Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Memories with Nephew Preston

The time we spent with our nephew Reed this past weekend had me thinking a lot of our nephew Preston.

In case you haven't been following this blog for very long -- my brother has three children, the oldest being Preston.

He was born just one month before I turned 15-years old.

A lot of the people in my life are amazed to see me with children. Especially, those I worked with in news. Maybe it's because I was/am intense and have/am very career driven, I don't know.

But.. I DO have experience with kids and do KNOW what I'm doing. Believes it or not.

A lot of that has to do with having nieces and a nephew when I was young. I babysat, took them to do things, etc.

Especially my nephew Preston. I was about to enter my 10th grade year when he was born.

Check this picture below out.
Love the shirt or what?
Me and my bestie(to this day),Rebekah, had just gotten back from seeing Miss Teen USA in Biloxi, MS when Preston was born.

The point of this post? To document some of the more funny stories about my time with Preston throughout the years.
He is 20-years old now.

Funny stories:

When he was 2 1/2 and 3-years old I would take him on road trips with me(by myself)back and forth from Arkansas to Louisiana and vice versa.

* He didn't like his car seat and would always unbuckle himself and next thing I knew he would be standing in between the seats. I would yell "Get back in your seat! The cops are going to come and arrest us!". He would laugh and I would have to pull over and buckle him back up. This would happen every 2-hours. Frustrating.

* Preston has/is obsessed with the drums. Yes, he currently has his own band and back in the day we knew he was going to be a musician. At this time in my life I was all about Boston and Steve Miller.
I would blast my tapes and give him 2 plastic straws from McDonalds and he would jam out the whole trip. We had the best time. He especially liked that song Shooting Star and would yell "Play it again Aunt NeNA!"

* Another time I stopped in a ghetto town on the border of La and Ark to let him run around on the playground. Some kid called him fat and I'm not even going to elaborate the name he chose to call the kid back. When I heard it we ran to the car and got the hells bells out of there. HA!..NOT!

Melts my heart to think of those days.

* Another story when he was around 5 or 6-years old includes a day trip to Little Rock. My friend Piper went with us and we took him to a place called Discovery Zone. It was a sort of indoor playground. He had a blast. Afterwards we went to eat at TGIFridays and he was super hyper.
I'll never forget he decided to act like an airplane in the middle of the restaurant and twirled IN circles and yelled. When we told him to stop he cried and threw a fit. I must have been 19 at the time? I was DONE.DONE.DONE.
This is when I knew I wasn't cut out to be a Mom anytime soon. HA!

* Here's a picture of his 8th birthday when I took him to NOLA for the day. We went to the Riverwalk and the Aquarium of the Americas. We also did the Riverboat ride to the Audubon Zoo.
He LOVED it! Special time.

* His 13th birthday was one of the first years I lived in Charlotte. He came and stayed with me for a week. We did the local amusement park, 4th of July in DC on the Capitol Lawn then I took him to Charleston, SC and proceeded to show him all the historic stuff there.

Before the Charleston stint I gave him $40 to spend on whatever he wanted. Drinks, toys, whatever.
Well, he lost $20 of it.
He couldn't find it but wanted me to buy things for him. I scolded him and told him how I was disappointed in him.
He was totally mad at me. Pouted and sulled.
When we got home I washed his clothes and the $20 washed out of his pockets.
He was ecstatic!
Lesson learned.

* Preston has always been my LSU fan buddy.
For as long as I can remember we have called each other and now text during the games. He gives me score updates when I'm not in an area where I can see the game.

At our wedding he and I were the first to run to the dance floor when they played the fight song.

Here we are at the LSU vs. Arkansas game in 2007.

Such a great kid. Brad has only met him once, at our wedding. We need to get down to Louisiana and vice versa.

I love this kid and am very proud of him! It's time to spend more time together! HOLLA!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

that was the sweetest post! i love family! from 1 "cool" aunt to another, YOU ROCK!!!

donatelli98 said...

I have tears in my eyes Dee! That was such a sweet post!! Makes me miss my niece and nephews so much. I have a relationship like yours with one of my aunts who was 13 when I was born! Awesome!! BTW - nothing wrong with being career driven and having children - I think you would make a fabulous mom and a great example to your children!!

The Jones Family said...

VERY sweet post! I hope you get to spend more time together soon!

I Do Declare said...

Ok, I have to ask b/c of the t-shirt- Where you in Miss Teen USA?!

Dee said...

Aww I was the same way with my nephew when he was a baby! We're not so close now (his choice) but my niece and I have been getting a lot closer and I'm loving it. Even though she's 26 and has three kids...I still love my time with her.

Nikki said...

Those were the sweetest memories ever! I wish my Sister would let me road trip with my Nephew. She won't even let me take him to the zoo!

Unknown said...

Look at the latest pic of your lil nephew with his sweetie!! and me with mine!! Reading this really touched me, brought tears to my eyes, I have to admit. Great writing your almost as good as me, LOL!!! Post it I will send it to you!! he is really a good man and I am the luckiest father to have my son as my best friends. He has done more for me over the years than any man at forty could ever hope for. For all who read this he and I always tell every one three things that some up our relationship. We are father and son first, best friends second, and we are like brothers. I have only my wonderful sister Deanna (my only sibling) and Preston. I hope that all of you may experience a child like him. I love my duaghters they are my little girls and we have a father daughter relationship. Prestons a boy and if any of you ever get to spend time with him you will understand why he is a special young man. Thank you sis for this wonderful blog love you. -WES Dee's big bro

DSS said...

What a handsome young man! Your road tripping stories with him had me in stitches :)

starnes family said...

Caroline is like this with my kids. So very special!!!!!!

Love that first picture.

Alayna said...

good kid - I hate that the kiddos live far from us in Arkansas.