A Letter to My Son from his Adoring Mother on the Occasion of his First Birthday

Today is your first birthday, congratulations son!  To say you have been a joy is an understatement and words cannot describe how much we love you.  You came into this world one year ago on a very hot and humid DC day.  Today was perfect; sunny, breezy and hot, but not too hot.  (I ordered the weather special delivery for you.)  You woke up this morning with a little pink eye and a bruise from that other child in daycare who bit you when you tried to take his toy, but neither one seemed to bother you.  We sang Happy Birthday to you at 6:30am and you clapped for yourself and gave us high-fives.  Your smiles were extra large and so were your hugs and kisses.  I treasure each one as if it was the first. 

You are such a delight to parent.  You rarely cry, unless I leave the room or punish you, which I rarely do.  You smile and blow kisses on cue, which delights even strangers.  You light up when I am picking you up each day and race over to give me love. I look forward to seeing you the moment you are out of my sight and I count down the minutes of each day until I pick you up. I love reading you stories and listening to you babble.  I dream up adventures to take you on, places to see, people for you to meet and love.  I take as many pictures as I can to embarrass you with later.  I tell and re-tell stories about your funny ways to anyone who will listen.  I imagine the man you grow to be and dream about the life you will lead. 

We will celebrate this weekend and take many photos for you to look back on and cherish.  We will delight in your antics with cake and frosting, laugh as you eat the wrapping paper and ignore your gifts, and sing as you clap for yourself.  You have changed our world, made us better and more loving, feeling people.  We cannot thank you enough for choosing us to be your parents.  You are gift from heaven; a little angel here on Earth. 

My love for you is as steep as the hill, as many grains as in the mill, as dry as the desert, as deep as the ocean, and as infinite as the stars. I love you as much as a mother can love.

Happy Birthday Teddy Azer, my precious baby boy!

In case you wonder where he gets it from

Don't look at me.....the evidence speaks for itself:

These are the moments

Sometimes I love a really cheesey song, you know the Whitney Houston "I Will Always Love You," Celine's "My Heart Will Go On," Bette's "Wind Beneath My Wings," and the list could continue.  I make no apologies for liking basically easy listening music (it takes way too much time to like something that is outside the Top 40 for me, I mean, I barely have time to look at current events much less discover the coolest indie pop band).  Now with Teddy I try to sing to him (yeah, not an American Idol contestant but Teddy does not seem to mind, Adrian on the other hand, well, you know him, always making his preferences known) and have dance parties, both of which he loves.  It's amazing to watch children really connect to music and recognize songs and words when they are not able to be verbal. 

 

I also like photos and I like to take a million photos (not necessarily of me, because, well, that just ain't a pretty picture) but of Teddy, Adrian, family and friends.  (This probably stems from two things (a) the fire that burnt down my family home in 1999 and (b) Sandy Roberson and my love of her photos.)  I also want to be sure we have lots of photos to cherish for years to come (and probably embarrass Teddy and our other children with later).  There is also something unique about looking back at a photo and recalling why it was taken, the circumstances, and many times, the fun memories it captured. 

Recently, I have been following a blog about a little boy who was born the day before Teddy with cancer and I blogged then about how watching that struggle can give you perspective on life and your blessings.  He passed away last night a week shy of his first birthday that he would have celebrated with his twin next week.  I am again thinking today how blessed I am to share all these precious moments with Teddy and Adrian.  I can hardly believe he will be one year old next week and we will sing, laugh and celebrate the fun and joy he has brought to our lives.  I wish that I could bottle all this up and savor it.  I feel like it will not be long before he is running away from me at school or embarrassed that I am picking him up.  I want to acknowledge that he is a blessing, every friend we have is a blessing, our families are blessings and learning to appreciate these are the lasting legacies of Hudson and Declan.  Sometimes we all get caught up in work and other drama, but I am trying to appreciate that spending time with family is the most important thing we can do and we should do it more often.  I am excited to spend next weekend with my family to celebrate Teddy's birthday! I will post lots of pictures of the event, likely set to cheesey music ("Memories" anyone), and will likely sing an off-key voice to him "Happy Birthday"!  All of this will be to create a memory in photos and video for Teddy that he can watch later and appreciate all the love and joy he brings.  Children really change your perspective and I LOVE that mine has changed.  Teddy Azer has changed my world for the better and made me a better person (I hope) than I was before.  I have never laughed as hard, cried as much or worried more than I do now but being a parent is the best thing to happen to us and we love every minute and every tear. 

