Christmas in photos....

A gingerbread house.



Which Ti-Ti loved, and loved even more when he realised he could pull up a chair and climb up onto the kitchen counter to steal the smarties off it.

Christmas Eve, at Abu and Papa's house.



His first bike! A Christmas present from Abu and Papa.




Christmas morning, Ti-ti's presents under the tree from Father Christmas...



and his new wooden garage waiting for him on the table. He just loved it, and wanted to play with it all day long!




The wooden soldiers he had begged for from Father Christmas for weeks before hand



the Christmas ham glazed in maple syrup and honey,



and the boxing day monster pavlova,



and Ti-Ti bowing, after a performance on his 'mini-bike'



We had a wonderful Christmas, relaxing and fun.

All I want for Christmas is......

The tree is up, and caused much excitement for Toby.


I bought a special book to teach Toby all about Christmas. He seemed to get the concept of Father Christmas bringing him presents instantly. He loves the Christmas book, and wants to read it all the time, his favourite page being one showing Father Christmas's workshop, with all the toys being made and wrapped. A few nights ago now, he said to me with the sweetest, most desperate voice, Mummy, will Father Christmas bring Ti-Ti a wooden soldier for Christmas? I told him that maybe he would, (Where on earth am I going to find one of those?) Then I asked him what Gaw-Gaw would like for Christmas, and Toby replied, Gaw-Gaw share Ti-Ti's toys!
How delicious is that?

A connoisseur

A couple of weeks ago now we went out for lunch with Toby to a local gastropub. He ordered fish and chips, and when they arrived he proceeded to eat them in the most hilarious fashion. With each mouthful, he would lean right back in is chair, eyes tightly closed in concentration, slowly shaking his head and making little noises to express his utter delight in the flavours he was experiencing. Ever since then, I have been trying to teach him to say, "I am a connoisseur." He is saying it almost perfectly now.
His lunch time sushi today received the same treatment.


We went out on Monday for lunch too, Luis took the morning off so he could watch one of Toby's swimming lessons. Afterwards, we went down to Docklands and ate some seafood together.

And Toby is now teaching Gaw-Gaw how to be a connoisseur.

Words of the Week:

Same as ours

One more time

He loves using these little sentences, it's amazing how many different situations he can apply them to!

We watched playschool today whilst eating ham sandwiches. They happened to also be making ham and avocado sandwiches on the show. Toby came running in to the kitchen shouting, Mummy! Sandwiches, same as ours! He was so excited. And after he finished his plate full, he said - Mummy, one more time? And he ate another plate full.




We had a coffee this morning at the Auction Rooms. Toby spotted a fire engine parked across the road, so we stood in the doorway and waved at it together. They turned their flashing lights on especially for him and waved too. We went back inside after a couple of minutes, as it was raining so hard. And then, to Toby's absolute amazement, one of the fire men walked inside the cafe in his uniform, with a set of special stickers just for him. It was so exciting, and Toby immediately stuck the stickers all over himself, and has worn them ever since.
Later in the car on the way home, Toby said, Mummy, see fireman one more time?
He was so proud of his stickers.

Toby's First Concert

(Warming up for the concert, by playing Superhero. Which involves running around holding his arms out behind him, shouting Superhero! and then falling over)

Ti-Ti had his first music performance in front of an audience on Sunday. I wasn't sure if he would actually do the little routine we have been practising for the last month or so, or even if he would sit with me on the stage, but I needn't have worried. He did his best ever performance and seemed to love the stage, shaking his maracas


and stopping when the music did (they have to rest their maracas on their shoulders, and he did it perfectly, I was so proud!)


hiding and singing his peekaboo song

and waving ribbons


He really loved performing. At the end, he threw his arms in the air in celebration of himself, shouting in delight. After, we watched the older children doing their routines, and Toby was trying to copy them, excitedly. And his excitement was infectious. It was such a fun morning.

A rainy day

He was so excited about the parcel that arrived for us today from Gra-Gra. It brightened up a bit of a dull day. We unwrapped special handmade Christmas decorations, and a shirt for Toby.


He wanted to wear the shirt straight away. He is obsessed with wearing things that have buttons, and spends ages trying to do the buttons up himself. It drives him insane, and he often ends up having a bit of a tantrum over it...

So he wore the shirt , and then we went to get his hair cut.


And then came home and painted. It has been a really grey, dark and rainy day. Toby must have picked up on the mood of the day, as he only wanted to paint in black.

Doing stuff

Words of the week:

Tomorrow

Another time

It's getting hard work these days keeping Toby entertained, he just likes to be doing stuff all day long. It's kind of sad that these are the new words he says time and time again, and he even anticipates when I'm about to say them to him.
Mummy, make Playdough? (I pause, thinking of an excuse why we can't...) and then he'll say, Tomorrow? And it all works out fine, he doesn't get upset, I just feel guilty that tomorrow seems to be my excuse all the time...


