Month: March 2012

Not ours… my friend Shia’s. She had a sushi making dinner party with me and our other Mom friend, Maddy, and our respective kiddos. It was really great. Theo partied and went to bed at 10pm!

Theo has been saying many new words lately. Some new ones I hear a lot are: walk, back, done, home. I noticed in the bath tonight he said a tougher word: turtle. I’m not sure really how many words he knows, and some of the time it’s hard to know exactly what word he is saying. We can usually figure it out because he is motioning to something or pointing at a picture in a book. He still says a lot of half words. He seems to struggle a bit with the enunciation. I’m sure this will improve with time. Today I grabbed his Book of Hugs book (one of our favs!) and for the first time he said, “hug-sss”. Sort of like that, if that makes sense. And then he leaned over and hugged me. He gives hugs often and will usually do so when prompted, “can Mama have a hug?” But, it was something about him saying the word with just seeing the book, and then hugging me, which made me absolutely melt.

We have also been big on the please and thank you’s lately. He knows the signs for both so it is so wonderful to hear/see him using these. As soon as I say, “are you ready for your milk?” He looks at me, does the sign, and says, “plhheashe!”

Theo has also become more oppositional (he is loving the word, no!) these days and we have definitely had a tough time sharing with other friends. Jay and I are trying to talk a lot more about sharing at home because honestly I didn’t think about it very much. I hope he can get better at with more exposure and modeling of it at home. I think he also is just having a tough time not being able to understand/express his emotions. He is a sweet boy at heart so I can’t imagine he is just a bully. Although he had no qualms pushing a 5 yr old away from our bubbles on the playground the other day! He struggles a bit with transitions (getting in the stroller, coming up the stairs to go home, getting out of the bath) so we are working on our parenting skills in that department, too. More options and things to (hopefully) excite him enough on the other side. He very much enjoys playing with toys quietly on his own, for now anyhow. He loves his guitar.

One last thing! He is obsessed with his rubber duckie right now. He sleeps with it!

Theo and I were in Cleveland last week for a bit. Unfortunately we went back for a funeral of my dear friend’s father. I’m glad that I was able to be there to support my friend and to attend the service. It was pretty emotional and my heart goes out to them every day.

It was nice, however, to get to have some extra family/friends time. Theo and I stayed with my Dad and Sherry the whole time so they really got some quality time with Theo every day. Theo loved staying there, too. All day long he walked around saying, “Papa! Papa!” And Theo just loved the cat (Moses) and the dog (Cassie). He would run around meowing and barking. The weather was AMAZING so it was fabulous to play outside and just be out and about. My Dad took us to the playground at the JCC. That place is awesome. Will definitely take Theo back when we visit in the summer. We spent a day with Jay’s parents (westside lunch, turtle park, tommy’s!) and a BBQ at my Mom’s with my sister and my nieces, and we also got to visit with some friends that I don’t see often. Here’s a video…

And photos…

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That’s all I need for our walk! People may not find this as funny and cute and Jay and I do but give it a whirl…

This unseasonably warm weather in NYC rules. As most people know, I’m not much of a cold weather gal. Most of all, give me sunshine and I’m happy. In the past week we have had many trips to the playground, visited the Prospect Park Zoo, and, today, we visited the Brooklyn Botanic Garden with a couple friends. We are so lucky to live within walking distance of all of these places!

I’ve been hanging out with a few new Moms lately, so that has been cool. I met them through the Prospect Heights playgroup that I went to a couple times. And my other Mom friend, Maddy, recently lost her job so Theo gets to play with Emma more these days, too. Theo was having a tough time sharing at the BBG this morning and he mean mugged his new friend, Declan. I guess we should be implementing time-outs now according the pediatrician and what I’ve read (which we haven’t really done, yet). Setting more limits and teaching more consequences for bad behavior. We certainly do this at home to an extent. And, honestly, Theo has been a pretty darn good boy. This feels like my first really BIG lesson in parenting. Like, as in, this has serious repercussions for his whole future. Will he respect others? Will he respect rules and boundaries? Will he communicate well with us and with others?

Unfortunately, tomorrow Theo and I are heading to Cleveland for yet another funeral. My dear friend Kristen’s Dad passed away unexpectedly so I’m going home to be there. We will make somewhat of a little trip out of it so we can spend time with friends and family.

Well, his doctor said he looks 2 1/2. He’s a tall one. Nearly 35 inches and off the charts for his age group. His weight is still average. He’s 25 lbs, 5 oz (46%). He hasn’t gained much since his well visit in Dec but she said he gained a lot from Sept – Dec so maybe he’s just plateaued. I think he’s been eating much better so I’m not worried about his weight and she didn’t seem to be either. He had his first round of his Hep A immunization. We are still skipping Hep B and Varicella (chicken pox), for now anyways. I had to complete an autism test for Theo. Basically just answered 20 some questions pertaining to his development. He got 100%! That was a good feeling.

We talked a bit about his bottle obsession (will not drink milk from anything except his bottle). She, of course, said it’s fine as long he’s not drinking too much milk to interfere with his meals. I’m going to stop worrying that he’s too big to have his milk in a bottle. He only gets a few ounces after breakfast, before his nap, and before bedtime. He just demands it in a bottle 😉 whereas everything else he drinks in a sippy cup. Anyways, he is eating a lot more fruit on his own these days… bananas, apples, pears, blueberries in oatmeal, grapes… and his diet has stayed pretty much the same for awhile. Still loves to devour beans and avocado, broccoli, eggs, oatmeal. He likes to dip things more, which is fun. Rice cakes in hummus, chips in salsa, or fries in ketchup. He eats a fair amount of fake meat (black bean burgers & chicken tenders), whole grain pasta, cheesy bread (as we call it), vegetables other than broccoli. Jay has tried to give him meat and he puts it back on his plate or says, “no!” Although, he does like bacon.

Theo loves to see planes fly overhead and he still loves to play with his guitar, read books, point to stuff in his books and name it or make sound, climb everything, see dogs and cats, play with cars/wheels, kiss everything, play peekaboo behind the couch… He is pointing to things much more that he used to and waving bye-bye a lot. I think many kids do that a lot sooner but, well, he’s doing it a lot now. He says new words often and it’s so exciting. He was holding his fork the other day and saying something and then I looked at his fork and it has stars all over it. He was saying, “sta”. Still says most words halfway, or just in an way that I can comprehend but maybe not everyone would. Once you see he’s playing with a car and saying, “wee”, you usually get the picture he’s saying wheel.

He’s napping 2 – 3 hours/day, usually, and sleeping from about 7/7:30 – 6:30/7. Save for the occasional 6am, when I usually want to die. It’s only a half hour, but boy does it make a difference! He’s the sweetest!

Grandpa Joe paid us a visit the past few days. It was nice to have some company and for Theo to get to spend some quality time with him. He is definitely at the age where he remembers our family much, much better now, despite the distance. He seemed to really have an amazing time with Joe and was comfortable and I think quite attached. They had some solo playground time, Jay and I got to go out to a wedding reception on Sunday night (worry free), and Theo, Joe, and I spent yesterday out and enjoyed lunch at Chavella’s – a most delicious, local Mexican restaurant that we love. Theo was adamant about sitting on Grandpa Joe’s lap. It was very sweet. Did I mention Jay and I got to sleep until 8:30 both mornings?? We did, and it was glorious.

Theo is 18 months today! His well visit is tomorrow so I will have lots of updates then. He is growing and learning so much it’s amazing.