It’s hard to believe that it’s already 2014, and Toby is 19 months old. He’s
playing lots of new funny physical games, illustrated by the first few videos
in this post. But the big news over the December holidays was a language
explosion! We knew Toby understood most of what we said to him, but (as you
faithful readers know) we were able to keep a tally of the words he could say himself.
Those days are over. From the proliferation of two-syllable words (some of them
repetitive like “Vi-vi” for Violet or “wa-wa” for water) to startlingly clear
pronunciation (cow, eye, pepper, and onion were early ones) to two-word
sentences (the first one was “more num” just before the end of the year), it’s
a language free-for-all at our house.
Now he says words we can’t remember modeling for him, and works really
hard to come up with new sentences. The cutest was the morning he said “bye
Daddy.” It started like badababa, pause, badada, pause, bye Daddy! We love
watching the gears turning and communication getting easier and easier.
Another treat that comes with talking is using the phone. Of course, Toby
has always loved phones, but now he’s more likely to listen to someone talking
to him and even say a thing or two himself. If Matt calls me and I don’t
answer, he usually puts Toby on and prompts him to leave a message. It usually
goes something like this: “Are you
talking to Mama? Mama! What do sheep
say? Baa baa. What does the kitty
say? Mahw.” And once in a while I even get to really talk with him on the
phone – the first time was December 20th, and I asked him if he was having fun
with Daddy. He said “Daddy.” Wheeee! Now I’m in danger of running out of space
in my voice mail, since of course I can’t delete any of these messages.
Every parent knows their child has a super power, and Toby’s (currently)
is the alphabet. He now knows at least 20 of the letters – if you point to it,
he can say the name or the sound it makes; if you name it, he can pick it out
from a list. He likes to sit and look at his alphabet blocks, naming the
letters. Some of the ones we’re not sure he knows are sounds he can’t make yet (like
Z, R, or S). I guess this isn’t surprising, since he’s loved books forever, but
I’m still amazed. He also enjoys numbers, and recognizes several of them (1, 2,
9, and 10 for sure). I was shopping with him a few weeks ago and turned down aisle
ten, and he pointed at the sign and said, “Ten!” I’m sure this is only the
beginning of us being astounded by the things he knows. Maybe identifying dinosaurs
will be next, if his affection for the book How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? is
any indication.
Before Christmas we had our 3rd annual caroling party. Our
house was full with 11 kids and something like 20 adults, and Toby was
enthusiastic, wandering from group to group and getting to know everyone. He
learned about yo-yos from our neighbor Phil, had fun knocking over towers other
people built, and ate cookies (although not as many as I did – he’s definitely
more of a salty kid, always asking for crackers). It was fun to see his social
side come out (he and Phil are in the lower left of the picture with kids).
Toby made his own Christmas presents for the immediate family this year.
Finger paintings! It was messy and fun.
We had our first big snowfall before Christmas. Toby wasn’t sure what to
do with it besides eat it, but he enjoyed being outside and wading through the
drifts all bundled up.
There was plenty of traveling and visiting over Christmas. We spent
several days in Ligonier with MommaSue, Grandpa Fred, and Aunts Becky and
Rachael. Toby got some new blocks for Christmas and started suddenly building
tall towers. He also got his very first hockey
stick. We're still working on figuring out what to do with it.
Another highlight of our time in Pennsylvania was Toby bonding with Took,
the new puppy. Okay, sort of bonding. Took is frisky enough to be a little
intimidating, and was responsible for a big head bonk with an illegal check
from behind (hockey for “pushing someone when they weren’t looking”), but Toby
still found her fascinating.
On the drive back from PA we got to listen to some of the music from
Matt’s childhood that Aunt Rachael converted to mp3s for us! Toby likes Cookie
Monster. Although Cracker Monster might resonate more with him. We also were
able to spend a few days with Noni, including a day trip to visit Grandpa and
Grammie Royer. The tot really understands about opening presents now, and
offers his services to anyone who isn’t enthusiastic – or fast enough – about
opening their own. He still often prefers the box and ribbon to the present
within, but no one is complaining.
One fun feature of the break was the dramatic hand injury I inflicted on
myself (no worries, I made a complete recovery). I won’t go into too many
details here, but it was in one end and out the other. Great photos available
for those of you who enjoy that kind of thing - just email me. I had a bruise ¾
of the way to my elbow. Anyway, Matt changed a lot of diapers, so he was my
hero even more than usual.
