I feel like someone who dodged the zombie plague for so long only to catch it in the end. MC and I introduced Teagan to Frozen for the first time today. She didn’t watch the whole thing. Wondering if that means she is immune?
Amelia and Coffee
Amelia loves coffee. That is the only explanation I have for her taking the can of Illy coffee and dumping it on her and the kitchen floor. yup only conclusion I have.
One of The Best Meals I Have Ever Had
Even before MC and I were married we became fan’s of fine dining every once in a while. I don’t consider us foodies (yet) but we do like to go out and enjoy a good meal. We have been watching Top Chef for a while and have sampled a few places in NYC from famous chef’s. We went to Craft for our first anniversary. Late last year we went to a restaurant run by one of the Top Chef winners, Hung.
Inevitably we don’t get out as much as we would like to. This year for our 3rd anniversary we wanted to go somewhere nice. Last year Amelia was only home from the hospital a week and we were lucky enough for MC’s parents to be around to let us go out to somewhere in the neighborhood. It was a great meal but nothing too fancy. This year we planned at the last minute so finding a nice place was a challenge. Instead of looking for a place associated by someone on Top Chef we looked at the Michelin starred restaurants in NYC. After some trying we were able to get reservations at Jean Georges. it is one of a handful of 3 star Michelin restaurants in the US. Last year for restaurant week we went to the bar or whatever they call the more casual part of Jean Georges but this time we went to the full dining room.
MC was running late due to train issues, so I hung out at the bar till she arrived. I tried an Old Fashoned. I wasn’t a fan. It is the 2nd one that i didn’t like so i think i am just not a fan of the drink so i will stop trying to make it at home. I swithed to my favorate Sidecar when we got to our table. We both opted for the 3 course menu. Everything was fantastic. I think MC said her secound course was the single best bite of food that she has had. It was that good. It may have arguably been the best meal i have ever had. If not the best it is in the top 5. I paid extra for the beef 3rd course. It was delicious but if we ever went back I would try for something different. Suprisingly the least favorate course for me was my 2nd course of Foie Gras. It was good but MC and I both thought it wasn’t spectacular.
Desert was fantastic. We each went with the chocolate option. They do themes for desert so we had the option of winter, chocolate, carmel, or i think orange or lemon. Neither of us could agree on who would do chocolate and who would get carmel so we both got the chocolate. We also got a little chocolate cake for our anniversary. I was glad to mention that we were celebrating when they asked when we sat down.
Overall we had a fantastic night. Jean Georges also was the single most expensive dinner I can remember spending money on but it was worth every penny. We are now thinking of what we want to do for our next nice night out. That wont be till my birthday at minimum but we want to plan this time. I think we are both thinking of going to Le Bernardin. We both want to go but we haven’t been able to get reservations, so next time we need to plan ahead.
The Time I Smashed My iPhone 6
By the time I sat down to write this post a year and 1/2 or so likely has gone by. This is one of those situations where I wasn’t blogging enough yet I wanted to capture this story. I recall enough of the details to get some basic story written down. It stands out in my mind because it’s the only time to date or I’ve destroyed a phone. It’s one in a rare few times I’ve dropped a phone.
It was a cold wet day and I was coming home from work like I always did. I’m not sure if I was pulling my gloves off or just fumbling for my keys and I went to swap my phone from my right hand to my left hand. I don’t know what happened however it just slipped away from me. I tried to grab it however I was unable to. When I picked up the phone the front screen was smashed. There is not much I can do at the time since I needed to get home and relieve the babysitter so she can leave for the day.
Once the kids were in bed I went online to see when I could schedule an appointment at the Apple Store to try to get it fixed. I was lucky to be able to get an early morning appointment the next day.
I brought the phone in and let the techs do their thing. I was concerned that my worst-case scenario would be I’d have to buy a completely new iPhone. I did not get the insurance initially now I was regretting that decision. As I spoke to the Genius Bar tech they said that the initial amount of money would be no less than around $100 plus tax. The exact price is fuzzy in my memory but it was not much more than that. They asked me if I was okay with that and I was like absolutely since it was a lot cheaper than I thought it was going to be. Then the tech cautioned me that if it was more than the screen that was damaged they would need to replace the entire iPhone. The refurbished replacement would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $350. Again he asked me if I was okay with that. Even then my response was yes yes yes since a full replacement would still be 1/3 of the price I thought I was going to have to pay. The tech then said it was okay that the work would be done by lunchtime. It was around 8 AM and I was perfectly fine with that too. It felt like this tech dealt with a lot of angry or argumentative people since every time he asked me a question he seemed to brace or assume that I was having a negative response. The funny thing was it was expensive I wasn’t pleased to have to spend money however it was far better possible outcome than I anticipated. I signed all the paperwork left to go to work.
