Pres and the Pool

Preston has taken a liking to the pool, but does not like taking off his shirt-self conscious? A little young I would think-and it’s not for lack of self esteem-I pretty much tell him 50 times a day he rocks. Anyway here are some pre-pool weekend pics first. My parents are getting landscaping done and Preston posed on the new rocks!

Here is my handsome dude in the front garden-where he should not be, but I could not resist the cute picture…

And here we are at the pool. Thanks to my mom who got some great action shots! Unfortunately it rained today so we could not go in after school-maybe tomorrow. Preston just needs some ear plugs-his tubes are still in miraculously and he is doing very well going under water and coming up and blinking away the water! My goal is to have him swimming like a fish in no time. I had passed a teacher’s aide swimming course so I feel that I should be able to teach my child to swim!

And being the true lawyer, I called the Homeowner’s Association last week to report that the coping around the pool was too slippery (who puts non porous brick around a pool)? They did not call me back. Now they are on notice. See my education was worthwhile! LOL!

Aunt Tinka, Nana & Busch Gardens Oh MY!

What a weekend we had. My sister and Grandma were down for the weekend. On Friday night we went to Friday cheers at the pool that finally opened in the development. Preston did not want to go in his bathing suit and then decided he did want to go in the water. In addition to the big pool there is an eighteen inch deep wading pool. Pres slipped in the pool itself and went under the water for all of 2 seconds. I picked him up, he sputtered, blinked and was fine. Until my sister had to tell me that he was scared out of his mind and his little life probably flashed before his eyes….I know…a bit much.

On Saturday we went to Busch Gardens. I have not been in years so this was really a great treat for me as well. I have also become a lot more fearful of roller coasters. As I am going up 210 feet I start thinking about what if the harness gives out, what if we break down and I am forced to walk down the stairs and I am so scared of heights, what if one of my dad’s stents collapses on our way down….which prompts my sister to make fun of me. The lines were not long at all. My father said when we were younger the line for the log flume was two hours. This is where our parenting differs. I would have told us “Oh jeez kids, it appears there was a malfunction…not enough logs…they are shutting down the flume. We’ll just go get some ice cream.” What a good dad to wait on a two hour line for a three minute ride. In a log…with no harness mind you!

****DISCLAIMER***** The following pictures are not intended to be photocopied, scanned, saved to a desktop, etc. by any ex-husband to then be cropped, photoshopped, re-captioned and then posted to his own Facebook profile in an attempt to pretend that this is somehow his life with Preston. That is an unauthorized use.

Here are some pics from the weekend. Well my sister hijacked these and posted them to her Facebook already-but she did ask-even though my sis never needs my permission!

Super excited about our Busch Gardens adventure!

Preston loved the rides. I personally did not think the “child restraints” were all that great, but he was so into the rides he was not attempting to climb out. The only time he cried was when his partner on the plane ride refused to pull the lever to push them into the air!

Check this out: Our first family trip to Busch Gardens (I was 11 or 12)?

Preston’s First Trip:

There were trips in between but the pics are buried somewhere in old albums and have not been unpacked in the move. Don’t worry Mel-I will find the ones of us together here in high school thinking we were AWESOME!

Katie won this on her first try at Derby Dogs. It was a piece of crap. Literally was falling apart. When Pres put it down at dinner I went up to another mother and it went like this, “I have a dog over there. It’s not coming home with me. Would one of your kids want it, or if you do not want another big piece of crap in your house feel free to say no.” The dog hopefully has nice new owners.

We Took a Bite Out of the Big Apple!

  

What a weekend!  I cannot believe it is over.  All the planning and all the talk.  But it totally lived up to the hype.  We did not get to the convention until Sunday.  I thought I was totally screwed but was pretty elated to score a room at the downtown Marriott in NYC.  Until Tonya called.  She told me to call Brooklyn-ask for Melanie.  Tonya rules.  I got a room in Brooklyn.  I cannot tell you how amazing it was to meet our blogging family.  Alex was totally right-it’s like we have known each other forever!  And the kids are even cuter in person.  My son’s behavior left a lot to be desired-mainly because since Thursday he was up every night until almost 11 if not later.  First here are a few pics from Fourth of July weekend pre-convention!  Look who charmed Jet Blue in the Richmond airport and was invited into the cockpit? 

We visited Aunt Melski Friday morning and in the afternoon visited with Amanda and then got a much needed haircut at our old salon!

Here are some pictures from the Fourth of July:

I know ridiculous.  And here are some pictures from the conference!

See everyone in Nashville!!!!!!

Just Some Randomness…..

