I decided yesterday that I did NOT need a nap.  I wasn’t sleepy, and I had a million things to do like ring the doorbell, play with my trucks, help Daddy fix the front door, read stories… you know, all things kids like me need to do!  Mom tried so hard to get me to sleep, but I seriously didn’t want to.  And guess what?  I made it to 8pm in a fairly good mood before I passed out in the car on the way home from a fun afternoon swimming in Amy and Shawn’s pool.  So there, Mom!  I didn’t actually need a nap.  So what if you wanted some quiet time to yourself?  That just doesn’t happen anymore. 

Maybe you haven’t heard, yet, we got a new doorbell.   Daddy put in a new front door, so naturally we needed  a  new doorbell.  Why did Daddy put in a new front door?  Because the old one wasn’t closing correctly.  Not to mention that Grandma and I got locked out of the house last week when she was hanging out with me on Wednesday.  So Grandma and I had an adventure, and then had ANOTHER one on Friday when Mom and Dad were installing the new door.

I think I’m getting ahead of myself here.  Let me start from the beginning. 

A few months ago Mom, Dad, and I planted new plants in front of our house.  To keep them alive through this hot summer (and it’s been H.O.T) we need to water them a lot.  The parents set up a sprinkler system.  The water from the sprinkler did a great job of watering the plants AND our old front door.  Normally it is protected from the elements by the porch roof, so in the 30 years that our door has existed it hasn’t had any problems.  All the water from the sprinkler caused the door to swell beyond it’s comfort zone, and so it no longer closed properly. 
In an unrelated event Grandma and I got locked out of the house on Wednesday.  We were out running an errand, and when we got home Grandma’s key just wouldn’t turn in the door.  We went to Grandma’s house for the rest of the day until we could get on the phone with Mom.  She told us how to get in through the garage.  Yay! Crisis averted…. Until Daddy got home.  We are pretty sure that Grandma just had the wrong key, but the whole event caused Daddy to reevaluate the door situation.  He started ripping things up, and before you knew it, we didn’t have a front door.
When Mom and I left for the Pediatrician (oh yeah, I’m supposed to update you about that too), we had a front door.  When we got back we did not.  This… was… awesome!  I was FREE to get out into the front yard whenever I wanted to, PLUS Dad had a bunch of awesome tools out.  Jackpot!  Mom was not having it though.  She was a party pooper and said that the whole situation was too dangerous for a toddler.  Not to mention that Daddy couldn’t really install a giant door by himself.  If Mom needed to help him, who was going to play with me?  You guessed it; Mom called Grandma.  Lickety-split it was “over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house.”   I got “dumped off” for the second adventure of the week. 
Grandma is one busy lady, and so as not to alarm Mom she failed to mention all of her activities for the day: getting carpet installed, going on a dress fitting appointment, and going to the eye doctor.  I got to go on ALL of those activities and ended up napping on a chair in the waiting room of the eye doctor.   What?  Yeah, it’s kind of crazy, but I was an absolute angel for Grandma (mom is SO jealous).  When I got back home that night the door was installed, and I was entrapped, once again, in the safety of our house.

Then it was Saturday.  The door still needed a few finishing touches, so Mom and I were on our own for a while so Daddy could work on it.  I finger painted it the morning, had lunch, took a tiny little nap (a preview for Sunday), and then gave Mommy a little break by going on a short car ride with Daddy to visit Leslie’s new house. 
And now we come full circle to my lack of nap on Sunday, my excitement over our new, awesome doorbell, and swimming in Amy and Shawn’s pool.  Aren’t you glad you stuck around for that saga?

My stats from the Pediatrician:
33 inches tall (50th percentile)
27.5 lbs (80th percentile)
18.75 inch head (in case you want to make me a croquet hat)

We talked about getting a potty soon, graduating to a big boy bed (but not yet), how I am an awesome eater, and the doc was impressed with my vocabulary.

From Mommy:
Preston has been living the crazy life.  I hope I can get him back into a normal schedule.  I have a feel that all of the activity at home is causing him to not nap.  Not napping is not fun for anyone.

The adventure continued on Sunday morning.  I had to help with childcare for the late service, so we went to church.  As soon as we stepped in the door Preston started to look for Grandpa.  I think he was disappointed that Grandpa wasn’t there, but that quickly faded when we got to the nursery with all the new toys!!  I was a little sad that I had to be in the childcare room because  I missed a Baptism, but I got to see the babies after the service was over.  I feel like I know a million people who are pregnant or have newborns right now.  

