We helped Mommy put the Cinnamon Buns on the cookie sheet.  Can you guess which one Luke did?

Preston photobomb

Luke got sad when Mommy took away his (raw) cinnamon bun. 

​From Luke:
 
I will only wear clothes that that choo-choos on them.  In fact, if my outfit in the morning does not contain a some sort of choo-choo, I reject it and require a change of outfit or the addition of a choo-choo item before I will be satisfied.  Sometimes monster trucks and other heavy machinery are acceptable, but only with prior approval.
One morning Mom tried to get away with dressing me in a red plaid button down.  I was a bit distracts, so I didn’t notice the lack of choo-choo until she was finished.  I started to move on to other activities, but first I looked down at my shirt.  I marched right back to Mom with a very mad pout and demanded a CHOO-CHOO.  She added my red choo-choo vest, and all was well with the world.
 
From Preston:
 
“Mommy, when can I go back to Dyken Pond again?  I miss going to Dyken Pond.”
“Well, it gets too cold to go there, so it’s going to be a long time until we can go again – after your birthday, the baby, and Lukey’s birthday”
“Well, do you know my FAVORITE thing to do at Dyken Pond?”
“No, what is it?”
“FISHING, that’s my favorite.  I love to go fishing.”
 
When John is not home things are a little more challenging around the house.  Bedtime is typically manageable, although I’m always exhausted by the end of it: Baths, pajamas, books, milk, rocking, tucking in, more books, negotiating of you-tube time, etc.  When there are two adults we can divide and conquer.  Mornings are just as challenging if not more so, because there is more of a time constraint.  Preston is pretty good in the morning, but he’s been really pushing back on getting himself dressed.  I finally scolded him this morning and told him that when Daddy isn’t home he needs to be even more of a good listener and helper, and that I get angry when I have to ask him to get dressed 800 million times.  And STILL, he says stuff like “I’m just going to get a drink of water and THEN get dressed.  I’m thirsty.”
At that point I just give up and focus on me and Luke figuring I’ll have to deal with Preston again, but I’m wasting too much time and energy on arguing with him.
When Preston returned from getting his drink of water, I helped him get his clothes on (he actually cooperated), and then we all head downstairs for breakfast.  But when we get down there he says “Look at all the stuff I did to help you, Mom!”  He had: fed the cats and the fish, put out drinks for everyone for breakfast, packed his and Lukey’s lunches (minus the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, those are still a bit challenging), put the folding chair away that we got out for dinner last night, pushed in all the chairs around the table, and gotten his and Luke’s coats out of the closet. 
All I really needed him to do was get dressed, but I was proud of him for being thoughtful.

Geez!  It's been a long time since I blogged.  I feel a little guilty, and like I'm going to forget some cute things because I haven't been writing them down.  I can only imagine that it is going to get worse when the baby gets here, so I need to get back into the habit of more frequent posts.

John and I took a much needed relaxation trip to Mexico last week.  It's a little crazy logistically, but it all worked out.  I planned to leave work a little early on Friday so we could pack the car and head to Gigi and Grandpa's house to drop off the kids for the weekend, but when I got out to my car it had a flat tire.  Of course.  That set us back an hour until road-side assistance could come out and put the donut on for me.  The time I was hoping to spend helping John got wasted on the wait, but he's pretty much amazing and had everything ready to go the second that I got home.   Isn't it always the case, that when you have a well thought out plan, something unexpected will happen?  Thankfully that was the worst of it for us.  We took the kids to Gigi and Grandpa's house a little later than we planned, but the drop off was fine and from there we headed to an airport hotel only to have to wake up at 3:30am to catch our early international flight.
Mexico was gorgeous.  We had perfect weather the whole time.  My only 2 requests while I was there were to sleep (as much as I wanted) and float (in the ocean, hot tub, pool, whatever, but baby bumps love to be weightless).  I happy to report that I did plenty of both.  John was always up early in the morning, and I was willing to oblige him as long as an afternoon nap was negotiable.  The afternoons where almost unbearably hot, so nap we did.  It was amazing.  Sure, we missed the kids a little bit, but being worry and responsibility free felt pretty great for those few days.  
One of our favorite memories from the drip was an excursion on a catamaran out to a coral reef to snorkel.  The boat was huge and comfortable with close to 40 passengers on the excursion.  We had about 45 minutes to snorkel on the reef, which I loved.  I had been snorkeling as a kid when I went to St. John with Mema and Poppop.  I loved it back then, and I still love it now.  John had never been snorkeling, so we practiced for a bit in the ocean at the resort.  He figured it out pretty quickly.  We are excited to be able to take the kids snorkeling one day.  We were trying to calculate the best ages to do it now that we are going to have a 5 year spread in kids.  We figure another 7 or 8 years.  Will we even remember!?
It was a great little trip and "babymoon" for me and John.  I think it was good for both of us to step out of reality a bit and spend some quality time with each other.  When we got back we still had 3 full days to spend with the boys before we had to go back to work yesterday.  We went from lounging on a beach in the hot sun, to racking leaves in the backyard on a blustery day.  But that's the beautiful life we are able to live.

