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.

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. :)

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.

What they're saying, July 2011

Willow: "Where arrrrrrrrrreeee yoooooouuuu?", she says singy-songy to people and things. If we're heading to the park, she'll say, "Park, where arrrrrrrrreeee yoooouuuu?". On Saturday we went to the farmer's market, "Farmer's market, where arrrrreeee yoooouuu?".

She loves labelling things as mommy ones, baby ones, daddy ones etc. by their size. If something is really big, its a daddy one. She's added the grandmas too- grammie ones, and gram gram ones. When she draws (or asks me to draw for her) she asks for a baby kitty, a daddy kitty, a grammie kitty.....

Willow is using her imagination much more now and she talks to herself or her dolls about different things. Usually things that are going on or happened recently. It's interesting to get a glimpse of her inner dialogue.


Toby: Lately, it's Mom, mama, mam etc. He's not calling me just yet- just making noise. But I respond to it, so it's just a matter of time.

His friend Ila has taught him to growl I think- he's making growly noises while banging on his toys or driving his car around.

There is a lot of new noises coming from Toby. He's experimenting with the sounds he can make and get reactions from. He's great playing independently with his toys, making goo goo gaa gaa, blowing raspberries, making long drawn out tones. Super cute.

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.

What they're saying

Willow, 26 months: "Willow wants some water please mum." She often uses incorrect pronouns. "Willow" instead of I. Also "you" instead of me, "my" instead of I.

She's copying what we say, trying to figure out how to use words. I try really hard now to use proper speech- no more baby talk. She speaks very well for her age I think, expressing wants and needs and actions as well as complex ideas like dreams and imaginative things. Lately she just chatters constantly, being silly and laughing at herself, and telling Toby what she is doing. In the car, she chatters away. She'll see cows and say "Hi Cows. Look Toby, cows! There is a baby one, and a mommy one, and a daddy one...." Today she was telling me she was looking for sheep so we could stop and pet them because she wants to feel how soft they are. We have never, by the way, seen sheep in our area! I don't think she's seen a sheep in real life.

She is now calling Toby, Toby. When he was born it was Obe, that became Tobe, and finally Toby.

She has several books of opposites, and loves them all. She is pretty good at identifying opposites- hot/cold, winter/summer, big/small, wet/dry. I don't know if she is just copying what's in the books or if she really understands the concept.

When she sees something that matches or is the same colour/shape etc., she gets excited. "I have same!" she'll say, holding both items. "Willow have same!" I'll have to record more willowspeak as I think of it- I just adore it!


Toby, 7 months: yahyahyahayh. rhahrhahrhah. dadadada. mamamamama.