Bond Family Blog

I can’t believe January is over already! It was so nice to be able to stay home and not have to travel anywhere. I feel like Preston is a different boy this month. He has been growing and changing in so many ways. The best accomplishment is that he is finally sleeping through the night! YEAH!!! He also is taking two naps a day, although he still fights them. Preston has also started to give hugs. We call them forehead hugs because he puts his forehead up to yours and that is a hug. It is so cute! It is nice that he is a little cuddly because he has not ever been a fan of cuddling. Preston also loves to be tickled. He cracks up and giggles and wants more. Preston has taken a few steps, yesterday he took four steps. It will be any day now until he is full on walking! I can’t believe that Preston is almost 10 months old! We are so excited to get to watch him grow. I am excited for this weekend because Ryan’s parents are going to babysit and it will be our first date since Preston was born. YEAH! We took some adorable pictures of Preston for Valentine’s Day. They turned out so good!

Today our baby is 9 months old. I can’t believe how fast time flies! Preston is such a loving baby who is always happy to smile and play. Right now his favorite game is chasing us around the house, or running away from us when we chase him. He also likes to play peek-a-boo. He is still walking along furniture and sometimes standing by himself. He is all of the place! He can get to the kitchen and open the drawers in a blink of an eye. He loves to read books… especially ones that have things to touch/feel on each page. He still fights his naps, but he is starting to sleep longer at night. He loves to play with everything, but his own toys. You’ll have to ask him what is so entertaining about dishtowels and cords. At the doctor he weighed in at 18 lbs 13 oz and 28 3/4 inches long. His head circ is 44.5. The doctor said that he is low on iron, so we have to start giving him an iron supplement every day (as well as normal vitamins) and we will have to go get his blood drawn the week before his 12 month visit. We are so blessed and grateful to have such a wonderful spirit in our home. We love you Preston!!!

After dinner on Christmas we got in the car and started our drive to Utah. We ended up making it there in 10 hours. Preston slept for most of the trip. It was a lot easier than trying to pack for the airplane! The next morning we opened presents with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Stephanie and Aimee.

The next day we got to open presents with Preston’s cousins, Sammy and Anna.

We got to see Great Grandma and Grandpa Lowe while we were there and got a good posed picture with them.

While we were in Utah it snowed for a couple of days. Preston got to go play in the snow and go for a sled ride with Sammy. Preston wasn’t quite sure what to think of the snow but he put up with it for the pictures.

We had a great trip to Utah and we headed back home late Saturday night. Preston was great for most of the trip. He had trouble sleeping, but he did have a tooth pop through on the 26th and we are waiting for the other one to pop through. He is so much fun to watch. He loves to play with everything and everyone. We are so blessed to have such a sweet baby to remind us of God’s sweet spirit. Merry Christmas to all! We are so excited for this new year and all of the fun and exciting things it will bring.

We had a wonderful Christmas here in Bakersfield. Preston was so excited to finally get to open one of the presents from under the tree on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning Santa brought Preston lots of fun goodies. Preston loved his new Radio Flyer Coupe car and he loved pulling things out of his stocking.

After we opened our gifts from Santa we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Bond’s. Preston got another stocking and a ton of toys. Ryan got a Kindle and a new flash for the camera. I got an awesome Cricut and a Gypsy full of all of my Mom’s Cartridges. We were so blessed to have so many people around us who love us. We all got spoiled this Christmas and Preston loved every minute of it.

We were able to squeeze in a short trip to Calm with Aunt Molly and Uncle Neil. Preston loved the train ride and getting to see his auntie.

I am sorry it has been so long since I posted. We have had a crazy month. Most of the month of December we spent being sick. Preston would get sick and pass it to me and then to Ryan. It went around about three times, ending with the stomach flu which we then managed to pass to a lot of the family. Luckily we are finally better and just in time. We were able to catch Santa Claus in the mall the week of Christmas. Preston was less than pleased, but you gotta love the first pictures with Santa.