The cousin reunion was jolly, with some toddler synergy. This time, Toby
actually enjoyed Alten more than Isaac, since his older cousin can get around
better. There was a fair bit of running around and around Noni’s downstairs
loop. But the little ones took time to talk about their shared love of shoes.
Toby also had the truly ecstatic experience of grabbing a ceiling fan with both
hands. There were so many ceiling fans, he didn’t know what to do.
I had my own highlight, a 30-second Mary Poppins moment when Dan and
Margo left us with all three boys and I entertained them. I made Matt take lots
of pictures. Right after this, each boy headed in a different direction to get
into his own special brand of trouble, and I stopped pretending I knew what I
was doing.
We also got to see all three boy engaged in the same thing when there was
food involved (in this case, frozen Royer-Miller strawberries). FYI, this is
probably my favorite video to date. Alten is explaining the broken water jug to Toby.
There have been lots of other huge leaps since the holidays. He’s started
dancing to music, or just when he's happy. And hooray, he is growing out of separation anxiety! When it’s time to go to daycare,
he goes to the door and says “go.” When we get there, he runs into Tresha’s
arms and waves goodbye to us. A few weeks ago Toby helped picked out a toddler potty (green
and orange, looks like a frog, not something I could have EVER imagined having
in my home pre-baby). He loves to sit on it, and once in a while something even
goes in. He suddenly loves his pull toys.
He’s also suddenly really excited to help. He stands on a chair next to
me while I cook, and has his own bowl of flour and oats to stir and spoon. Making oatmeal every morning is so much fun now. He
has to go down to the basement whenever we transfer laundry, pulling clothes
out and putting them in. And he’s GREAT at unloading the clean laundry in the
living room. You know, spreading it out so we can see what to fold better. The way the socks arc through the air as he throws them over his shoulder is beautiful.
We continue to have a wonderful winter here, with loads of beautiful snow
and spells of invigorating below-zero temps. I really, really love the snow.
Toby likes to eat it and watch it fall. He fell in love with a sled we brought
back for him (stored by Grandpa Royer since my own childhood), and we had a few
days of fun pulling him around and down the hill behind our house. He
mysteriously calls it “hoo-hoo.”
Then he fell out of love with his sled (maybe because he actually fell
out of it, or maybe because the snow got too deep and icy), but he still likes
to eat the snow, romp in it for short periods of time, and talk to the sled. The snow is really
epic this year. It’s so drifty it’s hard to tell how much there is, but it’s
well over a foot and has lingered for weeks. Our friend Colin and I took Toby
cross-country skiing earlier this month with slightly more success than last
year (he might have made it a mile before I went into emergency mode, singing
all the alphabet variations of “C is for Cookies” twice to get back to the
car.) Maybe next year we can get him his own skis.
We had a bittersweet event this month when we had to say goodbye to good
friends Mridul Thomas and Joelyn de Lima. Mridul got a postdoc in Zurich
(hooray!), but even though we were celebrating the wonderful professional
progress, saying goodbye was heartbreaking. Joelyn has been Toby’s next-door Tia (we’re not allowed to call her
Auntie) and an irreplaceable source of love and support for us. But even Toby
couldn’t convince her to leave her husband behind and stay in Hickory Corners
(I know, hard to believe, right? He’s SO cute). We’re hoping for a reunion in
September at the latest.
My excuse for not posting last month was my own professional excitement –
my first postdoc interview! I flew to Oregon for two days, and was away from
home for 3½ total. Being away from Toby overnight for the first time was no
fun, but other than that it was a great experience. I should know by the next
post if we’re moving west in the summer. Aunt Rachael came up a few days before
I left and stayed a few days after I came back to help us manage the upheaval.
She made a stressful time a lot more fun, and Toby LOVED having her
around. He calls her “Wa” and likes her tricks. Especially the way she makes
towers wibble-wobble and fall over. “Wobble” is now a new word. Which is good,
because some of Toby’s towers are less stable than others. Stacking blocks is
fine, pancakes are even better, but he stacks EVERYTHING now. And when he
starts improvising (that's my camera lens cover on top)…
One thing that hasn’t changed is the Tober-tot’s tremendous appetite and
affection for cutlery. He continues to beg for bits of raw onion when we’re
cooking, eat things that are too spicy for Mama, and generally astound us with
the quantity and variety of things he consumes. Here he stole Matt’s fork,
leaving poor Daddy to make do with a toddler fork.
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