Preston's 2nd Birthday at the Zoo

We went to the zoo for Preston's birthday, and I made a Blue's Clues cake!

Preston at Mark and Leanne's Wedding

Preston was a very cute page boy :)

Preston and Amber looking cute!

preston_space invaders 1 small.jpg, originally uploaded by amysinger.

So cute in fact that they made it to the Honorable Mentions in the Knitty competition. Yay!

Preston's Space Invader Jersey gets another special mention!

preston_space invaders 3 small.jpg, originally uploaded by amysinger.

Yay! Well I didn't make it to the winning 12 photos for the calender, but it's very cool that 2 of my 3 entries made it to the Honorable Mention section!

Preston counts and calls the cat

Preston can count to 10! He has counted 1,2,3 for a while, and he hasn't quite got 4,5 but he knows 6,7,8,9,10.

The other day we were at Nana's and he fed the cat (read: tips biscuits everywhere). He had scared away the cat in his excitement, so Nana says "Preston, lets call puss puss." Preston responds by running away and she says "Come back, we're going to call puss puss". He was actually running to the phone, which he picks up to his ear and yells "pusspuss!!". So he 'called' the cat... so funny how his logic works!

Here are some recent pictures:

What can Mr Mischief do now?

Preston is such a mischief boy - he even does the shifty eyes action when he wants to do something sneaky. He has some amazing planning skills - he thinks two or three steps ahead so he can get the item he wants. He also has a good imagination and talks to his bears and other toys all the time and gets them to do things (like share his food, or jump on the couch, or 'fly' off tall objects....). His communication gets better every day - he copies words or phrases much more correctly, and is he says a word to us that we don't understand, he will eventually try another method to describe it, like tell us that it is in a blue bowl for example, and then we can figure it out. He's got the hang of intonation, so he says 'Muu-mmyy-yy?' with a sort of 'whyy-yyy?' feel to it, or 'Mama where are you?' with either a cheeky 'i want to play' inflection, or a 'wake up!' urgency if he's bored in his cot and I haven't woken up yet.

He's also figured out knock-knock jokes somehow! So the other day we came home and i said to knock on the door. Preston says 'knock knock, who's there, ME!' Totally cracked me up! He also tells knock knock jokes to his toys which is hilarious.

Preston is quite the tech-savvy toddler. Dan thought his iPhone would be safe in locked mode, but its intuitive touch screen is so simple to Preston to figure out, so he knows to swipe to unlock, then click on the photo gallery, then swipe through all the family photos - turning the screen for a better view where necessary. He can also operate the tv and xbox - the other day he wanted to watch his Mr Men DVD, so ejected the current dvd, put in Mr Men, closed it, found the remote, turned on the tv, chose the story he wanted to watch and pressed play - then sat on the couch with his bears. Some of this might have been fluke, but he knows what he's meant to do which is quite amazing!

Preston is really cute with other kids, particularly his faithful friends, Amber, Manea and Carmen. Amber is totally his best friend and he talks about her when they haven't seen each other in a while. At daycare, the kids each have a photo book with what they've been doing, and Preston and Amber have a special page titled 'Best Friends' and there are photos of them cuddling and the two of them playing without the other kids. They both light up so much when they see each other!

It's nearly time for birthday number 2... I can hardly believe it. I'm knitting Preston a big toy dinosaur (he loves dinosaurs) but I doubt I'll get it done in time - might have to be for another time instead.

What Preston's up to nowadays

Belinda's on holiday, so I thought I'd give a bit of a status update on Preston. He's definitely a chatterbox now. He can talk for hours on end, mostly gibberish to me, but he seems to know what he's talking about. If I listen for a while I can figure out what he wants.

He can climb now too - certainly able to get up to chair height, and almost to bed height. Its kinda scary. Even worse is that he can now open doors. I have zero luck trapping him in any place alone - so he pretty much gets constant attention.

Food -wise, he's totally addicted to tomatoes, grapes, and cheese. He'll eat everything though, including some palak paneer last night and chickpeas, celery and lettuce from the night before's salad.

He also loves being outside, and can fully sort all of his plastic shapes into the shape-ball. Pretty cool, since I haven't given it to him for a few months - he just picked it up and did it!

Preston playing with bubbles

Brownie Fundraiser: Cool pens and jewellery boxes!

Our Brownie group is fundraising for Mutual Aid which is a Guides NZ fund for supporting Brownies & Guides in poorer countries. This year, the Mutual Aid Fund is going towards building a safe and fun campsite facility for girls in Fiji to enjoy.

We have made some items to sell as our form of fundraising, so you get something nice for your donation. We've made cool scoubie pens for only $2 and also some very cute jewellery boxes for only $5. Check them out in my zStore in the Brownies section.

Peekaboo!

Preston and Belinda

Preston and Dan

There's a mischief boy on the loose!

Found you daddy!

mmmm....grapes

Boy on a mission!

More of my cool space invaders knitting

Who's cool?

On the slide with daddy

At the playground - what a cute boy!