But we had a busy week doing stuff this week. Making chocolate cake together, he calls it Masterchef. And of course licking the bowl out afterwards, such joy!



Making cars from playdough. This has to be one of his favourite things to do a the moment. He concentrates for ages, picking them apart as soon as I have made them and exclaiming, Oh no! Crash! Cars broken! and then making me make them all over again...

Drawing faces. I drew the circles and the hair, and Toby did all of the features all by himself, I was impressed!

Busy days, but such fun.

2 years old!

Wow, Little Monster Little Man is 2 years old! I think this may well be the longest I have ever written any kind of diary, so I'm quite proud.
And here is a moment I love...


The sheer excitement in Toby when he was told we were having sushi for lunch. Delicious.

Singing

I've started work again, and I feel sad leaving Toby. I miss him during the day.
There are also things that I don't miss.
But one new part of our routine that I love, on the days that I work, is travelling in the car together. I made a special CD for our car journeys, with grown up songs that I thought he might like. And he certainly does. I knows the words to so many of the songs, and he sings along from the back seat. He amazed me this morning, as soon as we got in the car he started saying big fat mama to me, in a kind of demanding way. I had no idea what on earth he was talking about. Until The Kinks Sunny Afternoon started playing, and Toby started shouting, oh mummy, yes! and i heard the lines - Save me, save me, save me from this squeeze, I've got a big fat mama trying to break me...he is so clever. And he pays so much more attention to things than I ever imagine he does.

Pretend family

I love watching him play with his Happyland toys. The little scenarios he makes up, the way he copies things I say, and the sheer pleasure on his face as he plays.
He's been naming his little plastic people for a long time now, but they only get the privilege of a name, if Toby decides they actually look like that person. He got a new set of Happyland for his birthday, and Toby decided one of the new people was to have a name.....
There is no Mummy, or Gra-Pa, but here they are:


L-R: Papa (Rudi), Abu (Paulina), Daddy, Uncle Pablo, Gra-Gra and ......Uncle Phil. In a skirt. All Toby's decision.

And here is the little man himself, having a chat with Gra-Gra.

Try it, I think you'll like it

That's one of the songs from Yo Gabba Gabba.


It certainly worked at the weekend, over breakfast. Me and Luis singing the words over and over, as Toby tried and ate smoked salmon, fish roe and much to my shock, wild rocket! Afterwards we talked about it in the car and Toby said triumphantly, I tried it, and now I like it!

But his absolute obsession with trying to recreate scenes from Yo Gabba doesn't end there.


Trying to recreate the final scene in the Jack Black episode, as he flies away on 'Mini-bike' is an ongoing work in progress. Toby spends at least an hour a day working on it. But I think today he may have got it to a stage where he is finally happy with it.
He was given a DJ Lance Rock hat and glasses for his birthday from Uncle Pablo and Aunty Kiu Kiu. Much as he loved it, he completely refused to have the hat anywhere near his head. (The glasses are a different story, as you've already seen from the last post....) But for some reason, this afternoon he decided to try it, and he very much liked it....


DJ Toby Rocks.

My son the Hipster

With his new DJ Lance Rock glasses that he's addicted to wearing


(Just type hipster into you tube, and you'll see what they really look like)

This is what happens when...

you actually eat the tiger who came to tea....


as Toby did this afternoon.

And this is what happens when you break your arm...


you have to wear a poncho, because wearing a coat is too hard. He looks just like his dad, the very first time he met my parents.

Happy Birthday, little man

I can't believe he's another year older, it has flown by so fast.
He loved opening his presents. As he unveiled his red car from Gra-Gra and Gra-Pa, he shouted out, Surprise! and couldn't wait to climb inside.

We bought him a big wooden fire engine with some wooden firefighters. As he played, making them climb up the big ladder, I could hear him cautioning them, Be careful! with his new favourite phrase. If only he had heeded his own advice...
The rest of my little man's birthday ended in disaster, breaking his arm falling of his seat as he drank his babycino and ate his smartie cookie. Nearly the whole day was spent in emergency, just waiting. He was in such pain, he kept hugging his arm to him, and whimpering, Mummy, broken arm. His second broken arm in the space of 2 months...I felt like crying as we left the hospital his little arm in a sling.

But today was Toby's birthday party, and it was a much happier day.

We had balloons, lots of sweet treats, and of course Toby's birthday cake...based on the book The Tiger Who Came To Tea, and he loved it.

Especially blowing out the candles.