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.

Wordless Wednesday (Our Big Tree Edition)

Beach Clean-up

Sunday we participated in The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. It was a gorgeous, sunny autumn day. We live very close to the beach. It amazes me how much litter there was, even though it is cleaned regularly by municipal staff. Thousands and thousands of cigarette butts were picked out of the sand that children play in every day. Amazing.

I like to participate in things like this, and now that I have kids I think it's even more important. I want to set an example for them, show them what action looks like, and help them to know the impacts of thoughtlessness. We can't go on wasting, polluting, avoiding the consequences of our actions any longer. It's our kids future that we are changing; they are the ones that will live with the results of how we live today.

I hope I can instill in them a love for nature, people and our planet.

Being Mom

A particularly rough night has inspired this post. A night where, I thought, "well, the kids are asleep, hubby is out, I'm going to watch a movie!" Ugh. Big mistake. The movie ended around 11, I still had some laundry to finish up, soup to put away, baby food to puree and a dishwasher to finish filling. By the time I got to bed, I was wired. Finally fall asleep, hubby comes home and disturbs my sleep. Toby wakes up, 1/2 hour to put him back to sleep. Another hour trying to fall asleep, and then..... sleeping bliss. An hour later Willow wakes up, calling out for me. I make hubby go. And 1.5 hours after that, Toby is up again. And this time there is no putting him back to sleep. After 2 hours of trying I give up- we're up for the day.

Moral of the day- Mom, don't ever take time for yourself. It will backfire. Even if this time was productive, even if you made soup and baby food and did some sewing while the movie was on and didn't even get to enjoy it. You're still expecting too much. It's not worth it. Get over it, and face the reality that you won't have any time to yourself for 15-17 years (and then this "time for yourself" will mostly be spend worrying and wondering if your kids are staying out of trouble). From today on, vow to be in bed before 9, because the kids will not let you have a good night sleep. They also won't let you sit down, have a rest or a nap during the day. So get over it, you are 'mom' and that is all. It really is a 24/7 kind of job.

They say as a mom you have to take time for yourself to stay sane. Enough said.

Oh, and the movie? A crappy rom-com in which a couple dies in a car crash, leaving their 2 best friends to raise their baby. There may have been some funny parts, but I missed them because I was too sad thinking about the poor baby missing her mommy, and the poor dead parents who will never see their child grow up. And now that I've re-read that last bit, I feel incredible guilt that even though I have no time for myself, even to sleep, I still have my beautiful children that I get to watch grow every day (even if I'm half asleep).

My life as a mom- sleepless, thankless, guilt ridden and full of love.

.

10 Months!

I'm ignoring the fact that 10 months is awfully close to 12...... OK, I can't do it. I cannot believe my little guy is ONE YEAR old in 2 short months. He still seems so little. I go back to work in a few short weeks and will be leaving him a couple days a week- all day long. I am thankful I don't have to go back full time yet.

At 10 months Toby can.....

• Copy sounds and noises. He likes to mimic Willow's chatter.
• Say mum mum mum when he wants me.
  
• Cruise furniture like a pro.
• Stand for a few seconds before carefully lowering himself to the floor.
• Bring himself to standing without holding onto anything.

At 10 months Toby is.....

• Only sleeping a couple hours at a time once again.
• Deciding that one nap a day suits him just fine.
• Eating well- purees and solid chunks, loves beets, any kind of meat, and orange veggies. And fruit- any kind and lots of it!

At 10 months Toby has.....

• 6 teeth.
  
• Chipped his top front tooth (no idea how!).
• Tripled his birth weight.
• Met all 5 of his great-grandparents.
• The softest, fluffy hair! It's getting so long and I'm not ready for a hair cut yet.
• And the sweetest little guy voice I've ever heard. Love how he sings & hums while moving or eating!
  

At 10 months, Toby loves.....

• His sister.
• The sandbox.
• Playing with tools, cars, and watching very 'boy' tv shows.
• Being outside. If either kid is cranky, going outside makes everyone happy!
• Standing up.
• Having his picture taken! I'm a lucky photog mama :)
  

Wordless Wednesday (The Awwww! edition)

Tired

I'm still exhausted so I haven't posted in awhile. I've been really busy as well - trying to get the downstairs aka my photo studio finished, dealing with tantrums & sleep issues, trying to get my flower gardens under control, jarring tomatoes and applesauce, waking up 6 times a night, as well as the usual cooking and cleaning stuff. Whew. Time for bed. But first, a couple of photos- just so I remember what my kids looked like this week.

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.

Wordless Wednesday (Messy Face edition)

The Fair!

A couple of weeks back we spent the day at the fair. Toby was in the baby show, and Willow entered 3 pieces in the craft show (which we later forgot to pick up before the deadline. We realized 1/2 hour late and James raced there, but the doors were locked. Oh, the guilt!). We spent a lot of time watching the farm animals. Willow had a bit of a breakdown when I told her she couldn't go on the merry-go-round- I couldn't figure out the logistics of that, with the 2 of them- I'm not even sure she was big enough to ride it. It didn't help that it was nap time. Was fun all the same.

Toby and I, on stage. Baby on the right was the winner. Funny, I sat beside the
winner when I entered Willow 2 years ago.

Me & my kids! Thank god for friends with cameras! There are so few
photos of me and the two of them.

I still don't get it- how could this face not WIN?

Willow, checking out the animals.

Willow's favorite animals.

Good times with good friends.