We went to a wedding in the weekend, so here we are all dressed up. It was extremely loud so our little guy didn't go to sleep until we got home. Instead we spent the night consoling him - while he spewed up about 20 times all over me. You can't have special clothes when you have a baby - you just have to cope with the fact that everything gets covered in milk (both fresh and digested). 

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Just so you don't think Preston is 100% cute all the time, here is a picture of his alter ego... (ok, he's still cute, but just in a different kind of way!) 

I can grab my feet! This is Preston's latest thing - he sticks his feet in the air and plays with them. He can just about get his foot to his mouth too. Now when he wakes up, instead of screaming because he's lonely, he now plays happily with his feet for quite a while . 

Look - I can roll onto my tummy!  

HEHEHHEHE I am so cheeky!! 

just a quick note...

Thought I'd better clear something up as a few people are concerned about my baby clothes selling enterprise. I will obviously not be selling gifts you've given us, as they are special and sentimental! I'm only selling things I have bought myself and the bulk lots I've been buying that I have no emotional attachment to. All the special things people have so generously given us will be kept for the next little one!! :)

It's been a year since I started this blog

If you want to read the history of Preston, just click on the April 2005 Archives :) Seems funny all that was a year ago now. Guess we'd better start planning the next one!!

Preston has a kitty snuggle sack

Well I made our kitty eat heaps and heaps of yukky whiskas biscuits so she could earn a cute kitty snuggle sack. It arrived this morning, and she took one look at it and decided the cardboard box it came in was a much better place to sleep. SIGH.... so guess who fits in it???

My boys... 

It's Uncle Anda! 

He's about the right height to interact with our cat, but she is really scared of him. Although, she's getting more tolerant and comes over to sniff him occasionally (only if he is really still). 

Cute little shoes....and more pirate clothes! 

He loves playing with his hands - I think this has helped him figure out how to roll over successfully because he can hold them out of the way of his body. 

Preston at 3� months 

Anyone can leave comments

I've just figured out how to let anyone leave a comment on any post if you want. Just click Comments and then you can leave a message.

Preston Update

Oops - we've been having so much fun that I've forgotten to blog what we've been doing!

Preston has mastered the art of rolling over, both from tummy to back, and back to tummy, so he spends most of his playtime rolling around the place. He thinks he is SOOO clever when he rolls, and shrieks with delight and his face absolutely beams. What a cutey! Except now we are entering new territory and have to keep things out of the way.

He has also pretty much mastered picking things up and holding onto them extremely tightly (with a whole hand grab). He holds his toys and works out the best position for ultimate slobbering, and grabs other interesting things such as my face and my poor boobs. And OW, what sharp fingernails! So I generally have scratches on my face and chest most of the time now. We have some baby nail clippers, but they grow so fast I have to clip them every couple of days.

Our baby group gets along so well that last weekend we went away to Mangawhai for the weekend! There were 12 parents and 6 babies, and we had a great time. The weather was awful (there was a cyclone apparently), but it didn't matter - we all hung out and played with all the babies and relaxed. The babies are now aware of each other and they chatter away to one another in their baby talk and they seem so interested in what they say, I'm sure they understand it! Some of it was getting quite animated and loud and I think they were having 'My mummy is better than your mummy' battles, heheh.

In a month we are starting baby swimming lessons too :) Since there were so many in our group that want to do it, the swimming school has made a special class just for us. It is so great that all our babies are growing up together and see each other so often (Monday for a walk, Wednesday for cake at a cafe in the sun, and Friday for our official coffee group session at someones house).

And I have started a new online-trading venture in something I hadn't really considered before, but it is so fun :) I'm buying and selling designer baby clothes! Baby fashion is so cute and they grow out of things so quickly that any second hand items are virtually new anyway. I am buying new and hardly used designer clothes from clearance shops and from mothers in the US and UK (winter is ending over there so the clearance places are great), and then reselling the things Preston doesn't want on Trademe and Zillion. I'm getting all kinds of brands, like Gap, Next, Paul Frank, Pumpkin Patch, Tommy Hilfiger etc. So if you ever need anything, just let me know....

I might do a bit of a fashion photo shoot and dress Preston up in some of his new things and post them here :)

He is starting to look a bit different again - his face has filled out and is a bit chubbier, and he is lots bigger too. We went to Plunket nearly two weeks ago and he had put on 610g since the last visit which I thought was great - by now he probably weighs 6kg. And his height was 62cm. He is now on the cusp of a new clothing size (which I think may have been the trigger for my new buying/selling addiction), so some things are too small and others are too big, so we just have a limited selection of fitting items for the next week or two until he grows some more.

That's probably enough I guess. I'll add some pictures soon. My computer died and I got a new one and still have to install all the programs.

YIPPEEE!! Life is great! 

Preston is 3 months old!

Wow, I can hardly believe it. It seems to have gone so fast and I can barely remember what it was like to have no baby to love so much.

