Neil Yan Dot Com

Ben was at his first 1st birthday party yesterday and he had a blast. He’s not big on large crowds, but I guess when a majority of the guests are kids, he’s OK with that. He’s not OK when he’s the only kid in the room (as we found out a few months ago when I introduced him to my friends…all adults). He still gets startled easily, mainly by loud unexpected noises, but I guess he’ll get use to that like he’ll get use to hearing sirens of ambulances and police cars 17 floors down outside our condo. Sheila and I considered the outing a success mainly because 1) he didn’t cry and 2) he played well with the other kids that chose to interact with him. But mainly because he didn’t cry.

I also had an interesting conversion with a friend at the party who brought along his 1 year-old daughter. He mentioned that him and his wife and their daughter had a mini-vacation to Chicago before she went back to work (after a year off). The topic of conversation somehow veered towards dolls and they mentioned that they went to the American Girl store in Chicago. I knew nothing of this store or its concept. But if you know “Build-A-Bear”, you take that business model and multiply it by a THOUSAND!! It’s almost like the Cabbage Patch kid times A HUNDRED!! The store is several floors with personal shoppers, a hair salon, and FURNITURE all for your DOLL!! I decided to investigate more, and found that American Girl also has a Girl HOSPITAL for your doll!!! Are you kidding me!?? Hundreds of thousands of kids go to school hundred every day, and yet people will go to American Girl and drop a few thousand dollars on a customized doll (you can make it so that it almost looks like your little daughter…creepy!), outfits for the doll, matching outfits for your daughters, furniture, bling, whatever!!! That’s awesome!!

And the genius behind this, Mattel Toys! Although, A.G. is a brand of Mattel. Supposedly the stores are just packed!! What happened to spending a few dollars on a boring Barbie?! What about American Boy!? Canadian Girl?! Hmmmmm….

If you want to witness this crazy (almost absurd) phenomenon, click here.

Ben went on a 8 days excursion to Maine to visit his uncle and he comes back a different child. How much can an infant change in a weeks’ time? Before he left, he was just getting the hang of rolling over and back again. He couldn’t stand unless we supported him well. He got frustrated watching other kids run around him. He’d sit up fine, but when he wanted to turn, he’d just throw himself down and roll over.

Now, after a short tour of Maine, he stands with minimal support (as long as he’s leaning up against something, or holding someone’s hands), and he learned to push himself up to a sitting position from being on his stomach. He’s somehow figured how to crawl backwards, but not forwards (we’re ok with that, since going backwards is a lot harder than going forwards…I guess he’s not interested in taking the easy route). And the most interesting one, he’s saying “mum” when he wants his mother. It’s pretty clear now who’s his favorite (I’ll attribute that to my inability to lactate through my nipples….DAMN!).

So, upon further investigation from our friend google, MEN CAN BREASTFEED!! So, all I have to say to Sheila is, GAME ON! Check out this link.

What hasn’t changed is that he still gets frustrated watching all the other kids run around while he’s still “immobile”. Like his dad, he already can’t sit still. Sheila and I know we’re in trouble once he figures out how to crawl and walk.

Here’s the video to “MilkMen”

In preparation for our long flight to Vancouver in September for Ben’s uncle’s wedding, we decided to send him off to visit his other uncle in Maine…by himself. But unfortunately, most airlines don’t allow children fly unattended if they are under 5 years old. Air Canada will only allow children age 8-12 to fly alone if its a non-stop flight, ie. no connecting flights. It seems that each airline has their own policy, but they’re all pretty similar. United Airlines offer an “unaccompanied minor service” where the minor is basically chaperoned before, during, and after the flight until the minor is turned over to the appropriate person. But again, the kid has to be at least 5 years old. 

So, Ben, being 6 months old, does not qualify. That’s ok. Sheila and her mom wanted to visit Maine anyways, so it killed 2 birds with one stone. The outcome, he was a good child on the flight. Slept part of it, and cried only when the plane sat at the terminal for an extended period of time (over an hour) while the weather radar was repaired. Supposedly the plane started getting warm, so the stewardest got Ben some ice and he was a happy camper again. The connecting flight in New York took longer than expected. Aside from that, the practice flight was a success. Unfortunately, the flight to Van will be a 5 hour direct flight. We’ll see how Ben handles that.

Here’s a link to United’s minor policy, and Air Canada.

It was another one of those holidays that landed in the middle of the week! If we were Americans, we’d have the rest of the week off. But since we’re Canadians, we’re good rule followers. Most everyone had the day off, except me. The bonus is that I get to take my holiday on Monday. But since I planned to take every Friday off in July, this weekend will be extra long!! Love working 4 day weeks!!

So, to celebrate Canada Day, the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) was free from 8:30PM to 9:30PM (actually, it’s free every Wednesday during the last hour of operation). The ROM has its critiques, but I love the new Lee-Chin Crystals! Toronto needs more funky buildings like the ROM and the AGO. This day, with family all decked out in red and white, we decide to venture up to the 3rd and 4th floor. We’ve been to the 2nd floor in the past; probably the coolest floor…it’s where the dinosaurs are (see photos of Ben with them on the photos link). You know the Westons and the Eatons have money when they can name a whole wing of the ROM after you. We saw the armor history section, African, European, and Islamic collection. The armor was cool, the other stuff was interesting. Now I know what a Wedgewood is…and why it’s so expensive.

We wanted to watch the lake front fireworks from our rooftop patio, but it started to rain, so we closed off Canada Day celebrations by watching them on TV. We’re soo ghetto!

Here’s a link to the ROM.

If you want to know what Wedgewood is, click here.

Well, Ben’s well on his way to eating a 12oz steak…in a few years. It’s been 3 weeks since he started on “solid” foods and he seems to enjoy it, or at least enjoy watching his parents eat funny looking things that don’t look like mush. When I think of solid foods, I think of hamburgers, pasta, rice and rack of lamb. We’re feeding Ben organic rice cereal or barley cereal mixed in with his mom’s milk. It looks more like porridge than cereal. I guess he doesn’t really know how to swallow true solid food yet and his two semi-exposed bottom teeth can’t really be used for chewing yet (except that now, when he clenches on your finger, it actually hurts); we’ll have to stick with “mush” for now.

To give him a bit of variety, we’ve also purchased the organic multi-grain cereal. And no, I have no inclination of trying any of the flavors. We plan to get him started on “real” food in a few weeks…like mashed up green peas!! YUM!!

Of course, the real question is, when will the breastfeeding stop now that Ben is developing teeth? We’ll know soon enough. I’ll assume it’ll end just after the first “bite” But that’ll lead us back to the old challenge, THE BOTTLE! We’ve finally found a bottle that Ben can hold and one that he actually uses! Unfortunately, he’ll only drink water from the bottle. Once we put milk in it, he feels betrayed and we “hear” that betrayal through his high pitched scream (as posted in previous blogs). I guess we somehow need to make the milk taste like water