Monday, May 14, 2012

18 Months!

It seems like just yesterday I was writing this post.   It was a year ago.

Today, Toby is becoming a boy; a silly, handsome, affectionate little dude.  His favorite things are playing with his sister, dancing to anything with a good beat, watching cars/trucks/buses/planes.... anything that moves.  He is quiet but social.  He's always smiling, busy, watching, curious.  He likes to climb, run, move, copy everything that Willow does.

Toby is becoming more verbal everyday.  He will copy anything I say and sometimes it sounds nothing like the words I said but the syllables and annotation are right on.  He is just beginning to put words together- there you go! is a favourite phrase.  He can name most of his body parts and knows quite a few animal sounds.  He likes to refer to animals by their sound before their name.  The way he is learning to speak is so much different than how Willow did it.  She wouldn't say a word until she knew it would come out perfect.  Toby likes to experiment with sound, practice words, play with noises.   He is slower to speak than Willow was (she was talking full on sentences, conversations at this age) but his non verbal communication is good.  He can be clingy and whiny, especially when tired, I think this comes from his lack of communication.

I don't ever want to forget that when I pick him up his right hand finds the hair at the back of my head, and his left thumb goes in his mouth.   He rarely sucks his thumb at any other time (besides sleep).   I love love love when he grabs my face and pushes it into his, nose to nose and scrunches up his face.  I think he's saying "I love you!".  And the sweetest look of surprise when he hears something new, when a door opens,  or when he's about to get a treat.






This morning Toby ran to wake me up and told me "bird! bird!"  I opened my eyes and we listened to the birds.  "Chirp! Chirp!" he said with the biggest smile on his face.  I love this age and don't want to forget a moment.