Conversations of Toddlers

On the deck, playing make believe.............

Willow:  Toby, where do you live?  Where is your house?
Toby:  Here.
Willow:  No, is it close. or far away?
Toby:  Away, here.
Willow:  NO, is it far away, or is it close?
Toby:  Close.
Willow:  OK, so where is your microwave?  Your fridge?  Where is your fridge, is it close, or far  away?
Toby:  Away.
Willow:  Toby, it's in your house.  How is your house close, but your fridge is far away?  Your fridge is right here, you silly boy.


In the car.............

Willow:  I'm thirsty, I want some cold water from the fridge when we get home.
Toby:  Water, too.
Willow:  Do you want cold water Tobe?
Toby:  Cold water.
Willow:  Water from the fridge Tobe?
Toby:  Fridge, water.
Willow:  No Toby, do you want cold water from the fridge?
Toby:  Cold fridge water.
Willow:  MOM!  Toby wants cold water from the fridge when we get home!!!


These two crack me up.  Just ordinary, everyday, gold.  This is the stuff I want to remember.  I love that Willow is learning to play with Toby and teach him things, and she is helping him with his vocabulary.  I love that he plays along so well, looking up to her and wanting to play whatever game she invents.  They just get along so well- when they aren't biting or hitting or stealing toys.

Cute things, Funny things, Silly Things

Toby shakes his head no now. In response to anything that sounds like a question. At first he was getting it right, but now he's just being silly with it! He shakes to questions, but also statements. Like 'You sweet boy!" he shakes his head like crazy with a sneaky grin on his face.

Willow is obsessed with Birthdays. She always asks me who's birthday is next, and we go through all of the birthdays until we get to hers. Sometimes we go a month further until we get to James' and mine. She knows exactly what kind of birthday cake she wants, down to the last detail. It's cute.

These photos of the kids crack me up. Taken one after another- check out the noses!
They have the same scrunchy nose. Willow tries to do her camera face.

Toby is hilarious at the library. He loves it, takes books off the shelf one by one, puts them on the table. Today James was across the library and Toby would pick the biggest book, and running with it to Dad, saying "Dad! Dad!" He was dragging the book it was so heavy. I can't keep up with him, he gets books out as fast as I can put them back. He comes completely out of his shell, and acts like he's at the playground, not the library. I guess this doesn't sound too funny, but to be there, it is!

What is with the almost-3-year-old attitude? Sometimes I ask her a question and she has this look on her face that reminds me of the 15 year old me. Where do they learn that? I think I'm in trouble when she gets to be 15! Silly girl.

Toby loves playing in his curtains. He hides behind them, and then crawls out from under them and says "bbboooooo". So cute. Almost as cute as asking him where his belly is- he pulls up his shirt and tickles himself, saying 'ticky ticky ticky'.

Willow has discovered the joy of reading by herself. It's great for us because she doesn't spend much time in independent play. But its too bad that the only time she wants to read is before bed. We put her to bed the other night and left her to read to herself, forgetting to check on her. An hour and a half later she was sitting in bed, eyes tired and red, a stack of 20 books beside her!

Toby loves to brush his teeth. And by brushing his teeth I mean using his
toothbrush to drink water from the tap. He wants to do it multiple times a
day, for 10 minutes each time.

Toby loves cars. He loves to play with toy cars, and watch the cars out the window. One goes by our house every 15 minutes or so. Every time he sees one he says "OooooHHH!" And makes sure to repeat it and point to the window until everyone has acknowledged that a car has gone by. It's so sweet! And goes to show the nature of boys- I can't believe how in to cars and machines he is even though he was never taught or encouraged to be that way.

Mo-mo Fairy- YAY!

I'm so happy to say that the soother is gone! For weeks every night before bed I asked Willow if she was ready for the mo-mo fairy to take her pacifier and replace it with toys, candy and money (this is what Willow decided the fairy would leave her).

2 Thursdays ago, after bedtime stories I repeated "Hey Willow, I have an idea, why don't we put mo-mo under your pillow for the mo-mo fairy?".
"No," she answered, "on Thursday".
"It is Thursday honey".
"Oh, OK" she said and kissed her soother and placed in under her pillow. Really? Yay! That was easy! (but took several weeks)

3 or 4 days, a bit of whining, a bit of protest, some change in routine and we're fine. When she naps it has to be in my bed, watching cartoons to distract her. We put a little light on her wall beside the bed that she can turn on and off- so she can read books by herself before she falls asleep at night. Business as usual. She loooovves her new teddy bear, a soft little guy the mo-mo fairy left her. She's never been attached to dolls or stuffies, so I'm thrilled.

