I haven’t blogged in while, so we have a lot to catch up on, but we should start with this weekend, because I hit another “milestone”: my first trip to the Emergency Room.  It was one of the worst trips that I have ever been on, but I do feel much better, so I guess it counts for something. 
Last night my ears hurt… a lot.  I didn’t know how to tell Mom and Dad, though.  I cried and cried, and tried to tell them that I didn’t feel good, but they just kept trying to give me medicine and coaxing me to go back to sleep. 
I fell asleep and woke up a few times through the night.  Mom and Dad ran out of options to calm me down, so we got in the car (at 1am) and drove to the hospital.  My ears were feeling a tiny bit better, because I had some Tylenol, but I was not happy to be at the hospital in the middle of the night with a lot of strangers poking at me.  We checked in, and they took me and the parents into a little room.  They put a sticker on my big toe, which, normally, I might have thought was funny, but I just wasn’t into it.  Then they squeezed my leg with a big plastic Velcro thing, and finally I had to sit on the scale so they could weigh me (I’m 29lbs now!  Bonus weigh in). 
All of that was exhausting, but we had barely begun!  We went back into the waiting room for a few minutes until they called us back into the actual ER.  We got a little bed to sit on, and I snuggled in for a while.  Things improved; there were a ton of soft beeping sounds, lots of tick-tocks to look at, and no one poked at me.  That is until the doctor showed up.  He put a cold stethoscope on my back, poked at my belly, checked me all over for signs of a rash, and generally made me hysterical.  The final straw was when he looked in my ears!  I screamed and screamed, and he matter-of-factly informed my parents that I had a double ear infection, and that they would start me on an antibiotic.  I got to snuggle in for a while again.  At this point it was almost 3am!  Soon, a nurse came by to give me my medicine.  I was so exhausted, that I didn’t want anyone to even look at me, but somehow they managed to squirt a dose of antibiotic and a pain killer down my throat.  And we could finally GTFO (get the _____ out). 
I got home in one piece, passed out in the big bed with Mom and Dad, and slept until 9am.  Dad didn’t fair so well, he had a tummy ache from all the excitement. 
We are all pretty tired today, but I feel much better.  I get medicine for the pain every few hours, and I’m back to my normal self already!  Here's the post about the last time I had an ear infection. 

Despite our wild adventure last night, we decided we could make the trek to Gavin’s 1st Birthday Party today!  I got to play with a bunch of kids, and celebrate with our friends!  Gavin has a lot of cool toys to play with, and they had yummy burgers and chicken tenders for lunch.  It was beautiful out, so we got to play ball, and run around in the fresh air.  Happy Birthday, Gavin! If you want to be nostalgic, check out my post on going to visit baby G!

Yesterday afternoon, before my ear infection drama, Gigi, Grandpa, and Uncle Joe came to visit.  Gigi still has a boo boo on her foot and has to wear a special boot.  She also has to use a scooter to get around, and sometimes she gives me rides on it!  We made a special dinner for them of Osso Buco, Blueberry pie, coleslaw, and mashed potatoes!

I might as well fill you in on last weekend’s activities, too, while I’m at it.  Last Saturday Mom had to work at the Da Vinci Science center.  She and Destinee took a lot of musical instruments to a Kids Expo so lots of kids could play with them.  Dad and I went over to check it out!  Here are a few pictures from  the day.

From Mommy:
Poor Preston didn’t love his trip to the Emergency Room, but we are glad we went.  Of course he gets an ear infection on a Saturday night when the Pedi isn’t open.  We knew something was up at bed time, because he was having a harder-than-usual time going to bed.  He did go to sleep for a little while, but woke up inconsolable a short time later.  At that point we called the nurse hotline provided through our insurance.  The nurse recommended that he be seen by a doctor, but we thought we woud try one last thing to get him to calm down (we’d tried just about everything: kitties, bananas, elmo, cookie monster, Gangnam Style, offers of drinks and snacks).  We took him into the car to let him play with all of the buttons.  He calmed right down, and discovered that I kept a green water bottle in the front seat.  Happy that he was actually drinking something we let him have the bottle.  I have a very silly story about this specific water bottle, but I’ll get to it in a minute.  We got him to take a dose of Tylenol, and then he fell asleep again.  But a few hours later he woke up again worse than ever.  It was then that we decided we had to take him to see the doctor, and we were off to the ER.  The rest has already been written.  We had a rough time at the ER, but it was worth it to get him feeling better.

