Wow -- more time machine action

Nothing like having 2 months go between postings and you feel like it has been 2 weeks. Seriously, can someone hit the pause button on our home movie?

It's really impossible to try to document what happens on a day to day basis when everyday is so different.  Toby's vocabulary is crazy - lots of nouns but not too many verb/adjectives. He knows all the letters in his name, can count to 14 and can actually count objects (1, 2 or 3). We're working on learning colors, TONS of animals. He's using 3-4 words in each sentence and while he's thankful for everything, we're still working on "asking politely" by saying "please."

Toby's super-excited for Santa to show up. In fact, whenever we ask him, "who's coming over" his stock answer is "Santa."

Here's a pic of Toby making his "funny face" and of of course I had to do it as well.

Toby also has discovered that Birthdays = Birthday cake. It's not pretty but it sure is tasty.

We also discovered that Toby can climb up onto our bed. While he learned this out of the blue one day, he just as quickly forgot how to do it.



Ian & Amy & Toby

First Haircut

Wow --What a crazy few months. I just looked at the last time we posted and I'll I could think was, "July...REALY?!? What happened to August and September?"

August was crazy. Amy completed her first every triathlon (Tri for the Cure) and we spent 2 weeks in NY on Lake Champlain and the other half of the month was spent catching up! I ran my first ever 10K in September in record time! As a friend of mine told me, "I came in first place in my catagory. It all depends on how you define your category!"

Anyway, after 21 months of letting Toby's fro fly freely (say that 10 times fast) we decided it was time to tame the beast. We took him down to a place that specializes in kids haircuts. While Toby's stylist tamed the 'fro more than we wanted -- we certainly are not complaining about the outcome!

BEACH!

Wow -- super-fast 6 weeks just flew by. I'm not entirely sure what happened to the time. However, we just got back from a 6 day trip to Rye Beach, NH (sandwhiched between Portsmouth and Hampton Beach) on the NH coast. It's safe to say that Toby's first beach trip was a huge success. He spent hours sitting in the sand playing with the water and sand with his cousins. He even thought that he might try to surfing but couldn't quite figure it out. :-)

Pool Day

Man -- crazy two weeks. Toby's working on 4 molars now (1 3/4 are "in") while the other two are just showing their tips. The language explosion is in full effect. Yesterday Toby learned the following words (in his own way of course): Open, Closed, Buffalo, Seal, Goat.

My personal favorite is hearing him say "elbow" and attempt to look at his armpit.

However, his favorite words are still "Barty"(Barney), "Choo-Choo"(Train) and BUSSSSS.

Yesterday was gorgeous so we headed over before lunch for Toby's first dip in a pool. Of course, he thinks it's a giant bath-tub (he kept saying, "bath" and pointing to the water).

Another new tooth and lots of words!

Wow, Toby is lots of fun these days. He's not only getting cuter every day with his curls and blue eyes, but he seems to learn new words every time he opens his mouth. He knows his nose, toes, feet, sheep, keys, knees, truck and duck... his favorite is still bus (bussy), and choo choo. His cousin Elliot let him borrow his Thomas train set and it seems to entertain him every time he walks by the choo choos, mommy loves it too! He loves the outside, this morning he grabbed his shoes and started saying 'side' before we could get downstairs.
Grandma was in town from New York last week, other than all of us getting the sickness, we had a great time. Thanks to her help, we now have beautiful flowers, herbs and veggies planted in pots around the yard, I am really hoping I don't kill them before summer even arrives!
We went to the zoo with Elliot, Willa and Nani Tuesday and had a great time! Here are some fun pictures!


PS another new tooth is breaking through, possibly a molar

Distinguished Gentleman

So we had some fun today and took Toby over for a neighborhood Pre-Easter Egg Hunt. While it was overcast and cold enough that we could see our breath, we figured a little practice couldn't hurt before the "big game" tomorrow (of course, he had to get dressed up just in case the ladies were there). We started strong, Toby was enjoying himself and starting mugging for the camera.

