a new friend

The Yin family had dinner at some friends' house last week. They have a little boy Teddy's age. And a three year-old. Watching Teddy play with their toys, Mr. Yin and I realized our little lad really doesn't have many toys, and thought we should get him some toys for toddlers. 

Mr. Yin felt so bad for him he went during his lunch break and got a few toys, including Mr. Potatohead (who has had a make-over) (or make-under if you ask me).

Tiny Ted loves his new friend, and all of his pieces. And shows his love by calling his friend "Tato".

Heath's challenge

Unbeknownst to her, I've decided to join Heath on her daily blogging for the rest of February. Does that mean I have tons of interesting things to write? Probably not. Unless you think the daily life of Teddy is very interesting. It's not a bad life, and he seems to enjoy it. But I do feel it might be more interesting if we lived in a city and could get out more regularly.

That being said, we did go into the city twice in one week two weeks ago. There is a bus that stops right in front of our complex that goes to Port Authority in NYC. Easy peasy. Teddy Bear does great on the bus, thanks to snacks and the Kindle.

My only regret about those two trips is that my boy hasn't taken his regular naps since all the excitement. Is he looking for more fun? More friends? I don't know. All I know is he used to sleep twice in the day, once at nine and again at one; both for 1.5 hours.

These days I'm lucky to get one 1.5 hour nap and then another 2 hours of playing in his crib, singing and talking to his toys.

Sounds like he's ready to drop to one nap, right? Well then why is it that when we do just one nap, that nap is only 45 minutes?

Take today, for example. Because of yesterday's disastrous attempt at two naps, which yielded one, hour nap in the morning and only 45 minutes of crib play time in the afternoon, I decided today I'd wear him out physically and then do one big nap in the afternoon. So we went outside. He climbed up and down the stairs on the playground, he swung, he crawled all over the wet ground, played with sticks and leaves, smashed some worms, and then crawled back to our apartment in his wet (from the ground) pants. And that got us a 45 minute nap.

Are you kidding me? 45 minutes? We were done with 45 minute naps months ago! But they've made their return.

I blame the cold. And the tooth. The tooth that has been threatening to make is appearance for almost a month now. A big, nasty bi-cuspid that is still just bulging under his gum, mocking me. The best part? He still has three of those bi-cuspids to go. And then the molars. (Which, coincidently, were supposed to come in before the bi-cusbids. But my boy had never done much in his life that was "by the book".)

Anyway. It's frustrating. The naps. The teeth.

But not the boy himself. He woke up the other morning and I brought him to our bed, like I always do, and he gave both Mr. Yin and I unsolicited kisses.

February 14, 2012

Tiny Mr. Yin and I enjoyed our day by playing with his cars and Mr. Potatohead (and I may or may not have consumed lots of spice jelly beans--the only kind in my book).

Real Mr. Yin and I celebrated by joining a CSA for a farm around the corner, and then had surf and turf for dinner. By the time Mr. Yin got home, I had the smashed potatoes, broccoli and steak done, and the shrimp ready to go. I had followed an Alton Brown recipe to the letter and the steak still looked undercooked. Rarer than rare. Mr. Yin came in and browned them for about 2 minutes on each side. 90 seconds longer than Brother Alton said to do. And they were perfectly delicious.

Maybe what makes us work in the kitchen is what makes us work in real life: I'm detailed oriented and follow the rules and he sees the big picture and takes rules as a jumping-off point.

I love both my Mr. Yins.

Happy Valentine's Day!

well, it's true

I joined Facebook.

Seriously.

The straw that broke the camel's proverbial back was Pinterest. You have to sign up using a Facebook account. So I caved. In order to keep track of my projects in Pinterest.

Of course right  now I feel so popular because everyone wants to be my friend. : )

Truth be told, I've been going back and forth as to whether to join or stay away. I've lived enough different places to have met tons of amazing people, only to have lost touch with them when I moved. And though I'd rather stay in touch with people through other means, I'm just not very good at it.

So Facebook it is.

Wanna be friends?

Once Upon a Time...Later

My mom said I was a grumpy, grumpy baby until she got pregnant with Heather, and then I become the happiest toddler around. I guess I just missed my Heath.

We all know life is better with Heather.

Happy Birthday Heath! Eat some delicious cake!

Snooze and Gooze

For Mr. Yin's birthday this year, Tiny Ted and I headed up to Boston for Snoozle's winter wedding.

She made her own dress. (And decided to add the sash the night before!)

Congratulations to the happy (Christmas-breakah) couple!

(And happy birthday Mr. Yin!) (We celebrated early lest anyone think we forgot him.) (And he got to go to the movies and have nachos for dinner, so he had a good one even though we were far away.) (And we sent him photo updates every hour on the hour to keep him in the loop.) (I may need an iPhone now.)

But this post is about Snooze! Congratulations!

twelfth mesaversary

He's come a long way, our Tiny Ted. Twelve full months of awesomeness.

When we were driving Edmundo home after he was born, the Bruno Mars song "Just the Way You Are" came on, and for the first time since he was born, I cried. I was sitting in the back seat with this tiny little bundle and the words were so true: because he was so amazing just the way he was. I didn't want him to change one bit. (Except for maybe losing the cord stump--they've always weirded me out--which he promptly did on his fifth day of life, which resulted in a frantic call to the doctor because they had told me it would be around for about 10-12 days.) But if I had known how awesome he would continue to be, and how he would add to it daily, I would have wanted him to hurry up and do all the amazing things he does now.

Like sitting on the floor and leaning back just enough to kick his feet up and down when he's happy. Or in the bathtub.

Or stuffing his favorite foods into his mouth with excited vigor.

Or crawling over to me and standing up!

Or sitting peacefully in his pile of books, going from one to the next, opening, kissing and tossing to the side.

Or blowing kisses. Or giving big open mouth kisses.

Or playing so happily in his crib with Giraffe and Froggy Friend after waking up that he doesn't even ask to be taken out when I come in.

Or mimicking my actions like using a napkin or spoon.

Or trying to put socks on his feet or hats on his head.

Or sleeping like a sweet angel.

Or playing patty cake with his feet, by himself.

Or cozying up to me when he's tired, even if just for a second.

I love this little guy to infinity and beyond. I can't wait to see what the next 12 months hold for him and us.

This post concludes our mesaversary series for the first year of Teddy's life. We may or may not continue. If we do, it most likely won't involve a white onesie. He's getting too big for the 18 month size and I haven't seen any bigger than 24 months. So. Yeah.

We'll come up with something.