Healthy Habits

Dear Connor,

You don't like eating pizza, macaroni and cheese or ice cream but you love tofu, spinach and hummus. And today, we went to your friend Chelsea's birthday party, where you rejected the birthday cake Daddy tried to feed you and kept requesting grapes instead. You definitely inherited my taste buds and not Daddy's--and I'm so proud!

Love,
Mom

Fireflies

Dear Connor,

We went to our friends' barbecue today and feasted on chicken wings, beef brisket, homemade char siu, grilled corn and fresh watermelon. Daddy and I caught up with our friends and you had so much fun running around the big yard with the other kids. My favorite part of the day, though, was when we came home and were walking up the steps to our front door. It was already dark out and past your bedtime but we stayed outside for several minutes so that I could point out the twinkling lights turning on and off all around us: fireflies! This was the first time you'd ever seen them and you were so thrilled, pointing whenever you saw one light up and exclaiming, "Oooooh! Oh wow! I see!" 

I have always loved seeing the first fireflies of summer. Summer is my favorite season and I get excited when I spot those first fireflies because that means summer is officially here! And I'm so glad that I got to share one of my favorite moments with you tonight. 

Love,

Mom

Mommy Stare Down

Dear Connor,

I think I may have already mastered the mommy stare down. You were being bad and pissing me off so I glared at you and you instantly stopped whining and said, "Sorrr." Nice!

Love,

Mom

Num Yummy

Dear Connor,

It was a bazillion degrees today (happy first day of summer!) and the last thing I wanted to do was cook, much less cook a giant pot of steaming soup. But you need your iron and you love cream of spinach soup so that is what I made for you for dinner tonight. I chopped the spinach, diced the onion and potatoes and watched everything simmer in chicken broth while I slowly whisked in the cream, all the while mopping my brow every few minutes so as to not get any sweat in the soup (we have air conditioning but it's rendered useless when one is standing directly over a hot stove). 

When the soup was done and I fed you the first spoonful, you smiled, smacked your lips and literally said, "Yum yum num num num num num!" Best compliment a cook could get! 

Love,

Mom 

Strange Behavior

Dear Connor,

You've been engaging in some unusual activities lately. Yesterday, I was sitting at the dining table when you came up behind me, lifted up my shirt and started blowing raspberries on my back. You blew about 10 raspberries and cracked up after each one. Then today, you walked up behind me, literally stuck your face in my butt and started laughing into my butt crack. I tried walking away but you grabbed onto my legs and followed me, pushing your face into my butt and laughing the entire time. You're lucky I didn't let one loose, you little weirdo!

Love,

Mom

Father's Day Gifts

Dear Connor,

You must have been really tired yesterday because you slept in until 10am this morning. That meant Daddy could sleep in until 10am, too, and I think he appreciated that gift almost as much as the Mets game we took him to in the afternoon!

Love,

Mom

Morning Kiss

Dear Connor,

I wasn't feeling well and didn't get much sleep last night so Daddy let me sleep in a little this morning and took care of you when you woke up. After he got you out of your crib and changed your diaper, he put you down on the floor and you came running into our room saying, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Hi!" You then pushed the footstool we have in our room next to the bed, climbed up onto the bed, crawled over to me with a sweet little smile on your face and gave me a big kiss. I can't think of a better way to wake up!

Love,

Mom

I'm Okay!

Dear Connor,

Your newest thing: When you tumble or fall but aren't hurt, you let me know by getting up and saying, "Okay!" I appreciate the reassurance, little guy!

Love,
Mom

First Time

Dear Connor,

You experienced several "firsts" over the past few days:

-You just learned a lot of new words: it's stuck (you say this whenever anything is stuck and/or broken), clock, back (when I ask you where your back is, you look over your shoulder, say "back" and try to touch your back), knee, toes, house, where, step, look, bike, boat, saur (dinosaur), bear, bug, poo-poo, door, nap, heart and taxi (a word every true New Yorker needs to know!)

-Yesterday, I turned on an episode of "Team Umizoomi" (We still have a no-TV rule in our house but the one exception is that you can watch while I brush your teeth. You hate brushing your teeth and I have to wrestle with you to do it and I just do not have the energy to wrestle with you anymore so now I turn to the magic box to transform you into the hypnotized zombie baby I need you to be while I clean your little chompers.) and you were so excited that you literally jumped up in the air. You'd been trying to jump for a couple weeks now but your feet could never make it off the ground until yesterday. I am very proud of you but will also miss watching your amusing, bouncy almost-jumps. 

-Daddy and I took you to your first art class today where you were introduced to the awesomeness of Play-Doh (you enjoyed rolling it into a ball and then smashing it flat) and painting with real paint (your teacher was very impressed and even compared your creation to Picasso's work). Unfortunately, you also had your first in-class meltdown when you kept wanting to push the classroom chairs around and we wouldn't let you. You cried and screamed so much that we had to take you out of the class early and you didn't get a chance to play with the stickers and glue. You missed out, buddy. 

-You've always called me "mama" but you were in your stroller while we were in line at a bakery this morning and you wanted me to kneel down and talk to you so you called out, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" You then called me "mommy" the rest of today so I guess we have made the switch. I liked "mama" but "mommy" sounds really sweet when you say it, too. 