My little guy is one and a half today.  Wow!   I’m so happy that we decided to keep this blog, because I can barely remember what was going on a year ago.  I remember being exhausted most of the time.  Preston was just getting good at sitting on his own, he was trying out new solid foods, and he was ticklish and giggly (still is!).  
At 18 months he is totally a toddler, tantrums included.  He knows how to push my buttons, but I also know how to tell when he is getting moody.  We have started doing time-outs in his crib. It’s one of the only ways I can get my point across when he is doing something that I really don’t like (throwing, hitting, kicking, etc).  They seem to work short term, but I can tell it’s going to be a long process.  And I thought having a newborn was exhausting.  Luckily, he’s a really well behaved kid most of the time.  
We are going to the doctor on Friday for a check-up, so I’ll post some stats then.  In the meantime, here is a quick snapshot in time:

Favorite Food:
-Still Bananas (nanas) and we’ll add strawberries and blueberries to the list this month (buh-beeshes)

Favorite Books:
-The instrument book that plays sounds when you push the buttons
-The Peter Pan Pop-up book (aka the “Tick-tock book”)
-Yup, he still loves Tick-tocks

Favorite chores:
-Watering the plants (and the patio, chairs, grass, mommy, etc) with the watering can and hose
-Feeding the kitties
-Dust Busting
-Emptying the dishwasher
-putting clothes in the dryer


Favorite article of clothing:
-Shoes!  When we put shoes on it usually means we are going outside

Favorite Activities:
-Going for walks
-Coloring
-Eating
-Swimming
-Petting the Kitties
-Getting the mail

Favorite toys:
-Anything that makes cool noises
-Sticks
-Pull along cars
-TOOT TOOTS!

Least Favorite Time:
-When Mommy or Daddy leave the room

Least Favorite Activity:
-Bedtime/naptime

Preston loves to make sounds, and he is getting really good at matching sounds that he hears.  He’s working on white noises like the vacuum cleaner and the dust buster.  Last night we had a thunder storm.  When Preston heard the thunder he stopped to listen; then he started growling like the thunder.  Next we heard the rain on the windows and the roof.  He listened for a few seconds, then started clapping!  The clapping sounded like the rain.  Finally, he put both sounds together, growling and clapping, and he made a thunder storm.  We watched the raindrops together out the window. 
Another very cute thing right now is waving.  He waves at all cars, coming and going.  The neighbors usually wave back, but they don’t know that he is only waving for the car!  He doesn’t really care who is driving it.
One last cute story about my little guy on his half birthday:
This morning I had to get going earlier than usual, so John was in charge of making lunch for Preston and getting him to daycare.  He made Pres a delicious lunch of leftover fish and veggies and pasta!  Yum!  I approved it before I ran out the door.  When I picked Pres up later in the day his teachers asked me why I hadn’t put any cheese in Preston’s lunch.  I explained that Daddy had packed that morning, and that he didn’t know that I usually pack a few cubes of cheese.  Apparently Preston took one look at this glorious spread and immediately asked for the cheese.  I guess I owe him double tomorrow!

I am typing to you from Mommy’s NEW computer.  The Mac Book served us well for 6.5 years, but it’s just not keeping up with the fast pace of my life.

I want to tell you all about my friend the chicken.  She is a pretty brown chicken with a hole in her back where I can put my hand, I think Mom calls her a puppet?   I like to use my hand to move her head up and down and make her say “Cluck cluck cluck”.  She is great at giving kisses and snuggling.  I love her a lot, although, she isn’t my favorite night time animal.  Lamby is the one who comes to bed with me every night.  Sometimes Blue Bear joins me, too, but not always. 

Tomorrow is Party Day!  We are celebrating Chris and Siobhan’s engagement!  I am getting all dressed up to go.  I hope I get an early nap so I’m not tired.

Over the weekend we had a blast a the beach and the pool for Gigi’s Birthday.  I loved splashing in the waves and digging in the sand! 
At the pool there was a giant water slide that Mom and Dad loved.  I got jealous of them and kept saying “down?,”  but I was apparently too little to go on the slide.  I had fun on the boogey board, and kicked my feet to swim like a fish!
This week we are hanging out at home a little bit, and learning some new words and tricks!  I like to climb up on my stool to see what is going on in the kitchen, and I am getting much better and climbing on the sofa and furniture now.  I love to help Mom water the plants outside;  I can fill up the watering can all by myself and then I dump it out on a nearby plant.  

From Mommy:  Last night when it was quiet time, Preston decided to give every single one of his stuffed animals and kiss goodnight.  One of Preston’s favorite things to say now is “Don’t Touch.”  I say it to him a lot, so I’m not surprised he has picked up on it.  He points to things and yells “Don’t Touch,” and surprisingly they are things that he’s really not supposed to touch like spray bottles, dirty diapers, and computers.  In the case of the computers he says “Don’t touch” while he is touching it, but I guess that’s because he knows that nothing bad will happen.  

