Preston Family Vacation

This past weekend, we took our first family vacation to St. Louis.  It was a simple, yet fun couple of days.  We visited Grant's Farm and the zoo and spent some time at the hotel pool where Lola showed off what she has learned in swimming lessons.  Both kids were very well behaved and we all had a great time!

St. Louis or Bust!



Grant's Farm

After a long hot day

St. Louis Zoo

(I have several pictures of Lola with different animals, but I didn't think you would want to see Lola and a lion, Lola and the giraffes, Lola and the bear, Lola and the rhino, etc., so these are just a couple.)

Bode is Nine Months Old!

Baby Bode is a growing little man!  At his 9-month well child appointment, he weighed 20 lbs (60th %) and 28-1/2 inches long (75th %).  His height has finally started to catch up to Lola, who has been at the top of the height charts since she was born.  I have a slight obsession with how cute he is when he is just wearing his diaper (and quite frankly, I think he happier that way too!), and he does look really tall!

During the last week, Bode has been able to get up on his hands and knees, but then doesn't really know what to do once he gets there.  I've seen him pick up and arm, but then just not sure what to do with it and then he falls.  So while crawling still remains a goal, he has definitely figured out the army crawling.  And trust me, if he wants something he is going to find a way to get it.  He'll crawl over anything to get what he wants.  Finally he has shown some interest in holding his own bottle (he actually did it for the first time when he was a couple of months old, but he's just been too lazy to do it.  He's also doing a great job of picking up his puffs and getting them in his mouth.  He has five teeth and continues to put anything and everything in his mouth.  Another new thing, yet really annoying, is a high pitched squeal / scream when he is not happy or not getting his way.  REALLY ANNOYING!  He and Lola are so cute together and she can almost always make his laugh. 

Dance Recital

Sabrynn and Corinne's dance recital was this past weekend.  Sabryan was in four dances and Corinne was in one. 

Sabrynn is a beautiful and amazing dancer with a gorgeous smile in every dance.  And Miss Corinne is a sassy little thing that is growing into a fabulous dancer!

Lola and I before the recital 

 Lola with her cousins

Mother's Day

We had a very nice Mother's Day last weekend.  We celebrated with Brian's parents on Saturday night and with my parents / family on Sunday.  Brian, Lola and Bode got me a book and an adorable necklace. 

Darren and Logan climbing trees!!

having fun outside

this past weekend was a hot one, so we were able to spend some time outside. 

eight month olds need frozen lemonades too!

and a little yard mowing (on the carpet, of course)





bode is eight months old

This has been an exciting month for sweet Bode.  He has perfected his 'da da' and loves to clap his hands and occasionally will throw them up in the air when you say "sooo big!".  He enjoys sitting on the floor and playing with his toys and making them make noise.  Having never been one to enjoy being on his belly, he actually will lower himself from a sitting position to laying on his belly and reach so hard for his toys.  No crawling yet, but you can tell he wants to get from one place to another.  He can pick up his puffs and put them in his mouth and eat them without gagging (for the longest time, I thought he would only be able to eat pured food with the gag reflex he had)!  He is able to stand, holding onto something, for a very short period of time.  And lastly... has developed a very bad case of separation anxiety.  I cannot even begin to move to the other side of the room, let alone out of his site before the big tears start falling.  I've had to get out the Baby Bjorn and 'wear' him around quite a bit to be able to get anything done! 

We've had to give up using the number because he just eats them!

Bode's 6 month pictures

Better late than never!!

Happy Easter!

We're having a few problems with our home computer, so I'm posting this from my work computer (shhhh).  I'll have more posts after we get it fixed, but wanted to show some Easter pictures. 

Lola wanted to leave "a lot of carrots and milk" for the Easter Bunny!

After the Easter Bunny came!

Easter morning with the goodies!

Easter Eggs

I'm not 100% on board with coloring Easter eggs.  Seems like a messy pain in the buns for something not so spectacular.  I'll take most of the blame for the no-so-spectacular part though since I don't go out of my way to be creative.  But it's Easter gosh darn it, so color eggs we will!

Only one minor mishap.... apparently she was trying to smell one of the tablets...

Outside Time

More beautiful weather and more time outside!  We took a walk to a nearby school and played on the playground equipment.  

(his shoes were baby Wyatt's - my nephew)

Bode is 7 months old!

On Friday, the day of Bode's actual "birthday", I wasn't going to be home until a little later, so I gave Brian strict instructions on how to take Bode's picture.  When I got home and I was flipping through the pictures... I see some without with the number (which was not part of the instructions)...

...some with Brian holding the number (which was not part of the instructions)...

Brian said that as soon as he handed the number to him, he would start demolishing it so he was trying to save the number.  Since neither of these will do, I tried again when he was 7 months and 1 day.  Clearly he wasn't kidding. 

Sigh... Anyway... 

During this last month, Bode is much more solid in sitting up now.  He can sit up for long periods of time now.  He will 'fetch' things that fall outside of his reach.  He'll lean over and reach as far as he can to get what he wants.  He's starting to reach out / reach up for people when he wants them to hold him.  One time, I saw him trying to clap his hands.  It was so cute!  He is becoming more vocal and if you listen closely, he may be getting ready to make some ma ma, da da sounds.  When you're preparing his bottle and getting ready to give it to him, he'll get so excited.  He bounces up and down, reaches for it and makes this eh eh eh sound.  He has no desire to eat anything other than baby food.  We've started to try to give him Cheerios, Puffs and tiny tiny tiny specks of peaches.  No matter how small the bite, he gags and makes a face like you gave him a lemon!  The best thing about my baby Bode... is the smile he gives you every morning when he wakes up.  Even when it's 4:30 am and I'm praying he'll go back to bed, I open my eyes (because yes...he is in our bed) and there he is with the biggest toothy grin.  It's a great start to the day!

His favorite things... playing pat-a-cake, being held, sucking on EVERYTHING!



Bode Candids