BOY, OH BOY!

Welcome, Asa.

http://davidyusi.com/asa

Day 1, sleeping:

THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

To kick off the holiday season, we celebrated Thanksgiving twice this year: first with Yusi’s parents, and second with David’s parents, aunt Jane, uncle Jesse, and cousin Jason. Sue and Connie joined for both feasts, as well as an endorphin-laden wood-stacking party. A few weeks later, Mary Beth and Roger joined Grandma and Papa Turell to celebrate Christmas with us. Plenty of good food, Niko antics, and thoughtful gifts – topped by the triumph of securing one of the last few cut trees in the state on Christmas Eve. When you’re too pregnant to travel, the family comes to you!

A few weeks earlier, Niko and Mommy gathered with other parents and kids from the Oyster River Parents of Pre-schoolers (ORPP) to hunt for colored feathers on the annual Thanksgiving turkey trot.

Thanks to Gramma Bassoon and Grandpa Trombone (Yusi’s parents), we also enjoyed a “Babymoon” weekend getaway at a B&B in Camden, Maine. We hiked Maiden’s Cliff (with its touching back story), melted into massages, window-shopped, and curled up with books by the wood stove. Setting the tone for the weekend was our superb Friday night dinner at Fore Street restaurant in Portland. All items were delicious, with the pumpkin crab soup and apple-pear-rosemary sorbet truly best of class.

We marked our two-year NH anniversary this December with a festive and well-attended neighborhood brunch. With the help of a few neighbors’ rolodexes, Yusi went door-to-door delivering invitations.

In the process she discovered three potential teenage babysitters, two newborn twins, and another expectant mother (in a pear tree…). With these social ties and the bulk of our home improvements complete, 5 Stevens Way feels more and more like home.

Niko is still acquiring his snow/ice legs, but he gets a big kick out of taking snowballs from Yusi’s hands and throwing them explosively into the air.

He also takes any opportunity to sing his four favorite songs: the alphabet song, “Itsy Bitsy Spider,” “Bicycle Built for Two,” and “Jingle Bells.”

Bedtime has become even more fun now that teeth brushing is part of the ritual. Niko sits on the window sill and gets his turn to brush first. Then Daddy trades him a clean brush for the one with tooth paste on it. The deal is, while Daddy brushes Niko's teeth, Niko gets to brush Daddy anywhere except the eyes. It's a good time for everyone!

Niko’s language continues to explode and, as his imagination grows in parallel, it leads to some delightful exchanges. Here’s a recent one:

“Niko, where are you going?”
“On trip!” (from playing with his little travel suitcase)
“Where to?”
“Africa!” (probably from Doctor Doolittle)
“What will you see there?”
“People!”
“What will you say to the people?”
“Hi!” (with the inflection of Dr. Seuss, “What Was I Afraid Of?”)
“What will the people say back to you?”
“Happy Thanksgiving!”

He uses “Hm” to refer to any question word (as in, “Hm, bear is” instead of “Where is the bear?”) and explains that he’s “had it already” if we offer second helpings of food. He can count to 13 because of the 13 steps between our first and second floors. It’s fascinating to start to play with letters and sounds – e.g., “What letter is this? What sound does it make? What words start with this letter?” – and to realize just how screwy the English language is!

Niko is also developing a hilarious sense of humor. His first joke was “Daddy eat porcupine!” prompting our nanny Amanda (Mandi) to give one of his new favorite books, “A Porcupine Named Fluffy,” for Christmas.

At the dinner table, Niko will encourage us to 1-2-3-CHUG! our water glasses before doing the same, and he delights in Daddy’s animated “WHAT?!” especially on car rides. Inexplicably, Goldilocks and his California cousin Juliahna also have earned the coveted descriptor of “funny.”

As often as we can, we make the trip to nearby Peirce Island in Portsmouth. It's one of our favorite family outings where Tula plays off-leash and Niko throws rocks and sticks into the Portsmouth Harbor.

For folks who are actually interested in David and Yusi – not just our beloved firstborn – suffice it to say that we’re doing well. David is working long days designing & developing the “Harvard ManageMentor” e-learning platform, Harvard Business Publishing’s major corporate learning initiative. Yusi is transitioning her 8th Grade Academy & Alumni Services work to colleagues and is counting down the days to January 8, the kick-off to four months’ maternity leave. Pregnancy #2 is a different experience: less obsession about development (“what sized fruit is your baby this week”) and more joy and confidence about the birth and infancy. Whether playing with Niko or nestling by our wood stove after his bedtime, we feel very lucky.

Happy New Year! We look forward to a rare palindromic date tomorrow (01022010), to welcoming #2 in the coming weeks, and to a healthy and joyful new year for all.

P.S. As Niko approaches his second birthday, enjoy “Niko’s First Year” in pictures.