Weight: 25.2 lbs
Height: 30.25 inches

This past month, Preston learned to take assisted steps, push himself to sitting, wave, say “Hi”, crawl, pull himself up on furniture, walk along furniture, and stand, unassisted, for up to 45 seconds. When we were visiting a friend on Monday, he had pulled himself to standing by her couch and was reaching for her coffee table, like he wanted to walk there but he didn’t quite have the courage yet.

Preston is so much happier now that he is able to get where he wants on his own. He follows his sisters around and tries to push open their doors if they’re closed. He is getting into things now and I am starting to discipline him already. He doesn’t get a time out or anything (yet), but I say no and take him out of the situation. Sometimes over and over AND OVER. His favorite thing is electrical cords and, well, if I let him do whatever he wanted he’d have electrocuted himself by now.

(This reminds me of when Kaylie and I were living in Caronport, SK and she took my keys and stuck them in an electrical socket. Sparks flew and she started yelling, FIRE! FIRE!)

He’s a lot more into food now than he used to be. He now wants to eat everything all by himself. He’ll take being spoon-fed, but he’s much happier to have a tray full of goodies for him to eat as he wants. He is still nursing, and as of now has nursed a month longer than Kaylie did, and two months longer than Liliana did. I thank my delay in returning to work for this.

This past week, Preston has been vomiting often at night. I am on my fourth day of eating a dairy-free diet to see if this helps him, because it’s the only thing I can think of and I don’t know what else to do. Since he so rarely spit up when he was littler, I’m not used to this whole the-food-comes-back-up thing. It sure creates a lot of laundry! And I think I need rubber sheets. I have an appointment for him tomorrow with his doctor for both his nine-month checkup and to see if he has any idea why Preston’s feedings are coming back up.

Mr. Preston loves his sisters immensely. Nobody can get him to smile as quickly or laugh as hard as they can. He follows them around and is happiest when they are paying attention to him. He also loves going for walks with his Big Papi and Miss Sue and usually falls asleep within a couple minutes. (I’m going for a walk with him right now, hoping for the same result. Dude can get grouchy!) (Edited to add: it worked.)

Am I stating the obvious when I say that I’m enjoying this little boy so much more at nine months out than I was at nine months in?

January
Noah took his first (and only) ride in the back of a cop car. I was in the throes of antepartum depression and recovering from a major breakdown in December. I was 2/3 of the way through my pregnancy with Preston. It was bitterly cold here in Saskatchewan.

February
I got paranoid and headed to the hospital to make sure “Three” was still alive. (He was/is.) I longed for my horrid pregnancy nightmares to be over. I chaperoned for the first time Kaylie’s school’s Valentine’s Day dance and cursed a certain song that brought back a certain memory that made me leave the dance in tears. It was bitterly cold here in Saskatchewan.

March
Kaylie and I got over 20 inches cut off our hair. It was bitterly cold here in Saskatchewan. Liliana learned a bit about obstetrics much to Noah’s dismay. My estimated due date came and went.

April
Noah changed a tire for the first time. We had a son! We gained a nephew! Liliana turned four!

May
I turned 28. I had my first gallbladder attack (although at that time they told me it was gastroesophageal reflux disease or GERD). Erica and Meg and my parents came to visit and meet Preston. We went pottery painting for the first time. I had my first surgery of the year and had a lot of anxiety about leaving Preston.

June
I wrote a post that made Noah cry. I lost my license for a month. I continued to have gallbladder attacks and was still told that it was just GERD. Preston, Liliana, and I went to Regina with Noah for a work thing. After paying many many dollars to the Saskatchewan government, I got my license back.

July
I took my first ambulance ride, was finally properly diagnosed with gallstones, and was told I’d have to have a cholecystectomy. Kaylie went to camp. I got locked in a parking lot. Cousins from BC came to visit.

We spent the better part of a week at a friend‘s cabin. Tali came to meet Preston. My Opa passed away. Preston, Kaylie, and I made the trip to BC for my Opa’s funeral and I got to see my family. Noah turned 28. Kaylie turned 10.

August
I ate pita chips nearly every day (this month, the month before, and many months after). Kaylie and I started running together. Our van was stolen (and recovered). I dyed my hair black and cut myself bangs. I had my second surgery of the year. We spent a lot of time at the splash park. Kaylie started Grade 5 and Liliana checked out pre-Kindergarten.

September
Liliana officially started pre-Kindergarten. We spent a weekend in Regina and Kaylie ran her second Queen City Marathon Mini 3k Marathon. Preston watched his first football game. The girls started ballet and gymnastics. There were many, many leaves which were great for jumping in.

