Ready to Splash!

Getting ready for splash down...

The anticipation of bath time is almost too much to bear. Preston loves it SOO much that he giggles his way to the bathroom every night. As soon as he hears that bath water running, he is all smiles. Funny that as soon as we are done washing, he is ready to get back out again. No goofing around and playing anymore. (He's not interested in his bath toys at the moment.) I guess at least he is efficient so we are done with our bath in less than 5 minutes!

Stairs? No Problem.

A lazy Saturday around here. Well, as lazy as P will let us be. His newest trick is crawling up the stairs. (Clint hates that I let him do it, but I say he has to learn sometime!) Obviously he is still highly supervised when he does it. Notice MC watching warily below as she realizes that her days of escaping upstairs are now over.

Sorry, Kitty!

10 Months

I'm 10 months old today!! Click on this first picture to see all of my pictures from this month.

Preston had a busy month- lots of visitors, lots of outings, and lots of fun! He is ALL over the house now and babbling up a storm. His newest tricks are giving "five" and kissing. (His kisses are more like open-mouth slobbers on your face, but still very sweet.) He now has four teeth and has had two (bad) haircuts by mom. Yes, the rattail was removed this month. BUT it seems to be quickly growing back. Phew!

Chillin' with my dad

Swingin' with my mom

Hahahahahahaa!

In my Polo best.

Here is a video of him playing with Grover.

My Cousins

Click this photo of P if you want to see the whole album.

We decided to try and take pics of all the cousins today. NOT an easy task, but I think they turned out great. Hilarious, actually. You can tell the progression from beginning to end...here are a few highlights. (Between the two of us, Paige and I probably took 300 pictures- mostly Paige since she is the real photographer, but I tried to snap a few.)

Sam, Noah, Natalie, Julia, and Preston! Not too bad!!

Trying to do something cute...

The silly circle

OMG- we can't smile anymore! Make it stop!!

Nap time??

Who needs a nap when you can talk to yourself and play music??

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Have a great day!

BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS!

Reading is a big deal in the Hooker house. Clint is an avid reader (he was and English major and is now an editor), and I have always enjoyed the escape of a good book (I was an English minor and teach Reading/Language Arts to my 6th graders). We have too many books and not enough bookshelves in our house. So it is no surprise that Preston enjoys reading, too. We started reading to him when he was just a tiny little scrunched-up newborn, and haven't stopped since. He has his favorites and his least favorites. Currently he loves Go Dog Go! and doesn't enjoy Jungle Animals. Last week I could have said the opposite. Fickle kid. He is an expert at turning the pages for us -a little too quickly sometimes. And he'll pull every book off the shelf for you to read to him over and over and over again. (I'm not sure why I bother putting them back on the shelf throughout the day. Must be my OCD.) We usually go through all of the books at least 3-4 times a day. More than that on days he doesn't go to daycare. As mobile as he is these days, reading is the only time he will sit still. He gets a little impatient between books. I have NO idea where he gets his attitude from...

Here's a little video of us enjoying some books together today.

And here is a little shot of Preston laughing at Clint. I could listen to his giggle all day!!

Fun With Daddy

Preston loves his Daddy. AND he loves flopping around on the couch-baby giggles are the best! Even though he is sick, he can still have a good time. Maybe next time we shouldn't do it so close to bed time, though. He did NOT want to go to sleep tonight!

Enjoy!

My Biggest Fan

Preston's biggest fan (besides me, of course) is Eva Scruton. She LOVES to watch "Baby Present" videos, so we thought we should give her a shout-out today. She isn't feeling well, so here's a little something to make her feel better! Included in the well-wishes is a CLEAR 'kit-ty" from the little man.

First Words

Preston LOVES his kitty cats. He loves them so much that we think "cat" and "kitty" are his first words. (He says "mama" and "dada" but without discrimination, so I don't count that.) Our daycare provider said he chased her cat last week while saying "cat", so I don't think we are totally crazy. We thought he had been trying to say it here for a while now, but having an outsider think it made us really believe we weren't imagining things. The cats are good sports and let him chase them around, but I wouldn't say they ENJOY it much. They always seem relieved when he goes to bed.

Here are a few videos of him today. He says a lot of "baba" and you might even catch a "cat" or "kit-ty" in there, too. The second video is better than the first one, but the first one shows him finding MC and Phoggy.

I also think he is going to start walking on his own soon. He barely holds my fingers now and isn't as content to crawl as he used to be. We're lacing up our running shoes now...and putting the emergency room on speed dial.

Rock Chalk

Today was a BIG day- not only did the Jayhawks demolish the Tigers, but my friend Jack came to play!

Here we are playing with my toys...