Great Day

Today is a good day. It is Aunt Paige's Birthday today (25 years old, woo hoo!) and Aunt Molly was also discharged from the hospital today. They decided that her kidneys failed from a combination of being sick with something, taking ibuprofen, and becoming very dehydrated. Molly's creatin level is about to the normal level today; she just needs to stay hydrated, stay away from ibuprofen, and follow up with the doctor a few times at Luther in the next few days. While Preston and Daddy visited Grandpa and Grandma Eichmeier, Mommy and Great Grandma Mary visited Aunt Molly in Rochester on Saturday. Mommy stayed over night in the hospital with her and Grandpa Kyle and Great Grandma Mary stayed in a motel. Grandpa Kyle and Aunt Molly needed a break from each other :) It was surprisingly comfortable on the cot they provided!

Mommy and Aunt Molly Great Grandma Mary and Aunt Molly
A view of her room. Molly is on the phone with the food service people who would not let her order the food she wanted because the doctors put her on a special diet. This made her very angry..hee hee.
PS- Tomorrow Preston will have a surprise for Aunt Paige, but he was too cranky today to be cooperative. He is battling a stuffy/runny nose right now and we think he is also cutting some more teeth. Poor little guy can't get adequate sleep at night because his nose becomes too stuffed up and he can't breathe...so Daddy slept with him in the recliner last night :)

Before and After Day Care

Day care is going okay. Preston is still unsure about it. Sometimes he will cling to Mommy and not want her to leave and sometimes he will just get down and play right away. There has only been 1 day when the staff said he was a little fussy in the afternoon, otherwise he seems to do okay. We are still giving it time :)

"Please don't take me to day care, Mommy." "I'm not going, see..I'm taking off my shoes!"
After day care, he was a much happier boy and Mommy and Preston played outside for awhile. Eating a leaf.....

....leaf didn't taste very good

But that did not deter him from trying a rock

Watching some cars go by

"Hi Mom, I swear I am not going to put this rock in my mouth."

Teasing the kitty

Destroying ant homes

Preston riding his fire truck

He loves to tip everything over

Experimenting

Since we have this brand new camera, Mommy has been taking tons of pictures and trying to figure out what features to have on and what pictures look the best. Here are just a few.

Preston posing My big blue-eyed baby
Giving his duck some kissies

Preston and Mommy

On a walk, looking at the ducks. I do have to mention that we were feeding the ducks and one of them decided to try and eat Preston's finger. It must not have hurt him, because he just looked at the duck like "Are you crazy?!"

Getting caught playing with the shade string

Big smile for Mommy

Preston loves to stand on the couch and look out the window, especially when there is some action out there.

Prayers for Aunt Molly

Aunt Molly has not been feeling well over the last couple of days (backache, nauseated, vomiting, pain all over, very dehydrated) so she went to the Luther Health Center yesterday afternoon and they told her to go to the ER. In the ER, they took some tests and figured out something wasn't quite right with her kidneys and her Creatin? level was too high. So, they decided to keep her overnight with an IV and pain meds and see if it got better. Well, long story short, it did not get better and she is currently on her way by ambulance to Rochester to see a kidney specialist and do a biopsy. So, please keep our Aunt Molly in your prayers and we will keep everyone updated.

New Camera!

Last weekend Preston was 11 months old. Grandma Diane came to Des Moines to visit Preston before she left for Alaska. In this picture, Preston is opening his 11 month present from Grandma. And it was........money to buy a new camera. Yippee! Mommy has been saying she wants a new camera before Preston's 1st bday and Grandma must have been listening. Mommy, Daddy, and Preston went and picked out a brand new camera at Best Buy the next day and we are so happy with it. Thank you Grandma! Preston loves his present and is happy he will have wonderful pics at his 1st bday party! These next pics are still from our old camera- the last ones! We still need to download the program to put pics from our new camera on the computer. Grandma D and Preston at the Farmer's Market. Preston loves to pick flowers.
"Here, I'll get that Grandma."

Mommy, Preston, and some "sauce man" at the Farmer's Market

There was a parade in Altoona on Saturday and everyone knows how we love parades!

It was a great parade. There was a float contest, so all the floats were very extravagant and everyone was dressed up. Mommy and Preston especially loved all the Disney characters- there was a Shrek and real donkey! Preston was very entertained.

