Happy 2nd birthday party!!

Bath time

A bonus for the blog--buns.

Let it snow!

Christmas is coming!

Sometimes we spend the afternoon at the bookstore

Oh Christmas Tree

We will get there

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mormon Helping Hands

Doing a little neighborly tree removal.

walkabout

Pockets!

(Photo credits to Gwen.)

meltdown

Someone opted to sing and ask "where'd mama go?" for two hours instead of napping last week. 

Here we have the fallout.

glasses

We went glasses shopping and he needed to be part of the fun.

snow man

Snow!

Trick-or-Treat New Jersey!

(I know, the same photos from Instagram, but this is for my family and friends who read my blog but don't follow Instagram. That would be everyone except you, Jenny!)

love

Today on our way home from the park:

Teddy Bear: (pointing to a truck) Pickup truck.
Me: You love pickup trucks.
TB: I love pickup trucks. I love mama.
M: (Bending over to look square in his chocolate brown eyes, smiling like a crazy person) You love mama!
TB: Happy mama.

Happy mama indeed!

NJ Halloween

Only the vultures showed up.

the great slimming of Edmund Yin

Everyone said it would happen. I'm still in denial. 

We can slip pants past his thighs that we could not one year ago.

so, summer

Looks like summer happened and I stopped blogging.

But it was a good one.

We went to barbecues, had lots of picnics, road-tripped, saw a perfect parade with tractors and fire trucks, celebrated our 4th anniversary on the 4th by eating lots of fresh seafood and watching fireworks, saw some family and a few old friends, watched cousins love each other, swam in the pool, swam in the lake, swam in the ocean, brought home loads of sand from the beach, watched the Olympics, visited farms, "hiked", ate Philly cheesesteaks in Philly, picked blueberries, saw Lucy the Elephant with my parents, visited Atlantic City, ate funnel cake, saw where Washington crossed the Delaware, met some new friends, walked to the library, walked to the park, swung in the swings, visited our CSA farm every week and picked cherry tomatoes and husk cherries and flowers--and sometimes okra, devoured Jersey tomatoes and sweet corn, skyped and hungout with family far away, and enjoyed some spectacular thunder storms. 

And we ate lots and lots of ice cream and popsicles. Little man loves himself the ice cream. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

As Teddy and I were reflecting on our summer, I realized it was perfectly wonderful.

a child is born in sweat and pain

Eighteen months ago, last Saturday, our little man joined us. Eighteen months. That means I've taken 18 months to write his birth story. So here it is. Feel free to just ignore this post. I'm sure most people won't care to read it, since you've heard the story and know how it ends. But I promised myself I'd publish it by this 18th mesaversary because I tend to take my sweet time with everything. I'll include some day-of photos just to keep it interesting (not of me in the hospital pre-birth, we only have one), and so you can remember that this sweet chub of a boy used to be tiny, tiny, tiny. And have long skinny legs. Which are kind of making an appearance again.


Please remember this story took place in December 2010, eighteen months ago...

 

It all started at 2:30 on December 15th, in the morning when I got up to, once again!, empty my squashed bladder. 

I felt contractions, which wasn't anything new, I'd been having contractions for about two weeks. But when I got back to bed I realized they were regular and fairly close together. So I pulled out my phone and timed them. They were about five minutes apart and lasting about 30 seconds. It was exciting to finally have something real going on, but I knew I shouldn't get too excited because things can stop. I also thought if this were the big day, I'd need some rest so I nodded off back to sleep. More like half-sleep, thanks to the excitement and the regular, uncomfortable contracting of my uterus. 

Mr. Yin had his last final scheduled for that morning at 8:30. I didn't bother to wake him up because I knew he needed his sleep to feel ready for his final, and I didn't want it to be a false alarm. I waited until he woke up and then announced, I'm pretty sure I'm in labor.

our official start to summer

Eating popsicles on the deck. Happy summer!

Remembering

Among other activities, we hit up the church bbq for Memorial Day this year, and Mr. Yin is still full a day later. (There is a guy in our congregation who runs a bbq catering business who brought and manned his big grill.)

Our little lad didn't join the others kids in the sprinklers or play on the slide, but instead walked up and down the sidewalk. Up and down. Switch parents, then up and down again.

Walking on sidewalks is his new favorite activity. And it's even more fun if it's an uneven sidewalk and he can step up and down. Up and down.

Happy Memorial Day!

videos

 The Teddy Bear is growing up. Here's some proof:

talking and coloring

He does actually say real words, but he's not a monkey and won't perform on demand (maybe he's union and I'm not paying union wages?) so really you get to hear babble. But babble has taken a turn for the more adorable, if that's possible.

really using a spoon

He's been doing this for a while, and can also use a fork properly, but that video is 3+ minutes long and that takes too long to upload. So spoon it is. He may use it properly, but there is still a big mess to clean up.

walking backwards

I randomly caught him at this yesterday and I about died. He did it this morning for Mr. Yin's amusement before his commute.

favorite pastime

The new favored (weekday) pastime is watching trucks go by, and naming them. It's very serious business.

We sit in the grass and he points at dump trucks, trailer trucks, cement trucks, and schools busses. He'll sit in rapt attention naming them as they go by until only cars are passing, and then he'll get up and walk away.

Until he hears another truck coming.

Easter Egg Hunt 2012

He didn't feel the need to use his newly acquired skill of walking to find eggs. And once he discovered the contents, it was all over anyway.

Thank you Tish for a wonderful day!