This Boy

 Trenton had his last track meet tonight.  Yea!  So to celebrate, (or more so I didn't have to cook) we went to Taco Bell for dinner.  Can I just tell you, Preston and Taco Bell don't mix.  I'm never going back, unless we go through the drive through.  As I've mentioned before on this blog, several times in fact, Preston is a busy bee.  He has a hard time sitting still.  So less than 10 minutes into our dining experience, he managed to lock himself in the bathroom.  What's the big deal, you say?  Well, there was no key hole or anything to be able to unlock it from the outside.  Let me ask you, who makes a lock like that?!  After several minutes of trying to calm him down enough to at least have him try again to unlock the door, to no avail, I went up to the front and explained that my little boy had locked himself in the bathroom, couldn't unlock the door, and was there any way they could help me get him out?  The Taco Bell employees all looked at me dumbfounded.  You see, there is no key for that bathroom door.  I went back to the door to hear the weeping and wailing of my youngest son, thinking we were going to have to call the fire department to come and break the door down.  (Luckily there is a fire department right across the street from the Taco Bell.)  But one of the employees somehow managed to pop the lock open, with his belt no less, and my little boy was saved!  

He must have learned his lesson to not run off and lock himself in bathrooms because he stayed on the bench after that.  His lesson learning was not over yet though.  I guess he still had another lesson to learn, and that is called, "Do not use the top of the Taco Bell benches as a balance beam, or you will get injured" lesson.  You see, Preston goes to a gymnastics class once a week, (which I'm starting to wonder if it has been more beneficial or harmful?) and he thinks that everything has been made for him to jump, balance, climb, or do flips from.  Hence the bench becoming a balance beam.  So, yes, he ended up falling.  I managed to just barely grab his arm before he went crashing to the floor, but my grabbing his arm ended up swinging him around into the bench, mouth first.  It totally bent one of his front teeth back, and he has a huge sore on his gum just above the tooth.  It doesn't look pretty.  I think we'll be calling the dentist in the morning.  But I think he did learn his lesson because he sat on mama's lap the rest of the time we were there (which wasn't long btw. I couldn't take any more lessons).

Identity Crisis

Preston rediscovered our costume box the other day.  And boy did he pick out some numbers.

He looking darling in this sparkly, purple number, complete with tutu.

Or, how about the Hawaiin dress with the sparkly, purple leotard underneath?

Love the princess dress.  Especially love the toe pop and shoes.  (Notice, he still has the purple leotard on underneath it all.)

Had to get some muscles in there somewhere.

But this is my personal favorite.  Star Wars gun and face shield... And fairy wings to top it off.  ;)

He Never Ceases to Amaze Me

A while back, I installed these handy-dandy locks on both my front door, and the door to the garage.  They have been very effective in keeping a certain toddler I know in the confines of our home.  Until the other day that is.  Yes, that's right folks.  He managed to break the lock.  Literally.  He has tugged, and tugged on that door so many times, the ball part of the lock just snapped clean off.

This is what it looked like before.

And this is what it looked like after he was done.

You see, Preston has had some issues lately about anyone leaving the house without him.  In his mind, this just should NOT be done.  He gets freakishly angry about it.  So much so that I keep expecting him to turn green and quadruple in size.  Anyway... As a result of this mind-set of his, he has had some major tug-of-war matches with the lock on the door any time someone leaves without him.  I think he really surprised himself when the lock snapped the other day.  He went for one big tug, and next thing he knew, he was several feet from the door, right smack on his bottom.  Serves him right I say. ;)  Well, he has been able to escape to the garage again the last several days, so I ran to Home Depot today for another lock.

All fixed.  For now at least.  The last one lasted since August, so hopefully this one will last at least that long.  Maybe I better run back to Home Depot and get a few of these, just in case they decide to discontinue them.  That would be just typical, wouldn't it?

