Preston's Birthday Party in New Mexico

Almost a month ago (eeks!) we drove to New Mexico once again to visit our family and celebrate not only Preston's birthday, but my sister's, too!

It was the longest drive we've ever done with the kiddos. Preston slept only about forty five minutes out of the whole eight hour day. Making a few pit stops seemed to help get his wiggles out and sort of "reset" his mood for a bit. Considering, he did really well.

Since we arrived at almost dinner time, we just hung out and got the kiddos to bed early. We were to have Preston's party the following morning at our family's home. I'm really happy with all of our decisions - that a) our family was kind enough to let us use their home for the party that we didn't have to go anywhere, that b) they let us use their backyard for it (the weather was perfect!), that c) we just ordered trays for food (no baking and prepping) and, d) that we hired my sister-in-law's friend to take pictures for us. I was also grateful for my sisters and their spouses  who also lent helping hands in getting the party ready since we still had kids to watch and take care of.

Didn't the pictures turn out cute?! Needless to say we went with a Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar/ Eric Carle theme. I even brought the cakes from home! We purposely had the frosting be fondant so it wouldn't smudge on the way. We thought the party went well. Pretty chill. Our family has a nice deck out in their backyard so it was really nice just to enjoy sitting and socializing.

We otherwise just cleaned up and let babies have their naps before it was time to move on to the next birthday party! That evening we went out to dinner to celebrate my older sister's birthday.

While my sisters went home the following day, we stayed one more to spend more quality time with our family. It was really nice for all the babies and cousins to have time together. I don't have pictures, but Josh took the older boys out to hike and ride a tram on a nearby mountain while the babes slept. We picked up pizza and had it out on their deck. It is still a nice 90-100 degrees here, so it was nice to enjoy the 70-80's there! A taste of Fall.

Another nice weekend in NM!

Preston at 10/11 Months

The months just roll and blend together...here's what the little man has been up to these last two months!

--Discovered his tongue! Now he likes to stick it out, or really just do new things with his mouth in general. Funny fella.

--As you see by the 2nd picture, still just two teeth! The older two boys at least had 2-4 on the top by this time. It's still so interesting, as we go along, to discover how they are similar and different!

--Even though he has few teeth, he is starting to steer away from puree food now. He really has begun wanting to feed himself, so we just give him soft, small pieces of food. It's rather nice really, as I serve him whatever we're eating for all meals! He hasn't turned his head much to anything, my good little eater! On that note - I'm glad that we're hopefully on the down swing of him being on his last few weeks of formula! We have started to have him playing with sippy cups, but he hasn't taken to drinking out of them much yet.

--Probably the biggest development, STANDING! He hasn't done much cruising yet, and he hasn't stood up in his crib yet (though I think having a sleep sack has probably made that part harder). This has only been the last two-three weeks. He's standing up more often and now at more things - activity table, couch, kitchen table, etc.

--Only word he is speaking is "dada".

--He is still doing pretty well with sleeping. Still sleeping through most nights, though naps have gotten a bit sporadic. I think we're starting to near the point of him transitioning to one, long nap. Some days he will take his morning nap, others he doesn't and he ends up with a lunchtime - mid afternoon nap. He's considered too young yet to make the change, so for now while it's still warm here in good ol AZ I'm going to just keep going with the two. I'll be more tempted to see about the one nap when the weather cools down! It would be nice to have the longer chunk of time in the morning when it's cool out to play and do things.

--Plays with about anything. Or, pretty much whatever his brothers are into he wants to be into.

--Still loves bathtime!

--Enrolled in his first music/play class! They're kind of hard to make now, though, because with the times and his naps being sporadic we aren't always able to make them :( He loves the open space, variety of toys and obstacles, there's parachute time and bubbles...not to mention other babies his age that he's fascinated with.

We're gearing up to celebrate his first birthday in just a few weeks! When Josh and I went to New Mexico over the summer, we talked about how nice it would be for the cousins (our kids and the two baby girls) to meet, and how fun it would be to celebrate Preston's birthday together, with Preston having kids around his age. So, we're having a destination birthday party! That will be a first. We'll be in New Mexico with family to celebrate both Preston's birthday, as well as my sister's birthday who will also be in town that weekend. We invited other family to come, but so far it looks just to be my sisters. Still, so fun! We're really looking forward to having some good, fun, quality and party time together with family!

11 Month Comparison

I feel like it has been a bit since a  picture comparison between the three dudes! Here they are at eleven months old...

Wow, are we sure they aren't the same child? Very brotherly indeed!