October
We went to Manitoba for Thanksgiving. Preston turned six months old. The girls started swimming lessons. We dedicated Preston to the Lord in front of our church.

November
My friend Laurie went to be with the Lord. Kaylie, Preston, and I went to Regina for Laurie’s funeral. I wrote a life list. I had my third surgery of the year, finally having my gallbladder removed. I had a total weight loss of 25 lbs during my wait for the aforementioned surgery. Noah and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary, our best yet. Preston had surgery to correct a minor birth defect. I got a paid writing gig. Liliana had a rough week. I got a horrid stomach bug.

December
I kind of participated in a Reverb Broads blogging project. We decorated up a storm. Preston pulled the Christmas tree down on himself. We spent Christmas here in Saskatoon. Preston started crawling. I finally got my bedroom clean. Weather-wise, we had the best, most beautiful Saskatchewan December that I can remember.

You were a good one, 2011. I am excited for what 2012 will bring.

Weight: 24.6 lbs
Height: 30 inches
Clothing size: 24 months

My little dude’s weight gain has slowed down, but he’s still above the 97th percentile. I was very sensitive about his size when he was born (not helped by some particularly-rude comments), but I quickly fell in love with him and liked his big baby stature. I think that’s just a normal parental thing, though. I love him exactly as he is, and his differences and quirks make me love him even more – his size, his red hair, his sticky-outy ears. I wouldn’t change a single thing about him.

Mr. Preston’s dad is a little disappointed that he isn’t crawling yet. The boy can get around, by rolling and pushing himself backward and shuffle-bumming forward a bit, but he is not crawling. The other day he got himself under the Christmas tree and proceeded to pull it down on himself. That was swell. Our tree is a light-weight fake one, so he wasn’t injured in the least, but he sure scared the tar out of himself.

Hey Sonja, see that box to the right? It’s for you. It’s by the door, one step closer to mailing it to you!

The reason Noah is disappointed is because Liliana was crawling by Christmas Day, her eight-month birthday, and, well, Preston “should” be too, right? In my opinion, the less mobile he is the better. He can take his sweet time for all I care. But, there’s something between a father and son that I will never understand. And I’m okay with that.

super-awesome Nerd Herder bib from the super-awesome Bethany Actually

Even though he isn’t crawling, Preston sure isn’t wasting any time vocalizing himself. We like to pretend he’s talking. We call him “Bubba” and he quite often babbles, “bababababa uh-babababa”. If we say “Hi!” to him, he’ll often say, “eye!”; if we say “Hey, buddy!” to him, he’ll often say, “Eh!” I’m pretty sure it’s too early for him to be talking, but we like to think we’re raising a genius.

We’re having a few sleeping issues, but in reality, they’re just regular baby issues and I was spoiled in the past by two sleep-loving baby girls and apparently boys and girls are different. DID YOU KNOW THAT? Hoo boy, are they ever different. Not sleeping is not making me wish his baby months to go by quicker, though. I’d rather get no sleep and snuzzle his baby cheeks than have these months fly by.

I mentioned his hair earlier, but I just can’t get enough of it. I love it. He’s got a lot more hair than his sisters did at his age, and I love fluffing it up when I can. He gets hat hair and bedhead and it’s just hilarious.

We’ve started feeding him Cheerios under intense supervision. What? He may be my third kid, but if anything, my paranoia has heightened. He LOVES the Cheerios, though, and can usually get them in his mouth himself.

As much as having a third girl would have been super-awesome, Noah’s very much enjoying having a little boy to hand down all of his sports knowledge to. He’s trying with the girls as well, but Kaylie is only interested once in a while and Liliana couldn’t care less unless it’s something about “Dandy” Danny Woodhead. I’m curious to find out if Preston will become a Patriots fan with Noah or if he’ll follow the Wilson father-son tradition and choose a rival team.

As long as he doesn’t choose the Colts or the Jets, Noah will still accept Preston as his son. If he does choose one of those teams, however, I’m sure his Big Papi will welcome him with open arms. Wilson men and their sports teams. Something I’ll never understand.

Happy Eight Months, little man.

Someone pulled himself up in his crib the other day.

No big deal to him. Just another day in the life of a linebacker.

Anyway, what I wanted to tell you was that this anniversary was our best ever. I mean, we didn’t do much to celebrate it, what with my recovering from Monday’s surgery and the whole I-hate-being-away-from-my-baby thing, but the reason it was so significant was because this past year has been our best ever. Good things and bad things have happened in our lives, but that has nothing to do with why this year was good or bad for us. This year was good because we were good. Our relationship was good. It was better than it has ever, ever been.