Wow what a week.  I must say I am truly heartbroken over the death of Michael Jackson.  Although a tortured soul, by far he was the most amazing dancer, entertainer, pop icon of all time and there will never be another Michael Jackson.  What a sad ending on the cusp of such a possible promising comeback.  After hearing of the tour on the Idol show this past season, I was trying to figure a way to get to London.  Watching his video catalogue this past weekend and hearing songs that I have not heard in a awhile you realize how amazing he was-such a part of my childhood.  I remember vividly watching the uncut version of the “Black or White” video at my Aunt Pat’s house. Such a shame. Preston loved “Thriller” but yet is petrified of a spider web cartoon on Little Einsteins.  He also can identify many singers who sang “We Are the World,” such as Stevie, Ray and Bruce. He also took a liking to “Beat It.”  Such awesome songs. Rest in peace MJ.

And poor Farrah Fawcett.  Poor woman fought so hard.  My God embrace her in his arms.  You are now at peace. 

In the midst of all this sadness, Preston still managed to be really cute:

 

Preston made the apron and hat at school.  Can you deal?  I think this is pretty ridiculous in terms of cuteness.

Posing in the chairs from the demolished Shea Stadium.  The Yankee ones are on the way…

No weekend is complete without the train ride at the Short Pump Mall.  Preston was thrilled to go on with Sam and Baby Maddy!  Then we had a great dinner with my Mom and Jordana, Sam and Baby Maddy at Red Robin. 

I am so proud of Preston.  This train set is a Figure 8.  He demolished last weekend when the trains had an accident.  I left him alone in the conservatory for about an hour-he put this together all by himself.  He was so proud!

I then doused my Blackberry in perfumed body splash today.  It is one it’s last legs.  I get a new phone Tuesday. I am already starting to twitch and it’s been down for like six hours!  I cannot even get into the conversations I had with the morons from Sprint.  I just hope they taped my phone call and played it back so they can hear how ludicrous they sound.  ARGH!  Only a few more days until NEW YORK!!!!!  Cannot wait to see everyone!

Happy Father’s Day!

I am going to go backwards with this post-starting today and working towards last week.  (Kind of like that Seinfeld  episode). A big Happy Father’s Day to my dad!  We had a great day.  Preston went with his father so this morning I was able to take my parents to a nice brunch at a French restaurant.  After that Preston was able to give my father his gift-a Lowe’s gift card and a soda holder he made at school.  He was so proud of that!  My peeve with Lowe’s was if you spent $50 you got a free tool “while supplies last.”  Well supplies lasted I guess meant the ten tools they ordered for Father’s Day.  So I did not get a tool.  Lowe’s-you’re a tool! 

Yesterday Preston had a birthday party at Romp n’ Roll which is a huge gym where the kids cannot get hurt.  The only negative to this place is every ten minutes they wanted the kids to gather around for a circle time activity-um you take a bunch of three year olds in a room full of foam blocks and you want them to sing songs-right.  Preston was not into participating at all-as you can see all he wanted to do was run and play.  He went to a party like this a year ago and really was not too into it-amazing what a difference a year makes!  Notice Preston on the trampoline.  I made him get off after a minute or too but he just kept gravitating towards it! 

He did the rock wall all by himself!

Friday was water day at school.  Preston was so excited to go to school in water shoes and a bathing suit!

Hope everyone had a great weekend.  It looks like our conference days are numbered-I will be at the welcome reception and at the hotel all day Sunday.  Monday we will be there, but more than likely not until later in the afternoon!  Don’t worry we will see everyone!

Start Spreading the News....

Preston-circa 7 months.

Ok guys, well I am trying to figure out how to do a New York "post," (pun completely intended) for the conference, but I am at a total loss. The conference is also a trip home for me and I must get together with the family and friends back on the Island on the 3rd and part of the 4th. I am only signed up for the Welcome Reception which is on Sunday. I know many of you signed up for events-and you should-after all it's New York, but I am passing on spending $100 bucks per event for places I have walked by 4 million times. But I want to meet everyone so I am in a dilemma. So this is what I need you to do: in the comments section here tell me what you are signed up for and when you arrive and where you are staying. Then this will make more sense.
But I feel that I owe you guys some NY tidbits on the subway system:

The Subway: Not to be confused with the sandwich place (Are you totally singing "Five...five dollar...."). Ahhh the good ol' MTA. The system is numbers and letters. The numbers or letters are in colors-but we are not Boston and we do not refer to our "lines" in color. Most of you are staying between the Marriott Downtown and the Marriott Brooklyn. To get back and forth you are going to take the Lexington Ave. line or the 4,5,6 line-but only the 4 and 5 run between these two places. There are schedules I think-I have never actually seen a subway schedule other than once online. They just come...back and forth. If there is a jam up you probably will not find anyone to ask and if they make an announcement there is a great chance the speaker will sound like Charlie Brown's teacher. You have a lot of those people that think they will solve said problem by walking to the edge and peering down the tracks looking for lights of the train-everyone does this-the train does not come faster-but you will probably see a rat.
And you may be lucky to see the following forms of shopping and entertainment:

a) Bootleg DVDs and CDs spread out on a dirty vile sheet to be easily picked up with the transit cops actually patrol.
b) Steel drum players or string quartets or people who paint themselves silver and stand still (I mean I don't get the silver paint-we are not confused-we know you are not a statue), break dancers all on the outside of the platform-some are pretty good-I don't really have time usually to stop and take it in when fighting 8 million to get to work. There is a calliope player-he is bent sideways, has long white hair and very scary puppets. He is usually in tunnels between big stations like Grand Central or Times Square.
c) The mariachi band or the break dancers who accompany you onto the train. HATE these people. There is nothing worse than five teenagers break dancing on a train. As a lawyer I love figuring out the liability suits while these kids are doing back flips. And the acoustics of the train car is less than ideal for the band.
d) Old foreign men and women selling batteries that are totally illegal and will run out before your destination. Meanwhile who is still listening to portable CD players that even require batteries?
e) The man that started the Homeless Food Drive-who brings Bologna sandwiches onto the trains and asks for your "dollars, quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies to make sure no one goes hungry." He carries credentials, but it seems he is the only person that does this Homeless Food Drive-and the thought of bologna sandwiches at 7am is enough to make me want to retch my Starbucks.
f) People that don't bathe and are wearing seventeen layers in 100 degree heat that have decided an entire row of perfectly good seats is an acceptable bed.
g) The kids who sell M&M's to stay out of trouble-I cannot help but think of Chris Rock's stand up about deadbeat dads who proclaim they take care of their kids and Chris said, "You don't get applause-you are supposed to take care of your kids." or something to that effect. So I do not feel I need to buy M&M's so a kid can do what they are supposed to do-go to school, not take drugs and stay out of trouble.
h)Bible readers-so loud an unnecessary when you are so close to the person next to you you can see their pores and all you want to do is just get to your destination in peace and quiet. And they always pick some violent passage too-about fire, brimstone, damnation-nothing upbeat at all. You usually feel pretty sucky about yourself if you actually listen.
i) People who feel the need to sing along outloud with their IPod-um perhaps you did not get the memo but you are not Beyonce, Britney, Lady Gaga...stop singing!
Aren't you psyched to ride??????

Weekends are not as bad and weekends in the city in the summer are much less crowded than let's say...Christmastime. Most people are at the beach. Add this to the holiday weekend and the city should be deader than normal. On the weekends there are always track changes and delays, most are noticed on signs in the station. And New Yorkers are nice-we are-we will always help a tourist find their way. We might not seem nice because we are tired, hot and stuck together on subways, but we do help! So don't be afraid to ask.

I would not however, recommened subways past eleven pm without a big entourage.


Taxis: Did you ever hear Jerry Seinfeld's stand up on NY cab drivers? My sister has the book-Katie quote me the lines-only Jerry does it right.
So grab your Metro Cards folks and let's go!
Preston circa December on the streets of Manhattan:

Kid! Kid for Sale! 50 Cents a Kid!

This was a weekend in trying my patience as a parent.  Preston is going through a stage, the likes of which I cannot comprehend.  The listening ears are non-existent, a temper tantrum in Wal Mart where you would have thought he was being taken to the torture chamber, 952 times the word “poopy” or some variation on the theme was used and my telling him to come inside prompted him to hit me-that at that point Preston and the bar of Ivory soap had a date.  Needless to say he is going to watch that mouth!  I don’t know if it is the school, the children, the age…but I am one “pee pee head” away from private religious daycare. He is so fresh lately. I also don’t know if this is a show off thing-especially in front of his father this weekend.  Preston is also…spoiled.  (yeah there’s a shocker).  Add to it that he is an only child of divorced parents, the only grandchild and now his father is back and not denying him anything.  You see where this is going? 

He is also lucky that he is drop dead adorable and I love him to pieces despite the shenanigans.  Oh and the outfit you see below-that was a cause for a fit because he only wants t-shirts.  I calmly explained that there are children who don’t have clothes, or shoes and sleep on dirt (he actually paused to say “ew”).  Here’s a picture of the offending outfit…

Horrible huh?  Don’t I suck?

Today was Madeline’s first birthday party!  We had a blast.  Sammy and Jordana put out a nice brunch and Preston had a good time playing with the other kids.  The picture below was taken before we left after a lot of pleading. The other picture is Preston and Princess Ashley.  The face is priceless-this is his newest expression.  He loves to tell me Ashley is “woofing” at him!

They were so cute together at Maddie’s new kitchen set!  We ended the night at a local diner and Preston was oh so willing to take this shot:

Have a great week!  Look for my New York post sometime this week!