I thought this was a busy time of the year BEFORE we had a
baby. Wow. I definitely learned to be more
efficient this holiday season – although not so efficient that I could stay on
top of the blog!
Toby had another visit to the doctor just before
Thanksgiving. He weighed in at
17#10oz then, and they were very impressed with his standing and tummy-time
skills. We, of course, already
know we have an amazing baby, so we weren’t surprised at all. By his next visit, in mid December, he
was already over 18#.
Thanksgiving was a riot. Toby started sticking his tongue out just before the
holiday, and decided his Aunt Rachael is his FAVORITE person to stick his
tongue out at – so much so that he stopped doing it altogether when we got home
and she wasn’t around anymore.
He
was also thrilled to finally meet his legendary Uncle Craig, who makes funny
faces and tells him what African children have to put up with. Seriously. Or maybe it was more like we were telling Craig what American
children have to put up with.
(Craig was in the Peace Corps in Ghana, where apparently men are
supposed to ignore children. He
wasn’t good at that.) Being the
only baby in a house full of grown-ups looked pretty fun, overall.
We even got to get bundled up and go on our first family
walk in the snow over that weekend.
The Roly-Poly One has been dutifully practicing giggles, and
was ready for prime-time over Thanksgiving. MamaSue turned out to be a great cinematographer. Matt and I agree that this is the best
sound in the entire world.
Things are moving forward on the solid food front, with yams
(yum!), avocado, and rice (boring, but acceptable) added to the list by
Thanksgiving. He tried yam at
Thanksgiving for the first time, and was able to eat in spite of the blinding
flashes from the baby paparazzi.
He still has days when most of it ends up on the bib, but that’s
balanced by sessions when he practically throws himself at the spoon, or grabs
it and pulls it into his mouth himself.
Peas are usually a throw-yourself-at-the-spoon event.
At Christmas he enjoyed oatmeal and
mashed potatoes and has since tried
out the high chair (mixed reviews, but he likes having the tray to grab from) and gotten to know butternut squash (I think
he ate too much of it first time, went through in record time…)
After Thanksgiving Toby got a visit from his Noni, who
taught him how to play peek-a-boo.
This has since become one of his favorite games. It’s part of a well-rounded bedtime, as
a matter of fact.
You’ll never guess what else is also part of a well-rounded
bedtime: not getting your binky.
Toby was having trouble falling and staying asleep because the pacifier
would fall out, so after extensive consideration we decided to go cold turkey
about a week after Thanksgiving.
This resulted in a couple of no-fun naps followed by blissfully easy
fallings asleep. Stayings asleep
are a work in progress, but we take it one step at a time. Just a couple of days ago we finally
solved the night waking (he’s only up once in the night for now, fingers
crossed), but naps are still hit-or-miss – he’s super cheery if he can sleep
for an hour and a half, but 30 or 45 minutes still happens way too often.
I’m about to take our Christmas tree down, with mixed
feelings as usual. I love
Christmas decorations. Toby came
along to help pick out our tree this year, and showed some early signs of
stranger anxiety at the sight of the very tall, skinny fella with the chainsaw
who came out to help us. We had a
good time looking at all the trees, but when we found the perfect one and the
chainsaw came out Toby was NOT a happy camper. That was the first time I’ve ever really heard him
scream. He responded the same way
to the electric drill a few days later.
Turns out he doesn’t like power tools, I guess. We’ll work on that.
One of Toby's earliest gifts was this Rubiks cube from our friend Bill. He hasn't solved it yet, but I eventually did - labeled for a 6-month old, but more my style than the grown-up version for sure.
Decorating the tree waited until he was in bed this year,
but he’s loved having this big sparkly baby toy in the living room for the last
month. I kept a little corner of
it free of lights and hung Toby-friendly ornaments for him to chew on and pull
off repeatedly. He also liked the
presents, but we had to stop letting him chew on those because the paper
disintegrates and the ribbon dyes his mouth… oops! Just part of the general paper obsession we’re dealing with
the last few weeks – paper is his FAVORITE thing, and he likes to drool it into
tiny bits that he can try to asphyxiate on. Or if it’s a board book, he’ll settle for just wetting it
enough that the pages stick together.
Funfunfun.
His piano skills are possibly even more impressive than his
insatiable appetite for books – those lessons from Joelyn (“One finger,
Toby! One finger, one key!”) have
finally paid off. (Thanks to
Joelyn for getting this awesome video.)
Before actual Christmas, MamaSue and Aunt Rachael stopped by
for a few days, and Toby got to open his first big present – a 4th generation
rocking chair! His great-grandmother
Temme was the first baby to sit in this.
Just before Christmas stranger anxiety started to set
in. Now unpredictably when we’re
with a friend of family member he used to find fascinating, he screams instead
of cooing. It’s a bummer,
but reassuring since it’s supposed to happen. Christmas went surprisingly well in spite of that – we spent
three days each in two different houses (each of my parents), and Toby seemed
to enjoy the activity. Highlights
of the holiday included Toby dominating a ~80lb Great Pyrenees (she ran with
her tail between her legs), his first blizzard, baths in strange sinks, and hanging out with his two
cousins and all the aunts and uncles on that side of the family.
We’ve felt so lucky to get our families
together over the holidays! Traveling
is definitely not as easy as it used to be pre-baby, but it’s become even more
satisfying to spend time with the people we love.
The really big news post-Christmas is that Toby is now on
the move! He’s been sitting better
and better, although he still needs something soft behind him to fall back on,
and launching forward from sitting was getting him a little mobility. After we got back from Christmas he
almost immediately started rolling over from back to front, a feat Noni
witnessed in early December but refused to repeat for us. Once he figured out he could get around
by rolling, he was all over the living room within two days. He can easily travel 8 feet in a few
minutes when he’s in the mood.
This also inspired him to try army crawling – belly still on the floor,
but he can spin around 360º and move forward a few inches. Exciting! We’re thinking more seriously about what it will take to
baby-proof. It’s already making
diaper changes and bath time more exciting as he tries to explore the ENTIRE
WORLD as quickly as possible.
Whew! I know
I’ve left a lot of special moments and precious pictures out of this post, but
it’s already so mammoth I’m afraid no one will make it to the end. So I’m signing off for now, and
promising more soon. Just need to take
the tree back down and send a few more holiday cards…
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