After the parade, Jennifer and Adrian Noel came over to play. Preston still needs to work on sharing, though :)

1st Day at Child Care Center

Yesterday was Preston's first day at the center and Mommy just dropped him off a little bit ago for his second day. Mommy could not sleep the night before- it felt like it was her first day of school or something! But, she did stay up writing a four page paper to inform the staff of everything they need to know about Preston. Mommy dropped Preston off yesterday at a super crazy time because it was almost lunch/nap time. The kids were fussy and at one point all seven other babies were crying/screaming because they were hungry and tired. Preston just looked at Mommy like "What the heck is going on?" Mommy was trying to hold it together :) Mommy stayed with Preston for 1 1/2 hrs before she had to leave for her appointment. She stayed with Preston through lunch which consisted of pigs in a blanket. One little girl choked a little on the hot dog, and this is when Mommy decided that Preston would not be eating meat at the day care. Mommy and Daddy just don't feel comfortable at this point letting him eat chucks of meat (without our supervision)....until he can chew them better. The staff said he did fine after Mommy left. Preston did have a little trouble taking a nap; he got scared when they turned out the lights and said that he had to be rocked again to sleep. When I called in the afternoon, he was playing with his friends. They did inform me that he doesn't like when the other kids scream/cry near him because it scares him. Today when we got there, they seemed like they were really trying to make the transition easier for all of us. Miss Lori is the main teacher in his room and she has been very nice and understanding. When I told her that I didn't want Preston to have the ham for lunch today, she said that she had already planned out his meal and she didn't think he should have the ham or pineapple today because they might be too hard. She was also going to move his crib so it is closer to the staff and more in the light because she didn't think he liked to be in the corner where it is darker. It is just so funny to hear the things Preston is doing at daycare- he is such a big boy. In the newsletter they sent home yesterday, the staff informed us that for the next 2 weeks they are focusing on telling stories with puppets, flexing their muscles with push trucks, using the stacking blocks, making dot pictures for art, and singing "Wheels on the Bus" (Preston's favorite song!). Sept 11th is also "spirit day" so he gets to wear his Iowa Hawkeyes gear. Hopefully the days just keep getting better and he transitions well to this new experience. Sorry for the essay about child care- it is a big milestone for us. Hope everyone had a great weekend- we did..I will have to get pics posted when I have time!

State Fair Time

Last Sunday, we made a family trip to the amazing Iowa State Fair. We decided to save some money and go on Extreme Sunday where admission is 1/2 price. Some nice older man also gave us a free ticket while we were waiting in line and we got there early enough that we did not have to pay to park. $5 for the State Fair, what a great deal! The money we spent on food is a whole other story, we won't go into that :) But, it's the State Fair, right?! It was so much fun to spend the day with Preston at the State Fair- all three of us had a blast!

This picture is not of the State Fair. On Saturday, Mommy and Preston went with Daddy over to his friend's house to help build their deck. Justin and his wife, Tiffany, have a little baby around 6 months named Lily. Preston enjoyed playing with her...although he now has a habit of hitting in the face...which Lily did not enjoy.Preston looking at the peeps

Petting a baby goat
Mommy's favorite, the little piggies!

This picture is from last year at the State Fair in the butterfly tent. We absolutely loved this last year, so we decided to take Preston in this year. He definitely had a better view this time :) Sorry there are so many pics of the butterflies...they are all so adorable to me! A butterfly landed on Preston's foot right when we went in. He was so confused about what was on his foot and he kept trying to kick it off. It was funny. If you know Preston, he does not like anything on his feet/toes.

Wearing Daddy's hat....with a butterfly on it.

"Let me see those creatures."

Mommy and Preston...he is holding a butterfly and there is also one on his shoulder.

Daddy and Preston trying to catch a butterfly

We were afraid he would rip their wings off, but he did a pretty good job of being gentle.

So pretty

Next, we went and saw "Buddy" the biggest boar. Sick.

Then, Big Black, the biggest bull. Yuck.

We took Preston to the petting zoo. We bought food to feed the animals and it was grooosss! As you can tell by Mommy's face.

Who knew there was such an animal?! Zedonk- 1/2 zebra, 1/2 donkey

This is when Mommy officially stopped feeding the animals...when this camel's tongue licked my arm in one swipe. Once again, sick.

This was actually a scary picture to be in....Mommy thought the camel was going to start licking us. Preston didn't take his eyes off of him.

Great Grandma Mary and Grandpa Kyle visited us that night. We took another four generation picture because Mommy was very "bloated" in the last one, the day we brought Preston home from the hospital.