Month: May 2013

Theo with my adorable nieces, Dylanne and Camryn, when were visiting Cleveland.

I love, love, love this photo with Theo and our building super, Gus. They are such pals and Theo just lights up when he sees him. He runs over to him, “hi Gusss!”. He usually winds up on his lap and/or forces his way into his apartment when we are picking up a package. They are true buds.

Us with peonies at the Botanic Garden.

I’d say one of Theo’s favorite things to do is to read books together on the couch. I love this and always have since he very first started bringing me books over and over again to read to him a little after he turned one and was able to express his desires in this way.

Tonight was no different. We snuggled up after watching the Rangers get knocked out of the playoffs and looked through the pictures of our “People” book. Theo asks, “what’s this says?”. And he pronounces “says” like say with an “s”. It’s always, “what’s this says?” or “what did you says?” or “what you say-ed?”. A picture with a kid with a basketball prompted, “that’s a friend to play ball with”.

My little snuggle muffin.

I guess we’ve been busy around here. Theo is happy that the “mermaid fountain” at Grand Army Plaza is on again.

The library fountains are on again, too, and he got to splash around a bit in them last Monday when it was really hot outside. He kept saying, “it’s summer now!”. Of course, today was like 50 and raining.

Theo at the Brooklyn Museum “puddle” on that same very hot day.

We have been spending a lot of time with my good friend Laura and her sweet baby Eden. They are living nearby us until late June while her husband is doing a law internship. I’m so pleased to have them a few blocks away and we have been taking them around to many of our favorite places, eating out for dinner and traipsing around the neighborhood.

We had a nice visit to Cleveland a couple weeks ago. There was a lot of wedding party planning and family visiting, per our usual. We got to drive back to NYC with my sister which gave Theo quality time to spend with her. She stayed with us for a day and a half and then flew back to CLE.

Theo and I will be heading back to Cleveland in about three weeks, and Jay will join us soon thereafter for our wedding celebration. We are really excited and nervous and looking forward to celebrating with so many friends and family that we are close to in our lives. Theo keeps referring to “the wedding party” and it’s pretty sweet. He has a dapper outfit and is ready to go. Now if I could just find the perfect dress…

Naps remain few and far between and, still, when they happen the boy cannot fall asleep until very late for bedtime. It’s a little tougher for me to keep up with work and everything else but we are managing. Back to our one sitter and Theo seems quite happy. Tonight we saw a picture of a family in a book we were reading and he said, “there’s babysitter Sarah”, as he pointed to the fourth non-parent person in the picture. Very sweet.

Theo can still be quite the challenge to take to a restaurant. I’m trying to doing it more frequently so he can learn how to behave and listen in this environment but it is tough for him. It depends on the place and the time of day. He can do breakfast much easily than any other meal. He can do a quickie lunch if it’s one of our favorite places. Dinner is a bit tougher. If it’s even remotely too late, or he’s too hungry, it’s a challenge. He gets very fixated on certain elements and it’s so hard to draw him away and redirect him. Sometimes the only way is with our phones. I’m pretty sure I swore I would never let my kid watch a show or play a game on my phone at a restaurant but obviously that was before I had kids. Judge not. Will this ever pass? Will he be 15 and looking for lights to admire or steps to walk on while we wait for our food? I remember my sister and I always playing in the bathroom at restaurants to pass time until the food came so… maybe.

Instead of just “nope”, he has now incorporated “yep” into his everyday vocabulary instead of “yes”. This guy. I love communicating with him. It’s spectacular and amazing.

Tomorrow is a friend’s BBQ and hopefully some family photos down at Brooklyn Bridge Park, weather permitting. And it’s almost June!

I forgot to also add that Theo has stopped using the word “no”. It’s simply, “nope”. He used to joke around and say “nooooope” a while back but all of the sudden all no’s turned into nope. And he says it in the quickest, most straightforward way to say nope with strong emphasis on the “p”. He sounds like a little comedian.

Jay and Theo were playing around in the car the other day and Theo was rummaging through the glove box when he said, “these are my emails”. Where does he get this?! 😉

At Yia Yia’s last week, the house phone rang and Theo went running through the dining room to the kitchen shouting, “somebody’s texting me!!!”. The rest of the time he would just run to the phone and say, “somebody’s calling me!”. He had to talk to whomever was on the phone. Usually Aunt Vicki.

This photo of Theo makes me happy. He was thrilled to get to ride around in the street during the start of the Park Pl block party on Saturday. Somehow a giant stuffed monkey (now called “big monkey”) was also brought home. Big monkey is not to be confused with “monkey” or “new monkey”. We also went to a friend’s house on Sunday to watch the Rangers and Theo was very happy and amused that their dog was named, none other than, “monkey!”. Monkeys, monkeys everywhere.

Theo is always excited for swim class. As we near the building it’s “here we are!” while he skips along. He walks down the stairs by himself and into the pool area, all the while saying hello to random people and shouting, “It’s swimming class! Let’s go! I’m excited!”. Once we’re in the water this excitement lasts for about 15 minutes of the 30 minute class. It quickly turns to, “I want to get out”. He did amazingly today, though. He got in on his own, on his belly and “like a snake” as the instructor teaches them. He held onto the wall for awhile playing Simon Says with the teacher and the two other kids. All of this while I was still sitting on the ledge. This was huge!. He gets distracted still and wants to play with other things and doesn’t always want to follow what the class is doing. The other kids are probably four years old and they don’t need a parent in the pool with them. He has a floaty strapped around his belly, too, and it was great to see him gain a little confidence without Mama right there. He’s learning to extend on his belly and kick his legs (while holding the wall, or me, or a floating barbell thingy) and to “run” in place and move his arms a little bit in front crawl motion. It’s always a lot of work getting to and from class, in and out of the pool and locker room, but I’m glad we are doing it. He is excited for it each week and once summer comes around and we are out swimming on our own hopefully he will get even more confident.

On our way back from Cleveland on Wednesday, Theo was in his car seat and he wanted to hug me. I gave him my arm from the front seat (I wasn’t driving) and was trying to sort of give him a half hug. He instead said, “I want to hug you like a circle!”. Then last night in the wee hours of the morning he was talking/crying in his sleep, a bit disoriented and telling me again to hug him like a circle.

Every time we head over one of the bridges, or in the Holland Tunnel, or even under a freeway overpass, Theo shouts in excitement, “here we goooooo!”.

On our trip to Cleveland he also kept cleverly taking his shoulder out of the seat belt in his car seat. We told him, “Theo please put your shoulder back in, that it is very dangerous! It’s not safe! It’s illegal”. So, naturally, he says, “I want to be illegal!”.

This is his constant strive to be/do whatever it is we are asking him not to. For instance when he opens the refrigerator and I ask him to please close it so we can keep our food cold and save energy, he says, “I want to waste it!”.

And when I need to pick him up for something he may not want, like a diaper change or hand washing, he will shout, “I want to go boneless!”. I always joke with him and say, “don’t you go boneless!”. “I want to be boneless!”.

And the best of all, “I love MY Mommy”. He’s never said it in that way before.

We love him so much.