Neil Yan Dot Com

The question of the day, “How can someone 60cm or so long and 20lbs 5oz in weight take up so much of our queen size bed?” Well, easily…especially when he refuses to sleep in his own comfortable crib with an organic mattress. I’m pretty much sleeping on the last 12 inches of bed, that great if I was only 6 inches wide. Unfortunately, I’m more than 12

If I was just a few feet smaller, I’d sleep in his crib and Ben and his mother can have the queen size bed. Luckily for me, I’ve been too exhausted to even hear him cry when he wakes up in the middle of the night, and he’s literally right next to me.

So, when does Ben “leave the nest”? It’s a hung jury! Sheila and I have surveyed our friends and family and we’ve gotten every answer under the sun from “he’ll sleep in his own bed when he’s ready” to “feed him solid foods right before he goes to bed so that he won’t wake up hungry”. Our next attempt, we’ll put him in his crib after he falls asleep in 1) our arms or 2) our bed. When he cries in the middle of the night, I’ll be getting him. His mom will be sleeping through the night. The idea behind that is we have to wean him off the boob in the night. He’s gotten use to getting it when he wakes up at 1AM, 3AM, 5AM. Hopefully, he’ll know that my boobs are off-limits and he’ll have no milk during the night.

Let the crying begin!!

Well, I did it! I made to 39. And all I wanted was to spend it with Ben and Sheila. It’s my first birthday with Ben. After a long day at the office, all I wanted was some play time with Ben. I was exhausted after 5 minutes….not because of Ben, but because I didn’t get much sleep the night before after the U2 concert! Yes, U2 at the Rogers Centre! Floor seats! 150ft from Bono and gang! I’ve been to a few concerts in my life, but that one had to take the cake.

The “claw” shape stage took up the whole outfield of Rogers Centre. Everyone, include the band, looked like ants under the stage. The roof was open at the Roger Centre for only the second time for a concert. It felt like an outdoor concert! There were about 62,000 fans for the show! That’s NUTS!! Luckily, we brought earplugs.

As for Ben, he slept soundly in Markham with his grandmother…until he woke up looking for his mother and milk. The crappy part, he found neither In a rush to beat traffic to get downtown, we didn’t leave any milk for the boy. We’re officially “bad parents” for the night. Lucky for Ben, my mom had his favorite bottle of water. That held up until 1:30AM, when we arrived home. Note to self: Make sure the boy has enough to eat while we’re out. The new challenge, weaning him off the boob.

Here are some pics from that night at the concert:

Finally adjusting to EST, it’s taken 5 days for our little one to re-adjust back to his home time zone. For a few days there, he wasn’t going to bed until 1am. Not so good for either of us; at least for me, since I’m up at 6:30AM

Being on vacation threw off Ben’s daily routine…especially when we started having him sleep alone in his crib. Well, now we’re back to square one again, since he slept with us in our monster king size bed while in Vancouver. He hasn’t slept that well since, well, before we decided to move him from our bed. So, back to the drawing board.

On the solid food front, he’s getting better. We’re sort of figuring out why he’s not eating his organic baby food from a jar; IT’S TERRIBLE TASTING! I tried it, and even I wouldn’t eat it! So, we’ve started to give him some of our food, in small doses…but he still has to finish the 4 boxes of rice cereal that we bought on sale!! Poor Ben! Lucky for him, his Dad and Mom are good at mixing it with stuff that tastes good. But it’s still a challenge to find something that’s not on the “don’t feed an infant this…” food (ie. peanuts, seafood, milk products, berries, and the other millions of products…Ben might as well be a vegan!)

Here are a sample of the 1000 photos I took in Vancouver.

Well, Ben and the fam are finally back from a 10 day vacation out west in Vancouver. After Ben’s uncle’s wedding, Ben decided to extend the stay another week. It’s his first time seeing mountains….REAL MOUNTAINS! The itinerary included:

• a day trip to Whistler and a ride on the PEAK-TO-PEAK gondola
• a day trip (rainy of course) to Victoria, BC; it included a 1.5 hour ferry ride each way
• numerous trips across the numerous bridges around Vancouver city
• Cypress National Park look-out over looking the city of Vancouver
• lots of food…endless food
• experience sitting forward in an infant car-seat (usually rear facing)
• got lots of photos taken of himself  by a professional photographer…and the many party goers
• met his uncle for the first time (weird since he met his new wife a few months ago first)

But now, it’s back to the daily grind…back to his basket of toys…and hopefully sleeping alone in his crib (let’s cross our fingers).

Here’s a link to Ben’s first photo shoot.

Also, if you’re ever in Whistler, do the Peak-to-Peak gondola ride..it’s pretty wild!