The Silly Story of the Green Water Bottle:
Preston really took to my green water bottle, and loves to drink water from it.  We’re ok with that, because he needs fluids to help him get better.  John asked him if he would like ice in the bottle to keep the water cold, and Preston said “Yay!”  So we got him some ice.  He took one look at the ice in the bottle and said “Pickle,” loudly and clearly.  The long ice cubes appear green in the bottle, and I can totally see how Preston would think they were pickles, not to mention that he is kind of obsessed with pickles!  Then the ice started to melt and disappear.  He gets upset when there are no pickles in his bottle, so we have to keep replenishing them. 
The End

From Mommy:
Toddlers are SOOOO cute. 
I don’t love dropping Preston off at daycare, because I miss him when we are apart and a lot of the time I have to sneak out to avoid the crisis that will ensue if we make eye contact when I leave.  But lately I have come up with an adorable solution for crisis free drop offs: Hugs!  And not by me.  Every time I drop Preston off at school I try to spot the nearest child and say, “Look, Preston, Alivia needs a hug.”  Hearing her name with the word “hug” after it, little Alivia perks right up, runs over and stands awkwardly in front of Preston.  Then I remind him that she needs a hug, and they tentatively embrace.  If the embrace lasts too long, sometimes they tip over – together - which is hilarious! 
Now, I’ve been working on this drop off technique for a long time, and the journey has been super silly.  When I first started doing it I would call out to some of the older toddlers.  They would come over while Preston “allowed” them to hug him.  Little Peej would lean in for a hug, but wouldn’t put his arms out to return it.  Luckily 2 year olds aren’t offended by this.  It has gotten to the point where the kids know when I walk in that it is Preston-hug-time, and they all run over for a group hug.  And, heaven forbid they see someone else hugging Preston; they MUST participate. 
Preston has learned to return the hugs, and will even sometimes throw in a kiss, which, again, is amazingly adorable.
He still doesn’t like it when I leave, so we still have to avoid eye contact with each other, but with all the hugging going on, Mom is the last thing on his mind.

What do you do to distract your child?

I’m hitting milestones right and left these days!  Yesterday, I figured out how to climb out of my crib.  Yes, Mom and Dad knew this day would come, they just thought they had a little more time.  I took my last nap in my crib, and then I said good-bye to the crib side, which was magically (and with a few tools), turned into a toddler bed.  I can climb in an out with no problem now!  Mom says that I have to stay in my bed until a grown-up comes to get me.  I’m having a hard time with that rule; I like to be free!  Mom is pretty insistent, though.  

I also got my own potty this weekend!  Sometimes I sit on it, and sometimes I take it apart.  I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to do with it, but we talk about pee pee a lot when I’m playing with it.  It’s really fun to put toys in the bowl part of the potty and close the lid.  And of course Daddy insisted that we get the deluxe model, so it has a built in air freshener, wipes, and is a 3 piece set.  Fancy!

From Mommy:

Preston is 20 months old, and on his 20 month birthday we had to switch him to a toddler bed.  I think it’s a little bit early, but if he can climb out of the crib, I guess it’s really time.  Our first night was not that great.  He’s having a hard time going to bed lately anyway, and throwing a new bed feature into the mix made it worse.  Hopefully he will get used to his new bed and decide that going to sleep is an ok thing to do.  

I found the coolest thing in the bathtub tonight!  When the water goes down the drain it makes an awesome spinny thing... like a tornado... or a flume?  I tried to touch it, but it  is sneaky!  It disappears and then comes back again.  