-You were so tired today that you actually fell asleep in the tub while I was giving you a bath. I'm sorry I had to wake you up. I know you were startled and confused when you woke up and found yourself naked and covered in soap bubbles. It was the first time you fell asleep during your bath and probably also your first "Wtf?" moment. 

Love,

Mom

Gluttony

Dear Connor,

Sometimes you tell yourself that you're only going to eat half of the giant cranberry orange muffin you have sitting in front of you and then you look down and realize that you've eaten the whole thing. Oops.

Love,
Mom

A Day In The Life

Dear Connor,

This is what our day was like today:

7:30am: You wake up and when I go into your room to get you, I find all of your stuffed animals on the floor--as I do every morning. We usually keep them in your crib and you snuggle with them when you go to bed at night but when you wake up in the morning, you always toss them out of your crib and onto the floor. I don't know why you do this every day but all I have to say is, you better treat your future girlfriends with more respect than that! 

8:15am: Daddy leaves for work and I tell you to say goodbye to him. You say, "Bye-bye, see you soon!" We have never heard you say "see you soon" before and spend the next few minutes trying to get you to say it again. You look at us like we're crazy and can't understand why we're so excited. But it was your first three-word sentence! And it was so cute!

8:30am: You have milk, oatmeal and a banana for breakfast.

9am: Even though you have eaten all of your breakfast, you still hijack my breakfast and eat almost half of my bowl of cereal. 

9:30am: You have crumbs all over your clothes, so I take them off and go upstairs to get you a clean outfit. When I come back downstairs, I find that you have discovered your nipples and are squeezing and pinching them gleefully. I run to get my camera to capture this hilarious moment of self-discovery.

10am: You want to listen to your Elmo music CD yet again but I think my ears may actually start bleeding if I have to hear "Elmo's Song" one more time so I tell you that Elmo is on vacation and play your Mickey Mouse CD instead. You're fine with this and happily sing along to Mickey's version of "Zip-a-dee-doo-da."

11am: We leave the house to walk to your music class at Gymboree. Every time you see a bus, you get really excited, point at it and scream, "BUS!!!"

11:30am: You never sit still during music class and today is no different. You run around like crazy and actually knock two different boys over at various points during class. When you were little, I used to panic about big kids accidentally knocking you over and now I panic because you are the big kid accidentally knocking little kids over. I'm not sure which one is worse.

12:30pm: After class, we go to Gymboree's open gym time and you run around for another half hour, thankfully with no more collisions. You can now climb up all of the ladders by yourself with ease, which you had not been able to do the last time we went to open gym a couple of weeks ago. I am proud of you but also like that you still occasionally reach out for my hand when you're feeling a bit unsure on a particular surface. I'm not ready for you to completely independent from me yet! 

1pm: We get seaweed rice balls from the Japanese market down the street and eat them on a nearby bench. 

2pm: When we get back home, I leave you downstairs while I use the bathroom. When I come back downstairs, it's very quiet and I know you've done something you shouldn't have. And I'm right: you found my name stamp on the mail table and have stamped my name all over your left hand. I freak out a little because the ink does not immediately wash off--but at least everyone will now know who you belong to! 

2:30pm: You take a nap. I intend to do chores while you sleep but I lay down on the couch to rest for a little bit and end up falling asleep myself. When I wake up, it is almost 4pm, whoops! I probably shouldn't have revealed that, though--I always tell my non-mom friends how much work it is taking care of a toddler and I don't think they will sympathize with me anymore if they know I occasionally take midday naps. 

4:30pm: You wake up from your nap and eat a hard-boiled egg and a small bowl of sweet potatoes. I also give you a handful of Cheerios but instead of eating them with your hands, you bend over your highchair tray and pick each Cheerio up with your mouth, as if you are a bird. Um, all right. 

5pm: We read several books (you have memorized many of them and can recite certain parts from memory when I get to them in the book) and play with your shape, number and letter puzzles (you know all of your shapes and numbers but letters are still a challenge for you, I guess because there are so many to remember). We have a pillow fight and you crack up every time I throw a pillow on top of you. 

6pm: I make dinner: a grilled veggie burger and sauteed spinach for me, fish nuggets and pureed spinach for you. I give you strawberries and blueberries for dessert but you are more interested in squishing them with your fingers than eating them.

7pm: You are sitting at the dining table while I clean up the kitchen and start banging the table with your hands for fun. You hit the table a little too hard, though, and hurt your hands. When you have a booboo, you usually run to me and ask me to kiss it for you. This time, you whimper a little, look at the palms of your hands and kiss each one yourself. Awww, you can comfort yourself now! 

8pm: I take a shower and then give you a bath. We sing songs and play with your tugboat. Daddy gets home and admires your rockin' shampoo mohawk.

9pm: We snuggle in your rocking chair, read a few books and build dinosaurs with your Legos. When I pick you up for our goodnight hug and kiss, you are so tired that you point to your crib and say, "down" (as in, "please put me down"). I oblige, blow you a kiss and say my nightly mantra to you: "Good night! Sweet dreams! I love you and will see you in the morning." 

See you in the morning, buddy. I can't wait to have another fun day with you!

Love,

Mom