happening in our family. I am very worried how Preston is going to react to the new baby. He is very much a momma's boy and when he is upset, he only wants me. Granted, he doesn't really know any different. I am the one that has taken care of him for the past year. Yes, John takes care of him but Carter has been John's main focus this year since I nursed Preston and gave him his baths and etc. Even with bottle feeding for the past 6 months, I am the one that gives him his bottle. So, Dr. Morchower's advice was to have John do more with Preston for the next few weeks so he gets used to someone else. He was pleased to hear that I enrolled Preston in MDO in the fall. He said it would be better to do two days a week instead of one day a week but we are having a hard time affording one day. He thinks MDO will be very good for him to become a little more independent. Dr. M told me that Preston is going to be the epitome of the Middle Child Syndrome, given his age. I wanted to start crying right there. The last thing I want is for my child to have the middle child syndrome. I don't want to overcompensate and give him more attention but how do I find that balance?

Dr. M could tell my anxieties -- he has known me since I was a newborn. He reassured me that they were there for me, even it was to provide me with a glass of wine. lol He reassured me that I would survive and would do a great job. He reminded me that they were just a phone call away.

We also addressed Preston's temper. I don't think I have mentioned the temper that my sweet little boy has but man does he have a temper. He is getting to that age that he is starting to hear the word "no" and we redirect him but he gets extremely upset. He has recently started hitting me in the face if I'm holding him and he doesn't get what he wants. Dr. M told me to not react to him and simply put him down if I am holding him. He told me to redirect his anger at something other than me. How do you teach a 12/13 month old to be gentle???

After our lengthy conversation, the nurse came in and gave Preston his shots. He got the regular 1 year old shots with the exception of the MMR vaccination. I decided to delay that one until 15 months. He is only scheduled to get 1 shot at 15 months so I am grouping that one with the MMR.

Dr. Morchower gave me a hug on our way out and said he would see me in a few weeks with Baby Boy #3!

Happy 1st Birthday, Preston!

My baby is officially one year old! I cannot believe how fast this past year has flown by. Preston has added so much fun to our household. He is full of personality and loves to laugh. At one year old, he is crawling, pulling up on things, walking around while holding on, babbles all day long, can say DaDa and Night Night (sometimes MaMa and Bubba), has started to eat table food, has 8 teeth (4 top - 4 bottom).

We celebrated his birthday on Saturday, August 1st. Grandma, Papa, Mimi and Ken, Poppy and Mary, Uncle Chris, Aunt Kari and Cousin Kendall, Courtney, Steven and Preston's girlfriend, Samantha came over to help celebrate. He got a ton of toys and clothes and even a little bit of money to add to his college savings!

The party started off with pizza. Preston had never had pizza before but he LOVED it! He ate almost two full pieces of cheese pizza. I didn't think we were ever going to get him full and get to move on to the presents. But he finally either got full or just got tired of eating!

Next, we opened all of the presents. His big brother, Carter, helped until he wanted to just play with all of the new toys. He got a tractor, care bear, clothes, a book, a fun pull toy that has a shape sorter with music and many many other things.

Then he got to eat his first birthday cake! He never did get into the actual cake but he thought the icing was pretty tasty. I got his cakes from Willie Mae's bakery in Plano. They were so yummy! They did such a great job at matching the cakes to his invitations, too!

After a few hours of partying Preston was definitely one worn out little boy. It was such a fun day and we can't wait until his next birthday. We are so fortunate to have friends and family around to help us celebrate such special days like this one!

First Official Word (besides DaDa, MaMa, and Bubba)

Preston has been saying "Dada" for a little bit now. When John walks out of the room, Preston will call for him. He has also randomly said Mama and Bubba (brother) but not very consistently. Well, on Wednesday, I picked him up to put him down for his afternoon nap and Carter said "night night" to him and Preston repeated it back! Now he says it all of the time. It is the one word he will repeat without fail.

Yay! More Teeth!

Preston now has 8 teeth!!! His eighth tooth finally cut through on the top. So, that makes 4 on the bottom and 4 on the top. He is a great teether! He hardly gets fussy and you wouldn't really know he was even teething. Huge difference in how Carter cut teeth. Carter always ran extremely high fevers and was absolutely miserable when he had new teeth coming in. I can't believe how big my "baby" is now getting!

Self Feeding

I have started to let Preston practice self feeding more solid food. He loves the little Gerber microwavable bowls of pasta. I haven't been brave enough to let him do it with the pasta and meat sauce but here is a picture of him eating chicken/pasta and veggies. He loved it!!