I took the plunge and got my own place today!  It’s a little fixer-upper with a lot of character, not to far from my folks, but far enough that they only come over when I want them.  It has a little front porch, a sky light, a sink, a mailbox, AND a doorbell.  What more could a man ask for?  What do they always tell you when you are about to invest in real estate?  Location, location, location.  I have the perfect location, shaded by the old oak tree, right next to a swing, and with a spectacular view of the gardens.

It needed a little work, but nothing my trusty yellow drill couldn’t handle. 

When I was finished fixing it, I invited mom over to sit on my porch.  
I wasn’t sure if I could handle the rigors of homeownership, but I think I’m doing ok so far!

I forgot to tell you some exciting news!  Remember when I told you about the jumbles in the subwoofer?  Well, to start from the beginning, Daddy broke our vacuum cleaner.  So then he bought new parts to fix the vacuum cleaner, and now it works better than ever!  So Daddy got the idea to try to get the jumbles out of the subwoofer using the new super suction on the vacuum cleaner, and it totally worked!  After months of entrapment in the subwoofer my jumbles are now safely on the outside.  I wanted to put them back into the subwoofer, but Daddy said no and took them away.  I can’t imagine why.

From Mommy:
 
I had a CRAZY day on Friday.  I had a work event in the evening, preceded by a little party for parents at Preston’s daycare.  Debbie (who is finally home from Germany) wanted to see Preston, so she babysat in the morning for us, which meant that I had to go home at lunch to take Preston to daycare for the afternoon.  Not to mention a bunch of errands and meetings that I had for work that day. 
It was really nice to see Debbie again!  She is back in Vermont now, but we have plans to see her again in October.  

 I had a very fun Labor Day weekend at the lake!  It was full of silly hats, swimming, canoe and kayak rides, blueberries, digging in the dirt, kitties, games, and new words.  It was the weekend of our annual family “hat” croquet game.  If you recall, last year I was a gladiator!   This year I wore a fashionable Robin Hood cap with a red feather in it.  I hate wearing hats, but Mom won over the small tantrum that I threw, and I reluctantly wore my hat for a VERY short photo shoot.  As soon as the paparazzi were through I was DONE with the hat.  Mom thinks she is going to get me to wear it again for Halloween.  We’ll see about that! 
Mom found the (super easy) pattern for my hat on Crafty Staci's Blog

I love to go boating with Grandpa, and the easiest way for him to take a wiggly toddler who loves to throw around 30 pounds of boat-tipping weight is to go in a Kayak.  There is less room for me to move around, and I can’t stay up.  Grandpa is so tricky!  He showed me how to pick blueberries right from the bush along the shoreline of the lake.  It’s so easy when you are in a kayak, and I still LOVE blueberries.  One time I was getting kind of sleepy in the kayak, and before I knew what was going on Mom was pulling me from my super comfy snoozing position.  The gentle rocking of the boat gets me every time. 

I also loved making breakfast with Grandpa (so do Mom and Dad, because it gives them some extra time to sleep-in in the morning).  We make BLUEBERRY waffles together, and Grandpa lets me “dump” them into the bowl.  We have to wait until the light goes out on the waffle maker before we can pull those yummy guys out.  The blueberries get all squished in the waffles, but they are still yummy! 

Grandma and Grandpa bring their silly kitty named Tillie to the lake to play with me.  She is a crazy kitty that loves to play and run around.  At the lake there is the “loft.”  It is a super secret bedroom, and you have to climb a VERY TALL ladder that goes STRAIGHT up to get there.  I’m too little to play up there, but Tillie LOVES it.  The problem is that once she is up in the loft she can’t get down!  She cries and cries for someone to rescue her.  So the grown-ups decided to put an extra ladder up that is not so steep, so that Tillie can get down by herself.  I LOVE to play with Tillie, but I can’t get to her when she is up in the loft.  I yell up to her “Tillie, come DOWN” and point to the bottom step of the ladder.  Why won’t she come play with me?  I also like to throw the ball for her, and lead her around the room with the mousey-on-a-string.  I miss my own kitties sometimes, but they are not as fun as Tillie.  She is small, frisky, and playful!