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!

Halloween a Day Early

Preston's school had their Halloween party today and it was amazing. This school does such a great job! The kiddos all got into costume and the outside playground was set up with trick or treating, a treats table, hunt in the hay, pumpkin painting and donuts on a string. Needless to say Preston was in pig heaven. My little vampire was quite adorable I must say. I took a ton of pictures-I'll post some here now and try to get more up in an album on Facebook after trick or treating tomorrow. Halloween is a special day for me. In 2005 on Halloween I found out that something was "not right" with my ultrasound and so started the five and a half weeks of hell and uncertainty. Gosh do I wish I could go back and have a crystal ball to see the future. Each year watching him on Halloween makes me so proud and so happy! Enjoy the pics of the cutest vampire! I took pictures with his friends, but do not want to post pictures of children without parental permission (you know being a lawyer and all). Hope all of our little ghosts and goblins have a blast tomorrow!

Our Very Jammed Packed Very Fun Weekend

Wow! What a weekend. It kicked off Friday night with Preston's Spaghetti dinner at school to benefit Make-A-Wish. Each class had a theme and all the parents donated things to be raffled off. The Preppers' theme was Let's Go to the Movies. The basket included DVDs, movie tickets, candy, Blockbuster cards, etc. Of course one class was Rainy Day Fun and they had baskets of games and toys that every kid wanted and I secretly hoped Preston did not win because my mother (obviously) has already bought half the games in the basket for Christmas. Here are some shots:

Preston and Grandma putting in the winning tickets:

Here is Preston enjoying the spaghetti feast!

And the dude was a winner! He won the Nabisco basket full of treats. He was sooo proud!
Saturday Preston woke me up by calling "Kimberly" over the monitor. Hummmm....I really thought I would get Mom before my full name! He also asked my dad to go out to lunch, "just Papa and Preston." So my dad and Preston spent the morning together while my mom and I started some Christmas shopping for Preston. It looks to be a toy filled wonderland already. It was a rainy day so we spent time playing with Play Doh, going for a ride around the area together and reading stories. Here is Preston's ready for some football face:

This morning Preston and I made Halloween cinnamon rolls with orange colored icing. He is loving the whole baking thing. Perhaps I have a future Wolfgang Puck since Pres is loving his way around the kitchen. Today my friend from high school, Jason, who now works at the White House (how cool is that) and his awesome wife Erin-Kate and their two kids, Collin (6) and Mya who is a month older than Pres came for a visit. We met up with Sam, Jordana and Baby Maddie for the Stony Point Fashion Mall's Howl-Ween fest. This is where people dress up their dogs for Halloween. The kids thought this was just hilarious and since Preston wants a dog (which he is totally not getting until he old enough to walk it himself and clean up after it since I am still cleaning up his poopies), he really enjoyed this. His favorite was the Great Dane dressed as a horse which I still think he thinks is a horse, the pug dressed as a pig and the German Shepard which was just a German Shepard and whom Preston declared was "his doggie." The kids had a blast together. Look at how cute Mya and Preston were:

Have a great week everyone!

TAG-I'm it

I have been tagged by Danielle. Here goes:

10 Years Ago I
1) Was in my last year (junior year of college) living with Marrah
2) Thought that getting out in the real world totally beat the crap out of 15 hours of school a week
3) Thought I would marry my on again off again boyfriend of forever Derek
4) Was studying for my LSATs (even though I was already admitted to law school)
5) Went to the gym almost five days a week (and smoked a pack of cigarettes a day-the irony)

Things on tomorrow's to-do list

1) Get Amanda a third birthday card
2) Fill up my tank with my grocery store perks and pay----$1.97 a gallon-screw OPEC
3) Meet the 40 new people coming in to work (maybe a hottie amongst them)?
4) Attend Preston's Make-A-Wish Spaghetti Dinner with my mom and the dude
5) Make a grocery list for Jay and Erin-Kate's visit

Things I would do if I were a millionaire

1) Try to snag a date with Derek Jeter
2) Buy Preston and I the house down the street that I love
3) Buy that red Birkin Hermes bag that I promised I would buy myself when I won my first case.
4) Do some serious damage at Louis Vuitton
5) Help out all my family and friends.

