Crazy

The photos are blurry, but they really sum him up.

Crazy, happy, playful, ridiculous little thing.

Wearing pyjamas he'd stay in all day if he could (he absolutely begs to wear pyjamas some afternoons), his bike helmet (that he would also like to wear all day) and his fake glasses.

And running away from the camera, it's absolutely impossible to get a good photo of him these days!

Imagination

Watching him. Lost in his huge world of imagination, there is nothing I like more. I came out of the shower the other day to find him hiding under his baby blanket in his room with all of his toys, apparently the Wobbly Man was on the loose. Sometimes it's a Giant Ogre. Or a naughty robber after Gaw-Gaw. Or squirrels that steal honey and throw nuts at him. Other times he is a breakdancer running from the police. (Thanks to naughty Daddy, letting him watch movies that are for grown ups...) Or a knight on a mission to fight off the dragon. Or a mechanic trying to fix the fire engine so it can go and fight a fire. Sometimes he speaks with an American accent, and it makes me laugh as I remember Phil teasing me about speaking with an American accent while I played. Imagination, it's endless and amazing.

Some days it is just Lego that he wants to play with, all day long. Hoardes of reformed robbers (he is quite specific, he tells me, 'Mummy, they're not bad eggs anymore, they are good now') piling into a truck to go to the park. Or police and firemen rescuing cats from trees.

(Note the lack of visor...)

And there is a complicated game we play in my studio. Toby is a chicken called Goldie,  sitting on a pile of (polystyrene craft) eggs. I have to pretend to be the visitor to a farm with his friend Lily, and stroke him while he clucks, and look at the eggs. I think that one is based heavily on our trip to Tasmania!

And my favourite game, partly because I get to lie in bed while we do it, is the space rocket game. We put on our helmets and blast off, wondering at the milky way, dodging black holes and asteroids, and stopping off at the space station to buy some fast space food. Toby likes to go as far as Jupiter. Fun days.

I'm doing it

 "I'm doin' it!"

Toby's favourite phrase at the moment, and my favourite of his too. I'm not sure why it makes me laugh so much, it just does. And I find myself using it in the exact intonation he uses too. All the time.
He says it when he's doing something he is not supposed to be doing, or if I'm using a bit of reverse psychology on him. I'll tell him he is too young to brush his teeth all by himself, and quick as a flash the toothbrush will be in his hand, brushing his teeth as he shouts "I'm doin' it, I'm doin' it!" It works everytime.

Toby learnt to ride his bike all by himself last weekend. (with training wheels, of course)
We bought him his first bike helmet, which he thought was really cool because it had flames on it. And then we took him to the park. At first he couldn't even seem to steer it himself let alone pedal, but after 2 days of intensive training, with Luis taking him around the block a few times and then to the museum gardens, he was riding all by himself, whilst shouting that much loved phrase, "I'm doin' it, I'm doin' it!"

Doing a little bit of Michael Jackson dancing...

I'm so proud of my little man.

Happy Birthday to my Little Man

 I can't believe he's three years old already.
It's gone so fast.

I can't believe he now runs, jumps, swims, rides bikes, breakdances, tells jokes, makes up stories, and wants to do everything himself.
And I can't believe how full of joy he is. Always so happy, so excited by the smallest thing. Seeing a fountain in a park, a cat on the pavement, or an unexpected gingerbread man. His legs still go all stiff and straight just like they did when he was a tiny baby.
And I can't believe how funny he is. Always being silly, trying to make us laugh. This morning when I was putting him in the car after swimming he told me I had a big bug in my hair. I freaked out (just a little....) shaking my head like a wild thing. I asked him if it was gone, and he laughed as he said, "It was just a pretend bug Mummy. I'm really cheeky!" And I couldn't help but laugh too at his complete cheekiness.

His party was small, just family. But we decorated the house with streamers and balloons, and he requested that his cake be the Octonauts.

We played pass the parcel, and ate sandwiches and popcorn and cakes. And he got loads of presents. A pretend vegetable market, a shop till, a piano keyboard, Lego, Play-doh, and lots and lots of other things.
Happy Birthday to my beautiful little boy xx

Under the weather

We've both been quite unwell for the last couple of weeks. I've had a flu type thing and am left with a cough I just can't shake. And Toby is the same with an ear infection on top. So we haven't been doing much of anything.
But the weather here is starting to turn more spring like. There was not a cloud in the sky today,just blue sky and sunshine. We ate breakfast outside at the European.
And this afternoon Toby had a trip out with his Daddy, leaving me to do a spot of shopping in the city in peace....
And once he was home he couldn't wait to tell me about the 'surprise' he'd won. I love how he gets his words mixed up. Tree roots and beetroots being my favourite, when one is swapped for the other it just sounds so funny.

Big Words and Beards

Chocolate cake mixture beard

Ever since he learned how, Toby has loved talking. Loved being able to ask for things, being able to tell us how he feels or just to tell us stories. And now that his imagination has just expanded in such an intense way over the last few months, he loves talking more than ever. He delights in the way we laugh at him with the things he says, and he likes to challenge himself to use the new words that he hears.

Paper Beard

Especially long ones. He seems to love those the most at the moment....
Incredible. Ridiculous. Impressive. Enormous. Astounding. Amazing. Delicious.
That he pronounces them properly and uses them correctly in sentences amazes me.

He loves for me to copy everything he says. And he loves to ask me to ask him a question -
"Mummy, say does that taste good Ti-Ti?" "OK, does that taste good?" "Yes Mummy, it's incredible and delicious"

Ice cream beard (after falling down the stairs.....amazing how ice cream can heal wounds)

How can I not fall about laughing when he does that?

Tadpoles

Toby has moved up a level in his swimming class. He is now a 'Tadpole'. Which means much more diving under water. I was a bit scared that Toby wouldn't like it very much, as it would not be as familiar as the class we've been in for the last year and a half. But I needn't have worried, as soon as he saw the other boys jumping and diving underwater he couldn't wait to try.
And his teacher recommended we get him some goggles so he can see underwater. We play lots of games where they have to find toys hidden underwater.


And Toby insisted on these ridiculous shark goggles.


And insisted on wearing them all day long, whether we were in the pool or not....

Talking to balloons

I drew a face on a balloon he was given this morning, so we could talk to it. And so he'd get a move on eating his breakfast. It can take 45 minutes some days.....
Toby loves talking to things. And as previously mentioned, I have to be the voice of the object he's talking to. The biscuit he's eating (he loves it when they shout Ow! Please don't eat me!), the lego man he's playing with, the pirate I've just drawn, pictures in books, his toy stretchy hammerhead shark, the giant concrete green giraffe we drive past everyday, the list could go on and on.
So when I drew this face, he was in delicious fits of laughter over him. He's called Bobby, and he just kept hitting Toby over the head and blowing raspberrys at him. And Toby just loved him. And loved copying him to.

Smooth Criminal

These were taken during dance practice one morning....
His own rendition of Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal

Fabric design for Ti-Ti

After a few weeks of impatient waiting, my digitally printed fabric from Spoonflower has arrived!

And I'm super pleased with it.
Woodland animals, with various things that Toby likes - robbers, beards and hats with feathers in. And of course, they all have their own names. Which I was glad I did, as one of the first things Toby said while pointing at the bear, was "Mummy, what's his name?"

I'm going to make a quilt cover out of it, and I've yet to design the pillowcase. These are just test swatches, front and back, to make sure I liked the fabric and the colours.