P.S. Thank you again to everyone who reads this blog!  You can become a follower if you want so I will know how to tailor the content, as I know not everyone is family.  But I appreciate you reading and welcome you into our universe--it's a wild ride but we are loving every minute of it!

My Grandma Lillian

Now that I have a child I want to share him with everyone (which is maybe why I started a blog, with the added side effect that our children (yes, Adrian, plural) will have a record of their beginnings).  For some reason that is somewhat unexplainable I started missing my Grandma Lillian.  It brought me to tears to think about how she is missing out on Teddy and just thinking about how much she would have loved to see him.  Instead of reading bedtime stories last night, I told Teddy stories about her and all the things I could remember doing with her as a child. I thought it might be best to relay some of those here for him to treasure later.

If you know me, then you know I LOVE TV, especially reality TV.  It has been said that today's reality TV is the new soap opera, and for years, I have LOVED soap operas.  I grew up on a little Y&R, Days of our Lives, Another World, Santa Barbara, Passions, and probably some others I am forgetting.  I can also remember my Dad telling me how these will make me dumb and dumber and now Adrian repeats the same thing about my reality TV shows (peas of a pod I tell you).  Well, I like to think of it as an homage to Grandma.  You see, Grandma was another loyal and devoted soap opera watcher.  When she was babysitting me, I could not even ask for something during her "stories" because they were on and she had to know what would happen next (as if the cheating, lying, killing, reincarnating, kidnapping, and weddings would change in a days time).  So of course, at the tender age of 4, I was hooked.  But then, sometimes I had another babysitter who watched different stories than my Grandma and I got addicted to those more than Grandma's.  We only had 1 TV in our house at that time (can you even imagine a time when a house only had 1 TV?) and given my age, I was not going to be in control of that remote.  I began to whine and make Grandma miss part of her stories.  She told my parents that if she was going to keep babysitting me, I had to have my own TV to watch my stories while she watched hers....and my parents capitulated.  So at the age of 4 I had my very own TV.  I will always be grateful to Grandma for that!

Grandma, at least by the time she was taking care of me, was not so into cooking.  I cannot really blame her, given she had 9 children of her own, plus helped raise several of the 30+ grandchildren she had.  At that time, there was a restaurant in town called Woody's.  Grandma and I would walk there (she did not drive, not because she couldn't, she just did not like it.  I too prefer to be chauferred and also attribute this to Grandma), eat whatever we wanted and charge it to Daddy (and by charge I don't mean on a credit card, I mean they actually would just run a tab and send you the bill at the end of the month).  It was great because I was a super heavy kid (some things never change) and Grandma would let me eat whatever I wanted; burgers, fries, milkshakes, etc.  It was always so much fun with her.

For years Grandma had 2 jobs:  she worked at the public library and wrote a column in our local newspaper.  For a woman without a high school diploma, she certainly had a way with words.  I used to love getting a card from her, reading it as if it were a novel and thinking how special I was to have a card from her.  She also taught me a love of books.  I can remember going to the library and reading and reading and reading, which I also attribute to my mother. They both would encourage me to read, and even as much as I read for work, I still love to read a book for pleasure.  I also take a special joy in reading to Teddy and eveytime I am near a bookstore, I buy him another book.  There is something special about owning books and it makes me think of Grandma and my mother everytime.

Grandma had a sharp tongue and did not mince her words.  (I know, I know, apple does not fall far from the tree.)  It was always funny to see what she would say.  I remember the day I was leaving for college and we stopped to stay with her.  She was so proud of me.  Towards the end of her life, she and Aunt June would come to Jonesville for a couple of weeks at a time to stay with my Mom.  Aunt June and I spent one of these trips canning a bunch of vegetables from the garden.  Even though Grandma was not really able to help, she still "directed" us on the finer points and made her preferences known.

When she passed away in February of 2004, Aunt June (blessed saint who took care of Grandma for years through many illnesses) found some really neat things I had forgotten that I sent Grandma.  She had a letter where I met this author and I wrote her that even though I liked interviewing the author, I wanted to be an attorney (I went wrong very early on you see).  She kept that letter for almost 20 years and I have no idea why, but I am so glad she did.

I said at Teddy's Christening how much I missed her but that I knew she was still working her magic.  She was truly a special lady, instrumental in my life and in so many memories of my childhood and early adulthood.  Love you Grandma!