Preston is at a really fun age now - he is really interactive and we have such a great time playing all sorts of games. He responds to just about everything really, and loves being sung to, looking at himself in the mirror (he laughs at himself whenever he sees his reflection!), lying on my tummy while i do stomach crunches (well, very small ones), and of course being carried around so he can see what's going on.

He is getting pretty good at lying on his tummy for longer now, and just the other day he rolled over! He is getting a tiny bit more mobile so we have to watch out I think. He can kind of push himself around in a circle - the other day I went to get him out of his cot and he was in the opposite direction!

He loves his toys and can grab them and suck on them. I think his teeth might be thinking about coming through soon which might explain the chewing on his toys and blankets. I can see the two bottom teeth under the gum so it might not be too far away. Today I let him chew on my knuckle, and wow, what strength he has in those jaws! He dribbles a lot too which is a teething sign. My hair and clothes are pretty much always crusty from dribble and spew. Mmmmm. Lucky Dan still loves me because I don't think I'm particularly appealing in this motherly state!

Preston seems to have grown so much in the last couple of weeks as well, so I'm looking forward to having his measurements taken at our plunket appointment on Tuesday.

Tickle me Preston

We're absolutely buzzed at the moment, Preston seems to be developing really really quickly. Over the last few days he's been "talking" in baby language (as opposed to only crying and screaming). He'll happily lie on the floor and chat to himself for 15 minutes or so!

He's also grabbing and holding a teddy-bear rattle now, and just today has started shaking it around to rattle it. Belinda tells me that this is behaviour expected of a baby by the age of 4 or 5 months, so at 2.5 months I think he's doing really well!

Anyway, here's a special treat for you guys... Belinda recorded a sound byte of Preston talking, thanks to her mobile phone:

Preston at 11 weeks - look, he can hold himself up now for quite a while and his head control is really good. Anyone who has held him will know how strong he is, so he will be crawling in no time (yikes!) 

Development Update

Yay, I managed to make myself a contributor to this blog.

Well, Preston is now picking stuff up. His hand-eye co-ordination is definitely improving, he has started to pick up his blankets when lying in bed, and is able to put it into his mouth now. Didn't take long huh!

Skills update

Last week Preston showed signs of being able to reach out for things, so I spent a few days trying to train him to touch my nose. After a few days he got the hang of it and I was rewarded with two slobbery hands figuring out my face! (He has discovered his hands and will lie quietly for AGES watching his hands or eating them).

So now we have been trying to get him to hold toys and it is working - he has a couple of soft toys that he can grab and suck on (mmmm) and he looks so adorable when he's holding or cuddling them.

He talks a lot more too - not words of course, but lots of baby noises that are obviously communication - we copy them back to him and get lots of giggles in return. Preston is so fun to play with!

Do you like Preston's little pirate shirt? It's pretty cool :) Pumpkin Patch did a pirate series of clothes and I've got a few of them - so cute!! 

Happy family :) Preston is 10 weeks old and we spent the weekend with Dad and Karon up at Ruakaka. He was on his best behaviour and was cute all day and slept inbetween the cuteness. (of course the next few days after we came home were rather restless). Preston was stolen by the grandparents and shown off around the neighbourhood :) 

Preston is big and strong!

Just went to Plunket today to get Preston weighed and measured. He is big now! He weighs 5kg (at birth was about 3.75kg), and is 60cm long (at birth was 52cm).

Preston has officially outgrown his newborn sized clothes. I am going to put them all away now. The last few days I've been doing up just one dome or whatever fits and using them as pyjamas, but they really don't fit so now we are well into the 000 size (0-3 months).

We have been having a lovely time with him lately - he is so well behaved (generally) and has no problems - we are very lucky!

Who's a proud daddy? 

almost about to cry, but still so cute! 

Here is me and my darling - Preston is 9 weeks old now. 

How cool is Preston going to be in these! He was given them today and I dressed him up in his cargo pants and hoody with the shoes and he looks like a little skater dude :) They are a bit big at the moment - probably a month or so away from being his everyday shoes! 

Preston at 8 weeks. His hair has gradually fallen out and regrown. 

Preston in his cute Whale outfit. I think he's saying: "Yes I know I'm cute, but stop looking at me, I'm on a break" 

We are a happy family

We've got into some good routines and everything is going well. Preston has been putting on weight - I think I was unnecessarily worried by the Plunket lady. She came again and everytime she took a measurement would say "Hmmm, ok" and I would say "what - is something wrong?" and she would reply "um, ..... no .... everything's fine" which didn't leave me feeling too confident. And she wrote all these things in my plunket book that she was potentially concerned about. Then when I went to Preston's baby checkup at the doctors, they wondered why she had worried me when he is perfectly healthy, strong, supercute and everything. So it was all a waste of worrying about nothing.