Thumbs up!

Preston shows his camera sign

Preston Update

Oops - it's been a month since I last wrote! Preston and Amber are still best buddies. Last weekend we fed the ducks in the domain and P & A ran around chasing each other and squealing with laughter. Then that night both our families went out for dinner together and P & A sat next to each other at the table in their highchairs, and they spent the evening again squealing with laughter and playing with each other (playing with Preston's bear, feeding each other, stealing their food, and generally being silly), and making us and people at neighbouring tables laugh too. They are so funny together!

We are going to the zoo for the first time this weekend, so hopefully Preston enjoys that. It is a Brownie outing, and they love it when he joins in with us.

Preston's vocabulary is growing every day - he really tries to copy things we say and asks for 'labels' for items he doesn't know. We have taught him 'please' and 'thank-you' but he doesn't often say them on demand - he saves them for when he REALLY wants something, and he says 'Mama, mor pease'.

He is very climby and gets up on the couch easily (and today managed to climb out of his highchair and onto the table, naughty boy), and runs around very fast. He is also very affectionate and loves hugs and kisses with us, although his poor bears are the main target for extreme kissing...

We love Preston and he is so much fun at the moment! He is a real little boy now, no longer a baby, and he always has such a mischievous look on his face...usually because he's plotting something.

No plans for number 2 yet, so don't ask :)

Preston and Amber - best buddies!

A chip off the old block...

Here is Preston copying Dan playing his DS. He LOVES it - he knows how to open it, turn it on, pull out the stylus and carefully tap the screen to make the game start. And when he gets bored he pokes the stylus back in its hole. So funny!

more pictures

Here are some more pictures of Preston. He has just started daycare last week - he goes on Fridays - and it's a bit strange for both of us! It's good for him to play with other kids, and it's good for me to have a day to myself. Today is the second time he's gone, and although he had a great time last week, this morning he'd figured out that I was leaving so he got a bit upset. He'll get used to it and I'm sure he has fun.

I've finished his super-cute Space Invaders jersey this week so i'll get some photos over the weekend - check my knitting blog for more.

Belinda and Preston at Mt Manganui

Sorry about the wind on this! But its pretty funny

Preston's lion suit

I bought Preston some new pyjamas yesterday - a full body lined polarfleece lion suit! He needs warm jamies since he refuses to be tucked in.

Brownies

We just had the most fun Brownies session today so I thought I'd write about it. We're working on our Technofunk badge (technology stuff) so where better to visit than our house, the place of tech. So 15 Brownies who had been waiting for this day to come for weeks piled into our place, with Dan and my assistant leader Fiona helping out. I set up 6 different techie activities around the house, including internet, digital camera, using a photocopier and best of all, Dance Dance Revolution on the Playstation and Wii Bowling!

I don't think there has ever been so much excited noise in our house ever. They had the most amazing time playing with everything, and LOVED Preston being here too. He loved all the attention and showed them all how to use the camera and games - the Brownies were a bit concerned he was playing with the camera but I explained he knew what to do because he has already earned his Technofunk badge :) (Now I'll have to get him a mini Brownie sash!)

Next week we are going to the Stardome Observatory for our end of term treat and to complete the badge, and I'll hand out their badges at the end of the evening under a planet or something suitably interesting. Brownies is so fun!

Teddy Bears Picnic

Today while Preston was asleep I set up a teddy bears picnic in the lounge. I carefully stole his bears from his bed and and other bears and toys i could find and set them up in a circle on a sheet. Then I made him a picnic lunch and packed it into a little basket and put it in the middle of the circle.

When I heard he was awake, I went into his room and he was so confused - he was saying 'bears bears' and looking everywhere in the cot, over the edges, on the floor - there were none! So I sang the We're going on a Bear Hunt' song and we made our way downstairs to the lounge and you should have seen his delight when he saw all his bears waiting for him with a picnic! It was so cute.

The many faces of Preston Too

Well to be fair he is eating in two of these, but he does look quite different normally as well, depending on his mood.

Girl Guide Biscuit product shot

Yes, Preston has learnt the word 'biscuit' and likes to stack and restack all the piles of biscuits I have to sell. (let me know if you want any!)

Just relaxing...

Preston can climb onto the couch by himself now so it's really nice to just hang out. He also loves huts (either pretend ones made by draping a blanket between two couches, or his car hut), so here he is just taking some time out texting his buddies.

Preston's new pyjamas

Preston has out grown all his bodysuit style pyjamas and has been upgraded to big boy styles! Check them out.

Also, he LOVES his bears and gives them big hugs all the time. Here he is giving a cute bear hug to Pooh Bear.

Blendy Knits

Well I'm rather addicted to knitting and crochet and since I've made so many things (mostly baby clothes and toys), I've put them together in a special blog. I still have more pictures to add, but there are about 2 or 3 pages of projects I've done for you to see so far. www.blendyknits.blogspot.com

Preston's Drawing

Colouring is the best fun! Note the concentration. The trick is though, you have to hold ALL the pencils in the other hand, so preparing to draw can take quite some time as there is always one pencil that doesn't quite fit by the time the other 5 are already in there....