So, off we went. However, as we went, Toby was less and less excited about doing anything. When the time came to set the kids "free", what we discovered is that Toby's "game face" attitude was mostly composed of him hiding behind one of us while watching 40+ kids run, grab, push, and cry their way across the lawn.

So what we really ended up with looked a lot more like this -- I can't really blame him, those older kids have been practicing their game-faces for several years at least. This was his first try.









In the end we finally resorted to bribery....which was basically holding out a chocolate egg and hoping he would un-stick his frozen feet to come get it. It worked like a charm. All in all it was a good morning. We got back to the house and Toby finished up his morning with a 3hr nap.

Ian & Amy

Long Time No Update

Wow -- I have no clue where all the time went. In the last 6 weeks, Toby is into everything and anything. Since the weather has been so nice, Toby would be happy living outside playing in the yard. His favorite past time these days is to sit on our front "stoop" and wave at cars as they go buy -- whether they wave back or not isn't important. Not sure how we're going to keep him out of the sun, keeping a hat on his head might take staples or glue.

He's starting to use a fork to eat and says "Please" to everything he wants. He knows a lion roars, a dog says, "bow wow", and the sounds a monkey makes. I think he knows a duck says, "qwack" but it might be a stretch. He can identify fish, snakes and cats (still an all time favorite).

Today we got a nice helping of snow, probably the final storm of the year, so I bundled up Toby and took him outside to help me shovel -- he was way excited to help dad but wasn't a huge fan of the blowing snow.

 

Ian

The Walkabout

Holy Mobility Batman! No joke -- Toby is off and "running". While it isn't pretty, (drunken sailor anyone?) he's now walking more than crawling for sure... it's not even close! We managed to get a shot of him cruising across the house yesterday and thought we'd post it online for giggles.

Last night was an interesting night as well -- Toby went to bed at 7:15pm after entertaining some neighbors then crashed out. He cried really hard at 5am but we were determined to let him work it out on his own again. Our efforts to stay in bed were rewarded because he passed out and slept until 7:15!

--Ian & Ames
PS
Since everyone knows the first rule of "Sleep Club" is "Don't talk about Sleep Club" we're probably screwed tonight.

Toby at the office!

He just seemed to be having so much fun sitting at my desk, I had to take some pics.

Face shot...

Of course, right after I posted our last update (literally within 10min) Toby took a header and landed face first on our wooden coffee table/chest that we have in the family room. Cut the inside of his mouth rather nicely unfortunately. Within 15min he was his old self again (thankfully).

We might need to get him a helmet and mouth guard and let him run wild! Or just replace all our furniture with bean-bag chairs...

--Ian

13 Months

Holy cow! I thought 1 year was a big milestone but I had no idea how much Toby would figure out in 4 weeks. On top of adding new words (box, Addie, fish, hi, bye, D'oh, and last but not least NO), new signs (please, more, all done) he's starting to walk. Not very far mind you, but just far enough to make us hold our collective breath that he doesn't take a header into a door jam and scare himself out of figuring out how to walk. Amy shot a quick video today of Tobes teetering out around the corner on his own. Enjoy!

--Ian & Amy

One Year!

Wow -- what a ride! Toby is now officially 1 years old (Jan 2nd). It seriously feels like yesterday that we were driving home at 25mph and scared sh*tless. Now, we have a little "dude" who brings smiles to our faces even when he's sick and puking.

So some milestones to share: Toby is now consistently saying Momma, Da Da, Bye. He recognizes his bottle and asks for it. He discovered my parents cat over Christmas break and calls the kitty "Kiiiiiya!" while he crawls madly around the house. He knows the sign "all done" when he's finished with his meal.

Toby is also climbing stairs, opening up cabinets and emptying them (like it's his JOB!). He's not walking on his own yet, but, he's furniture surfing and pushing little carts around the house.

We had a little party for him today at the house today. We managed to get a few good shots of him cramming his first cake into his face!

He started fairly innocently enough. He wasn't quite sure what to make of the huge piece of cake we presented to him.

However, once he started digging his finger into it, he started to get into the groove and shovel frosting into his mouth with both hands.

By the end, he had pretty much managed to slim himself badly enough that we just dumped him in the bath.

Here's to the first year!

--Ian