He has grown 5cm in length since he was born, and his head circumference has increased by 3 or 4 cm, so he has grown out of his newborn clothes and hats (i had been thinking "what a silly hat - it doesn't even stay on" and then i tried another hat and of course the problem was that his head was far too big for it!). So now we are into the 0-3 month sized clothes and we were very lucky and had lot of presents from people - Preston has a giant wardrobe! I'm having fun dressing him in all his cute gears and I will take lots of photos of him for his fashion collection. I went to the Pumpkin Patch sale the other day and bought him some cool stuff, including a little hoody :) Just as well, since last night we decided to go for a picnic at Bastion Point for dinner and it was a bit chilly. He looked so adorable all bundled up in his hoody!

Nothing much else really to report - he is very good at smiling and being happy now - I remember for the first number of weeks I felt like I hadn't 100% bonded with him because I wasn't getting any feedback from him. But now we are totally in love with each other and he grins and chats away to us in baby language. He can make quite a few sounds and if you repeat them back to him it must be like communication he knows because then he gets really talkative!

He will be 2 months old on Friday! WOW!

Our nationwide Preston Tour

We took Preston on a big adventure a couple of weeks ago. This was our plan: Go to Dunedin for Anna's wedding, Go to Christchurch to show off Preston to my grandparents, Go to Napier to stay with Dan's parents, come home again.

Taking a new baby on a series of plane trips was a slightly daunting prospect, but actually Preston was fine. I just fed him so that the sucking action cleared his ears at takeoff and landing, and he slept most of the time. So it was no big deal! Of course we had a huge amount of luggage, as in addition to normal suitcases we had his big stroller and carseat.

We flew down to Dunedin with Melanie and Jenny which was fun and then stayed in a motel with them and Carrie, Mel A and Meredith, so it was like old times again! (If only Kathy was there too). I hadn't been there before so it was nice to finally see what everyone talks about. We enjoyed the unusual Dunedin business concept - we were overcharged at a number of places, so I decided their clever idea was to overcharge everyone since the percentage of people like me who notice would be small enough to still allow them to make a huge profit :) Although that theory was blown on the last day when Dan was completely undercharged.

Anna's wedding was just lovely and the weather was scorching! Poor Preston was beside himself with the heat and didn't sleep for the entire day, so you can imagine how much of a grouchy baby we had by the reception time. Dan was an excellent husband and daddy and took good care of Preston at the ceremony and reception so that I could enjoy the wedding with my friends.

Our next stop was Christchurch to visit my grandparents, but unfortunately I found out when I was in Dunedin that my Grandma had died suddenly :( So both my grandmothers died just before meeting Preston. We continued on to Napier but I only stayed for a day and then returned to Christchurch for Grandma's funeral. It was really lovely and Preston was even included in part of the service. He was a big hit with all of Grandma's friends wanting to meet him since they had heard so much from her. I was getting a little nervous though with him on the ground in his carseat and all these little old ladies peering in at him with their rattling cups of tea....

We flew home after that and pretty much crashed. It had been a big adventure - a wedding, a funeral, 3 cities and 6 plane trips. All with a cute little Preston!

Preston at one month old! 

Preston update

I’ve had a bit of a weird few days – the plunket lady came over and was freaked out by an unusual looking rash Preston had (everyone at coffee group said it was just a hormone rash their babies had too). But she ‘didn’t feel it was her place to advise me what to do’ so that was unhelpful. In the end I mixed some acidophilus powder with some breastmilk and it was all gone by the morning (otherwise I was off to the doctor).

Preston also lost weight this week, which she was also worried about, but couldn’t tell me what to do about it either. Sigh. So she left me feeling all worried that I was doing things wrong – the only thing she told me was to go to the plunket drop in day on Wednesday and get him weighed again to see if he has gained anything this week. I’ve been feeding like crazy hoping to get him meeting their growth and development chart…not that it probably matters anyway since surely it is just a guide. He seems totally fine which is the main thing, so hopefully its just a small blip and I’ve been worried for nothing.

Other than that, Preston now smiles and occasionally giggles at us which is really cute :) He is really interested in studying faces and spends a long time just looking at us.

This week we are off to Dunedin, Christchurch and Napier to show him off around the country, so wish us luck for our long flights with a 6 week old baby....

Photo Gallery

I just sent off a whole lot of cute Preston photos to be printed and the online place (www.frogprints.co.nz) kindly offer a free online photo gallery so I thought I would post it here for anyone that wants to see more pictures (click to enlarge the pictures). http://www.frogprints.co.nz//share/index.cfm?sharekey=ahkiqoinhp I think you can even buy any of them if you want!

Here is our 4 week old cutie! He has started to become more fascinated by his toys and stares at them for ages. 

Preston likes to snooze in the beanbag. And what groovy pants! 

I got all adventurous and made this wedding cake for a friend of Dan's. It's so pretty!!