Willow and Teddy, or Mo as he's sometimes called.

Now, to tackle night-weaning Toby!

What they're saying, January 2012

Toby:

• Mom- "Maaaaahm! Maaaaahm!" when he wants my attention NOW, or at almost a whisper, when it's not so urgent, "mom, mom, mom".
• Dad- all sing songy, "Da-ahd, Daaaa-hdd" Dad looks at him, he smiles, Dad looks away "Da-ahd...."
• Apple- It was so funny when he was learning to say apple. Willow taught him, and they would repeat it back to each other as Toby perfected the pronunciation
• Ball
• Bib
• Hot
• Vrrroooommmm (driving cars and trains around)
• Night Night
• I-O is Willow. Melts my heart when he says it! So sweet.
• Uh-Oh
• Five (for high five, in his wispy voice says five? five? and holds up his hand)
  

He's getting pretty good at communicating in other ways too- he points and grunts a lot, he opens his mouth so wide that he can't even open his eyes when he wants a bite of food or a drink, nearly rips the neck of my shirt when he wants milk and the latest : shaking his head no. He shakes no A LOT.


Willow:

• 2 more minutes! - when she doesn't want to leave what she's doing, or go to bed she just wants "2 more minutes!".
• People she really likes are her cousins. If they are not really her cousins, I correct her and tell her that they are friends. And then she calls her cousins her friends.
  
• She's figuring out words for feelings lately. I keep hearing "you're hurting my feelings" or "you're making me feel sad" when I tell her no, you have to clean up your blocks first, or it's time for a nap etc. I'm also hearing "I love you" a lot. I love you mom, I love you Toby, I love the Backyardigans (cartoon)
  

What they're saying, October 2011

Toby is much more verbal now. He has a few words, and uses a lot of pointing and grunting. His favorite is "Uh-Oh" and loves throwing things on the floor just so he can say it. He also says it when he finds something on the floor- so cute that he knows it doesn't belong there and imagines it must have been dropped. He says "Dada", using it for me too. I point to myself and say "mama" but he then takes my hand and point it to my chest and says "Dada" with the biggest smile on his face. He's said something that sounds much like Willow (Waawaa) and I'm not surprised; it's probably the most commonly used word in this house. He also says "Dat" for That or What's that, and "fish".

He likes to talk on the phone- the phone can be his hand, his shoe, his musical seahorse or the actual cordless. He makes "Oooh? Ooooooohhhhh" noises when he talks on the phone. The sign language has disappeared. Mom got lazy. He's lost the signs he had even, I just stopped doing it.

Willow is expressing her imaginative self even more now, telling stories, pretending to be someone/something different, telling me about her dreams (many of which are a bit disturbing).

She has learned some new words too- stupid & hate to name a couple. She's having a tough time with something lately, teeth maybe or some emotional development. Some days everything is "I hate this", "I don't like that". It's hard not to laugh sometimes when "I hate eating" comes out of her mouth when I call her for breakfast.

Sick kids, cuddling. So sweet!

I've been absent for a couple of weeks. Very busy time as well as a nasty cold passing through our house. Everyone is on the mend but things aren't slowing down. Attempting to get this photography business going, getting ready to go back to work, taking care of numerous things that should get done before I go back to work. I'm going to try a bit harder to get a least one post in a week. Hopefully two. :)

Toby's Week

Toby's had a big week. There is a sticker on his calendar almost every day. His new tricks include:

• Standing for long periods of time without support
• Throwing things
• Waving
• Saying "uh oh" and "dat"
  
• Pointing (and says "dat")
• Will point to moms eyes and nose when asked
• Points to his own eye after pointing to moms
• Dancing to music
  
• WALKING! First just a couple of steps, then 3 or 4, now about 8.

Whew! Big week. No wonder he's not sleeping, with all of this excitement.

What they're saying, August

We were noticing tonight how Willow pronounces the "L" sound. She can't say her own name properly, it comes out "Wiwwow", and if a word starts with L she skips that sound - like "ittle amb". So we can hear the L sound at the end of little, but not the beginning. And a word like sleep, she pronounces "seep". This is the last quirky talking thing I think, she's even corrected her pronouns!

Oh! She's just started saying not yet, "net net". Its adorable- that's just how she thinks the word is pronounced.

She's expressing her imagination and sense of humour more and more now. She tells little jokes that she thinks are hilarious, and tells me stories she makes up. Lately shes been talking about being scared a lot. It's hard to tell where she got this from, we never talk about being scared. Now she is scared of thunder, other kids at playgroup, and when the car goes over small hills. It tickles her tummy and she doesn't like it- she cries and screams that she's scared. Makes driving anywhere a bit stressful.

