Happy (belated) New Year!

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 3^rd 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.

Here come the holidays...

Thanksgiving came and went with breathtaking speed, but while we were in it, it felt like a leisurely vacation. Of course, getting ready to leave is the hardest part – luckily Toby helped me pack (all the clothes on the floor were in the suitcase before that).

We drove down to Richmond and used Grammie and Grandpa Royer’s house as home base, with a few forays out to visit with Noni & family. No pictures from Grandpa’s house, have to remedy that next time! Toby loved the food (especially venison sausage at Grandpa’s, and pretty much whatever he could get his hands on at Aunt Cathy’s Thanksgiving). It was lovely to see everyone.

The best part may have been the cousins, though. They had many hours of fun time to play together. Now that Isaac can walk, the roughhousing has begun. At daycare, Toby has a reputation for sweetness – he kisses babies, gives out hugs, and is all innocence and peace-church-inheritance. But as many of you have noted, the kid is built like a wrestler (“fireplug” and “destined for husky sizes” may have been overheard recently). Perhaps Isaac is just bringing out his true nature. It took Toby a while (and several diaper grabs) to convince Isaac that he would rather roll around that floor than climb the stairs, but eventually persistence paid off.

At the end of it all, we got those sweet looks that we can probably expect for the next ten years, “Us? We weren’t doing anything!”

Toby’s primary passions continue to be books and pushing buttons. Buttons may soon be taking the lead. I let him accompany me into the basement to shift laundry to the dryer once, and he discovered the amazing, light-and-sound-producing computer that is our washing machine. Now he stands at the basement door making sad sounds, begging to be taken downstairs. We give in at least once a day, and he stands for 5-10 minutes in front of the machine, pushing one button after another. This morning he wanted to stand in the laundry basket while he did it. Why? The mysteries of the pre-talker.

Not a lot of progress on the talking front since the last post, but he will make owl noises (a whispered hoo-hoo), and I think he can say “bowl.” And he asks me to sing “Baa baa, black sheep” repeatedly, usually chiming in for the “baa-baa” in the middle of the song. That’s cute. He knows I can’t resist. He particularly likes to be serenaded while he’s nursing. If I stop, he pauses too, looks up, and says, “baa-baa!” 

With winter comes the need to bundle. Last year we mostly put him in a pre-warmed carseat, covered him in blankets, and ran to the car. This year it’s all about accessories. Snowsuit, mittens, hat… the first time I put them all on, he tried to stand up, then tried to sit, and finally gave up and rolled over on his back. A squishy billiard ball. Now we’ve acquired the final piece – boots! We’ve been fortunate to get almost all of Toby’s clothes second hand, but his snow boots are brand new. And luckily, he looooves them. The first time I put them on, he obviously thought they were weird. We got a show reminiscent of putting shipping wraps on a horse’s legs – he walked about five feet lifting his feet way up in the air and stomping them down before things normalized. Sort of. Somehow boots just mean tromping. Even now, when he’s had them all week, he asks us to zip them on and then he stomps around the loop in our house – kitchen, hall, living room, kitchen – over and over. (Not really that different from a normal evening, when he may run the loop five times a row, except for the stomping.) Here he is mid-circuit.

Our next adventure: getting ready for Christmas. Look for the next post in early January!

Bears and Beers and Steers, Oh My!

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 31^st 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 20^th 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.

P.S. – This is our friend Kane and Merry’s Chihuahua, Teddy, who we sometimes dogsit. Toby loves him, and even calls him by name. Do we need a dog?