Preston recently had his 12 (and 16) month doctors appointment. It went OK. Nothing major to report and certainly no talk of Preston's boy parts this time. He had 7 shots. Apparently they don't combine them anymore. But lucky for him he'll never have to experience the chicken pox like the rest of us. Preston now weighs in at 23 pounds and is 32 1/2 inches tall. He's above average height, below average weight and surprisingly muscular or in other words "movie star" stature according to the doc. Preston's getting so big and changing so fast.
Here's the Top New Things about Preston-
1. He talks! He can say quite a few words now. The major ones are mommy, daddy, go, baby, no, bottle, milk, more, down and hot. He loves to say "hi!" to everyone and even does the cutest little wave.
2. He reigns in the affectionate category. He give the most awesome hugs and kisses. When he hugs he really clings on tight and squeezes. And he kisses all the time! My two favorite of his moves are the "pull me close kiss" and the "surprise kiss". He always has the sweetest smile afterwards too. That may be my ultimate favorite.
3. He's sneaky. At 16 months he's already figured out how to escape his crib. He always seems to know the when and how of getting into trouble. His latest stunt is to get into the bathroom, climb up on the counter and just sit there and chew on his toothbrush.
4. He needs constant attention... seriously. When Evelyn was his age she would be fine playing by herself for hours. But NOT Preston. Every few minutes he runs back to me for attention. He insists on knowing where I am at all times and he totally freaks out when he can't find me.
5. He loves his big sister. She is great to him and sets such a good example for him. He constantly follows her around and copies everything she does. Like Evelyn, he's compassionate and seems to always recognize when others are sad or hurt. He always gives Evelyn a kiss when she gets hurt.
6. He's super smart. He amazes me everyday. Lately I've been giving him simple commands like "sit in you chair", "give daddy a kiss", and "bring me a diaper", and he always listens and does what I ask. If there's something he wants he manages to tell me what he wants without saying it. He'll bring me his bottle to tell me he's thirsty and when I open the fridge he points at what he wants. I've just started teaching him body parts. He'll now point to his nose when I ask.
He is such a cute kid and I love him with all my heart. That's not new but it is definitely true.
My mom has always made THE BEST pecan pie. There is seriously no substitute. This trip up there I finally remembered to get her recipe and thought I'd post it both for YOUR benefit and also for my own personal reference.
Halloween this year was, in a word... survivable! Let's just say I was a bit of an overachiever that day but all in all we did good. I learned a few 
I heard about it last year but wasn't able to go for whatever reason so this year I totally jumped at the chance to take the kids. Andy was totally sweet and stopped by the theater early to get us tickets. I got the kids all ready and in their costumes and we headed out. Little did I know that in fact it wasn't the Pooh movie but instead it was "
Yeah... let's just say I learned my lesson. We didn't even get a chance to sit down before the movie got scary. I had the kids sit down anyway... dumb. And I kept my eye on Evelyn to see how she would take it. Minutes later that well known scary music rings up and I put my arm around her to make sure she's alright and she's shaking, not kidding. Then on the screen out creeps this scary hand shadow and grabs the kid and Evelyn jumped so bad. I looked down at her and she looked like she was almost in tears. I asked her if she wanted to stay and watch or go home and she very quietly told me "I wanna go home". It was so sad. She totally gets it from me. I hate scary movies! 
Every once in a blue moon (usually Halloween) Andy can talk me into watching one but I almost always regret it for weeks after. Poor Evelyn, she wouldn't sleep in her bed that night, probably afraid some giant hand would reach up and grab her, and it took several nights and some serious talking to convince her there were no monsters. Anyway, luckily we were sitting in the far back, close to the door, so 10 minutes into the movie we snuck out and went shopping for Halloween bargains. Which brings me to my next lesson learned; 
Yeah, so after spending hours and dragging the kids into 6 different store I didn't find anything. Most of the stores didn't have anything and what few did have stuff it was stuff that was still on the shelf for a reason AND usually it was only like 30% off. RIP OFF! So anyway, no luck. 
let's just say procrastination got the best of us. Andy got off work later than expected and we planned to meet up at the Banducci Farms Pumpkin Patch and that's when I learned lesson #3; 
