Thanksgiving Weekend!

What a weekend! We had a full house with Anna and Chris and Katie and Steve. It was so much fun! This was our first Thanksgiving in the new home. Baking was great in this new kitchen! Of course there were more desserts than there were people. We always had between 15-20 people and this year there were eight-but we still made enough for 15-20 people. We spent Friday afternoon at Maymont Park and Preston was thrilled that the otter was awake this time. We had a great dinner out on Friday-my parents watched Preston while we went to Yamoto, a hibachi place. Chris and Steve definitely thought they were cool because they drank Saki bombs. I could not since I was the designated driver of my dad's bitchin' rented Impala for the weekend (hey we needed to rent one car without a big bulky Britax taking up half the back seat and his car is still in New York). My mother and I ventured to Kohl's on Friday. Not a 4am. First off can I talk about the Kohl's advertisement? If I was to get up at 4am to go to Kohl's to get a Mosaic candle for $3.99 versus the retail price of $4.99 would I be going in three inch red patent leather heels, a top hat, and a jacket over my negligee? I don't wear negligee to bed, ok I don't wear negligee ever, so there would be the issue. More like me trudging in at 4am in flannel plaid pants and they'd be happy I remembered to brush my teeth, let alone grab a fancy chapeau! Really. Saturday my father and Katie and Chris put up the Christmas lights (yup we "Griswald" it-well not that intense, but my dad loves lights) and went to a big family dinner at Glory Days!

I thought I would share a look at Preston's Thanksgiving photos past to present. Thanksgiving is also a big time for me. I had been pregnant and ready to give birth in 2005-and that Thanksgiving was horrendous. It was my favorite holiday and I thought my son would never see it. So the following year, five months after my ex husband walked out, I heard Al Roker say "Let's have a parade." I had Preston in my arms and just lost it. It was pretty emotional. Let's just say Al gets me every year. So here is Preston 2006, 2007 and now 2008!

Here are some more pics from the weekend!




And a much anticipated Preston video! Enjoy!

Aunt Melski's Visit!

We had such a great weekend. Mel (who is affectionately Melski), is Preston's godmother and my oldest friend. More like a sister, I mean it's been twenty three years and for a good eighteen of those years, we lived across the street from each other. We both went to the same college, both went to law school and worked at two law firms together. I really wish my albums from yesteryear (yes I used the term yesteryear) were not packed in a storage facility otherwise I would scan a few of those pics from our Sweet Sixteen parties when we thought we were beyond cool.

Mel came Friday and we had such a great weekend. Two great dinners out together, a shopping frenzy on Friday and we toured the area. I approved her gift for Preston-a four foot long truck/carrier. He is going to love it! She saw Preston's school and met his teacher. She also got to witness first hand that although Preston is ridiculously adorable, he has more than his fair share of "moments" shall I say. In fact when Preston got "rude" and would not give Mel a kiss last night, she told him she would have to find another little boy to love, to which he replied, "Yeah Melski-you find a new Preston." I am going to miss her and she'd better come back to the TDM very soon. Love you Skiier.

Preston also went to his friend's b-day party complete with a bounce house. I am sure the following pictures will be a POLP nightmare-how dare me allow my achon child who is three with no neurological complications to partake in harmless "jumping" (which consisted of him running and tripping) in a bounce house. Like all you blogging achon moms who used an exersaucers-GASP! Shame on all of us. (*Please note that the aforementioned does not reflect this mom's point of view and I therefore leave you with amazing action shots)!
Today we did our last minute Thanksgiving baking shopping and I had to buy dinner rolls for Preston's "feast" at school tomorrow. This mom just did not have time to volunteer mashed potatoes this year. Preston also "baked" today-you know the pre-cut cookies where he just has to throw them on a pan. He loves this! We then watched the Jets kill the Titans and then my beloved Big Blue kick some Cardinal butt! We ended the day taking his Christmas card photos-I was hoping that the ones from school would be so cute that I would not have to do the photo shoot, but alas, the proofs came back with Preston's hair parted to the side and a big ol' snot in his nostril. Mel swears you cannot see it in one of the pics, but his hair looked pretty bad. Got to love the Christmas card shoot-the digital camera with it's pause, Preston being oh so cooperative, my mother begging him to sit with her hands loaded with Hershey Kisses...but in the end I have great shots and now have to narrow it down to the winner. hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. We are awaiting our guests on Wednesday. Love to all!

Nothing Too Exciting

is going on. The weather is pretty darn cold for what I was told to expect in Virginia. The whole you'll be wearing flip flops until January is a complete fallacy! Although I did laugh yesterday as some of you on Facebook saw, that when there were six flakes coming down from a passing cloud, people here thought it was snowing. Um....not quite. Gas is now at $1.79, almost THREE full dollars less than what I paid this summer. I am still Christmas shopping-so far my sister is finished (*Katie smiling*) and Preston almost complete for both Christmas and birthday. I also bought my dad's present from Preston, have narrowed down my mothers and need to get on the whole Chris and Anna present since they are coming next week and will be in Arizona for Christmas.