The years 2009 and 2010 were very, very rough relationally. I didn’t think we’d make it through. I was actually 100% sure we would not. But, somehow, only by the grace of God, we did. We’re here. And we’re not just here, we like being here. I might even say we love being here, but that word is still growing on me. (Wounds, man. They are still healing.)

The here and now and good did not come easy. We hit rock bottom and then we kept going and then we went down a little hill and then we got hit by a bus. And then a semi. And then we were sprayed by a skunk. I think you get the picture.

So, with nowhere to go but up, we started from scratch. It was very slow going, as we had a lot of hurt to work through, and sometimes I wanted to throw in the towel, but I’ll tell you that it was worth it. We’re not at a place where we get along perfectly all the time and there’s never a disagreement ever, but does anyone ever get there? We’re both doing our best. Fighting for a common goal.

If you’d told me six years ago the journey our marriage would take, I probably would have run away screaming. But here, now, six years in, I’m glad I didn’t. I kind of like it here.

Weight: 24 lbs
Height: 29.5 inches
Clothing size: 24 months

The little mister is still above the 97th percentile. His doctor said to me, though, that he’s perfectly proportionate — not fat or chubby, just big. Every time I bring Preston in, Dr. N makes a comment about the size of his feet. I’m assuming this boy is going to be a tall one.

Preston’s first year is going by so fast I can hardly handle it. It’s been a jam-packed seven months, and I know that’s why it’s going by so fast, but it doesn’t make it any easier. The first year is my absolute favorite. I’m trying to enjoy it as much as I can (which is not too hard). Preston has enriched our lives in ways we could not have imagined. We are so thankful for him and we love him more than words can express.

Mr. Preston gained another tooth this month, just a couple days ago. He’d been especially ornery this past week and it turns out the tooth was to blame. This is one area in which he is much different than my girls. With them, I didn’t know they were teething until I saw the tooth. With Preston, he is a whiny mess and we finally realize why when we see the tooth.

Preston hasn’t been too keen on the food thing yet. I mean, he’ll eat what we give him, but he’s just fine to go without and just nurse all the time. Unless, of course, he is sitting with one of us while we are eating, because then, he HAS to have what we are having or else he will bounce and whine incessantly. I’m pretty sure he’ll just be eating table food soon. I’ve been making all his baby food thus far, with his favorite being applesauce.

Preston’s sleep is unpredictably predictable. Sometimes he wants to sleep swaddled, sometimes he wants to sleep unswaddled on his tummy. He’ll usually have a morning and an afternoon nap, about 1.5 hours long, and he’ll usually sleep 6pm-6am, feeding 3-4 times in the night. I say usually because sometimes he decides to stay awake until 9:30pm and sometimes he’ll decide to nap for 2+ hours and sometimes he’ll decide not to nap at all. You can lead a baby to bed, but you can’t make him sleep. Unless you drug him. Heavily.

It’s probably safe to say that Kaylie is Preston’s very favorite person. Nobody else can make him smile and laugh like she can. She wants to help with him all the time and does very well when the tries to.

Preston is not crawling yet, but he is shifting himself around in circles and pushing himself backward and sometimes he gets up on all fours. It won’t be long. He’s no longer completely immobile. Noah can’t wait until he starts crawling, but since I’m already mourning his non-babyness, I think he should wait another couple months.

Take your time growing up, little boy. Although, your sister Liliana is already telling you that when you reach 18, you are no longer allowed to live at home.

Tooth #5. I can’t believe it either.

Half a year. Woah.

Weight: 22.2 lbs
Height: (I’ll update this tomorrow) (I forgot to check)
Clothing size: 18 months

I can’t believe his half birthday is already here. Mr. Preston has had a busy month. Besides his baby milestones, he’s already been to as many Canadian provinces as I have (SK, AB, BC, MB).

About a week ago, he started having his naps on his tummy, unswaddled. He’d been getting out of his swaddle more and more often, so I decided it was time to train him to sleep without it. Turns out he quite likes sleeping unswaddled, as he goes right to sleep — BY HIMSELF — on his tummy for his naps. It’s like magic. Or maybe it’s that ocean wonders fisher price thinger that I bought him, I don’t know, but between the two, he’s asleep within 18 minutes of when I put him down. (Eighteen minutes is how long the music plays for, and he’s almost always asleep before it’s done.) He doesn’t sleep as long as he used to, but since when do babies stay the same week to week anyway?