As far as other locking mechanisms go in our house, this one is rather effective as well.  Get one, good, long piece of duct tape, and your golden.  Preston can tug, and tug, and tug on the door, and it doesn't even budge.  Depending on how much we go in and out of this door, I would say we only have to change pieces of tape every week to two weeks.  Oh, the lengths we have to go to sometimes.

Sneaky, Sneaky!

I was downloading pictures the other day, and to my surprise, I found these...

Is that a bellybutton?  Not sure.

And one of the bathroom floor, just for good measure.

At least his nose was clean.

Dirty Schmirty

Preston recently got a new pair of shorts from his grandma Stock, and he LOVES them.

In fact, he loves them so much that he has worn them every day for the last 6 days.  (We did talk him out of wearing them for church on Sunday, but just barely.  He did put them on shortly after we got home though.)  The little sneak always managed to get them back on just before I could get them in the wash.  And some nights he wouldn't even let us get pajamas on him.  He HAD to wear his shorts to bed, or so he believed.  Every morning I would wake up and he would already have the shorts on that I had buried in the dirty laundry pile the night before, hoping that he wouldn't be able to find them before I could get them in the wash.  I would have never let this happen with my first child.  Trenton always had clean clothes on, even if it meant I had to change his clothes several times a day.  Well, I guess you could say I have learned to pick my battles at this point.  (And I already have enough laundry to do!)  I gave up the morning he screamed bloody murder for an hour after I tried to get his shorts off him and in the washer.

 

They're filthy!  The back is even worse.  He fell in the mud the other day, so we scraped off what we could and went along our way.  And yes he has worn them like that for almost a week.  I know I should care, but like I said, it hasn't been worth the battle.  If you had seen a Preston fit in action, you'd let him wear the shorts for almost a week too, filthy or not.

Well, today I finally talked him in to taking them off so I could wash them.

And this is the outfit he came up with instead.  Fabulous.  I know it has been warm here the last few days, but I don't think it's quite warm enough for this, as much as I wish it were so.

Disclaimer:  I did at least get him to change his underwear every day, so I'm not a completely horrible mother. ;)

What Next?

If you need a problem solved, Preston is your boy.

I have decided that there is nothing this kid can't tackle.  If he wants something, by dang, he's going to get it!  He has moved way beyond just the counters and cupboards though.

 

Today I finally figured out how he has been getting things off of the mantle.  Tricky little bugger!  Now if I could just catch him in the act of getting things off the top of the fridge.  That one is still a mystery, and to tell you the truth, I don't know if I really want to know.  My heart might stop dead in its tracks.

Some Laughs

I love three year olds.  They say and do the most random things, that generally could make you laugh until you pee your pants.  Last night, Preston had just gone to the bathroom, (#2) and shortly afterward, he was walking around the house saying, "Whew!  I wreak!"  Trent and I about busted a gut we were laughing so hard.  Not too long after that, Trent and I were in the office chatting about some things.  We were pretty absorbed in our conversation, and it took me a minute to realize that Preston was standing next to me screaming, "Mom! Mom! Mom! MOM!!!!"  I looked at him, and in exasperation said, "What?!"  To which he responded with this...

 

That's it.  Nothing he needed to tell me.  He just wanted to show me his new face.

Another gut busting laugh I tell you.  Love this kid.

Ahhhhhhhhh...

Can I just say that this kid is cr-a-nky lately. That's why I am extremely grateful that he is taking naps again. Not long ones, but at least it gives us a momentary break from all of the weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth that this kiddo is so into of late.

It's nice to see that he does have a mellow side to him, even if it is only while he's asleep.

Wah Hah Hah Hah!

Notice anything different about my door? An added feature perhaps? Something in the way of a brand new lock, towards the top where Preston can't reach, even with a chair? (For now anyway.)
Installed today by yours truly. Preston has been brought back to our home by one of our neighbors a few times too many. It was necessary. What kind of mother must they think I am anyway? "Ummm... Here is your kid. Again. Found him halfway down the street." Honestly. We'll see how long it keeps him in. He's already been putting his little evil genius brain to work trying to figure it out. If I survive this kid, it will be a miracle.