Drawing / Scribbling

Over the last couple of weeks, Preston has taken a big interest in drawing. He is always asking us for pens and paper and will carry his paper over to a table to draw on it.

His method of asking for things follows the following steps. If a step fails, he tries the next one:
1. signing and words
2. pointing and grunting
3. pointing and tantrum
4. arms up to say 'please pick me up' followed by step #3 if you pick him up.

One interesting thing I noticed yesterday when he was writing was his preference for his Right hand. I tried giving him his pencil to either hand, and if it went into his left hand, he'd pass it to his right before he did any drawing.

Preston is a clever clogs

Preston is getting so clever! He tries to communicate all the time and is saying more and more sounds and talks away to himself and tells us big stories. He is also using a lot more baby signs as well which is really impressive to see, especially when he asks for something specific eg grapes or milk and we say 'ok, here it is' and he is instantly satisfied. We have had hardly any tantrums lately because we know what he needs!

Petey and Karon came to stay last night so they got to see our mischief boy in action and I think they were pretty amazed by Preston's communication.

However, we have discovered one thing we weren't expecting - Preston has made up his own sign for something, but we don't know what it means!!!! So the only tantrum we have had is when he got so frustrated that I wouldn't give him what he wanted, but I was trying - I gave him about 10 options of things that were in his line of sight! Nevermind, we will eventually get it I'm sure. I'll just have to wait til he next has whatever object it is and does the sign for it.

Preston is also getting clever with phones. He LOVES it when people call up and want to talk to him - he listens in delight to peoples voices. So far he can only tell my voice and Dan's voice over the phone. I've been at work almost every day the last 2 weeks and the other day Preston was getting bored of daddy so gave Dan the phone and said 'MAMA!' as if to say 'call up mama please!' And whenever the phone rings, he puts his hand to his ear as though he is answering it.

Remember how I said I had taught him to say Mmm mmm MMMM? Well he says it whenever he has delicious food, and the last few times i've been to the supermarket he goes crazy in the fruit and vege section and wont shut up going MMMM MMMM MMMM!! at all the yummy things he likes to eat. Of course, everyone else in the supermarket just stares weirdly at us....

Preston's tumbling fun

Every week I get a development email from some place I subscribed to when I was pregnant, and it has interesting tips in it for growing kids. This week it suggested advancing early walkers like Preston with balancing activities such as getting them to climb up on something and then fall onto piles of cushions. This sounded like fun!

Preston has just in the last week figured out how to climb on top of his toy box (and today he figured out how to climb onto the couch, so now all our clever Preston-trapping of the lounge needs re-cleverising), so i got out all the cushions and made a big soft area around it. He climbs up and I hold up my fingers saying 1 - 2 - 3! and then he grabs my hands and we do a controlled but fun fall onto the cushions. He LOVES this game! He especially loves the counting, and by the time my fingers are about to make 3, he can barely contain himself with excitement!

He is so cute - if we haven't been paying him enough attention (because we are doing something else) he climbs up onto his toybox and tries to count 1 and he has both hands with 1 finger
up and he tells us he is ready for the tumbling game. What a clever boy!

Remember The Count from Sesame Street? When he counts, he says "1! Ah, ah, ah... 2! Ah, ah, ah..." and so on. We started saying it and now Preston copies! He goes around saying 'Ah ah ah' when he wants to be funny, especially after we have said a number. And when he is eating something yummy he has copied me saying "Mmmm mmm MMMM!" it's so hilarious.

Preston is being very funny and makes us laugh all day long at the moment!

Preston Update

HI, I know it's been ages since I last posted, and I must add more pictures. Here is a photo Melanie took on our girls weekend at Ruakaka.

Preston is 14 months old today, and what a running around mischief maker he is! He loves exploring everything, especially outside, and he's just figured out how to climb up on things (yikes!).

He still does a few baby signs like milk, hat, grapes and a few more, and picks up new ones I teach him really fast, and his vocab is increasing too. He tries really hard to say words and copies us as best he can. Mastered words (well, pretty clear anyway) include Mama, Dada, puss puss, bear, peas, apple (although i think this is his word for fruit), Amber, woof, and he has a pretty good go at saying cheese, biscuit, Preston but they are not quite mastered yet.

He's also mastered all our remotes for the tv/stereo/dvd/xbox/nintendo and turns it on and finds what he wants to watch!

There are finally some teeth - the ones he sprouted over New Year are now fully grown so he has 2 on the bottom and two on the top with another one on the top just sprouted in the last few days. And his hair is starting to thicken out so now he looks like a real little boy.

We still take him to swimming lessons and he loves it, and we go to the Parnell pools during the week on hot days. splashing around is so much fun!

we have heaps of pics to add to flickr so hopefully we'll get onto that soon.

Preston: January 2007

Oops, we've been a bit slack about the posts, so here are some photos of Preston over the last few weeks.