Preston's Loves

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P.S.

Pictures of the Week

This is what happens when Will dresses Preston for the day:

And this is what happens when Mom gets to choose the storytime book.

I didn't know it was a pig picture when I opened it up. Will told me that I was forever going to give our child a complex about his weight now. LOL.

Preston Hates the Violin.

It's true.

Our little 7 month old really hates that instrument.

I knew I should have practiced while I was pregnant. But nope. Piano concerts, piano lessons, piano practicing...all while he was in the womb with me. And he's been listening to the piano since day one after he was born. But completely devoid of the sound of the violin.

In fact, Preston knows what to do with a piano. He watches me play all of the time, and when I sit down with him on my lap he excitedly reaches out for the piano keys and starts pounding on them with his tiny fists.

But the violin? Yikes.

It all started a few weeks ago when we were in Yellowstone for Christmas...

I brought my violin, so I could help my niece, Mika, with her new violin that she got for Christmas.

Like I said, I hadn't really played in about a year. So Preston had never heard the violin before.

I kid you not, but this was Preston after I played for everyone.

At the time I thought it was funny and cute. "Maybe he just needs to get used to the sound of it" I said to Will.

Well, not so. He just plain dislikes it.

Aside from my 11 piano students, I now have one violin student, Chloe. She is 8 years old, very smart, and has a natural talent for the violin. Very easy to each and catches on really fast.

Today, as I was getting my violin tuned and warmed up before Chloe arrived for her lesson, I started playing some scales and a few songs to get my fingers warmed up. All of sudden Will and I hear Preston wailing from his crib (who, by the way, slept through ALL of my piano lessons today).

I stop. We look at each other and almost simultaneously say "He really does not like the violin."

So I'm simply convinced, either Preston really hates the violin, or I just really stink at playing it. LOL

Me 5 years old

7 years old

Playing in the 6th grade orchestra, as a 2nd grader

Will and I after my concert with the Oregon Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra

Album portraits

Just Another Normal Weekend at the Thomas House

My Mom and I worked more on our album...

Our living room was turned into a photography studio while Will got some portraits taken by my Dad (www.ronsouthworth.com) for his resume...

Pretty handsome, eh?

We went and bought Will a new suit (his first new suit in over 10 years)...

And then because it was strangely warm yesterday (55 degrees), we went to West Seattle and had a beach bonfire. But...it was a lot colder on the beach than at our house...

Driving across Lake Washington on the I-90 bridge to Seattle

Arriving at Alki Beach after just missing the sunset

Getting the little guy all bundled up...

Doesn't he remind you of the kid on "A Christmas Story"? Hahaha.

One happy (cold) family...

The End.

How Did I Get Here?

Tonight I sat in our running car in the grocery store parking lot with day-old makeup on my face, slippers (with no socks), my nursing bra only snapped on one side under a dirty shirt, a sleeping baby in the backseat...all while listening to Dalila on Seattle's Warm 106.9 soft favorites and waiting for Will (faithful husband, father, and movie-renter) to grab a free movie from the Red Box quiosk.

And the thought occured to me, "How did I get here?".

I suddenly thought back 5 years ago to when Will and I were dating, and I realized that there would be no way I would be caught sitting here with mascara dust under my eyes, a stinky shirt, sloppy bra, messy hair, and probably much more that I won't mention.

I probably would have had perfect makeup, perfect hair (most likely hot-rolled), wearing jeans that flattered my butt, a form fitting blouse that accentuated you-know-what, topped off with a few squirts of my favorite Ralph Lauren perfume Romance. I would be sitting there anxiously awaiting the first site of Will coming out of the store, knowing that it meant the long seperation of me waiting in the car and him in the store would soon end.

Oh my gosh. No. Actually, I'm wrong. I would have been in the store with him! Holding his hand, picking the movie out together, not wanting to miss one moment together.

And now here I sat, 5 years later, in the same car that we once made out in the backseat in the day I bought it, smelling like spit-up, feeling oh-so-flabbylicious with my 30 pounds of baby weight that I am still trying to shed.

I looked in the mirror and noticed, while looking past my sparkly wedding ring (the only classy thing about me today), that I hadn't really done my hair today. Ummm, I think I brushed it. Once. Maybe. What must my husband think of me??? It's Saturday right?

Just then Dalila interruped with her smooth radio voice and personality and she took a caller on the phone.

"And who is this?", Dalila asked.

"Cole." said he caller.

"And what can I do for you tonight?" Dalila asked in her famous s-l-o-w very enunciated almost sexy but warm voice.

"Well, " said Cole, "I'm sitting here having some bonding time with my new little son. My wife just gave birth to our first baby. I'm sitting here holding him and I am so in love.....so grateful...(you could hear the emotion in his voice). I just want to tell my wife that I love her SO SO SO much and I love our new little family."

And then as I blinked back tears because I always cry when I hear happy stories or sad commercials or movie trailers, it hit me.

Day old mascara = because instead of washing it off last night, my husband whisked me off to bed and then this morning he let me sleep in while he watched our little tyke.

Shoes but no socks = because Will wanted me to come rent a movie with him and I had no time for socks. Plus I hate socks. But that's not the point.

Extra 30 pounds = because my amazing body was healthy enough to make a tiny human and put my own needs aside and focus everything on doing that for 9 months.

Staying in the car instead of joining Will in the store = because my baby was sleeping in his carseat and he was too cute and too tired to wake up and bring inside.

Half-done-up nursing bra = I just provided a wholesome complete meal for my baby shortly before departing our house and forgot to snap my bra back up.

Dirty shirt = because part of that wholesome meal came back up.

Listening to "soft" romantic favorites = because hip hop, alternative, and punk just don't give me the positive warm fuzzy vibes that I like to feel while snuggly and sitting in a warm car at night with my sleeping baby. And besides, I like Dalila.

Sparkly diamond wedding ring on my finger = because that guy that I used to date and get all dolled up for I actually ended up marrying and couldn't have made a better decision in all my life.

And then, after realizing how I got here, I looked up to see my knight in shining armor running towards the car with a earband, jogging pants, a movie rental while exhaling steam into the freezing cold air because that's what he does. He lets me sit in the nice warm car while he battles the cold air and has no idea all of the huge long thought process I just went through and the amount of run-on sentences that would be a result of it in my next blog post.

Basically, all I really wanted to say is, I sure love that man. And...it's kinda obvious he loves me too.

Pictures of the Week

Does Preston remind you of someone else?

(above: Preston modeling his cool Hawaiin outfit that Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle James gave him for Chrismas from Hawaii)