Glug, Glug, Glug

Isn't he supposed to wait until he's a teenager to do this?

Beauty King

We thought one Sunday we would try and get Preston to take a nap before church. Things got pretty quiet in his room, so we thought he had totally zonked. Trent decided to peek his head in just to make sure, and instead of an angelic sleeping child, he found Preston covered in purple and blue. Vivi had gotten some make-up at a birthday party a few days before and thought she had been really sneaky putting it in a pocket in one of her purses. Everyone in this house should know that we can never ever be sneaky enough for Preston because he is the sneakiest one of us all. Well, of course he found it, and this is the result of 20 quiet minutes all to himself in his room. We tried our best to get it all off, but he did go to church that day looking a little black and blue. We heard at least five times, "Oh! How did he get his black eye?" We really don't beat our children at this house. We just let them play with make-up so it looks like we did.

When a Two Year Old Takes Out the Trash

So, I was in my sewing room the other day just working away while Preston was happily playing in the toy room... or so I thought. All of a sudden I hear the door to the garage slam closed. I run upstairs to find this. So I go to look for Preston in the garage, and I find this...

He totally took out the trash! I think he did a pretty good job for being only two!

I Give Up

I am at a complete loss. I am convinced that child-proofing doesn't work with Preston. Everything we try, he figures it out. It's like he's an evil genius or something. I have decided that I am just going to have to buy one humongous safe, and put anything dangerous or lethal in it (which might as well be half our house as far as Preston is concerned). Until recently, the only safe place (or mom's only have a break place) was his crib. No longer. He has figured out how to lower the side of his crib, and can now climb out. I spent 1 1/2 hours yesterday putting him back in his crib and raising the side of it back up. He did finally fall asleep after much weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth (mostly on my part). One of the best things about Preston, life is always exciting with him around.

Mom! You Better Come and See This!

Vivi came running up the stairs the other day yelling, "Mom! You better come and see this!" I went downstairs to find Preston standing on the counter (yet again) with all of the cupboards open and a bag of Hershey Kisses sitting on the counter amid many (did I say many? I meant many, many, many, many) little silver wrappers, all empty. How he did eat them all so fast? I don't know. All I know is he is quick and doesn't miss any opportunity to be sneaky. I had gone upstairs for all of one minute to throw a load in the washer. The funny thing is, I didn't even know we had Hershey Kisses in the cupboard.

Life with Preston

What a fun few days we've had! A few days ago, I found Preston with my tube of mascara, and as you can see, he had some fun with it. Saturday night, my mom was so kind to watch the kids for us while we went out to dinner with some friends. Hopefully she'll be willing to watch them again after Preston's little incident. After Trent and I had gotten back to my mom's to get the kids, my mom and I were upstairs visiting, and the next thing we hear is "Oh no!" coming from downstairs. Soon after, Trent came upstairs holding Preston face out at arms length, and Preston was covered in what looked like blood. It turned out to be red nail polish! I wish I had had my camera with me. He not only had gotten it all over his pajamas, but he had also painted both of his cheeks with it, and his hands were covered. I'm telling you, when I first saw him, it looked like he had just stepped out of a horror movie. Last, but not least, today after church, we had all come home and gotten in our comfy cozy jammies, and I was just starting dinner when I heard a noise in the bathroom. I immediately knew it was not good. I opened the door to find wet, soggy toilet paper all over the floor, and about a gallon of water, and in the midst of it all is Preston with the toilet brush just having a grand old time. What else could I do but run and grab the camera? Needless to say, he needed a set of clean pajamas after that.

Who Got Caught With Their Hands In the Cookie Jar?!

Man, this kid is fast! I can't leave him alone for a single second! I left the kitchen to walk a friend to the door and came back to the kitchen a whole 30 seconds later to find Preston on the counter, happily munching away on a cookie he had been trying to get to all day long.

The sweet taste of success!