On the 4th of July we went down the mountain from the lake to see a parade!  We got there early so we could get a great spot, and stopped at the little store to get some milk and bread.  It was my first parade and it did NOT disappoint!  It had so many toot toots and other awesome things to look at.  Some of the fire trucks even turned their sirens on for me.  There were also people throwing candy (I got a lollipop) and some horses and dogs parading along.  Daddy’s favorite parts were the Marching Bands.  They had to stop part of the parade because there was a real emergency ambulance that needed to get through.  The ambulance had its siren on the whole time; that’s the best!  The parade was so exciting that it wore me out and I fell asleep on the short 10 minute ride home.  I didn’t even wake up when Mom took me out of the car and put me down in my crib. 

It was nice to have Daddy back!  Mom and I drove down to the airport to pick him up and he sat in the backseat with me the whole way home.  He jumped out at the end of the road to get the mail and I was so worried he wouldn’t come back that I started to cry!  I didn’t want him to leave me again so soon.  He came right back though.  Daddy and I went swimming and he threw me up in the air!  Sometimes I get my face in the water, but I don’t mind.  Daddy always rescues me.  

Here is the album of photos

From Mommy:
We are home from the lake now.  The car ride yesterday was the best one we have EVER had with Preston.  He slept for 3 hours and woke up pleasant.  He was happy to sit in his seat for the rest after a small snack.  That is not very, however, very typical of his behavior lately.  He is really starting to push the limits and test me.  Is it the terrible 2’s starting early?  He laughs at me when I scold him, and he deliberately does things that I ask him not to do just to see what will happen.  His favorite misdemeanor is throwing toys and sippy cups.  He does it when he is bored, angry, frustrated, and especially when he knows he is going to get in trouble.  Sometimes I think he LIKES to be in trouble.  Maybe it was the long trip, but he was especially ornery last night.  He went to bed early with no dessert.  I am just going to have to stick to my guns on these things.  I fear that if I start to slack on enforcing the rules he will take complete advantage.  
That being said he is generally a well behaved kiddo.  Right now he is quietly stacking his blocks and playing with his trucks.  
He is finally calling me MAMA!  Not all the time, but I feel like we are making a breakthrough.  He also points to himself when I ask him where Preston is.  I was so excited when he did it this morning!  
You know how a lot of toddlers go through a “no” phase.  Everything you ask them get’s a “NO” response whether they mean it or not?  Preston is going through a “Yeah” phase, and I’m hoping it’s a replacement for the “no” phase.  Everything we ask him gets a “Yeah” or a “yes.”  “Do you have a poopy dipe?”  “Yeah.”  “Do you want to go take a nap?” “Yeah.”  Etc.
And finally, I think it is SO cute that he “Psssh”s for the cats.  He will hold out his hand and rub his fingers together while saying “pssss” at the cats!  They never fall for it.  

I wrote this last weekend, but we didn't have a way to post it until we got home yesterday.  So here is a recap from the first part of our trip to the lake:

Mom and I are at the lake!!  We are here with only Mema and Poppop, so I am getting some quality time with my Great Grandparents.  When we first got here, yesterday, I kept asking for Grandpa.  He’s usually here, isn’t he?  Once it was well established that Grandpa just isn’t here, I switched gears to Poppop!  He’s a fun guy, too.  We play trucks together, and he loves to push me in the hammock.  Now when I got to sleep and when I wake up I ask for “Poppop.”  Mom thinks that it’s because he is the current male influence.  Why, you ask?  Where is Dada?  Well, Dada is having a horrible time, stuck in the terrible state of Calfornia… I KID!  He’s IS actually stuck in California, but he’s having a pretty amazing time.  He misses us of course, but the client (for whom he is “stuck”) put him up in the swanky Beverly Hilton amid celebrities and superstars.  Feeling rich and famous he decided to do a little shopping on Rodeo Dr, and hit up Venice beach to watch some rollerblading bikini babes and some street performers.  It sounds to me like he is having a pretty awesome time.  He’ll probably rejoin us sometime on Tuesday.
Mom and I are having a pretty awesome time, too!  I get to go swimming in both the lake and my little kiddie pool; the weather here is beautiful, sunny and warm.  Mema is SO impressed with how good of an eater I am.  I clean my plate at every meal.
Yesterday Poppop and I went for a walk in the stroller down to the mailbox, and today Mom and I might got for a longer walk once it cools down in the afternoon.
This weekend I am learning to JUMP!  I am already a great jumper when it come to my trampoline, but I trying to figure out how to do it with my knees.  I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

From Mommy:
We miss John, but we are having a good time here at the lake.  I easily sympathize with single moms right now, although Mema and Poppop are a big help when it comes to entertaining.  I still have to do bedtime and naptime without the help of Dada, and I had to make the whole trip up here alone, which, by the way, was terrible in Pennsylvania.  It improved once we got to New York, and that was a huge relief.  Between terrible traffic and detours and a screaming toddler, I was just SO happy to leave Pennsylvania.