Mel is coming this weekend! YAY! I am on serious Mel withdrawal, so this weekend will be super fun! Thought I would throw in some pics of my super happy dude. Preston's new found fun is stickers-just loves stickers. My mother came home today with about 400 Christmas stickers and she also got him a Thanksgiving sticker book. That should keep him entertained for awhile-at least until he starts opening gifts and my mother has probably bought him 800 more stickers! He is also very excited for his friend Javier's birthday party this weekend, complete with a bounce house!

It Just Struck Me....

He is going to be THREE! Three! Oh my God where did the time go? I love him so much it hurts even though his new favorite saying is "BE QUIET MOM-MY!" Even though we fight to brush teeth (I mean we are now up to four types of toothpaste courtesy of grandma), or putting on the pair of shoes he does not want that day (when will I learn to just buy one), his hugs, his kisses, his smile just make me melt. So here is just a post about how much I love him. He is getting so big and so grown up! He is just the light of my life. I won't go on too much-I'll save that for the birthday post!

Ok I am also posting because Katie is pretty unhappy with the once a week Preston updates and I am sure Mel will tag right along with her on that one. Here are some cute pics of the dude.

A Great Fall Weekend

Our weekends have been jammed packed! On Saturday Preston and I took pictures in our development. There are these great wooden bridges all over the creeks. Then we joined my new friend from work Roman, his wife Anni and their son Ethan who is five months older than Preston at Maymont Nature Park. I had been here years before with Sam and Jordana but in the winter. It was gorgeous. The weather was unbelievable so we had a picnic lunch outside. The boys climbed on rocks, played with sticks, explored a cave, etc. Then at the children's farm they fed the goats (which we swore they would do all day as long as we had quarters for the food machines), saw a hawk, sheep, chickens, bulls and a buffalo. At the nature preserve they were super amused by the huge sea turtles, fish, eels, and the night owls. Unfortunately the otters were asleep-they are usually a huge hit so we will have to return. They ended their day in the discovery room.

Today we drove to Fredericksburg, Virginia to meet up with my friend Kathy from law school. We shopped and took Preston out to dinner. It was so much fun to see Kathy considering we were pretty much inseparable in law school. She is now with the Department of Justice in DC and her husband is a Marine pilot! She even bought Preston a White House helicopter and secret service toy vehicle! Needless to say he was so excited, but even more so to know Kathy has a Dalmatian which he has reminded me thirteen times already that we need to visit. Here are some pictures from the weekend. (Oh and from my previous post, the scooter is by Angeles- I need to get the official name and height dimensions). AND.... to piss off my sister even more-gas is officially $1.91 here! I am beside myself with excitement. We have come a long way from $4.47!

The Dude gets ANOTHER Haircut

Preston has been quite the little salon visitor since about 16 months. He literally needs his hair cut about once every two months. When he was little if his hair got long he had these ridiculously cute curls in the back. Over time, they have straightened and his cowlick-which is seriously the width of his noggin has taken residence. I decided I was going to just grow his hair long to tame the cowlick. I saw pictures of Britney Spears' boys and thought that his hair would look cute longer. Except it did not happen. My reasoning was the longer the hair, the more gravity will pull it down so I don't have to tame the mane in the morning-or beg for him to just let me put some gel in it, etc. Except the length did not tame the cowlick. From the back he had one of those senior citizen women poufs. It had to go.

So off to Divas & Dudes. Preston always got his hair cut at my salon, but since that salon is in NY and the haircut was just not worth an eight hour drive even with these amazingly lower gas prices, we tried this new place. Of course he thought it much cooler since he go to sit in a rocket ship and watch Thomas. I was the crazy mom telling the lady exactly how it had to be cut, buzzed, styled, etc. It came out really good too!

On Sunday my mother and I continued birthday/Christmas shopping. I am so excited too because after hunting almost an entire day on the Internet, I found the scooter Preston wanted for Christmas! It was at his daycare and he just loves it! His feet reach the floor and he uses his legs to go. He is really fast too! It has no pedals which is fine because the exercise he is getting is great. I feared since it was listed for age 1-2 it would be too babyish, but so many of the kids in the 3-4 year old class use it too! There are so many pedal free ride on toys out there too. If anyone needs suggestions for ride on toys come to me-I went through every site on the Internet to find this thing. He is also getting some other fun things-and I am almost done narrowing down which Thomas wooden railway set to buy. That conspiracy-you would think with the prices they were widdling Percy by hand! Why is two feet of track, a tunnel and a bridge $127??? Ridiculous!

We also enjoyed the Giants game although Preston was bummed that he did not see the "silly chicken." That is the Sony HD TV commercial with Peyton Manning holding back a chicken mascot. He thinks it is the funniest thing ever. Check out the way he hung out watching football. I love this kid!