Toby is talking up a storm! No real words yet of course, but lots of sounds. His favorite lately is "dat" or "zhah". New sounds like "th", "ssss", "brrrr", "v". He is very chatty, making noise as he crawls around getting into things, "zhah, zhah, zhah". At playgroup today he was playing with a year old little boy and everytime he looked at Toby, Toby would laugh. This throaty "ah-hah!" type laugh that makes everyone laugh. His laugh and smile are so contagious, and he uses it to get attention. I think he's using "mama" for me now, but it's still hard to tell. If he's whiny and crawls to me he'll be saying "mama, mum, mum, mum....".

He's starting to cry and get mad when things don't go his way. This is the first time I've seen this from Toby, he's such an easy going guy. He's fighting naps and will cry and throw himself around when I take him into his room. This evening he kept going in the bathroom so I closed the door. He would race to the bathroom and realize the door was shut- and just wail! I had to laugh.

Video- Toby Crawling

Is there anything sweeter than a baby learning to crawl?

I've been working on this video awhile..... a whole month. Between realizing our camera is not mac compatible, and then finding out how to upload our files, upgrading to imovie 11 and trying to figure out how to use it.... well, here we are. I'm having trouble figuring out the new imovie, so I kinda gave up half way. But the final product kind of works, with the music ending and the super cute 'haha'.

So, Toby's been crawling for over a month now and he's a pro. Secret tunnels under the furniture and all. Keeping up with his big sis.

Love.

28 months

Willow is 28 months old, 2 1/3 years old, 2.3333 years old.


Her manners are impressive for a 2 year old. She says please and thank you for everything, and "Yes Mom!" or "OK mom!". She still throws a tantrum here and there, but mostly she's just a joy to be around.

Loves the slide!

Bed and nap time are a breeze lately- especially since 'mo-mo' has been sleeping during the day. Willow is so excited and happy to be reunited with Mo-mo that she loves going to bed. As I leave her rooms she squeals "Love you Mom! See you when I wake up!". It makes up for the years of bed-time battles. There is usually still one or two wakeups during the night, usually for a drink of water. We've tried giving her a full sippy cup for her dolly to hold until she's thirsty- but she drinks it all right away. She's been giving signs of readiness to nighttime potty train. Sometimes she'll get up soon after going to bed to pee, and usually runs from her room in the morning right to the washroom. She is dry 90% of the time after naps, and about half the time in the morning.

Willow watches kids at the fair, instead of the animals.

Not so sure about the pigs. Lately she crosses her arms in her shy defensive stance.

I hope her shyness eases up soon. She loves being out, especially around other kids but she is too frightened to play with them. After an hour or so she ventures out a bit but usually plays by herself. She is quite observant and knows what is happening with everyone all the time. The other day at the chiropractor she took a boys car (I had no idea, I thought it was an office toy). She played with it for awhile, until the boy was leaving. She grabbed my hand and ran after him to give it back. She was super shy and wouldn't even look at him as she held the car out, but I was impressed with her gesture as well as her awareness that it was his.

Keeping an eye on the other kids as she finger paints at Playgroup.

Watching the kids play at her cousins birthday party.

Willow's favorite toys lately are arts and crafts. She loves her water colour paints. She colours, paints with water and loves play doh. She just got some construction paper with scissors and glue and spent all morning cutting paper into small bits. She also loves the sand box, helping me garden and digging in dirt. I love that she loves getting dirty outside but also twirls when she has a pretty skirt on. She's girly by nature, but isn't afraid to get dirty to have fun.



*Love*

Teeth!

Toby has 4 teeth. All in four weeks. A much easier teether than Willow, thank goodness! First one came just a week shy of his seven month birthday. Number two came two weeks later and the next two within the following two weeks. Whew.


Other news:
Willow has two 2-year molars coming through too. We've got a happy house right now!

Toby is pulling himself up. He uses toys, the couch, me. Still not crawling, but he gets around pretty good by pushing himself backwards, or doing a little sit-belly flop-sit-belly flop routine. I can't believe how fast he gets around a room!


Willow no longer says "I", instead it's "My". I have a hard time explaining to her how to use pronouns properly, so I just try to speak correctly myself. She'll get it eventually.

Toby has been sleeping through the night since he got over his last cold (about 3 weeks). Naps are going well too, 2 hours in the morning, 1 hour in the afternoon. About 10 hours at night. He's been getting so much sleep he was up until 11pm a couple of days last week. This is quite a shock to my system - so much that I'm having a hard time falling asleep. I still get up with Willow once or twice, and I'm having a really hard time. I think I need to write an entire post about sleep deprivation - that to come.