Teddy is a Chipmunk

People always ask me if the name Teddy is short for Theodore.   As you all know, it is short for T. Edward Azer (I know, I know, I said I would never use a middle name as the name in use but what can I say?  It adds character!), and truth be told, I liked the name Theodore but Adrian used his veto power over that one.  It's too bad that he did because I think Teddy is really that cute little green chipmunk that is friends with Alvin.   We are working with Teddy on solids and I find that he hides food in his cheeks, just like a chipmunk.  The other day he spit out a piece of apple that we had fed him from about 3 hours earlier and he had eaten since that time as well.  So weird.  Today I found blueberry way after he ate it. Teddy also likes to eat his food then spit it out, apparently all the almost 1 year old babies are doing that this season, its the newest trend.

We had a fun playdate with Alexander.  Here is a photo:

We also jinkxed ourselves and of course the one weekend Adrian is supposed to be away is the one weekend that Teddy gets sick.  Even the doctor was not sure exactly what it was (maybe coxsackie again) but it was enough to make a miserable weekend without Daddy worse.  Then Daddy came home sick.  Truly, this was a weekend to avoid this Azer family but we made the best of it.

Here is a question to ponder:  why can't babies be born with teeth already partially in so that this whole teething thing could be avoided?

Improvements?

I just wanted to brag on Teddy and his behavior, for once. When I went to pick him up last night, there was no time out to report. I literally almost screamed with joy! And they even had a new baby in the room, an infant, and he was "gentle". Truly, I thought someone was playing a joke on me but they assured me it was a fact.

But did I tell you about Monday? Oh, I conveniently have left out that he tackled another child (a child, who is 15 months by the way, that loves Teddy and when we walk in, he runs over to give Teddy a hug and play) not once, but twice. They pulled Teddy off of him and he ran over and just tackled him again. No idea why. In case you wonder if we let him do this at home, the answer is no. (He is somewhat rough but not tackling us or other weird stuff.) I have no idea where this comes from, but I do know that he loves that Time Out chair he has. And I think he better get used to it, something tells me he is going to see a lot of it in the future.

This is the face he makes when he thinks he is in trouble. (This is after he has already peeked to see if we are watching.)



You tell me if you could punish this face, especially after he blows you a kiss or two. I know, I am a sucker for a boy with a great smile.

Teddy Walks the Line

If you are familiar with our blog then you are familiar with Teddy's "unique" way of showing his love for his Momma. This weekend would be no exception. Adrian and I like to take turns getting up with Teddy on the weekend [this kid is a early riser and likes to be up and playing by 6-6:30 everyday, I mean come on, just once I would love to have the kid who sleeps until 8am]. Saturday was Adrian's turn to get up with Teddy and then later brought him in to wake Momma up. Teddy was not happy with that plan and decided to "express his displeasure" which included a full on back arch into Momma's mouth (Greg Louganis would be proud of the back arch form, perhaps he will be an Olympic diver). I immediately tasted the metallic in my mouth and ran to the bathroom. The Roo got me good...a nice big fat lip with cuts on the bottom and top of my lips. (If you did not know better, you would think Adrian has abused me but luckily now it looks like a bruise on my lip and is not swollen.) Now that he also has these 8 teeth he likes to bite and HARD. He has been vamping his way through Daddy and me. I feel sorry for those poor teachers of his, I can only imagine what he does to them...

However, the cutest thing he does now is that if he thinks he is in trouble, he will blow kisses. If I say no, he just melts my heart with the blowing of kisses, like he knows he is charming you but playing you at the same time; little rascal.

KISSING

That brings me to the Teddy discipline story of the week. I went to pick him up this week and they told me he had to be in time out for about an hour that day. He apparently finished his bottle before all the other kids and wanted them to play with him, IMMEDIATELY. They were slow, so he went around knocking all of their bottles out of their mouths and throwing the bottles so they could play (I guess that makes sense to an 11 month old?). That was time out number 1. Then later they all wanted their passy's, and now that Teddy has one there you would think this issue was fixed, but you would be wrong. He threw his passy and stole all of theirs, again, you guessed it, and threw them. Time out number 2. Apparently he got so bored in time out he took a nice long nap that day. I swear, this kid is just too much. If he does not have your attention, he will get it, by any means necessary!

We have made a lot of progress though in other areas. At music class, Teddy started shaking the maracas and banging the drum instead of just trying to eat everything. He started waving his hands and clapping (not exactly in time but, hey, small victories here people). I think we have a music man on our hands.

As you know, Teddy has been trying to walk ever since we got home from Grove Park Inn. He has made great strides and is now officially walking everywhere. It is his preferred method of locomotion now and he likes to move all around. I like to call his swagger the Nixon, watch the video and you will see why:

WALKING

We are excited to visit with our friend Molly and Richard's baby Henry, more wolves in the pack! We are also getting excited for the big birthday party coming up in 1 month...time flies!