Month: May 2012

Nothing like spending Mother’s Day with both of my best guys! (one not pictured here!)

Every parent, I’m sure, relishes in the moment their child learns how to hug. I know I definitely did those many months back when I could feel Theo giving me a tiny, baby hug. He gives the best hugs and I just thought I should write this down so I don’t forget years from now when he can’t stand giving his Mama a hug (tear, tear). Yesterday we were on the subway and he just leaned over and gave me the best hug. He does this thing where he pats you on the back several times while he’s hugging you. It’s adorable. And then today, I was doing the dishes, and he came up to my leg (which he does often), and gave me two big hugs. He walked away and then came back and gave two to my other leg. Even better is when he adds a, “Mama!”, to it. I just simply want to squeeze him to pieces. I say this all the time, and I guess it should be said all the time, I am so, so, so thankful that he is healthy and happy. Through the ups and downs of learning how to be a parent, and dealing with the struggles of a toddler, I can’t say that I would trade any of it. For that hug and that “Mama” and those smiles and giggles, I will take the challenges, as well.

I may have mentioned once or twice (or 53,752 times) my dislike for crappy weather. This week has been pretty gloomy. We always have to get a bit creative with activities when the weather is less than desirable. One morning we watched a movie, which he surprisingly watched for quite awhile, and one morning we had a fairly unsuccessful playdate over here with my mom friend, Tess, and her son, Declan. We enjoyed some neighborhood walks when it wasn’t raining, recycled some of Theo’s clothes, enjoyed our usual weekly singalong (even though Theo appeared to be more interested in the stairs and climbing around the cafe), took a brief trip to the Brooklyn Museum to see the new Keith Haring exhibit, and this morning we went to a fun (and most importantly, free!) tots yoga class with our friend Maddy and her little girl, Emma. Theo and I also squeezed in a pizza lunch date today with each other since I realized I left my coat and my keys! at the yoga studio and we had to walk all the way back to get them. Yay! All in all it was a good week, but (seriously), I am looking forward to sunshiny days ahead.

This is directly behind our building. In fact, right below our living room window, which gets annoying at times. We hardly go there for some reason. I used to take him down to the swings in the morning, after breakfast, before the babysitter would get here when I was working. This week has been pretty gloomy so it was actually nice to go down there and let him run around. The temperature wasn’t bad it had just been raining earlier. I ran out with him the post office and realized it was kind of nice outside so we stopped her for a quick run around before his nap.

I forgot to mention colors. He can identify blue, yellow, orange, and black so far. And last night it was my bracelets. When I was putting him in his crib, he shouted, “jewelry! jewelry!” (which is more like, “jewy”). I gave him two of my bracelets. And my brush. And he had monkey and bunny. Then he went night-night.

Obviously the boy is developing on a daily basis. His language has really expanded in the past couple of weeks. Many words have become more recognizable and his vocabulary has grown. He will repeat most things we say. I’d say he must know at least 50 words by now. My favorites of late are: cook, half, rug, sharp, hurt, fries. Besides doing the sign, he says the words, “all done!”, which I think is the first 2-word sentence he has spoken. He has been saying thank you for awhile but I’m not sure it counts because it’s more like, “thayoo”. He is getting close to saying, “I love you”, which of course I’m dying to hear. He will repeat it when I ask him to but it’s not quite there. He can identify many letters on his own, and he is starting to count a bit. Particularly he knows, 8, 9, 10. He can fill in the blanks on many songs that we sing, as well as in his books. It’s funny because you realize he has heard these stories and songs probably a million times by now, of course he knows them by heart! He can identify and say the characters from Sesame Street he sees often, Elmo, Abby, Bert, Ernie, Big Bird, and Grover, which I guess shows how much we have been watching Sesame Street in the mornings. 😉

Passing through security on the way to Cleveland, Theo’s beloved bottle became a casualty. He still loves his milk ONLY in a bottle. He gets a little after breakfast, a little before his nap, and a little before bed. When the security woman took it out of the insulated bottle thingy, and it was leaking all over the floor, I was speechless. “What are we going to do?” I thought! I really wanted that milk for the plane! And what about tomorrow on the bus?! Of course, I called Liz (Jay’s mom) right away to see if she could pick one up so that at least we would have one for the weekend. I didn’t think it would matter what kind of bottle she bought up so I told her to get whatever she could find at the pharmacy. See where I’m going with this? Who knew but our child refused all three(!) of the bottles we attempted to give him this weekend. I figured if he really wanted the milk he would drink it from another bottle. That was not the case. He acted the same he does when I try to give it to him in a sippy cup. Fortunately he didn’t give us much grief regarding the no-milk situation, he just refused it and then went about his business. This information is good to know for when we are ready to wean the big boy from his precious bottle. It would have been quite helpful to have that option in a few circumstances, though.

When Jay told me that I should pack two bottles, I balked at him… “I never pack two bottles. Why should I pack two bottles?!”