5 Places I have lived

1) Greenlawn, Long Island
2) Albany, New York
3) Flushing, New York
4) Moseley, Virginia
5) God look at me-I have only four places! So pathetic

5 jobs I have had (not counting law-related for me)

1) Waitress at the Harbor Club catering hall
2) Camp Counselor
3) Grocery store checker (one week people)
4) Clerk at Harmon Drug (CVS-like)
5) Babysitter

I tag the rest of you ladies because I cannot recall who has and who has not been tagged-Jill, Mandy, Andrea, Renay, Jane, Charmaine, Amanda, Lisa, Catie, Sarah, Sheri and MY SISTER-go Katie.

A Fun Filled Weekend With Aunt Tinka

My sister arrived Friday night for another fun filled weekend. She really wanted to take Preston back to the pumpkin farm so that is where we went. Of course it was the first chilly day in Virginia and I was quite cold on the hay ride. This time we even went on the wagon ride. He was so exhausted he was about five seconds away from passing out on the barrel ride! On Saturday night we had a block party. Preston even sat still and had his face painted. It was the first time I felt a little "weird." I just never noticed being a single mom much in New York because I did not live in the textbook Wisteria Lane neighborhood. Being divorced was not a "big" deal. I felt on Saturday night I was the only person not married, no 2.5 kids, golden retriever, etc. I know it is truly time to start dating and getting myself out there. YIKES! But I did feel a bit better knowing I did not sport a pair of "mom jeans" either. Sunday I did go and try out the hair salon and have become a red head for the winter. I had a great visit with my sister-we even narrowed down the bridesmaid gowns. She wants vintage and I must say the dresses we picked were really different from the traditional weddings I have been in. I cannot wait to try them on. She also dropped the bomb that her and Steve may move to Colorado. I am truly happy for them, but for my own selfish reasons I want her to come to Virginia. (I mean we do have Mattress King LOL)! I know he is ridiculously adorable. Truly puntable as his godmother Mel would so affectionately state! Although I hate posting pictures of myself solo, I wanted to show some of those who begged me to go blond, how boldly I did not listen (sorry, hair is much to healthy). Excuse the bathroom shot, but I just applied lipstick and took a quick pic!

It's a Preston Thing

This past weekend Aunt Pat and Uncle Dennis visited. It was so great. I took for granted how close geographically we were, because I do very much miss pizza Fridays! We went back to Williamsburg to hit the outlets, since Preston's foot has grown again. Of course that meant FIVE pairs of new shoes. (Emily-the Stride Rite outlet is truly amazing)! One thing my aunt loves about Preston is his ability to stand up without bending his knees. Preston's double jointedness is one added bonus of achon. His superior upper body strength is uncanny for a kid not even three. So here are a few Preston shots for example:

Perhaps a gold medal on the rings is in his future???

And he can even sit wider-he just was so cooperative for picture taking :-)

And here is just a great shot of the dude before we went out to Glory Days for dinner the other night when everyone arrived. (And looking handsome in the shirt given to him by Jolie)!

We are so super excited for Aunt Tinka's arrival this weekend!!!!!

For Pariser

Because Rob has been asking for pumpkin shots since April, I figure I'd better put up the shots from the pumpkin farm this weekend. We went to the Chesterfield Berry Farm- a real farm. Some of the pumpkins were picked, others were still on vines. Now you see on Long Island, pumpkins are grown elsewhere, shipped to a nursery, the nursery charges $15 for admission per person, then you can walk through the grass and pick a pumpkin. (Then spend $10 for the pumpkin, $12, if you want it painted and then $25 for a pie, the hay ride lacks hay and the petting zoo smells like a toilet house). We took a tractor hay ride to the field and picked our pumpkin. Then we went to the petting zoo, the children's haunted house and Preston rode on the barrel train ride. We topped off the day baking Halloween cupcakes! (Which I ended up taking to work because what are my mother and I going to do with 24 cupcakes-exactly---that's why they went to work)!

He was very determined to get the big pumpkin....we told him Aunt Tinka will lift it when she comes next week. So Katie-here is your warning-you have to pick up a 75 pound pumpkin. Sorry-otherwise you will no longer be the favorite aunt. Oh and it's 59 cents a pound-glad we got that established.... (just kidding).

Preston wanted to be in the caboose. If you look closely you can see his little hat.