Month: July 2012

We went away this past weekend to our friend’s family beach house in LBI, NJ. We have gone once a summer for the past four years, I think. It’s great because they have a 2 year old, and also now a newborn baby. They also live in our neighborhood now so Theo and Sam have become little friends. It was a nice little getaway. We had considered going on a camping trip that same weekend but decided to just do the beach since we couldn’t really do both with Jay’s work schedule and our other upcoming trips.

Theo is a bit scared of the ocean. I’m not surprised. He loves swimming in pools but, as I’ve mentioned, he’s not too keen on the sprinklers and I think anything so big and vast is a bit overwhelming to him. We saw dolphins! They were a bit far out but you could really see their fins coming up. We talked a lot about the animals that live in the ocean and Theo really connected that the ocean is where these creatures live. He will tell you all about seeing the dolphins and who lives in the sea. We spent some time digging in the sand and mostly hanging out at the beach house on the deck with toys and a baby pool. Theo and Sam played quite well together, minus a couple sharing/biting incidents (on Theo’s behalf!). Sam is much more docile than the bruting Theo. Here are some photos from our weekend.

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They had communal hula hoops in the picnic eating area at the Pop-up Pool, which was great while we were waiting for our veggie burger and chips. Theo loved it! He was giggling like crazy.

Yesterday looked as though it was going to be the best day all week. Beautiful blue skies and low humidity. I decided to venture down to the Brooklyn Bridge Park waterfront at Pier 6 to take Theo to the Water Lab (tons of sprinklers and rocks and fun things to play with). Going on a weekday morning was such a joy compared to other weekend visits.

There are also lots of swing and slides and a huge sandbox down there that we have yet to experience. It’s a fairly quick bus or subway ride to get there so it definitely takes a bit of planning and energy. I figured we would just go for an hour or so, grab some lunch down there (they have an awesome rooftop deck with food), and then head back to get him home for nap time. Once we were down there, I saw signs and was reminded about the new Pop-up Pool at Pier 2.

I decided we would throw caution to the wind and have an adventure day. After all, it’s summer and I want Theo to experience all the great things he possibly can. After some time at the Water Lab, we headed down to Pier 2 – about a 10 minute walk. They are renovating the entire waterfront down there and it is going to be insane. With a ton of park space, soccer fields, and much more. Of course, once I got there I learned of the oh-so-typical NYC process of actually getting in the pool. Just go and swim all day? Nah! Pool access is completely free, but divided into 45 minute sessions. Sooo, in order to get into a session, you must first get a wristband. For instance, we got there at 11am and was told that they give out the next batch of wristbands at 11:25am for the 12:00-12:45 session to the first 60 people in line. It wasn’t very crowded considering so we hopped in the line to wait for our wristband. Once we got them we had just enough time to grab some lunch from the food stand (they even had veggie burgers!) and get us ready for the noon session. Theo was a trooper. He loved playing in the sand while we waited for our turn in the pool. How cool is this with the city as the backdrop?

Now that I know the deal we will time it better next time and cut down on our wait a bit. Theo was VERY anxious and excited to get in that pool. He kept pointing and shouting, “pool! pool!”. As seen here waiting in line for the wristband.

We had such a nice time swimming around. And, honestly, the 45 minute session was all we needed. We changed, cleaned up, and hit the road and he was asleep in the stroller within minutes. I took advantage of the time and stopped at Trader Joe’s for good stuff and then walked us all the way home! Needless to say, I was beat! Parenting a toddler in Brooklyn is exhausting and amazing at the same time.

We had a visit from Liz and Hank this past weekend. Theo really enjoyed some quality time with them. He was running around a lot saying, “Pahankie!, Pahankie!”. We had an awesome trip to the Bronx Zoo on Saturday, that was paired with probably the best weather day NYC has seen in awhile (probably 80 and sunny and zero humidity). We had some good old fashioned playground time, ordered in delicious Greek food, ate fancy pizza out at great new restaurant in the neighborhood, and had fresh Maine lobster at the Red Hook Lobster Pound!

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Come on… do kids get much cuter than this?!

Jay discovered a secret little gem just around the corner from one of our usual playgrounds. It’s actually PS 9, a local elementary school, but it’s open all day to the public when school isn’t in session. So now is a perfect time to enjoy the lack of other kids and parents. I do normally like to socialize, and give Theo the opportunity to socialize, but sometimes you just want some quiet playground time! Hard to come by in this highly populated, concrete jungle. Theo had a chance to play around with an older kids basketball, which he thoroughly enjoyed. It was hot as heck (you can see how rosy his cheeks are) when I took these so we didn’t stay very long. We had to head out to the sprinklers to cool off…

Theo has become very excited about sitting on our kitchen counter, and on our bathroom sink. It started back when I began making him daily smoothies. He sits up there and helps me put in the ingredients and then presses the button when it’s time to blend. He absolutely loves helping Mama with this event. Sitting in these places is, of course, not desirable (or very safe) places for him to sit unsupervised. But, I have been known to let him play a little bit in the kitchen sink lately with the water (especially if it helps him enjoy doing the whole hand washing thing when we get home). He LOVES to fill things up with water and pour it out over and over again. He will also play a bit on the bathroom sink, when allowed. He points his finger to either counter top and says, “sit!” And he means business. I snapped a couple shots of him recently enjoying this time that he knows is often quite limited.