Potty training has been pretty much smooth sailing since day 2.... and finally Willow is starting to get up from bed to pee. It happens within the hour of going to bed and is a huge pain to take her diaper off, but I'll encourage it. She's in a diaper just for naps (wakes up dry about 1/2 the time) and at night. I can't wait until she's diaper free!

We've had some nice hot summer weather here and have been taking advantage of the deck. We spend alot of time out there, blowing bubbles, in the pool, enjoying meals and playing with 'bouncy bouncy' balls. Willow likes to spray my herb garden and potted plants with the spray bottle. Keeps her busy.

When the wind blows

I named my blog 'When the wind blows' because Willow loves Rock-a-bye Baby. At the time I first started the blog, she was asking me to sing it every night. Sometimes twice. And then she just stopped. The first few nights I'd ask "Do you want me to sing Rock-a-bye Baby?". She'd say, "No mom, Daddy now". And that was that. Willow is such a girl of routine it surprises me every time she changes something. It happens more and more now that she's 2, asserting her independence and finding out who she is.

Every day I think about how quickly these little beings change. Toby's physical changes are more obvious right now; going from sitting to on all fours, rocking back and forth. Pulling himself up on toys and then falling down. He's going to be such a little boy, full of energy and into everything. Already, he sees something and lunges for it not caring if he's going to fall on his face in his attempt.

Willow is really unpredictable in her moods. For awhile she was in the "terrible two's" and having multiple tantrums daily. They slowed as I found ways of talking her through them, and distracting her. She's been very pleasant and talking up a storm until yesterday when she got a cold. She is really starting to play by herself (for at least a few minutes of the day...) and make believe play with her dolls. She was talking to me tonight and then all of a sudden said "uh oh, Iggy's crying", and went out on the deck where her doll Lily was. She picked her up and rocked her, "awwww, it's ok Iggy". In the last week Lily's name has changed to Iggy. Willow had no trouble saying Lily before. I tried to call her Iggy, and Willow got upset. "NO Mom, Iggy".

My goal this week is to take some video. As our camera collects dust, my babies are growing up!

The weeks fly by!

No post for a week! It's been a busy week. Visit with the aunts and cousins on Monday, doctor & chiropractor appointments on Tuesday, shopping on Wednesday, playgroup on Thursday and some photos on Friday (today). And lots of naps in there too. I need to thank the universe that naps haven't been a struggle lately- and I've gotten a few in myself! That, and Toby is sleeping through the night again. It's like a switch flipped and we're back to where we were in February. It's so strange, I wonder what caused his 3.5 month sleep nightmare. Reflux? Teething? Hunger? (in the last 2 months he gained 4.5 lbs and only .5") Whatever it was I hope it is over forever.

Toby is 20.9 lbs now and just about 28". At the same age (minus 3 days) Willow was 20.75 lbs and half and inch shorter. I compare them alot, but just for interest's sake. They are such different kids it amazes me. Willow was much quicker to roll over and sit up, but Toby was smiling and babbling first. Willow first commando crawled at 6 months- but it was another 2 months before she crawled on her knees. Toby is up on his knees already, not moving but rocking back and forth. Hates being on his tummy so I can't see him ever commando crawling. I look at Willow's baby book and I can see what is to come- crawling, pulling up, standing without support, walking.... I can't believe it goes so quickly. They are also different in their sleeping, eating, and nursing habits. Toby is very sociable and laughs and smiles all the time. Willow was always pretty shy and wouldn't interact too much with other people. Here are some of the photos from today. I was photographing my nephew Tyler (2 months) so we played around a bit before they arrived. They love each other so much- I think it's evident in these pictures.

Toby on his best behavior

I get this face often

Tyler and Toby in matching outfits. Ty is just over 2 months old, Toby is 6.5 months. These two are going to be trouble!

6 months

I'd heard many times how fast time goes when you have kids. I had no idea how fast. I've been meaning to start this blog for months (years?) to document the funny, sweet and everyday things my kids do. My memory is already starting to fade- I'm so afraid I'll forget it all.


Toby is 6 months old today. Half a year. 35x more and he'll be 18. He's sitting well. Just starting to eat solid food. Loves to grab my hair on either side of my head and pull my face towards him so he can suck on my chin. I call it baby kisses. His first tooth is about to come through I think. He's a chatter box, more than Willow ever was. He ooohs and cooooos and does this funny "ah-hah!" laugh. He giggles hysterically when his sister laughs. And he has the sweetest dimples ever.

Love.