Happy Birthday Gra-Gra!

He managed to say it to you this morning on the phone, (I know it wasn't your Birthday in England, but it was here...)

and he helped me colour in this drawing this afternoon, so we could both say to you,

Happy Birthday Gra-Gra!

Pretending to be grown up

He put his first sentence together at the weekend, as he helped me unpack the dishwasher. And I watched him with delight yesterday morning, repeating the same sentence, as he made Gaw-Gaw ask Camel, "Would you like a cup of Tea?"
He's doing lots of pretend grown up things now. Blowing his own nose. Putting money in his pockets, and walking around enjoying the sound of it rattling about. He put his hand in front of his mouth and said "Excuse me!" for the first time yesterday after he burped. So sweet to see!



But doing grown up things sometimes means you have to say grown up things.
And after he hit Luis in the eye by throwing one of his plastic people, I tried to make him apologise. It took quite a bit of persuasion, and I'd given up thinking he was ever going to say it, when he finally did. With a genuine sorry look he his eye, he said 'Sorry, Daddy". And he followed it up with an enormous hug and kiss.




My beautiful little boy, who is just starting to learn his manners.

And then he does things that remind me he is just a toddler. I turned my back for a few seconds in the middle of a painting session this morning. Distracted by the sudden news that Australia has a new prime minister, I watch the news for a minute or two, and turn around to this:



And in the few seconds it took to put the camera away it got worse. By the time I hauled him out of his highchair and into the bath, his face and hair were entirely green, with just the whites of his eyes peeping through.

Crafting together

We've been doing a lot of crafty stuff recently, as its so cold and wet at the moment, and Toby has too much energy. We made these bees together yesterday,


But the sun came out this morning, though it was freezing cold, and we had a lovely day together. We went to the botanical gardens in the morning for a couple of hours. We played in the leaves and ran around on the grass and watched some ducks in the lake. Toby chased some moor hens into the water, and then a whole bunch of them chased us! We had about 10 of them following us, quacking at our heels all the way up the hill. Later on we were warned by a magpie as we kicked about in the leaves. He came right up to us, strutting about. He even followed us menacingly as we walked onto the footpath, squawking, that was a bit frightening. I scooped up Toby and ran. Toby got a bit scared too.

After Toby's nap and a bit of lunch, we did some more crafty stuff. I cut potato stamps and we painted a picture of a tree together. Then Toby got his felt pens out, and drew pictures of me. He concentrated so hard!


After that we played with his Thomas train set, and then we played one of his favourite games, he calls it 'Tunnel'. I built a little den on the couch with cushions and covered it all up in a big blanket and Toby just hangs out underneath, hidden in the dark with Gaw-Gaw, all cosy. Every so often I'll lift a corner of the blanket and shout Boo! at him.He just loves it. He can play it for ages. We play it in the morning too, in our bed. Toby goes exploring underneath our quilt, with his trusty friend Gaw-Gaw. He loves the dark.

It was such a lovely day. Toby can be such fun to be with at the moment, as long as he getting plenty of attention from me.

Toby's Paper family

We've been doing lots of drawing lately. Toby has really started to love drawing, and his favourite thing to draw? His family.
He has a little scrap book that we draw in, and there are pages and pages filled with pictures of his family. I made these paper dolls for him, and he just loved them! He was very specific about what he was drawing on them - noses, knees and tummies.