Post-nap juice with “monk” and “hop” joining in on the fun.

Water-fun-time in the kitchen.

Sneaking in some Spiderman toothbrush time on the bathroom sink.

Theo loves our weekly trips to the laundromat. I can’t say I share his joy, but I am really, really glad that we live a block away from a big, fun one that can entertain him when we clean stuff. They have a race car game, those cheap-o machines that give you gumballs and odd toys, vending machines, and that game with the crane where you can win a stuffed animal. Usually we load up the washing machine and then take off for the playground, or something else, and then come back to put everything in the dryer. Often we stay for this part, and then load up and out for folding at home. It’s usually easier then folding while also trying to watch him. Although, now that he has gotten a bit older, he loves to help and usually sticks close by when I’m folding. Yesterday a huge thunderstorm ensued, so we were stuck there. We made the best of it. Here is Theo watching his beloved “monk” and “hop” get clean. He was so excited to see them spinning around.

And here is his Elmo “Riverdance” impersonation. He recently saw a Sesame Street episode where Elmo was doing just that.

I forget so much when I’m writing, and then I’m reminded of the sweet little nothings I want to hold onto forever. Like how much Theo likes to kiss his lovey, “monk”, and his stuffed bunny, “hop”. He makes them kiss each other now and that is just sweet. Today he even let his very large stuffed shark kiss monk-monk. He likes to kiss his own boo-boo’s, as well as Mama’s boo-boo’s.

Today we saw a rainbow in the water sprinklers at the playground and he just kept shouting, “raybow!”. We watch a video of the song, Rainbow Connection, featuring the fabulous Kermit, so he has gotten excited about rainbows lately… and also banjo’s. If I mention Kermit, or a rainbow, he also shouts, “banjo!”. He has this special expression that comes out when he is super excited. He clinches his fists together, and holds them out in front of his body, while also making this amazing happy face.

I was reading about development at his age from the BabyCenter email I get each week and it said he should be saying things like, “me do it!”, really asserting his independence and becoming much more self-aware. He is definitely asserting his independence, just not quite in that manner. He likes to push my hand away forcefully when I try to help him with something that he does not want my help with. He even leans into me and says, “push”, when he is trying to get Mama away. Theo definitely knows exactly what he wants and he is not shy about it. He is the sweetest little muffin and then in the blink of an eye he can flip a switch and flail around in protest. Fortunately for us, these situations seem to be pretty short-lived when they do occur. But boy can he scream his head off.

Today on the tire swing. I mean, look at the face? It’s hard to believe he’d ever cause me to pull my hair out, right? Ha! Love him so much.

We spent a lot of time in Brooklyn backyards this past week, which is pretty rare. Over the weekend we went to two backyard picnics at friend’s houses, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. The photo above was taken from Jay’s co-workers backyard space. It was really nice and had lots of trees. They live in a 3 floor building and the backyard is shared amongst those tenants. There was a puppy there for Theo to admire. Theo loves dogs but he is still a bit apprehensive as far as petting and playing. He more likes to talk about it, and bark, and say, “doggy”. He flinched near the puppy and then knocked over a small table with plastic plates and cups crashing to the ground. He was a bit startled and a little scared of the doggy after that. Then on Sunday we went over to a friend’s for a little birthday celebration. Theo got to play with a kitty cat this time. He now knows the word, “party”. He really enjoys himself around adults like that. He entertains himself checking out this and that. This time it was a fascination with the screen door that opened onto their back deck. “All closed!”… over and over. “Flip Flop!” when Jay put his flip flop in the door to stop the annoying slam each time the screen door closed. He had a little pizza and a little taste of ice cream cake. He acted super excited about the cake and then was surprised (even though I told him it was ice cream cake) when it wasn’t actually cake, but cold ice cream. He really enjoys a bite and then that’s about it. We walked home in a little bit of summer rain and got to bed late, again. That seems common for our summer weekends.

Earlier in week we went to one of my Mom friend’s house for a little backyard pool party. They live in a big building that happens to have some communal outdoor space for BBQ’ing, gardening, and baby pool fun. The Moms (and one Dad) were able to sip a little Prosecco while the little ones played. Theo decided to help them sweep outside.

Here he is in action mode.

And borrowing sunglasses. Of course, he never wants to wear his own.

It is so apparent how happy Theo is on the weekends when Dada is around. It is this extra, fun bonus to his daily routine that he really only gets two days/week. Getting to ride on Daddy’s shoulders to the playground and having him around for meals and bath time is such a joy for him. It’s very sweet. Theo is singing his ABC’s really well. He often does a little dance with it that I have to capture on video soon. He is always repeating what we say and really getting used to stringing multiple words together. He says, “air conditioning”, and “Flatbush” (the busiest street nearby), which I find really silly for some reason. I guess there are always going to be words like that that are specific to where you’re from. He knows he lives in “3E” and he will tell you, and he loves to sit on our stoop before going inside the building every day.