He ate his first "breakfast bar" this morning. Carter loves Nutrigrain bars and would eat them all day long if I let him. Preston managed to gobble Carter's breakfast bar this morning before either of us had a chance to take it away. So, as I was reading the manual on our new Roomba, which I can't wait to use, I sat Preston in his highchair let him have his very own. I only have one more month before we can start weaning him off of formula so I need to get him eating more solid food. Plus, I don't really think baby food is filling him up anymore.

11 Months Old!

Preston is 11 months old today!! I can hardly believe it has almost been a year since he was born. It has been a whirlwind of a year that's for sure! He makes us so very happy and I can't imagine our world without him. He is such a happy baby and everywhere we go people ask us if he is always this happy. Yes, he is!! He is now crawling, standing up, walking around things and loves to play with his brother. Yesterday he started clapping. It is the cutest thing ever!! I am now planning his first birthday party and excited to celebrate his first year of life! I have made his invitations and need to order his cake... Now, what to get him for gifts???? God knows we don't need anymore toys!! Happy 11 months, baby!!! I love you!!

Two New Teeth!!

I thought that Preston had been teething because of how much he was chewing on EVERYTHING! I just couldn't figure out which teeth and couldn't remember which ones were supposed to be the next to come in. After lunch today I noticed little spots next to both of his middle bottom teeth. I felt them and sure enough they have cut through. So, he now has 6 teeth!!! He is a great teether too...hardly ever fussy!

Preston loves to eat!!

Preston is such a good eater! I have been very hesitant in giving him more table food. We went through such a bad experience with Carter. He had, and still does, the most sensitive gag reflex. If he started to choke on something the whole entire contents of his stomach would immediately come up. He simply cannot recover from choking without throwing up. Well, Preston has been a different story. He gobbles up every little thing I put in front of him. He will sometimes start to choke but recovers very quickly and he even sometimes fixes the problem by stuffing more food in there.

So far, to date, he has had:

• Cheerios
• Saltine Crackers
• Ritz Crackers
• Cubed Ham
• Gerber Puffs
• Goldfish
• Eggs

He also eats tons of baby food. The only thing we have found that he doesn't like are carrots. I have tried the pureed and the cooked and chopped carrots and he gags. So strange since those are some of Carter's favorites!

He is starting to refuse his bottles which worries me a little. I spoke to my pediatrician's nurse today and she told me to just keep offering it to him. He could be teething and the suction of the bottle could be irritating his gums. She said that as long as he is getting some liquid through out the day, whether it is through diluted juice in a sippy cup or from bottles then he should be fine. I told her that he is now up to 21 pounds, and she laughed and said he has plenty of storage in there and not to worry. I did try to put his formula in a sippy cup but he didn't like that idea. So, for now I will keep trying. Some days he will have only 3 oz of formula and other days it could be around 15. It is a little frustrating but we only have 2 more months and it will be safe to start weaning him from formula and switching over to milk.

Big Boy!

Preston has been feeling heavier lately and so I decided to weigh him. I'm not sure how accurate it is since I get on the scale with him and then without him but today he weighed a whopping 21.6 pounds!!!! That is only 6-7 pounds lighter than Carter and they are 2 1/2 years apart.

No More Army Crawling

Preston is now fully crawling! I can't believe how fast it all happened. It seems like this time last week we would just roll everywhere he wanted to go. Now he gets on all fours and goes. He hates the tile which is a little funny. As soon as he gets on the tile in the kitchen he raises his knees off the ground with his hiney straight in the air. It reminds me of my cousin, Brandi, when she was little. They used to call it "going to the moon." You would tell her to go the moon and she would do exactly that. So cute!!! So, he raises his bottom high into the air and cries until someone rescues him and puts him back on the carpet. The funniest thing though is that he will quickly come back into the kitchen and do it all over again.

Preston is Crawling!!

Preston has hit a new milestone this week and has started crawling! Carter didn't crawl until he was 13 months old so it is so neat to see Preston doing it at 9 months. Right now he rocks on all fours and sometimes will take a couple of "steps" then flops down on his belly and starts to army crawl. It is so cute! Carter, on the other hand, isn't so impressed. He is getting really upset at the fact that Preston is starting to take his toys and get into his stuff. We kept warning him that this day would come and it's just going to get worse. So, it's an adjustment for all of us. I am so excited but I know I will soon miss the days of putting him down with a toy and him not moving. I will have to get a video of it soon so everyone can see what a big boy he is!