Hats
Teddy loved putting things on his head and saying "at" or "hat" with this little secret smile. It could be a leaf, a ball, an actual hat, a piece of clothing. That boy sure did love hats.
Cat Food
Teddy loved to get into the cat food. At first he would try to shove a handful into his mouth, but after a while he liked dropping the kibble into the water dish, or squeezing them into the heater grate in the kitchen. He also just loved that we made a fuss over him whenever he did it. If it was too quiet, we always knew where he would be. Soon, Logan started telling us, "Teddy ate the cat food!" and "Teddy, no!" I was really looking forward to telling Teddy's friends when he grew up to be a teenager...
Diaper Changes
Teddy HATED having his diaper changed. When he was teeny it was okay because he was pretty docile, but once he hit maybe 8 or 9 months, he was just a writhing little mess that refused to be held down by "the man." It's not like he wanted to be naked, he just hated getting changed! When he was a little older I would ask him, "where's your nose? Where are your eyes? Can you say ball?" It would distract him just long enough for me to use my mommy ninja skills to quickly whip away the dirty diaper and successfully fasten the new one. But you had to be fast, and you had to keep eye contact the whole time.
Staircase Shenanigans
When we moved into our new apartment in Queens, we all of a sudden had access to our own entrance and corresponding staircase. This was an unexpected joy for both my boys. Logan loves going up and down the stairs, and for Teddy it was like a new playground. We had a gate at the top, of course, to make sure they couldn't accidentally fall, but that gate was a joy in and of itself to Teddy. He loved gripping it and pulling as hard as he could, shaking it so it rattled. That kid really loved to make noise! Then he discovered the utter ecstasy of watching balls bounce down the stairs when he would put it through the bars.
Little plastic balls were fun, but they didn't really satisfy the aural experience he was going for. So next came the larger, magnet-filled, plastic balls from Logan's magnet set. This was very satisfying. So again and again, the louder the better. I felt horrible for what our poor elderly downstairs neighbors had to experience, but honestly, seeing the joy on that boy's chubby little face was worth every cringe-worthy whack of the ball on the wooden stair, each one louder as the ball gained momentum.
Meal Time
Watching Teddy eat was an utter joy. After so long with Logan, who eats like a bird and is unusually clean and kind of prissy about getting his hands dirty, along comes Teddy, shoving food towards his mouth with complete abandon. For many months, he wouldn't even use his hands, I would have to feed him everything. He would stick his arms out like a little starfish, wiggle his fingers, and open his mouth as wide as it would go. Well, to be true, the more he liked the food, the wider he would open up. And then when he was satiated, he would do this wriggling dance in his high chair to signal that he wanted out NOW. If you weren't quick enough, you would have to endure the wiggling and increasingly loud cries while trying to clean off every part of his face, hands, and sometimes scalp, while getting the food and tray out of the way to release him from the torture of being in the high chair for even one second too long.
One of my all-time favorite memories is from his first (and only) birthday. It was the first time we let him have cake, and I remembered that Logan just barely picked at his on his big day. We had all these visions of Logan just shoving the cake into his mouth hole, but he was much too proper for that. After we sang to Teddy and blew out his candle, we placed the slice of cake in front of him. At first it was in a bowl, which was an odd choice, so we took it out and put it on his tray. He gingerly picked at the frosting with those little chubby fingers of his and carefully put little bits (mostly) in his mouth. After 2 or 3 times doing this, he picked up the whole thing with both hands and shoved it at his mouth. We laughed and he look up at us with this big smile. Oh god, how I miss that smile... Then he went back to methodically trying (and failing) to get each piece into his wide-open mouth.
I have so many more beautiful memories, but writing about that last one broke me, so here is where I stop for the day. Please enjoy these photos of my angel illustrating some of the topics described above :)
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