Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Just a few days away from Christmas, and it's snowing! Toby saw snow for the first time, dressed in his winter coat and wellies. His little hand stretching out to try and catch the flakes, half horrified (so cold!) and half amazed by it all. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we may yet have a white Christmas.

Fun in the sun

It's hot hot hot here....which is bad news. Too hot for sleeping, too hot for playing outside, and Toby has decided it's too hot to eat......But in the early evening, we've been playing together on the roof terrace. Toby is in heaven, digging his fingers into the dirt, exploring, crawling everywhere.

Cute things, annoying things

Toby gets cuter and cuter everyday, and sometimes more annoying everyday too......

Annoying things:
Refusing to eat anything that comes from a spoon. He won't even open his mouth to try. His little hand goes up into a STOP! sign, and he grunts in a very forceful way. If you try to force the issue, his grunts get louder, more high pitched and then the hair flicking begins. It's hard to describe the hair flicking...you'd have to see it to understand, but its infuriating.

Refusal to be put down on the floor sitting. He goes rigid, arching his back and then weeps in a heart melting kind of way, his little hands clutching at me in desperation.

Finding me saying NO! the funniest thing ever...I think he does naughty things just so I'll shout NO at him, and then he falls about laughing. So irritating!

Cute things:
In fact, maybe the cutest thing I have ever seen.
We went to the Botanical gardens yesterday because it was such a hot day. Toby likes to explore the grass and the dirt. But he doesn't like his feet touching the grass, so he crawls on the grass in his usual fashion, but with his feet hovering in the air. It's one of the funniest sights. I ended up putting some shoes on him so he could explore more freely, and he was off, everywhere. After a while he started getting naughty, trying to eat stones. After countless times saying No! (to much amusement, as described above) I bought him back to our picnic blanket and took his shoes off. It achieved the desired affect immediately, he no longer wanted to crawl away on the grass. But he became desperate to try and put his shoes back on, himself. He tried so hard, holding his foot with one hand, and trying to squeeze the shoe on with the other, again and again, but with no luck. Such concentration on his face. He then switched to trying to give the shoes to me, and offering his foot - he was so, so desperate. I gave in in the end, how could I resist?

Bending his knees. It has taken him so long to realise he has knees, that when he first started bending them, to move from standing to sitting, I used to shower him with praise and encouragement. Now when he does it, he claps and cheers himself. Even if there is no one around to witness it. It is one of the sweetest things to see.


Spoon feeding himself.
Oh so messy, verges on the annoying....but also kind of fun.

My little lamb

This photo was taken a few days ago, I couldn't resist taking a picture of Toby in his lamb suit, with his crazy hair. My very own little lamb.
He has been a little angel all weekend (though saying this will jinx me for the rest of the week, I know..) He has slept through for the past 2 nights (for the first time in over a week) and he seems to be starting to eat food again, after me panicking that he was wasting away. And going to bed at 7pm with no fuss and no tears.
It must be all the talking he is doing, it must be wearing him out. His new word of the week is "cracker". He shouted it out last Monday when we were in the newsagents - "Mama! Cracker!" I couldn't believe my ears, the word was crystal clear. I promptly gave him a cracker, and he was mighty pleased with himself. He has being saying the word a lot ever since, and getting a piece of cracker every time. Though I noticed today that he was using the word to try and get other things
he wants - such as my latte, Luis's blackberry, the car keys - as if the word "cracker" means 'please give that to me NOW', as there is a definite hint of an order in the way he says the word. Not really very lamb like behaviour.

My gorgeous boy

He's cheeky, he's funny, he's a dribbling mess.....

My little helper

Toby was helping me with the photography today, holding the lens cap for me....


He's 'talking' more than ever at the moment, he pretends to talk on the telephone and holds it up properly to his ear. And he spent most of the afternoon talking non-stop to me, just wish he was speaking English so I could actually understand him.....
He has also been calling me Daddy all day. Whenever I correct him, "No Toby, I'm Mama", he wrinkles his nose and laughs at me. Then he shouts out "Dada!" again, and when I turn to look at him, exasperated, he cracks up with laughter. The only time he ever says Mama, is as a last resort, when he has tried every other trick in the book and he has still not been rescued from his cot. Then he shouts it out loudly, knowing it will pull on my heart strings and I'll go rushing in immediately, delighted. What a cheeky little man he is.

Oh, and Happy Birthday to my blog, 1 year and one day old!

A weekend away

We had a really relaxing weekend at the farm. It rained all weekend, but we didn't care. It gave us even more of an excuse to do absolutely nothing. (Apart from eating and drinking...quite a lot of it too)

Uh-oh

Uh-oh is his latest thing, and he loves to (purposefully) drop things on the floor and then exclaim, uh-oh! I can't get enough of him doing it.


But uh-oh is what I felt like saying, when I realised how hard it is to take a passport photo of a baby.
They have to be facing straight on, eyes looking straight at the camera, and mouth closed, trying to get this combination all at once is impossible. It made me realise that Toby rarely closes his mouth, and can't seem to not smile when there's a camera around. I resorted to letting him play with scissors (ssshhh, don't tell anyone, but it was the only way I could get him to sit still, he has been desperate to play with scissors for so long, it was like a dream come true for him) and I eventually got the shot. Phew!

Our game

Ever since I can remember, Toby and I have played our own little game together, of putting things on our heads. The point of the game is to balance something ridiculous that doesn't belong on a head, on your head, for as long as possible. Then laugh and try and catch it as it falls off. You know the kind of things, knitted cupcakes, bananas, Tupperware boxes, all perfect for playing the game. I'm not sure how or why I started it, but Toby finds it hilarious every time. He often initiates the game himself these days, which I find completely adorable.

This photo was taken at one such time. I was trying to get him to do something else (for some Thank you cards) and he was being completely uncooperative, and started grabbing fabric off the floor and putting it on his head, laughing. Desperate for me to play along with him. Needless to say, I gave up the photo shoot, and we played our favourite game together, with fabric scraps, cotton reels, and pincushions, with much raucous laughter.

Giving up on housework

I have been trying to do some housework today. Impossible. That is the only word for it, when you have an energetic one year old trying to get into as much mischief as possible. Climbing onto the coffee table (now he has learnt how to do it, there's no stopping him..) and attempting to throw himself off head first like a lemming. Opening the shower door, then slamming it shut because he likes the noise it makes. Opening the shower door and then climbing in, so he can be like Daddy. (He loves to watch Luis shower in the mornings) Opening all of my shoe boxes and distributing the contents all over the place...the faster I tidied up, the faster Toby seemed to work at destroying things. Furious, after his fifth attempt at climbing into the shower, I put him in his cot. Then his screaming began. I stormed back into his room, ready to tell him off, and was greeted by this.....


standing up in his cot, silenced by my entry into the room, how could I be angry with him?

And as he gave me his desperate, I really just want to be picked up and hugged look, how could I not?


So I've given up housework for the day, and given in to playing with Toby.