Answers - 1. Preston, 2. Aaron, 3. Nathan

Back 2 School

School started up again this past week! The boys are happy to see their friends and seem happy with their teachers as well. Though, we did already have homework this first week (surprisingly). We got back into the swing of things then quick like.

Here are a few pictures from their first big day - daddy was on a work trip (missing their first day AND his own birthday, boo!)

Back to School breakfast - smoothies, bacon and fruit. Not pictured : the poor, butchered pancakes :(

This year was special - we had our very first rainy and gloomy back to school day! It was raining as we dropped them off.

I thought it was cute that Aaron and his new teacher were wearing the same color! Not planned, I swear.

Nate's class gets a selection of "chairs" to choose from - well, that they change each day - regular chairs, these balls, wobbly stools...to help with concentration? He's excited, anyway. 

Post school treat

I'm glad they're having a good first week. In all honesty, I'm a little relieved to have more quiet and time during Preston's naps now to get things done around the house ( or work ) ! On that note, I just used Preston's naptime today to write some of my columns, yay!

Writing Job!

Have I ever gotten real deep on here, describing my love for writing since I was a child in elementary school? It carried on pretty much through the rest of my school years (though I typically like making stories up versus factual pieces). If it was a piece I was pretty stoked about, it wasn't uncommon for me to overdo the page limit (sorry, English teachers!) Journalism was my major in college, even. I did intern for a news station a bit as well during my college years, but, I never did do anything with my degree before having children. Naturally, probably one of the big reasons why I have this blog :) Have to keep writing one way or another!

I'm very excited to announce, then, that thanks to another online posting for a columnist job for a local magazine, I interviewed and was hired for a writing position! I think almost more than anything I'm excited that someone was willing to give me a chance despite not having any experience and the most current fact that I've been a SAHM the last almost ten years.

As an added bonus, I was very much happy and relieved to learn that I can write my columns from home, on the time of my choosing as long as it's done and turned in by the last day of the month. I still have to go out and collect the information and pictures for my columns, but I'm just very relieved that this can be done on the time of my choosing and not someone else's.  I can work around the kids being gone at school, on the weekends, etc that I  don't have to sacrifice my SAHM role. Pretty much what I was secretly crossing my fingers for. I'm also very glad that this will be something consistent, that I know I'll do and get paid to do each month. This is exactly what I need right now to sort of "feed my soul". Something outside of mommyhood.

 

The magazine is called Ocotillo Living and they cover/advertise for all things in our local area. Which, I also like because I tend to prefer supporting the smaller, locally owned places. My columns will be Recipes and Kids. I cover a recipe I think our distribution area would like from either a place or the community. For the Kids section, I profile a local child. I'm pretty stoked for my first issue in particular because I was granted a lot of freedom - to do the Kids section on our own kids, and to choose a recipe of my liking (my first one will be for September).  

I really just cannot wait to get started. My younger self would be so ecstatic to know that I was given this opportunity!

Preston at 9 Months

A week ago Preston turned nine months! It seems like the older he gets, the more new things he does/start to happen! Here we go...

--He loves to feed himself! We're starting to get away from purees a bit and more into soft, easy to chew food that he can practice picking up. Of course, you see the opposite kind of mess, then, that I have to deal with ;)

Turning nine months hasn't made him unhappy!

--Climbing on low furniture! He has also taken to pulling DVD's out of our case. Man, not again! Time to unload  the bottom two rows of our case!

I'm trying to be happy, even though I think I'm getting (another) tooth!

--On that note, we finally have our first tooth! Barely. It's a little out from the gum (bottom middle). I *think* his other bottom middle is coming in, too.

A good shot of both my little tooth, AND the fact that I'm now standing with my new activity table! Can stand for a little bit as long as there's support.

First time at a public pool! Loved splashing around and kicking.

--Now using a big boy bath! Thank goodness, it was getting hard, and I think he was getting uncomfortable, using the baby bath that he was outgrowing. Now, he can play with toys and splash in the water. Much more fun!

--Can get up on his knees to play! He still army crawls versus all fours, yet. He can also sit by himself! (We used to have to sit him down in a sitting position)

--Had his first word! "Dada" won. He "dada"'s all day long.

First sippy cup! He's figuring it out...

At his shot-less nine month visit with the doctor (yay, a visit with no shots!) we discovered that he is now above his growing curve. He has higher percentiles for everything across the board than what he's had before.

I'm so lucky to have such a very happy baby boy, overall. It's something to learn from, I think! I'm excited (but also sad) to see what the next month brings!