Month: December 2013

It was such a thrill to walk out in the morning and watch Theo find all of the presents waiting for him under the tree. He said, “he came!”, and quickly bent down to observe the gifts waiting for him. We had a pile of “Santa” gifts that were all unwrapped and waiting for him so he could just see them all right away and be excited.

He was so, so excited about the telescope Santa brought him.

He had been asking for one for awhile, and I found this very cool handheld pirate navigation telescope that came in a wooden box. It’s small, therefore easily portable, and I knew he would be thrilled about the box and the expanding and closing of the telescope itself. Here he is using his handy telescope on the subway ride home from our Christmas dinner.

Theo was also excited Santa ate our cookies and milk. “He ate two cookies! And he drank the milk all up!”. Santa also brought him Candy Land, a remote control car, a tow truck and the Kid Kraft Fire Station. He also had a bunch a fun gifts in his stocking from Santa… undies, hershey kisses, goggles, a bell for his scooter, stuff like that. He was tickled.

Then he moved on to all the other wrapped gifts. He had a bunch of gifts from us, as well as many from all the grandparents and Jay’s brothers. This guy really cleaned up. We are super thankful.

Silly glasses from Uncle Andreas and Auntie Amara who live in Portland.

Yia Yia and Papa Hankie got him a great fun game called, “The Sneaky Snacky Squirrel” and we love it.

It’s so fun now that we can play board games and get super interactive with our play. We also got him a matching game (like Memory, only Dr. Seuss) and my mom got him the “Old Maid” card game. Such fun!

We relaxed all day long and Theo just played and played with all of his new toys. Daddy set up his fire station set…

…and we capped off our day with a trip into Chinatown to eat at our favorite Pho restaurant, Pho Bang. It was a sweet day and I love my little family very much. Merry Christmas, sweet boy. We love you so much.

Jay has been off this entire week and it has been so great. We have done a lot of spending time at home together, cooking, eating, playing… ya know, what people do. Tuesday was Christmas Eve so we ventured out to Park Slope for some last minute shopping since Theo was itching to take the train. It was fun to be out and about in the hustle bustle of the chilly holiday season. On a whim, we also decided to visit the newly opened (and highly anticipated!) Whole Foods in Gowanus (between Park Slope and Carroll Gardens). Theo and I ate food while Jay quickly bought a few things we needed and, most importantly, some seafood for a nice Christmas Eve dinner for him and I.

After we hailed a cab and returned home, we baked chocolate chip cookies for Santa and let Theo choose one gift to open. He picked the awesome tent with tunnel that Yia Yia and Papa Hankie got for him and that got him nice and wound up before bed. Along with the cookie, of course. We also let him watch the original, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, which he loved since we have read the book about 57 times over the past couple months. It’s perfect since it’s only about 25 minutes long and is literally verbatim from the book. He loved it.

After Theo went to bed, Jay and I had a nice dinner together, which rarely happens. We had a quiet, mellow evening together and Theo even slept in until after 7:30am on Christmas morning!

More Christmas updates and photos to follow soon!

We schlepped into the city on Sunday afternoon like a crazy family! I wanted to do something New York-ish and Christmas-ish this season now that Theo is old enough to really take it all in, and I’m all about starting our own family traditions. We had written a letter to Santa so I wanted him to get the opportunity to actually mail it to Santa through one of the mailboxes that Macy’s has every year. I am not prepared to brave “Santaland” at Macy’s quite yet. We didn’t do Santa’s lap, in fact, anywhere this year. But it was nice for Theo to feel like he was really mailing a letter with his Christmas wishes to Santa.

He was in awe of the glitter and lights of Macy’s, and most importantly, the escalators. We rode those for awhile. And we did check out the window displays outside, too, as I knew he would love to see all the lights and the intricate functions of the displays.

We made our way to see the tree at Rockefeller Center, which I have never even seen myself. It was good timing because we wanted it to be dark by the time we got up there so the lights would be more exciting.

It was such a madhouse. We got relatively close, and got our photo. It was probably not the best time, given it was a Sunday… and right before Christmas… and extremely mild weather. Theo wasn’t too impressed as he finds much more excitement in taking the subway elevator and the train than anything else so off we went, back to Brooklyn! Pre-Christmas activities were complete!

