It's Been A Long Time

Well, it has been a long time since I have updated this so I will try to summarize the last 2 months. Anyway, this year started out much like last year. I got laid off and then I got sick. Sounds bad, I know, but it's not. Unlike last year, this time I have someone to occupy my time; however, he still doesn't speak English.

Since the middle of January, I have been pretty busy hanging out with the lil' man. Not a whole lot has happened, but we have had some fun. My parent's came up the last weekend of January. Unfortunately, they were only able to spend a night, but it was still wonderful to see them. Preston, of course, gave them a show, and they enjoyed every minute of it.

February started off slow, but that didn't last long. Preston and I started going to the singing group we went to in the summer. Roman is going to try to join us when he can. Last weekend we went up to Long Island for our nephew's Christening. We left Friday and stayed until late afternoon Sunday. We had a great time, and it was wonderful to see Daniel again. He is in the process of leaving the infant phase and moving on to the cute baby phase. He was cooing and smiling up a storm. It was also amazing to see how Preston and Daniel interact. Preston constantly wants to touch, or should I say take toys from, Daniel, and Daniel just watches Preston. I remember Preston at that age, and he was so interested in other babies/toddlers/kids. Anyway, Friday night we had a nice dinner with Lesha, Lyon, Lesha's parents and Roman's parents. On Saturday we hung out at the house most of the day. Roman's parents, Roman, Preston, and I took a late afternoon stroll on the boardwalk and then meet Lesha's parents, Lesha, Lyon and Daniel for dinner Saturday night. Sunday was the Christening, and then we headed home.

All in all, we have had a good couple of months. Now if the weather would just warm up.

It Was A Wiinderful Christmas

I guess now that the Holidays are officially over, I should update this site. This Christmas was a wonderful Christmas. It was the first time in a long time that I was extremely excited for Christmas day. Even though Preston has absolutely no idea what Christmas is all about, it was still so exciting knowing that this was our first Christmas with a little boy. And, that every Christmas after this is going to be more and more amazing.
We spent this Christmas with my family in Virginia Beach. We came down a week early because I had a baby shower for one of my girlfriends from High School. The same night of the shower my brother, sister-in-law, and their 2 boys, Jordan and Lee, came from Wilmington, NC so that we could celebrate Christmas with them. Monday night, the 22nd, was the Fentress Family Wiinderful Christmas Celebration. My sister and her family, my Grandfather, my Uncle Jimmy, and my Aunt Sally and her family all came over for the crazy celebration. Now, when I was a child, we had to wait until the adults had eaten dinner before we opened presents. Then we had to wait until everyone had their dessert before we opened presents. Then we had to wait until the adults had their coffee and talked about meaningless stuff before we opened presents. Honestly, by the time we opened presents, I was so exhausted from the anticipation and from the constant nagging that it was almost hard to tear through the boxes like a complete animal. However, that is not the case anymore. My mother let my 4 nephews and Roman and I open our gifts from them before we even sat down for dinner. My parents had bought all of us Wii's, Wii Fitness and the Snowboarding game. Then my dad surprised my mother by giving her an early Christmas present, which just happened to be a Wii. Needless to say, everyone was very excited. My nephews were so excited that they didn't even eat dinner that night. The 4 of them monopolized the game until late in the evening. When I woke up the next morning, they were still playing. A boy's attention span for a video game truly amazes me.
Christmas Eve night my parents, Uncle Jimmy, Granddaddy George, me, Roman, Preston and Paddington all went over to my sister's for dinner and presents. My sister and her husband made an amazing dinner. After dinner Gunner and Tyler, my sister's boys, opened the rest of their gifts from my parent's. We all hung around the house for a little while longer and then called it a night.
Roman and I woke up Christmas morning to Preston babbling in his crib. Even though we knew he would have no idea what was going on, Roman and I were still excited to know that our first child was about to celebrate his first Christmas. The Christmas morning tradition in my parent's house is that you have to wait upstairs until my parents are downstairs in the den with their cameras out and ready before you can come down. This year Roman got to go downstairs with my parents so that he could take the first picture of Preston on Christmas morning. I'll have to say, Preston was more excited in Christmas than I thought he would be. My parent's gave him a dump truck that he can ride, push and pull, and that gift was a totally hit. He spent a decent amount of Christmas morning riding around on it. Between that and a musical tool bench that Santa gave him, Preston kept himself pretty busy until nap time.
We did not do much Christmas day. Preston ended up taking almost a 3 hour nap so we hung around the house and relaxed. When Preston woke up, Roman, my mom, Paddington and I took Preston for his first trip to the park. The weather was beautifully almost the entire time we were in Virginia Beach, and Christmas was no exception. Preston didn't seem too interested in the slide, but he did enjoy the swing. That night after we put Preston down, Roman, my dad, my mom and I had a Wii bowling tournament. It was girls vs guys, and it was a tight race. The guys ended up winning, but my mom gave a heck of an effort for the girl's team. On top of that, I learned where all of the Fentress bad sportsmanship comes from... my mom. She was rubbing her score in my dad's face the entire game. I just hope the two of them can play nicely once everyone is out of the house.
We left my parent's house Friday afternoon, and headed back to Baltimore. Roman's friend, Billy, and his family were in town that night so we decided to meet up with them. So... when we got to Baltimore, we quickly unpacked, ate, feed Preston, showered, repacked and then hopped back in the van so we could drop Preston off with Roman's parents and then head out to meet up with everyone. The next day, Roman's brother, his wife and their new baby, Daniel, came down to Bethesda for the Hardgrave Christmas Celebration. Daniel had grown so much since the last time we saw him. And, once again, Preston was very interested in this little baby. Roman even said that he sensed that Preston was a little jealous when one of us was holding Daniel. That night the Sibleys came over for another crazy Holiday Party. This visit was not AS crazy as the Thanksgiving visit, but it still had it's moments.
The next day we exchanged our presents with Roman's side of the family. Preston once again made out like a bandit, but that wasn't the best part of the day. Preston clapped for the first time while opening gifts. Everyone was clapping for him, and he just got super excited and started clapping with us. Seeing a 9 month old smiling and clapping was the best way to end Christmas. This year has been an amazing year, and I am sad to see it come to an end.