The boy started solid foods about a week and a half ago. He has had sweet potato, avocado, banana, egg yolk, apple sauce, turkey, pumpkin pie, whipping cream … and I think that’s it. He’s just eating at lunch and dinner so far, but when he starts eating breakfast, I’ll start feeding him some cereal. I was actually dreading his starting solid foods, as exclusive breastfeeding is so easy and convenient; but, a growing football player needs more than that, right?

Liliana’s pretty excited that Preston is now a human, as he is now eating human food with his human teeth.

Adding to his new skills, Preston is now sitting up. One day he was tipping over within seconds, and the next he was sitting up for minutes at a time. BABIES! They learn these things so quickly.

I love the age and phase he’s in right now. I love that he’s sitting, and I love that he’s not yet mobile. I’ve started training him to play in the play pen (baby jail), as if he’s anything like his sisters, once he starts moving, he will not stop. Ever.

I’m pretty sure that these last six months have been my most favorite six months of the last 28.5 years. This third kid thing? I like it.

I missed posting the last two of my 7 Days photos. Here they are:

7 Days :: Six :: {rough}
It’s been a really rough day. I’m phoning it in.

7 Days :: Seven :: {clean}
For Day 7, a classic bathroom mirror shot. I do not care to admit how long it had been since my last shower.

And also, I really need to clean my bathroom mirror.

In Preston news, he no longer stays where I put him. He started rolling back to front on Thursday and now he won’t stop. This make diaper changes fun.

He goes around in circles while he’s on his front. He’s started getting his knees under him, which, in Noah’s mind, means that he’ll be crawling before he’s six months old. I’m kind of hoping he holds off on the whole mobility thing, but there’s this father-son thing that I’ll never understand in which Noah believes that his son is the most amazing baby boy there ever was. Now, I’m not refuting this fact, as, well, I do think he’s the most amazing baby boy there ever was (not that I’m biased at all), but I also hope that he waits a couple months before he makes me chase him around.

Noah “works out” with him most every day, training him to be the next Tom Brady, I’m sure. (Insert eyeroll from Big Papi.) I’m preparing Noah to be okay with if Preston decides to pursue a career as a piano player, rather than a football player.

You know, he did learn to ride a bike on Friday.

As I was trying to get a good shot of him on the bike, Miss Liliana decided that Preston’d had enough attention and it was her turn. The thing is, she wants a photo of herself BUT WILL NOT STOP MOVING.

Such a goober.

Some days I miss when I had more time for blogging. The thing is, if I had abundant time for blogging, I’d have nothing to blog about.

Weight: 22 lbs
Length: 28.5 inches
Clothing size: 18 months

Mr. Preston has had a rough month. He cut four teeth in three weeks. Yep, FOUR. Dude is a machine. He hasn’t handled teething as gracefully as the girls did. I didn’t know they were teething until I saw teeth. Preston, on the other hand, has suffered loudly. He’s been glued to me – nearly 24/7 – for weeks now. I really don’t mind this, as I love snuggling with my little boy, but his older sisters have been quite neglected by me as of late. Here’s hoping the teething gives him a break for a bit.

He continues his love of tummy time. He can push himself up into the push-up position. He likes to do this and then rock back and forth like a teeter totter. He can almost roll back to front. He can get his bottom half over, but can’t quite get that one arm out of the way to roll completely onto his tummy.

He loves his feet. As soon as he is put down on his back, his feet come up to meet his hands. Sometimes a toe makes it into his mouth.

He’s following in his sisters’ footsteps with his love of non-toys. With Kaylie, it was a fly swatter; Liliana, coat hangers; Preston, half-empty water bottles.

He’s a bouncy little dude. As soon as we introduced him to the Jolly Jumper, he started bouncing in our laps as well. He doesn’t want to sit, he wants to stand, but then he doesn’t want to stand, he wants to jump. A great arm workout that kid is. He gets some good air when he’s in that thing. It’s too bad he’ll only fit it for another six pounds.

Preston went swimming for the first time this past weekend and LOVED it. He couldn’t get enough. Noah had him “swimming” on his tummy, kicking his little legs, huge smile on his face. He’d put his face in the water, sputter a bit, and then start smiling again. Weird kid.

The milestone that Noah is most proud of this past month, which technically fell a day after his five-month birthday, is Preston’s first regular season Patriots game. They won. 38-24. (Their win meant that Noah didn’t rip off his jersey, throw it in the bedroom, and stomp off in a huff.) (Not that he’s ever done that.) Notice their matching “surprised” looks?

Next thing I know, Preston will be thumping his fists on the floor, yelling at the TV, and throwing his jersey around. Like father, like son.