Our first celebration of fall was picking out pumpkins with Noni. We got two little ones. We skipped carving them, but Toby has really enjoyed tossing them around. He likes to make groaning “it’s so heavy” noises, sometimes before he even picks them up.
We didn’t really celebrate Halloween with Toby last year, but this year he seemed just the right size and age for me to inflict all my Halloween fantasies on. Next year he’ll probably demand to be dressed as Batman or Luke Skywalker. This year: a cute, fuzzy little bear!! We even planned to take him trick-or-treating with my yoga buddy Jen and her son Desmond (we were pregnant in yoga teacher training together). The evening of the 31st turned out to be too wet for toddlers, so we opted to visit our favorite Michigan brewpub, Darkhorse, instead. Toby got his first soda and candy (a KitKat bar, he ate two bites and then gave it to me, yay!). The boys had fun eating cheesy breadsticks and being cute.
We took Toby to Joelyn and Mridul’s house a few days later so he could ACTUALLY trick-or-treat. We established that no, you can’t fit the costume in the carseat, and yes, he is actually the cutest thing ever. (If Joelyn, MommaSue, and I all agree, then it’s pretty much a fact, right?)
For Toby’s second wedding, we headed down to Austin, Texas to see my cousin Emily Rosenthal marry James Allen. It was a quick trip, but lots of fun and surprisingly easy. Toby seems to enjoy hopping in the stroller and checking out airport terminals, which turned out to be a really good thing. We arrived in Detroit at the far end of terminal C, walked all the way to the far end of terminal A, left Daddy reading his book and strolled to the other end of terminal A to get lunch, and made it back to find all the other passengers were gone – our flight had been assigned a new gate. Back to the far end of terminal C; Toby ate an entire piece of pizza on the way. Thirty seconds after we settled in, gasping and sighing, at our new gate (right next to the one where our flight from Grand Rapids had arrived), Delta announced the plane needed repairs. A theatrical collective moan arose from the crowd. We went back to the far end of terminal A again. Matt and I were tearing out our hair, and Toby was having a fine old time. Six elevators, three trips through the psychedelic tunnel, and six opportunities to gaze at the coolest fountain ever. Here’s roughly what the trip looked like.
But once we got to Austin, and Toby was done throwing up in the taxi, it was all smooth sailing! We had a great time playing with the cousins, aunts & uncles, Grammie & Grandpa Royer. Plus the fun of flushing toilets and playing with phones in hotels.
The wedding was mind-blowingly beautiful and every last one of us had a really good time. Toby liked the bluegrass band, longhorns (to look at and to eat), and exploring all the nooks and crannies at Wild Onion Ranch, where the wedding was located.
He was particularly fascinated with the glass pebbles embedded in the sidewalks. We may have enjoyed the photobooth, too. The photographer really wanted to put a fuzzy black wig on Toby (“He’ll look just like Billy Joel!”), but the tot wasn’t about to let that happen. Matt managed to avoid the photobooth altogether, but enjoyed local beer and good food.
Those were the major adventures since our last post, but of course there have been lots of other exciting happenings on the toddler homefront. October 20th was a big day, with his first documented scribbles (although there are rumors he did it at daycare before) and mastering “baa-baa” in answer to the question “What do sheep say?.”
Another favorite new phrase is “uh-oh,” when something is dropped. Sometimes he says it before dropping the object, which gives us fun insight into what’s going on when he’s in another room. He is learning other new words fast, but not yet so fast that we’ve lost track of them. Other new additions since the last post include no (“nehnehneh”), ball, mice, yeah, brr (as in, “I’m cold, get me out of this tub!”), all-done (you can hear this at the end of the boot video), eyebrow, and beep. That last one is usually in response to a sound from the kitchen. He gets excited because he knows we get to go in there and stir the pot, open the oven, or answer the phone. Sometimes he runs into the kitchen ahead of us. He's even gotten interested in letters, and recognizes "O" and sometimes "M." His chatter has taken on a new melody and flow in general, so we can hear how sentences will form. It’s the most beautiful sound.
The physical skills Toby has mastered over the last six weeks are even more astounding. He has always liked dumping and knocking over, but he suddenly has taken an interest in stacking, sorting, and putting away. Usually followed by dumping again, but that’s cool. This newfound manual dexterity has also inspired playing the xylophone and pushing his wooden “mower” around. And some things haven’t changed; no matter how much “putting away” gets done, we still spend the end of the day re-folding wipes, putting the tupperware back in its cabinet, and restoring the books to the bookshelf.
He’s learning new uses for his feet, too. He LOVES to put them in things – shoes, boxes, pots. He really likes to put them both in one object and then sit on it. If you know why this is so fun, please email me, because it’s a mystery that repeats itself many times a day at our house. Standing on one foot on a basket or cup is also super fun.
Sometimes, just to mix things up, he puts things on his arms
And he is climbing. Chairs, couches, stairs. Thursday morning I turned around to see him standing triumphantly on the kitchen table. He is one step from realizing that he can not only carry his little blue chair around, but also use it to clamber on things. Poor Violet, soon there will be no containing him. He hasn’t learned how to turn doorknobs yet, though. I shouldn’t have said that. Anyway, we’re getting to flex our untested discipline muscles as Toby learns what is off limits, and then watches us carefully as he puts his toe over the line repeatedly. Mostly it’s standing up in his highchair or poking Violet. Watch out kitty, he’s coming to get you.
His emotional development is also coming into relief, with occasional classic toddler mini-fits (throwing himself on the floor, pounding his fists). We are making some progress at not laughing when things like this happen (also a problem with standing on kitchen tables, etc.) The separation anxiety that hopefully peaked for good a couple of weeks ago was not funny in the slightest, but we’re reassured that it’s right on schedule and the sadness stops as soon as the desired person is out of sight. This can be either Mama or Daddy; he prefers to have us both. The flip side is the glee he shows when we come home – running up to the door when I tell him I hear Daddy’s truck, clapping his hands when he sees Mama through the door, and clamoring to be picked up by whoever just walked in. He’s already a nearly full microcosm of human experience, and we’re lucky to be his stewards and co-conspirators.