I still can’t believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone! But I am so grateful for our family this year. Preston has been such a blessing in our life. It has been so much fun to watch him learn and grow. This year we hosted Thanksgiving at our house. Ryan’s family came over and helped us with dinner and played with Preston. I am so happy to have family so close and to be able to spend time with them. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!!

***WARNING*** This post contains a lot of photos. If you have slower internet make sure and give it time to load. Sorry I couldn’t help but to put them all up here!

We just got back from taking Preston on his first cruise. It was so much fun and he was such a good baby! On the 4.5 hour plane ride on the way there he slept for almost 2 hours and he just liked playing and eating puffs. He did pretty well with the three hour time change, although he didn’t sleep very well the first night in the hotel. On Saturday we got on an hour bus ride to Port Canaveral where we met Mickey Mouse waiting to get on the cruise ship.

It was so fun to see the ship all decorated for Christmas. Preston was very anxious of all of the characters and he even cried a few times. Chip sat down so Preston could sit on his lap but Preston was NOT interested. For the safety drill they gave us an infant life jacket for Preston to wear. So we put it on him and tried to carry him down to our meeting place. It was horrible to carry him! If you ever have to…make sure and wait to put your life jacket on until you are done carrying the baby.

The first day on the ship we got to go meet the people in the nursery that would be babysitting him and we also got to take him to play in the 3-4 year old zone. The 3-4 year old zone was decorated with Peter Pan. Preston had fun playing with us.

Our first night at dinner we were able to meet a great couple, Jason and Joann. They have a little daughter, Evey, who had just turned one. It was a lot of fun to get to know them and to watch the babies play together. At dinner it was a lot of fun to watch Preston eat and try new things. The first night we gave him a hard roll to nibble on and he fell asleep eating it. From then on he got a roll to eat at almost every meal.

The first island we went to was Disney’s Castaway Cay. It was a little windy, but a lot of fun. We went for a bike ride and then Preston got to play on the beach.

The next day we got to spend time just chillin on the boat. They have an area reserved for the little babies called the “Splash Zone” Preston loved getting to play in the water and crawling from one water to the next.

On Tuesday we went to Grand Cayman and I got to swim with the dolphins. That was an amazing adventure and I would totally do it again! It was cool to feel their skin and get to ride my dolphin “Darwin”.

The next day we went to Cozumel. Ryan and I were really tired and it was REALLY hot that we decided to skip our excursion to the Mayan ruins and just hang out on the boat. It was fun to see the shops and we even got Preston a fun name puzzle for his room. That night we had Pirate night on the boat. This is a big deal and they have a huge party up on deck after dinner.

On Thursday was another sea day and we got to enjoy a wonderful morning at the spa and then an evening in the adult resturant. It was nice to have some time for just us and to remember some of the things we did on our honeymoon.

Here on some of the many pictures of Preston and the characters.

The last morning of the cruise we got to have our character breakfast where we got to meet all of the characters and they even helped us dress up as characters.

Our last day on the cruise we got to go back to Castaway Cay. We went snorkeling and it was a lot of fun.

Overall it was a great cruise and Preston did so well for all of the places we drug him to. I am so glad that we went and that everything went so well. It was a very long trip home as our plane ride was 5 hours long. But Preston was coming down with a cold so he slept for over 3 hours of it so it wasn’t as bad as we were afraid of.

We bought Preston a new toy at the consignment sale last week. Here’s a video of him playing with it.

We took Preston to Disneyland for the first time on Halloween last weekend for Grandpa’s birthday. We drove down on Friday night and stayed in a hotel. Which was good because Preston was so excited he couldn’t sleep. He was up at 3:30. Ryan finally went and drove him around the parking lot and we finally got him back to sleep after 5. I was amazed how good Preston did at Disneyland for lack of sleep. He got to ride on a lot more rides then I thought he could. He went on Pirates and Winnie the Pooh and Haunted Mansion and Buzz Light Year. He had a lot of fun watching all of the people and seeing all of the sights. It was fun seeing all of the family!