6 posts tagged “prestyn”

See what I mean about trying to write?  I'm going to stop that now before anyone puts an eye out.  Instead, lets look at pretty pretty pictures together, shall we?

 

Thursday, Linz and I got to go to an exclusive bridal event at Hotel Derek.  I'm not having my wedding there, but I'm down for free hors d'oevures and martinis.  We practiced different wedding planning related gestures to use while talking about other things.  And we looked adorable and shadowy.

 

We had a couple of martinis and came back to my place to eat dinner before having a girls' night.  Getting ready is always fun.  Beware of flared nostrils.  They are massive and deadly.  Do not try this at home.

 

Ron took the obligatory pre-launch photo.  But Linz and I watch too much America's Next Top Model, so we were doing commercial, catalogue, and couture poses, while giving good neck and - of course - smiling with our eyes.  Shown here is couture.  (Linz is a national sternum and collarbone supermodel, clearly.)

 

Yes we're very silly.  But not quite as silly as Ron who was trying to attack me with a blood pressure cuff.  Sphygmomanometers: As fun to say as they are to play with.

 

We had a fun evening, which was much needed by all. My mom watched the kids for us, so Friday I watched them for her so she could recuperate.

Saturday, the girls and I went to the new park in downtown Houston called Discovery Green.  It's trying to be the Central Park of Houston.  It's usually really really fun, but it was pretty crowded on Saturday, and my little clones were too anxious to play very much.  They were however eager to smile pretty :)

 

We also got to check out these half sphere thingies (their technical name, of course).  Supposedly, one person sits in one, the other person in the other, and through some sort of sound wave trick, you can hear each other using normal voices even though they appear to be very far away.  Once we were there, I discovered the magical trick is proximity, as they're not all that far apart.  I was underwhelmed.  But they make for a nice picture backdrop anyway...

 

 

 

Sunday was church and babysitting.  Linz took Cayden to his first Astro's game and baby Prestyn stayed with us.  I've never gotten to take many pictures of her, so I indulged.  She is at an adorable age where she's just learned to clap and is quite proud of herself.  I love 10 month olds.  If I could give birth and have them instantly be this age, I'd have a dozen more.

 

 

 

 

She also has the prettiest eyelashes.  I'm not entirely unconvinced that she isn't hiding an eyelash curler in her crib matress and furiously crimping away during naptime.  She moves a ton so it's hard to capture the majesty of her eyelashes, but I gave it a good shot anyway...

 

 

 

I'm off to finish my weekend by cooking turkey spaghetti, playing Webkinz with the girls, watching the Simpsons, and trying to not think about all the wedding stuff I need to be thinking about.

In typical OCDWPT style (That's Obsessive Compulsive Disorder with Procrastinatory Tendencies.  Look for it in the DSM-IV in the Spring of 2009!), I planned the girls Christmas dresses, curled and style their hair, and generally just spent so long on getting them camera ready, that I lost any good available lighting and therefor had no Christmas pictures this year.  And on Christmas Eve (when we do our familiy get-together) I almost completely forgot to take pictures.  So I figured that I would not have any decent photographic representations of this, the happiest Christmas ever.

However.  Take 30mg Adderrall, add 44 oz of diet Coke, 2 Marlboro Ultra Lights and then sit in front of Photoshop CS3 for a few hours, and some of the pictures become quite passable....

 

Deceptively cute, aren't they?

 

 

The manic glee of Christmas which sets Avery in constant motion...

 

The pre-teen dramatic Christmas spirit of "Mom, I'm so over this photography crap. Can you get that thing out of my face now?"  (Does age 5 count as pre-teen?  'Cause the attitude sure as heck fits...)

 

 

We love our Mommy because she gives us presents!

 

We love our Gaga because she gives us cookies!!

 

 

My sister and her adorable family.  My nephew Cayden (age very very 2) was even nice enough to stop his head spinning around 360 degrees long enough for this picture.  It was a Christmas Miracle!

 

 

And the lovely Ron.  Dear, sweet, loveable Ron.  His superpower?  Complete inability to keep his eyes open for a picture.  For any picture.  Flash, no flash, posed, candid, anything.  He blinks.  I'm working on an animated GIF for those who don't beleive me.  It's adorable.  Most of the time.

 

And what's the most Christmasy shirt he could possibly ever wear?  Why, the Buddha shirt of course!  (We like it for the style, not for the religion, so you need not have an aneurysm Grandma.  I promise we're at church almost every Sunday...)  It's still fun to antagonize my mom though :)  And yes, even when he's not facing the camera, the eyes are still closed.

 

Hope all of you had a really fabulous holiday of your choice.  I miss you guys oodles and hope to be back in the swing of things by New Year.

I am the official master of the baby laugh.  Finally, after exhausting every trick in the arsenal, I got a real honest to goodness belly laugh out of Miss Prestyn.  The secret to extracting said laugh?  Tickling her ribs.  Like the easiest thing in my whole repetoire (or however you spell it) and I got a good dozen laughs out of her.  She is the sweetest chunk of baby.  She even indulged me with a photo shoot...

