Month: December 2011

It has been a great holiday season in Brooklyn this year. I moved away from Cleveland in 1998 so I’m pretty sure this was the first time in about 13 years that I stayed in one place. We definitely missed family, friends, and certain traditions that each of our family’s do each year but I don’t regret our decision to stay in Brooklyn to have our first solo Christmas with just our little family.

We got a Christmas tree for the first time living in our apartment – we’ve been here for 7 years. It was my first time getting, and decorating, a Christmas tree. I only bought one strand of lights, and Jay picked up some garland for good measure, and we popped a silly crown on top.

It really added warmth and coziness to our already cozy home. Theo, of course, loved the lights. We left this thing on practically 24/7. We had an abundance of gifts under the tree for Theo, and some for us. I can’t thank our family enough for filling us with such sweet treats. Theo got clothes, pajamas, bath toys, a barking dog, a singing Elmo, a guitar, lots of books, a fish!, and other great toys.

Our Christmas Day was perfect. We opened gifts in the late morning while sipping coffee (spiked with just a little Bailey’s!), and afterwards I made pancakes. After Theo’s nap we headed to our local playground for the Menorah lighting.

They had a whole thing going on there… donuts, menorah making with marshmallows and other strange food items, and “latkes”. I put this in quotes because they were actually tater tots. I thought these Chabad people were the serious Jews? Was I missing something? Anyways, after a bit of playing, and me getting cold, we headed to Chinatown for our Vietnamese Pho dinner. It’s called Pho Bang and it’s my favorite.

It will be a rare occurrence for us to have another Christmas like this one. Having three solid days of just the three of us was so special and so important. Jay has been working so much these days, we needed it. Here’s to a healthy and happy New Year to all of our family and friends. We couldn’t survive without your love and support. I know Theo feels the love from us and from everyone and that just makes me so happy and grateful. Happy New Year!

A good old-fashioned Chinatown Christmas…

Theo is endlessly intrigued by his reflection in the mirror. We have a full-length mirror on the back of our bedroom door and he likes to duck down and pop back up to see himself in the mirror. He dances around and giggles at himself. It’s great to watch. He is also big into repeating these days, which means I really need to watch what I say! If I let out a big sigh, he will repeat it exactly as I did it. In pitch and length, too. This morning I was talking to Jay and said, “wow!”, Theo followed suit.

Jay got Theo a pet fish. His name is Fred and Theo is very happy with him. We feed him little food pellets and do fish face to him.

Our friend, Anthony, took some pictures of us recently. I want to make sure we have some decent family pictures taken of us each year. I’m usually just snapping pics and video of Theo and we hardly getting any taken of the three of us. I’m putting together a slideshow and I will share it very soon!

Today Theo walked all the way home from our morning singalong with Lloyd from The Deedle Deedle Dees. It’s about 7 blocks. And then he walked up our 3 flights of steps, too. He will hold my hand a little bit and he is getting good at just walking beside me. We were careful at crosswalks, of course.

I forgot to mention how much he likes to shake his head no. Especially when he does something he isn’t supposed to do. Such as, throwing his food on the floor, or sucking on his washcloth. I’m not quite sure whether he understands to say no when I ask him a question but he knows it’s a sign that he is doing something he shouldn’t. He also has 6 teeth and a new molar coming in that I just noticed yesterday! His teeth have been coming very slowly. His sixth one was the first to sprout a few weeks ago since his 1st birthday three months ago. And now the molar. I’m afraid there will an explosion soon.

Theo had his 15 month check-up today. He weighs 25 lbs, 5 oz (62%). His weight percentile actually doubled since his last visit 3 months ago. His height is 33 in (94%). This is the same his height was 3 months ago so we think it must’ve been incorrect last time (we did it over 3 times today). It did seem crazy that he had grown 4 in in 3 months at the 12 month visit. Either way, he is a tall boy and all is looking really good. He had the boosters for the Pentacel (DTaP, IPV, HIB) and the Prevnar (meningitis) vaccines today. Two shots right in the thigh simultaneously… yikes! A lot of vaccines for one day. He did well, though. I could tell he knew something was coming. He let out a big cry and then the red-face, silent cry and he was better a couple minutes later. I showed him how to lick a lollipop afterwards and, of course, he just thinks it’s funny. He kept giving it to me to put in my mouth. He tasted it and made a crazy face.

These days he is really active and excited about many things. He LOVES looking at books and having them read to him. He demands I read to him often. He brings books to me and puts them on my lap and motions to read. He loves to play the game, “where’s Theo?”. He runs around and hides and peeks around the corner, or the couch. He does this thing where he tilts his head to the side. It’s adorable. He also does that for, “uh-oh!” when he drops something. Of course he thinks it’s a game. In addition to milk, more, and please, he knows the signs for book, water, and sleepy. Some new words he can say are: book, bottle, baby, monkey. Pretty much everything, except Mama, Dada, Papa, and Yia Yia he only actually says the first half of the word but you know what he is talking about. He grabs his monkey (which is his lovey and he is absolutely obsessed with) and holds it up with pride and says, “Mon!”, while walking around the apartment. He kisses him and brings him over to anything (like my leg, the couch, the floor) and lays down on him in a snuggle. It’s really charming.

He loves animals and making their sounds and seeing them at people’s houses or on the street. He has animal magnets on the fridge that get a lot of play time. He likes musical instruments and listening to music and dancing. Also playing with cars. Pretty typical, I guess.

He has transitioned to one nap, although some days he still takes two. He sleeps about 11 – 12 hours at night. He is asleep between 7 – 7:30pm and up between 6:30 – 7:30am. Sometimes he still gets up during the night (around 4 or 5) and we bring him into bed with us but I have stopped nursing him during the night. He still nurses a little in the morning but I think this will end soon.

We are so happy to see such a thriving, happy, and healthy boy. I am thankful everyday for him.