I was smart in making my appointment at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store that was open 24/7. It’s also on my way to work. And a short walk from the subway. That made it easy for me to hop on the subway and go back at lunchtime. When I got back I was happy to find out that the only thing wrong was the screen. That meant the repair was only around hundred dollars and change. I was extremely pleased and paid the fee and had my phone good as new. I did ask if I could purchase insurance on the phone now since I thought it was within the 30 days of when I bought it. Sadly since there was already damage to it I was ineligible for AppleCare. I plan on getting a case to try to prevent the problem from happening again.
I was in and out quick enough that I was able to get lunch and returned to work in under an hour. All in all the situation could’ve been a lot worse I was pleased enough with the outcome.
The Story of Dee Dee, and That Other Monkey We Will Never Speak of
When Teagan was born we got lots of presents. As with many new borns a lot of the gifts we received were in the form of plush stuffed animals to put in her crib. Even before she was born I pondered what stuffed thing she would gravitate towards. In our family the “loves” or items kids attach to have been stuffed animals. I know many people have blankets and other stuff but for all the kids I remember we liked stuffed animals. My sister had her lamb. At least one of her kids had a lamb also, and the other two i know had animals but I can’t remember what they were. I think mine was the dog Benjy dressed up as Sherlock Holmes.
The problem with any item that a kid attaches to is that if you lose it you have big problems. For Morgan my dad was able to purchase extra Lamb’s once we knew that the lamb was the one she gravitated towards. That way they had a backup in case you needed to clean one or something happened to it.
For Teagan we limited what was in her crib early on. I think there was one little lamb in the crib and a few other items. Her crib was not like some others that I have seen were you couldn’t find the kid in all of the animals. Once she did get exposure to more of them I was moderately surprised that she selected a brown monkey. There was a pink monkey that I swore she would have picked, but she knew what she wanted and picked the larger two tone brown monkey.
After a few short weeks we knew this was this monkey was her lovey. That meant we needed to act fast and get a backup one. MC said the monkey was a gift from my mom. I called my mom and she told us she got it at Pottery Barn Kids. MC went online and ordered 2 of what she thought was the same monkey. When we got it we realized it wasn’t the same. it was smaller and a slightly different style monkey. We thought about it for a bit and decided to switch out the totally different monkey for the new one that we had two of. To my pleasant surprise Teagan didn’t really notice that the new monkey was totally different size and fluffiness to the original one and attached right to it. After a few days our concerns that we would be found out were over and she was happy with her new lovey.
All was right with the world in the stuffed animal department until a few weeks go by. I don’t remember exactly how long but I was discussing what we did with my mom. She said why don’t I just go and see if they have the original doll at the store. We were happy Teagan had attached to the other monkey by now but I said sure it can’t hurt. She called us up one day at the store after confirming they had the type we wanted and asked if we really wanted it. It was on sale. I said sure, and MC and I agreed we should get 2 just in case. Just in case of what you might as? The answer is who the heck knows. If one backup doll is good, 2 should be better or so that was our logic.
Now we had a total of 5 monkeys. The dilemma was that Teagan is now attached to the smaller monkey we switched for the original. We figured we were able to pull off the switch once, we should try it again. The worst that could happen was she didn’t attach and she would get mad at us. If that happened we would just switch back to the other monkey. The time came to make the switch and as far as i can recall she looked it over for a minute but then totally accepted the original monkey as her lovey.
Teagan has been attached to that monkey ever since. Since we have three of the monkeys she uses we keep two of them in my closet and swap them out when we need to clean them. One or two time she has sniffed it a bit and she would look at us skeptically but she hasn’t rejected it yet.
Seeing it first hand how attached she is to the monkey she has grown to call Dee Dee is pretty cute and funny. When she is getting a time out or just having a melt down she will call out “dee dee” constantly and will most of the time be soothed when she gets him/her. She sleeps with dee dee at every nap time and bed time. We instituted a rule that she can only play with dee dee in her room. MC wasn’t a fan of the idea but went along with my suggestion to do so. I didn’t want her to be too attached to her everywhere. She will now try to sneak dee dee out of her room during the day. Usually when we catch her and call her out for it she will just run back to her room and deposit him somewhere. Recently that may be in her crib, the rocking chair or even a little play crib we have that she brought into her room for dee dee.
At bedtime after Amelia was born we have been reading books outside of her room so we allow dee dee out right before bed. She is so cute when she cuddles up to it when she gets it.
The other monkeys are not gone however. The smaller ones were originally kept around for when we traveled. Generally there is one in the play room now and again that she plays with. She doesn’t know the history of it and will likely find out eventually. I am making an assumption that by the time she is old enough to read this blog or even find it she will be able to accept that there were 3 dee dee’s. In my (and MC’s) defense we did it for Teagan’s and our own sanity in the event we had a catastrophic stuffed animal loss. I stick by my decisions regardless of the consequences! Teagan I love you and please don’t play mind games with me when I am old and my memory is going as a form of payback!
