The artist

In a nearby cafe the a few days ago, we stopped for a freshly squeezed juice.

Toby got straight into drawing on the outside blackboard. He was so enthusiastic, his hands were soon covered in chalk. Then he realised it was easily transferred onto his trousers. Which soon became drawing straight onto his trousers with the chalk.

And then he announced, once totally covered in the stuff,
 Mummy, I look like an artist!

Thank goodness for weekends

It has been a bit difficult and tiring since we have been back, with our routine all out of sorts, and Toby spending more long days at kinder. I am hoping we are slowly gaining some sort of rhythm again now, and that Toby will start to settle down again. The tears and tantrums everyday are heartbreaking and exhausting.I think it has all led to an obsession with weekends.
He talks about them all week long.
When is the weekend? Will Daddy be home at the weekend?  How many days is it? What are we doing?
Endless questions and worries.

We have had some good weekends over the last couple of months.

Picnics in the park. Barbeques on the rooftop. Playing in the park. Chocolate brioche at Seven seeds cafe. Bike riding along the beach. Baking cakes. Playing light sabers with Daddy.

Taco truck picnic in the park

The beach

Summer puding and vanilla ice cream lovliness

Seven Seeds

Using "The Force' on Daddy

Hiding from the "Dark Side" at the park

Strawberry and vanilla cream cake

Sunshine, food, play and happiness. All beginning to make Toby a little happier.

Truly Great

We had such a wonderful time during our trip to England.

Seeing castles, the English seaside, ice-cream, fish and chips.
Birthday parties galore.
Spending lots of time with Gragely and Grandpa.
Toby playing with his gorgeous cousins.
Travelling in a London cab.
Playing dress ups, as Spiderman, knights,and pirates.

It is a bit sad to be back.
We had such a good time.
Truly great.

New Bicycle

A bit of an early birthday present from Daddy.
Toby is very proud of his new bike.

Cool style

Toby is very particular about what he wears these days. Every morning he carefully picks his own outfit out, being very particular with every single thing, even fussing over which underpants and socks he'll wear with which shirt etc.

And the shoes! We have many arguments about shoes. I'm not sure why he will insist on wearing his red suede shoes on a rainy day. Or why he just has to wear his deck shoes when we are running really late and I absolutely cannot find them anywhere.
He refers to all of this as his cool style.

Mummy, I need to wear cool style today. I just  have too. I need to wear my red boots!

And he loves nothing more than to pose for photos in his cool style

 The upside to this is that he is now dressing all by himself. He doesn't even want help.
A few weeks ago, I thought this moment would never come.

Last Weekend...

...Toby nearly exploded with excitement.
You probably remember, I think I've mentioned before how obsessed Toby is with Star Wars and superheroes.
It was national bookshop day, and the big bookshop in the city was holding all sorts of events through out the day for children. Craft activities, treasure hunts, light saber displays, and loads of superheroes and star wars characters browsing the shelves inside the shop.
When  he first spotted the Storm Trooper, he was a little scared, but holding Daddy's hand he bravely approached him, and once he started talking to him, we could barely get him to stop.
Are you a good egg or a bad egg? Do you know Darth Vader? Do you know Darth Maul? Can you take your helmet off? Can I hold your gun?

Batman was similarly bombarded with questions.
Do you know the Joker? Do you know The Riddler? Do you know the Penguin?

We ended up in the bookshop for most of the day. He held a light saber, and was given tips and advice from some Jedi Knights. He talked to Batman, Spiderman, Captain America, a Storm Trooper, Luke Skywalker, and Captain Jack Sparrow. Took part in the treasure hunt and won a prize.

He has barely stopped talking about it since, and it's the chosen subject for his show and tell at kinder tomorrow.

Last weekend...

Toby wrote his own name on the blackboard at the barber shop for the first time...

Took some photos...
 

Walked in the city with us, wearing his cool style hat, as he refers to it. He pretty much won't go anywhere these days without that hat. He's getting quite particular about what he wears.

Being Three

Being 3 years old is really such a magical age.

There are days when he is so adorable, so sweet, kind and so funny, that I'd like him to stay this age for ever.
And there are days too when being three is not such fun. He gets frustrated, or too tired, and still has to have his tantrums every now and then. Though these times are getting more infrequent.
I love that he still loves to hug me, kiss me, and tell me how much he loves me. That he loves to play with me, laugh with me, and just be his eccentric little self.

In the local supermarket he insists on helping me when we need to stop by to pick up a few essentials. Dragging around cartons of milk nearly the same size as him or huge bags of potatoes. Other times it's the whole basket he will carry, refusing to let me help him, stopping every few seconds to put it down and catch his breath. The guys who work there laughing in delight as they watch him.

I love it when he drags my scarves out of the drawer and Luis t-shirts, draping them over his head and pretending to be Darth Vader.  Or pretending to be Prince, dancing around singing 1999, while Gaw-Gaw and I have to watch and clap, as if we were the audience. Or pretending to be me.

I love that his imagination and dreams have no limits yet. He believes that one day he will be a farmer and a spaceman and a daredevil and a graffiti artist, all at the same time.

The other night though the 2 sides of being three seemed to collide, making me first rage with anger, then howl with laughter.

We'd had a hard evening, he was tired and cranky and so was I. He was getting ready for bed and there was plenty of whining going on. Then he just absolutely refused to brush his teeth. I got pretty cross and fed up of the whole evening and started shouting. Toby got cross and started screaming. And then we came to a compromise, I can't even really remember how. He finally agreed to brush his teeth but only if he could do so naked, wearing his frog goggles.

This could only happen when you're three years old.
The evening ended with us laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.

Daredevil Danger

I think I've mentioned before how much daredevil play goes on around here. He refers to himself as 'Daredevil Danger', and spends many an hour jumping off beds and chairs, stunt rolling onto the floor with theatrical style.

So of course, the moment Luis spotted this Evil Knievel helmet in a bike shop, I just knew we would not be leaving without it.

Making Empanadas

Last weekend, Luis decided he wanted to make homemade empanadas, those delicious Chilean pastries, filled with beef, egg and olives.

Luis braised the beef for hours and hours the day before. I made the pastry in the morning, with a few tips from Abu. It became a production line in the kitchen, and Toby turned out to be a great empanada maker.