The milestones keep rolling in… on September 6th we headed to
California with Toby in tow to see my old college friend Abbie Turiansky get
married in the redwoods. We decided to
treat it as a vacation, our first since Toby was born. Abbie and her now-husband Aathi planned an
amazing full weekend of activities in an old WPA-built campground in the middle
of second- and third-growth redwoods.
This is Sequoia sempervirens. Not the most massive trees – the ones you
could drive a car through – but the tallest in the world (379 feet!). All through the park you could still see the
massive stumps from the most recent logging, 80 years ago; many were easily
three times the width of any standing trees.
Many of them were surrounded by a tight circle of big redwoods, probably
80-year-old root sprouts. It was
interesting to be in the presence of an astounding ecosystem and also be
surrounded by visible reminders of something even more amazing that is
gone. Judging from the visible rate of growth,
it will likely be another 200-300 years before trees that size dominate the
forest again.
Blah, blah, blah, Anne and Matt are biologists. What’s important is that Toby thought the trees were cool. He likes to look up at the canopy, and this canopy was very high. He likes to touch bark, and this bark was like nothing he had ever touched before. The forest floor was covered in redwood leaves for him to pick up and either offer to us, or stick in his mouth. Sometimes there were even cones to grab and carry. And the best part was that he didn’t have to entice us to take him out in the woods – it was right outside the door of our little one-room cabin. For three days, everywhere we went was walking paths through the trees. The other guests were charmed to see him toddling between the trees. We were glad he has finally consented to hold someone’s hands going up and down stairs and tricky terrain, because it made all this walking a lot more fun. Plus it’s really sweet to have a toddler hold your finger.
Toby enjoyed the company of the other wedding guests more than we expected. He’s usually a bit reserved with new people, but almost as soon as we arrived he befriended the grandchild-hungry father of the bride, who walked him up and down stairs and around paths for at least 30 minutes before I missed him and stole him back. Sadly, he didn’t stay up long enough to dance at the reception, so we didn’t get to find out how he would react to a live band and a horde of small children spinning in their finery, but he did love watching the musicians play before dinner. And at least I got to dress him up in cute clothes before he’s too old to say no.
We also made a side trip down to the town of Mendocino to introduce Toby to the Pacific Ocean. We found a beautiful, foggy, cliff-surrounded beach covered in fine sand and driftwood. It was freezing cold, but the little dude still wanted to get in the water and never leave. Even though he was shivering, he cried when Matt finally picked him up to head back (in the first photo, we're inspecting a dried shrimp while Toby tries to make another break for the water). Luckily there was driftwood to inspect and wave around on the way back.
Right before we left, Toby fed himself with a spoon for the first time.
On the way back, we stopped to visit with our friends Ryan and Doro and their toddler Rowan, who turned 2 a few weeks later. The last time these boys saw each other, Toby was not quite a month old and Rowan was taking his first steps, so it was fun to see them interacting. We just wish we could gather all our favorite people in the same place, but there are too many ones we can’t convince to permanently move to the Midwest. Oh, well.
All in all, the trip was worth it. Traveling across the country, changing diapers in the car, and driving up the coast of California with a toddler (especially one who gets motion-sick on curvy redwood roads) to stay in a rustic campground where we need to clean up for a wedding is not something I would want to do every week, but with the right company it was a great choice. No more big trips for two months.
Developmentally, most of the big milestones have been communication. He really enjoys screaming lately. Out of joy, frustration, anticipation, or maybe just to see what new kinds of screams he can make. We’re trying to not make a big deal of it and hoping the ear-piercing ones won’t last too long. He says lots of words, too. In addition to the 14-month list (Mama, Daddy, Kitty, Dog, Duck, Star, & Book) we are now more or less convinced he can say Outside, Water, Key, Again, Toby, There, Tree, and Moon. I really think he said blueberry once. But he doesn’t talk that much, and often a fairly well-annunciated word will regress to something more efficient that still gets the point across. (E.g., “kitty” is now usually just “dee.”)
I guess he’s having too much fun poking things, running around, and keeping us guessing to bother with pronunciation. He still gets really into different sounds from time to time – there were 3-4 days when he loved saying “boo;” he would stick his chin out and up, pucker his lips, squint his eyes, and say “boooooo-ew!” over and over. Especially when we were blowing bubbles. Then it morphed into moo, and now he says it without the extra gestures. Which is an important step, I guess, but still kind of a shame.
He’s sleeping way better now too; there was even a night when he only woke up one time. I got brave about night-weaning, so it’s mostly my fault it hasn’t happened before now. He even woke up once and sweetly said, “Mama?” instead of crying. That was three days ago, hasn’t happened since. But after the one really good night, the next day was amazing – all the colors were brighter, shapes were sharper, everything was generally easier and more joyful than I can remember it being in a long time. Is that what my normal brain is like? Oh, well. I wouldn’t trade that times 10 for Toby.
He’s started regularly imitating our behavior as well as sounds, which is tons of fun. He likes to brush the kitty and his own hair. He’s very enthusiastic about waving (a whole-arm affair, from the shoulder, always accompanied by a big grin.) When we go outside, he inevitably wants to climb in the car, sit in the driver’s seat, turn the wheel, and make the hazard lights come on. (Don’t worry, no keys are involved and the emergency brake stays on.) He also LOVES it when we sing and sign “the Itsy-Bitsy Spider.” I did it more times than I can count on the flight home from San Francisco, and it seems to have stuck; he likes to grab my hands and “help” me do it, or runs to get his recorded book of nursery rhymes so he can listen to Grammie sing it while he sticks his fingers and thumbs together and throws his hands in the air. CUTE.