Thanksgiving
We survived our trip to my sisters for Thanksgiving. I say that because we are still not sure how Teagan will handle car rides. She was up and fine on the way out Thursday and slept a bit at nap time on the way back today. We had one scare when she coughed a bit that we thought she would be sick but she was fine.
The visit overall was great. My nieces and nephew love playing with Teagan and Amelia and by all accounts the feeling is mutual. Teagan loved playing with Zach and Lexi. Amelia had a blast. The positive was that both kids were so worn out by the time they went to bed they both went down right away and stayed sleeping most of the night. We have had challenges when traveling so wearing them out worked.
We had some minor car excitement when I realized the battery died on the car because we left the lights on. Michael jumped us in the middle of the night just to be sure we were good. We were fine after that.
Thanksgiving dinner was great. Carrie always does great holidays. It was also good to spend time with my dad. My mom is away on a trip of a lifetime in Africa so she was missed but we hope she is having a fantastic time.
NANANANANA Batman!
Every night we read a few books to Teagan and Amelia before bedtime. Recently we have found Teagan likes to curl up in our bed and read before going off to her room. She is old enough now to pick out her own books. She is very opinionated on what she wants to read. A while ago I bought her a My First Batman and My First Superman books. I also got a My First Book of Girl Power super hero’s but i have to say it is a horrible book. Many nights when Teagan goes to pick her books to read she picks one or both of the Batman & Superman books. Tonight was no exception. She had her Batman book in hand and kept pointing to a top shelf with more books and I couldn’t figure out what she wanted to read. I picked her up and asked her to point out what she wanted. She went straight for the Superman book.
We did our regular bedtime routine and read both books along with two other ones. The past few times I have read the Batman book I have sung the Batman song to her: Tonight MC and I did it again with her and she started singing it back to us: NANANANANA BATMAN. Even after we started putting her to bed she kept singing it NANANANANA BATMAN. I will be honest and say that Batman is not one of my favorite super hero’s but teaching my 2 year old to sing the Batman song makes me feel successful so far as a parent!
The more challenging task will next be how to introduce her to Doctor Who beyond the action figures she has.
A Sluggish Day for T
After yesterday’s late night T was super tired this morning. She lied down next to our huge Gorilla in our play room and I tucked her into some blankets and she rested while I fed A first thing. T was also a bit clingy right after she got up. I love myself some hugs but I felt bad she was so zonked. A little while later while playing she just lied down on the play mat. It was really cute but sad that she was so tired. Amelia is stuffed up with a cold so both my girls are not happy today. T apparently did get a bit more animated after i went to work. She was also pretty good when I came home.
A comando crawled all the way from our dinning room to our Foyer squawking at me. She got to right in front of me as i was taking my shoes off and sat up expecting to be picked up. She expected correctly. I had to put her down with our babysitter while I changed out of my work clothes. As soon as I did that she started yelling and proceeded to do so until I came back from changing and picked her up again. Not the nicest sound to listen to but I have to say i like to feel wanted!
M came home just in time for bedtime stories with T. It was a busy day at work but the last hour putting the girls to bed was a nice end. The Sidecar’s I made for M & I after the kids were in bed were also really good!
Sorry Grandma’s, But The Grandfathers Have Been Choosen
We should have seen the signs. They were there. First there was Teagan saying “Poppy” (aka my dad) when ever I take out my iPad because we sometimes FaceTime with my dad. Then there was the walking by our bar and seeing a photo of MC’s parents and calling out “Grandad”. I think MC’s mom is in the same picture but she calls out Grandad. Then there was the fact that my mom sees Teagan regularly and until very recently she wouldn’t call her by the name she goes by (aka Grammy). My mom hasn’t been pleased to say the least. All of these events have had us suspicious that Teagan favored the grandfathers over the grandmothers but we weren’t sure. True she laughed and played with all the grandparents but she just seemed to be more vocal about Grandad and Poppy.
This weekend we spend two days at MC’s parents house. From the time we got there till we left if he wasn’t around all Teagan could do till she found him was ask “Grandad?” Grandad, grandad, grandad, etc. To be clear she did say Grandma, but it became obvious early on who was her priority.
I don’t get it. Both my mom and MC’s mom are great with her and she enjoys their company, but she has made it clear they are no substitute for the grandfathers. She just wants to be with them or know what they are doing. I feel safe enough to write this on my blog because neither grandmother read’s blogs or uses the internet all that much, so Shhhh don’t tell them Teagan is playing favorites. Of course I think they know already. On the plus side there is always hope. That hope is in the form of Amelia!
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