Here are some pictures from our trip!  John didn't bring the camera - mostly because he didn't want to lose or wreck it.  So just cell phone pics from this trip!

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From Preston:

I had a very fun time while Mom and Dad were away.  I even told Grandpa that I didn't miss them.  But I admitted to Mommy later that I actually did miss them.  Luke and I did a lot of fun stuff with the Grandparents.  We went swimming with Gigi and Grandpa; I went to the movies with Uncle Joe; we visited Mema and Poppop with Grandma; I chased some trains with grandpa; and we go the flat tire fixed.  There was a bunch of other stuff, too, but we were too busy to notice that Mom and Dad were gone.  Plus, we got to talk to them on the phone everyday, so it was no big deal.

From Luke:

I got to sleep in a big boy bed at Gigi's house, so now I am READY to move to the big boy bed at home.  Mom is not quite ready.  She says she needs to get a bed rail (and some more sleep) before she is ready to move me out of the crib.  It's getting to be time, though.  The baby will be here before we know it!  
My vocabulary is starting to explode lately!  Mom and Dad are really encouraging me to use my words instead of crying and whining, so I've been trying to do better.  
On Sunday night I kept waking up with a belly ache through the night.  Mom was exhausted and not wanting to go to work in the morning.  And Dad was taking forever trying to figure out how to root his phone - so guess who I got to hang out with while I tooted and burped and finally got rid of my belly ache.  You guessed it - DADDY!  Mom says if he's not going to ever go to bed, then why should she ALSO be awake with a fussy baby.   It's newborn-care payback if you ask me!  I mostly just snuggled with Daddy, because it was the middle of the night.  But when I started to wake up a bit more I found a fun toy.  Preston has a build-able car with ball and joint pieces.  I know how to "couple" the pieces into a long line and when I finished I declared that it was a "CHOO-CHOO TRAIN" and drove it around the house a few times.  I do love choo-choo trains. 
I also have a fun story from before Mom and Dad went to Mexico.  One morning, when everyone else was still upstairs getting ready, I followed a cat downstairs like I often do.  I found a cup within my reach and decided I was thirsty, so I called up for "JUICE" from the bottom of the stairs.  Mom appeared at the top and asked me to wait a few minutes.  She said she would be right down, but, really, she so slow.  So I took the matter upon myself.  Daddy will tell you that about a minute later, when he heard me crying, he came downstairs to find a half a gallon of milk dumped on the kitchen floor next to an empty cup.  Mom thinks that's a little dramatic and that a half a gallon to milk would have taken much longer to clean up.  But the fact is that I opened the fridge all by myself, retrieved the milk, tried to pour it into a cup on the floor and missed.... because I'm only 1 and a half.  I got upset about it, because there was a mess, and I didn't have anything to drink!  Dad was only a little annoyed that he had to clean up the mess, and mostly Mom and Dad we proud that I took some initiative!  They don't let me wander around downstairs much anymore - even if it was only a minute or two when the milk incident happened.  

From Mommy (again):
I really love this age - right before two.  I get excited daily about the new things he is learning to say, and about his little blossoming personality.  We are definitely experiencing some 2 year old type tantrums.  They mostly involve getting dressed, or not getting his way, or Preston pestering or taking toys away from him.  In all, though, I'm very proud of Preston for how helpful he is with his brother.  Of course they have their brotherly moments of fighting or bugging each other, but Luke has come to trust his brother to help him out when he needs it, and Preston is almost always willing.  Preston knows how to get Luke out of his crib in the morning, in and out of his high chair, they use team work to feed the cats together, and they even play nicely with toys in the basement.  In fact, I've found that if there is no parent present to work out their playtime issues for them... they actually work it out themselves.  Imagine that!!  
Luke now says "Yes" as much as he says "No" and typically knows the difference.  It has helped SO much in communicating with him.  And he's still a dreamboat when it comes to bedtime.

I took Preston to get his flu shot last Friday.  Of course he didn't want to go, but I have a magic trick.  We let him watch the Daniel Tiger episode about getting a shot, and it works EVERY time.  Preston wanted to wear his batman belt and cape so that he could be a super hero just like "super Daniel."  The nurses at the doctors office played along the whole time, and when he got his shot he barely flinched.  He told me he was fine because he held his breath.
Then, on Monday, John took him to the Dentist for a check-up, and, again, he did great!  He sat on John's lap for the whole thing, and the hygienist said that he was the best patient she had all day.  John ended up taking a half day for the appointments, to they had a great afternoon of bonding.  They went to the toystore at the mall, got a hot chocolate at starbucks, and then ordered a pizza to-go for dinner.  

I think we both enjoy time with each of the boys alone.  We both agree that having one child is SOOOO easy.  But sometimes I wonder what Preston would be like if he didn't have a sibling, and if he would be so easy and agreeable.  We'll never know, and that's just fine.

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