They had peppermint tea during snack time at school last week. This morning Theo woke up and first thing he told me was, “I don’t want tea… we had tea at school and I smelled it and I was just… (making a disgusted face) ick, ugh, blech!”. I told him if he doesn’t want tea when they offer, that’s fine. Just tell Ms. Voya “no, thanks” and drink your water.

We were waiting on the porch this morning and Ms. Voya came down to let us in and as soon as she opened the door Theo exclaimed, “I don’t want tea!”. She simply said, “you don’t have to have anything you don’t want”. This cracked me up all day for some reason so I thought I would memorialize it on the blog. Theo, you are such a ham!

Last week Theo and I wrote a letter to Santa. It was fun for the both of us and I loved listening to him list his Christmas wishes. I didn’t grow up celebrating Christmas so it’s pretty fun for me to get to experience through the eyes of my child.

I’m finding myself wanting to make sure we start our special Christmas traditions, and that we do things in the city to feel the magic of this time. We are hoping to get up to Rockefeller Center to see the tree, possibly checking out the Macy’s window displays and dropping our letter to Santa in the special mailbox they have up there.

We left Santa a voicemail, too, and it was the sweetest thing. There is a real number you can call with a recording of Santa and kids/adults can leave a message. Theo was so happy and excited! That makes it all worth it.

Yia Yia and Papa Hankie were here with us all weekend. We got our tree and decorated it. I’m glad we were able to share that tradition with them since we will be celebrating Christmas on our own again this year. It was a snowy, slushy day and Jay lugged the tree back to our place like a trooper.

Theo was so excited to put the star on top that it definitely took place before we even finished decorating the tree.

The lights and the star are definitely his favorite part of the tree. I asked him if he wanted to hang ornaments and he said, “no thanks!”. Now to figure out where we will hang our stockings. Theo already asked, “where is Santa going to come in?”. Obviously without a chimney this is a puzzling thought for a kiddo. We decided he would most likely be coming in through our kitchen window. I’m really looking forward to Christmas Eve and Christmas morning!

Theo writes his own name!

We are so proud of all of Theo newly burgeoning skills. They just keep coming and watching this child grow and mature is insanely cool. He has written a few letters here and there, and I haven’t really been pushing it at all. He usually moves on quickly to the next thing if we ever focus on writing a letter or two. The other night, though, we were in a taxi and we started writing on the foggy windows. I spelled his name and he easily followed suit. I was so impressed! He just did it. When he wants to do something he just does it. If he doesn’t, he REALLY doesn’t 😉 but that’s another story. It’s been impressive to hear him spell his own name easily (T – H – E – OOOOOOOOOOO) but to sit down and write it was another great milestone to witness. The next morning we opened up the paints and he just painted his own name. Not following my lead, not copying letters in his view, just did it. He’s awesome!

Time is flying by and I can’t believe I am 33 weeks today. I’m certainly happy to still be pregnant, and to report that the pregnancy is going very well and we are maintaining despite some bumps along the way! I’ve been continuing to get progesterone shots weekly and have had bi-weekly ultrasound visits to monitor my cervical length. I’ve also started visiting the birthing center bi-weekly so there have been a lot of appointments these days keeping me busy on top of everything else. I continue to hover around a borderline short cervix but seem to be maintaining without too much concern. Perhaps it’s the weekly shots, or it just is what it is. The perinatal center has been awesome to me but we are very much looking forward to our target date of January 5th! That date marks 37 weeks, therefore the date I no longer have to have any shots or monitoring, and also the official date where I’m able to give birth at the birthing center. So let’s all cross our fingers we make it at least that far.

Everything else with the baby has been excellent. Last appointment she was a little over 4 ounces and her heartbeat is always very strong. I had a stress test done on the baby last appointment, as well, and they were overwhelming pleased with her activity. I can tell you she is a very active little gal in there! I’ve been feeling well, despite heartburn, and also beginning to slow down and feel big like a waddling pregnant lady. I think I’ve gained about 25+ pounds so far.

We met with a few doulas and chose one to be with us for the birth this time around. We have our first prenatal with her before Christmas and are thinking about all of the little things we still need to do and get… like diapers!

It’s been exciting to go through Theo’s baby clothes and figure out what we are keeping and what we are still in need of. We got Theo a new, big dresser and now moved his old dresser and changing table into our room for the baby. It is filled once again with tiny baby clothes. I can’t believe our family of three will very soon be four. It’s exciting and I can’t wait to meet her. But not until after January 5th! 🙂