Dear Toby (the car enthusiast)

Dear Toby,

It is completely adorable that a car driving by our house excites you. You breath hard, point, say "ah-ah-ah" and want us to pick you up to carry you to the window to look out. You are unbelievably cute. But, we can't do this for you every time a car goes by! The way you cry, real tears streaming when we don't oblige you breaks our hearts. It's just not possible with dinner cooking and other things going on. Not only that, but 9 times out of 10 by the time we get to the window the car is long gone!

I'm amazed every day how your nature is all boy. You are attracted to all things that move!

Love,
Mum

DON'T TAKE MY PICTURE MOM!!!

These kids won't let me take their picture. I want to be photographing them all the time- documenting their childhood, practicing for my business....... but they won't let it happen. Toby tries to grab my camera, and when I won't let him have it I get this face:


And Willow covers her face, but if I try to coax her or move the pillow she's hiding behind I get this face:


And this is why there are huge gaps in the photo collection of my kids. They go through stages where they want nothing to do with me with my camera. And then, they're OK with it for awhile. I hope this phase is over soon.

Wordless Wednesday (We've been sick edition)

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!

Wordless Wednesday (Snowy Fun Edition)

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)
  

Hair Cuts (Toby's first!)

We did it. We took Toby to get his hair cut. It's been a long time coming, I was nervous. I have no idea about boys hair, I didn't know how it would look, what kind of cut suits a toddler boy and most of all I was afraid he'd look too grown up. And well, he does. But that's OK. I've come to terms with it. The event wasn't without trauma, for both kids. Willow clung to me when it was her turn, not wanting to sit down in the car. She didn't want the lady to cut her hair as she kept saying. Toby was OK with it at first, but disliked the combing and water spraying and scissors close to his ears. I don't blame him. I felt so bad when he was crying. It was hard to watch him and not be able to comfort him except with my words. So I took pictures. I'm so mean.

BEFORE

AFTER

THE BIG EVENT

THE RESULT

Merry Christmas

Well, Christmas is over. We had tons of fun, lots of visiting, dinners, presents. I get a fail on capturing the Christmas memories.... I barely touched my camera. I think so much photo work in the last couple of months turned me away from photographing my own kids. I'll have to make some New Years resolutions.

Willow was completely thrilled with her wooden doll house. She doesn't play with it very much- but will rearrange things a few times a day, setting the dolls up with a new activity. Her favorite thing for them to do is use the potty and watch TV. Toby didn't really understand why we were acting so silly around Christmas, but enjoyed saying "riiiippppp" as he opened his gifts.


On Christmas Eve Willow made a card for Santa. She decorated the front and inside wrote the gifts she would like (a new rubber ducky and a mommy doll). We left him a couple of Gingerbread Softies and cranberry juice. She insisted on leaving it all right in front of the tree, to make sure he saw it.

Here are the only Christmas photos I took, all on Christmas morning.

Willow enjoyed everyone else's gifts as much as her own.

Toby, just as happy playing with old toys.

Willow loves her new housecoat.

Love the Candy Cane Christmas jammies.

Toby got 3 teeth for Christmas! One molar just before, one on Christmas day and one a couple of days later. Still one to go, probably in the next week. And now just a few days left to get back on our schedule. Kids are staying up much too late and sleeping in (that part I don't mind). We'll all be in shock next week when we're back to work.

The Grinch

Why do people insist on bugging Willow because she's so shy? James gets this too, all the time. It's like he's a magnet for weird people. Anyway, Willow gets singled out all the time in places like the grocery store where people will stop and make strange faces at her, stare at her in weird ways just because she's so shy she doesn't look at them when they talk to her. If she doesn't want to talk to you so badly that she looks away, GET THE HINT! Leave her alone, don't continue to scare her and give her even more reason to be wary of strangers. Personally, I think her being shy of strangers at this age is a good thing. And it's not everyone, often she chats with other kids in carts and their moms. It's just the strange ones she avoids- smart girl.

This grinch was riding on a mini bike at the Santa Claus parade. Around and around,and around, and then he noticed me taking a photo of my kids and decided to jump in. Poor kids. They didn't like him at all.