THREE!

Apologies for the long hiatus!

We are back online, and I have a lot of blogging to do to make up for lost time.
Preston officially turned 3 on January 17th; at which point I expected him to immediately mature out of the terrible-2 phase, but that didn't happen as magically as I planned. Although, overall, I think he is finally growing out of some of the more problematic behaviors. Namely, hitting other children indiscriminately.
There have been countless activities and events in the past 2 months; the holidays, his birthday, his 1st day of pre-school, all of which I will make my best efforts to recall and document accurately over the next few days, but with my early Alzheimer's setting in, I can't guarantee a completely reliable report.  In fact, it might be about as reliable as Preston's own story-telling is lately. Which is about 2% truth, 98% improvised fiction.
Preston was fortunate enough to have a 3-day stretch of birthday festivities this year (which only slightly makes up for his completely absent father...) starting with a pre-bday party on the 16th with Oompa, who we picked up at the airport.
Oompa came equipped with birthday presents, most notably, binoculars, which Preston LOVES. And, incidentally, loves to use backwards. Here is a clip:

The following night, Preston and I had another birthday celebration with just the two of us, after which he insisted on singing Happy Birthday to both of us.

The following morning, we met up with Preston's BFF Wesley, who is also a January baby, to co-celebrate both of their birthdays at the bouncy house. The chaos that ensued precluded any purposeful picture taking. But here is a picture montage from the collective birthday celebrations:

birthday cheese

this pic is simply for me to admire the beautiful blond locks

mommy & Pman

Buddy from Dinosaur Train. (Do I get Mom of the Year for this or what?)

Binoculars!

Much less messier than bday #1 or 2.

Oomp & Pman

Jan 17th, 2014 requested birthday dinner: watermelon.

Serious birthday faces.

Smiley bday faces.

2nd bday cake. (store bought. mommy demerit).

Three!! (Preston had been working on showing 3 fingers all month.)

continuing to show off the fine motor skills.

again, very neat cake eating.

Our wonderful neighbor Grandma Agnes even stopped by.

She brought more presents than I did.

1/18 bouncy house w/ Wesley. This is the only surviving pic that isn't completely blurry.

Wes & P co-piloting a firetruck at the mall.