 

I finally got to babysit baby Prestyn last night.  She's two months old and this was the first time I got to actually watch her for an entire evening.  She is a beautiful little girl, and she's a teensy bit high maintenance, but in a good natured sort of way.  She just wants to be held and/or rocked constantly, but I mean really, who wouldn't want to cuddle this?

She's got the giant blue eyes that seem to run in the family and is starting to get that milkfed baby chub that is so addictive.  She's been smiling steadily for a couple of weeks now and all I do when I'm around her is try to make silly faces or look for her tickle spots so I can coax another smile out of her. 

After all the other kids went to sleep last night, she and I settled down to watch "The Devil Wears Prada" (because it's never too early to start learning about Jimmy Choo and Christian Louboutin) and we decided it was time to take it to the next level:  she is ready to laugh.  She goes a little cross-eyed, and purses the lips a little bit before trying to laugh, and all that comes out is a gurgle and then a coo, but we're working on it.  And I'm determined that it's me who she will laugh with the first.  Because that's the kind of thoughtful sister I am ;)

We worked on the laugh for just over an hour.  I was able to compile a pretty exhaustive list of things most like to make her laugh, and also things with which she was just NOT amused.  They are as follows, in descending order (from most to least funny).  Clearly, the bizarre sense of humor came included with the saucer like blue eyes.... (And you're welcome, Linz.  Aren't you glad I did all the work for you?)

10.  Being tickled by hair.  This was Allie's first laugh too.  It's more of a gasping, holding of breath reaction at first when you go nose to nose with her and your hair falls across her cheeks.  Then when you slowly pull away and the hair tickles her face, then she's good for a pseudo-laugh.

9.  Prodding of dimples.  She's got some right above her lip and they seem to be ticklish.

8.  Dancing to Britney Spears.  Her, not me.  I propped her up on the computer desk, navigated to my Myspace, and help her bob around to "Gimme More."  Because it's also never to soon to advocate the virtues of a good, catchy dance tune.

7.  Sarcasm and irony.  If only she could read, we'd be perusing McSweeneys.net together and smirking pretentiously.

6.  "Oooooh!  Aaaahhh!  Tskishfrumpowmaniklawmp!"  All of this must be squealed at decibles known to give dogs headaches. But whatever works...

5.  Knock knock jokes.  But only the ones crafted by my daughters, which include such gems as "Knock knock. Who's there? Banana?  Banana who?  Fishstick!"  See what I mean about the odd sense of humor?

4.  Belly raspberries.  That might have been a bit much sensory overload.  That got maybe a little smile, but it seemed to be a patronizing one like "Oh, aunt Ashley. Thanks for trying to make me laugh.  You're sweet."

3.  Blowing on her face.  This works for Lindsay, but didn't have quite the same effect when I did it.  I blame the Taco Bell I had just eaten.

2.  Dancing to Britney Spears.  Me, not her.  I do a spot on imitation, but she just wasn't feeling it.  Maybe by next month her tastes will have matured...

1.  Peek-a-boo.  This terrifies her and the only thing I'm rewarded with is a slow motion pucker face of distress and then a sqealing cry.  Which is still kind of cute, but not what I was going for...

See!  I really can finish a project!  Well, actually, it was just a pratice swatch so that I could learn increasing and decreasing.  When I finished, it was too long to be a Barbie halter dress, too wide to be a beer cozie, and too random to be a potholder. 

But, folded over, with the sides knit up, it became a perfect little purse with which the girls could play.  A couple of sadass tassles, and a badass pompom, and voila. 

However, when I showed it to my little sister, she thought it would make kind of a punk rock baby hat.  I think it looks like a jester mullet, but I held her to it and put it on my new niece.  It's only this adorable because of my niece, but I'm still taking orders if anyone wants their own babies to look like clowns with bad haircuts.  :)

 

 

 

 

 

My younger sister, Lindsay, delivered her daughter yesterday.  6 pounds and 5 ounces of sweet baby girl, and she shares my middle name, just as my eldest daughter shares my sister's.  Prestyn (I abhor the spelling and insist on pronouncing it "Preston" because trust me, I can tell the difference) is squishy and cries like a doggie squeak toy.  She's so tiny and delicate that it's hard to believe my floppy, clumsy Avery was even smaller when she was born. 

I've become Lindsay's personal, on-call lactation consultant, which makes me equal parts thrilled and frustrated.  Thrilled because I'm glad she wants to breastfeed as much as I want her too.  Frustrated because the hospital's answers to any breastfeeding questions are to offer a bottle of Enfamil.  I'll stop now before I dust off the old soapbox, but suffice it to say that I'm researching how to become a certified lactation consultant.  Methodist Willowbrook only has one, and she doesn't work nights or weekends.  You know, because babies are only born M-F, 8-5.

Ahem, all ranting aside, she is a beautiful girl, and I am a proud aunt (again.) 

I also wanted to mention that Prestyn was breech.  But her OB elected to do an external version (ECV) followed by an induction and it worked perfectly.  Had it not, she would have been delivered via c-section.  But Linz knew a few weeks out that she was breech, so she did some optimum fetal positioning exercises and stayed optimistic.  The version took about 3 minutes and Prestyn was born 5 hours after the Pitocin drip.  So any of you who might be breech and discouraged... have hope.  :)