2 years old...

Little man,

We love you more than you will ever know. You have brought such meaning and light into our lives. Thank you for being you and making us smile and laugh every hour of every day. You have personality that I never thought I would be lucky enough to call my own. You were meant for us. Happy Birthday baby boy! You will always be our baby!

I have not done an age/milestone post in forever! His 18 month old post got lost amoungst nursing school and pregnancy brain, so we are fast forwarding to 2 years old. I guess the biggest transition for me will be doing his age in years instead of months. No more 22 months, 23 months, but just a solid 2 years old....WAAAHHH, makes him seem so old.

Height: 38 inches (very rough estimate), off the charts
Weight: 33 pounds, 98%
Wearing: 3T (without drying them..ha ha ha)

Top 10 at 2 years old...

1. LOVES Elmo, trains, Mickey Mouse, and Nemo
2. HATES having his diaper changed, being told NO, and having the TV turned off
3. Will only let mommy put him to bed
4. Uses words such as "No touch" while shaking his index finger to tell us how he really feels...I wonder where he learned that from :).
5. Takes 1 nap a day for approximately 2 hours from 12 to 2pm each day and goes to sleep at 730pm and wakes up around 630 or 7am
6. Loves to help mommy do anything (e.g.: sweep, vaccum, wipe the table). Just not pick up :(
7. Is talking all the time (2, 3, & 4 word sentences)..65% is intelligable and I am sure people besides us are like "what is he saying???" Hand motion are used in 90% of all communication exchanges...We say its the Italian in him.
8. Activities include: playing with his trucks, painting, dancing, going to mommy's running group playdates, gym class, morning stretches with daddy, going to the park, riding his bike around the neighborhood, EATING, watching television, playing games on the Kindle, and rough housing with daddy.
9. Cries about everything to the point where David and I look at each other and laugh..Poor kid.
10. Loves to run away from mommy while laughing and tells us "I baby."

Birthday....

On Preston's actual birthday we had a full day of activities scheduled for the newly minted 2 year old. Even though we are still having a "party" for him, with all of the fun he had, this day could have been it. We woke up and had donuts with candles and the "Happy Birthday" song. I decorated and frosted cupcakes until 1am the night before, so I was already tired when the big day happened. Lala and papa even got to watch him open his presents and open his birthday/Easter box from them. We got ready, dropped David off at shoot around and headed to Torii Beach for a full day BBQ with my running group. The day was gorgeous (my feet got scorched) and Preston was on cloud nine. His friend, Claire, got him a little set of sand toys that he played with forever and the group sang him "Happy Birthday". I even brought 2 candles for him...Yes, I am that mom, ha ha ha. Randomly, there ended up being a bounce house too, which I am sure he thought was for him. He loved the bounce house. He was able to jump around and hold his own with all the 4 year olds....It helps that he is the same size as them :). Even the American parents thought he was turning 3. After the BBQ was over we came home and he took his nap, while I got ready for Ladies' Night Out (plus Preston). A group of ladies from the running group wanted to watch a game so we all went to this one and I brought Preston, which I do NOT usually do because the game starts at his bedtime. It was a special night and I felt way too bad leaving him with a babysitter on his birthday, so he came. It was a great game. David had 26 and definitely put on a show for us. Preston was running all over which meant that I was chasing him all over...At the end of the game, a Japanese woman, who loves Preston, took him for me for the last 5 minutes of the game. She said I needed to rest while patting my belly. I was like "Hallelujah". He is a handful and keeps me moving at all times. So...Preston had a wonderful birthday minus all the friends and family that couldn't be around because of where we are.

Seeing his birth day "birthday" present for the first time

Happy 2nd Birthday little man

Blowing out his candles

Proud little man

 With Lala and Papa on Skype..They even got to sing him "Happy Birthday" with mommy and daddy

A special book just for Preston's special day

 Opening LaLa and Papa's presents

 Round 2: BBQ and Happy Birthday

 First pinata..Ate the candy as he collected it...Didn't really get the idea to collect then eat

 Enjoying his cupcake

 In his cute little outfit

At daddy's game for Ladies Night Out!

Welcome to 2 mommy!!!

Easter...

We had a little bit of Easter going on all week, mixed in with a birthday, then some more Easter. By the time this week was over, Preston had done three Easter egg hunts, eaten about 10 pounds of treats, and learned that the plastic eggs are way better than the real eggs that the bunny hid for him at the beach. By egg hunt number 3 he was a little over it and that was the real "Easter egg" hunt. David had a game on Easter as well, which made the planning a little more hectic. It worked out okay because his game was at 5pm instead of 1pm randomly, so we had more time in the morning to be lazy. Preston also got to open his box of fun from Papa and T-T with T-T on skype, so he had even more birthday presents to play with. The Easter bunny hit up Araha Beach for us and we headed down there and did our basket and egg hunt there. He loved finding his basket/bucket in the tree and found most of the eggs he dyed, before being over it. We dyed eggs on Friday when he had an hour of prebed, both parents are home time, before David hurried off to secure one of Preston's last birthday gifts, which he had to set-up that night. It was a great Easter. Easter is a bit of an awkward holiday for us because we live over here with no Easter nothing (decorations, Easter bunny, etc), so there is no context for Preston to understand the holiday. He has never seen an Easter bunny and only knows a rabbit as an animal. We are not religious, so we don't do Easter the religious way, so basically, its an egg and Easter basket hunt, which just seems so random in the middle of April. I am going to have to do better as he gets older to have it make sense.





Our neighboor, Chaki, decorated a Thomas the Train egg for Preston



Easter Brunch 

Easter basket 

Our "backyard" 

Twins

Found an egg 

Found the basket 

Pez...Love at first sight! 

Daddy showing him the goods 

Looking for more eggs

Found another one

Me and my little man

Yeah!! Frosting Easter cookies!

  Coloring eggs...making the colors

 Eating the eggs

 Waiting patiently..Or not so patiently



Coming down...

This week was the busiest that I have had in such a long time. We had our typical schedule with our playdates/exercise groups, but on steroids. There were so many things to plan for because I had to bring stuff to each event for a ton of people, so I started planning for this week two weeks ago when I was able to get on base. I had to make sure I had enough supplies to make all the food that I had committed to. I can say that it was such a fun week even if I paid for it yesterday. After we did our Easter celebration at the beach, I came home put Nemo on and vegged with Preston. Nights had been late preparing stuff for the next day, days were long, and mornings...well, mornings are always early :). I am glad to have today to get everything reorganized and back on track. It was such a great week though. It was the first time since being here that I actually felt like we were a part of a community of friends which was awesome. The festivities will be highlighted in the next posts!

A day away...

I CANNOT believe my baby turns 2 tomorrow...I just love him to death and of course, like any parent hope he has a wonderful day. Special breakfast with presents, BBQ with friends and treats on the beach, and Daddy's game..Busy busy and fun-filled. I am so excited for him to wake-up in the morning and see all of his treats! It took a ton of planning, but I think he will be very happy...And, he even gets a real party this year on the 17th....He is the apple of my heart and my little ray of sunshine!  More blubbering to come tomorrow of course!

Preston singing and doing nothing :)

La La La Elmo's World...and balloon blowing

P giving himself a pat on the back....

P loves playing games on our Kindle and apparently, he thinks he's pretty good.

His new favorite thing to do with our drinks. I guess backwashing has lost its fun.