Proper

Well, Tobias is officially 18 months old. I cannot believe I gave birth to a little, helpless bundle a year and a half ago. What a big boy and what a character he has become.

The past few weeks Tobias has started to use “proper nouns” – naming people and things… He says his name! (so cute!) “Toe-bee”, “Wuggles” (the Wiggles), “Elmo”, “Cookie” (for Cookie Monster), “Mickey”, “Minnie”, but my very favorite is…

…When I drop off the kids at Mother’s Day Out, Lydia likes to park in front of the church so we can say “Hi” to Jesus. You see, they still have their Nativity scene prominently displayed. Last week as we bid “Good morning” to Jesus, Toby blurted out “Gee us”.


“Ka goo” = “color” in Toby’s world – a task he greatly enjoys. I’m not sure which he likes better, the act of coloring or taking the markers or crayons in and out of their containers. Either way, he has a blast. He shows much more interest than Lydia did at this age.




Lydia likes to tell stories. We often hear, “Mommy, wanna hear a story?” Over breakfast this is what she told me,
“Once upon a time we lived in a castle where it was nice and cold and cozy. At the beach. Near the ocean. But there were whales who would bite us up, so we stayed in the castle where it was nice and warm. Theeeeee End.” (Can you tell she is a little bit traumatized by the whole “Jonah being swallowed by a whale” story?)
Here’s the one immediately following, “Once upon a time there was a girl and a boy and a dog and a cat (M: What were their names?) “Mason and Sheferty”. They lived in a castle. We lived in three beds. We had lots of animals. You guys (mommy and daddy and Toby) were there too. Theeeeee end.”

Another Lydia quote: She took instructions out of a new game, opened them up and said, “What does this say? Oh, it’s a message from the Lord. (now she sings)Don’t eat bugs, don’t eat cats…”
This is how we’ve spent the majority of our past few weeks… Goodbye “meditative”, Welcome, “Latte”.

Well, we did take a couple days off when we all had the stomach flu in succession. Lovely.

We also spent a lovely, warm, winter afternoon at the playground. Come on spring!

Brightened my day

This girl just lights up my heart. Here's some of our morning conversation...

She said, "You have a beautiful singing voice, mommy. You are the most beautifulest girl ever...in the whole wide world."

She also declared, "I want to write a letter to God" ("And what would you like it to say?") "Dear God, Help me to listen." AMEN! :)

Here and there

Yes, these frigid days have been keeping us inside. Yet, we have been finding ways to entertain ourselves both here and there, but mostly here...

We play in cardboard boxes...


We play dress-up: I came upstairs to witness (and obviously photograph) a princess dress-up session which included Tobias starring as "Snow White" - assisted by daddy.




We play bubbles in the sink after dinner...


We visit friends (and meet their adorable new puppy)...


We play cars...


We humor mom as she practices her photo skills...


We decide to take up playing guitar

We take a trip to Adam's County and the Explore and More museum
Apple Orchard

Talk about living in a bubble ;)




My little baker

My little painter






More words Toby knows (he will SAY almost anything to repeat it):
“goose, cheese, hand, help, one, milk, nose, car, hungry (hungy), tub, cup, banana (a-mee-nah), “oh no!”, sheep, kitty, whoa, gum, puppy, ham, mine, NO”
Finishes the phrase, “Ready, Set,…” with “GO!”

To our shock and satisfaction, Tobias has pooped in the potty 4 times in the past couple weeks. It starts with keen observation of gas activity. We ask him if he needs to poop and he responds, “POTTY!” Lydia did not demonstrate this interest so we are understandably pleasantly surprised. I have no grand visions of saying “goodbye” to diapers any time soon, but am happy we are putting our foot in that direction.

Toby also is somewhat obsessed with light switches. When he spots one, he will lunge out of our arms with his arms outspread pleading, “On! On!”

Over New Year’s my mom watched the kids while Mark and I worked. When I returned home she exclaimed, “Lydia dressed herself today!” I thought, “Wow, I guess I really should be working on that with her.” Well, since then she has really started to show an interest in dressing and undressing herself (before she would beg for help) and is really getting quite good at it. In the way that saves me time and energy, I love that she puts her coat and shoes on before we head out in the cold, but in another completely motherly way my heart aches as my baby is acting like a “big girl.”



We are trying to beat away the winter "blues" and find the joy of the Lord in each day. :)

Resurgence

After a brief hiatus, Tobias’ climbing ventures have returned. And, of course, he is seeking greater heights. The other day I literally left him for a minute and found him standing on top of the dining room table. WHEW! He’s now a pro at the kitchen chairs and is dying to learn how to crawl onto Lydia’s bed. He is using unique means (like climbing on top of the pile of library books) yet to no avail.


Lydia has also had a resurgence of sorts. After receiving 2 new baby dolls for Christmas, she is back to her adventures with Blooper. And as Tobias is reaching new heights, her stories are taking us into greater depth and distance. For instance, this evening she went on a dissertation regarding her driving trip to Phileedelphia with Blooper. Blooper asked, “What’s for dinner?” (Lydia went on to say that Phileedelphia has a lot of pizza and all Blooper wants to eat is pizza but Lydia declared, “No, we are having rice.”). She is also adding different voices to the characters, facial expressions, and a storyline that actually makes sense! She’ll do the same thing with her books, narrating the pictures. I tried to get it on video but she kept telling me to put the camera down.
Here's a snippet...

The remainder of the holiday was quite laid-back. The kids enjoyed days in their PJs,

playing and exploring their new toys.


Lydia is quite upset that all of the decorations are put away, “Mommy, where are all of the lights? And where are our stockings? Will you pray that God will bring us Christmas again?”
Even though daddy had to work on New Year's Day, we still got to watch Penn State win in dramatic fashion.
Cheering them on!



Lydia also declared this evening that “Tobias is my best friend.” A sweet sentiment, for sure, however she claimed this on a day when she threw an all-out screaming tantrum when Toby got one of her dollies out of its crib. Not sure I can whole-heartedly embrace this sweetness as truth, yet I certainly cherish the moments they play together and love on each other.


Ah, the love/hate relationship of siblings…

Joy to the world, the Lord is come

I've decided to try to blog a little more frequently to ease the overwhelming task of once monthly. We'll see how it goes ;)

Sharing some photos of our truly joy-filled Christmas. We give all praise and glory to our newborn King, Jesus Christ.

Lydia sits on Santa's lap for the first time at preschool. I'm not sure she really "got it" but she liked him and loved the candycane filled with Sweettarts that he gave her. At one point during the month prior to Christmas Lydia came to us, visibly distressed, exclaiming, "Daddy, Santa didn't tell me what I want for Christmas! I don't know what I want!" ;) We then had the opportunity to reiterate the true meaning of Christmas, the greatest gift, Jesus, our Savior.


Christmas eve trip to "Tiny World", a little piece of Americana

A fire warming our lives as the love of the baby Jesus warms our hearts on Christmas morning

Presents!

Daddy showing off his gifts.

The kids having a blast with Toby's new "choo choo" track set. Since then he's been really into "ramps" running cars and trains down them over and over and over again...


A Christmas morning family photo

Tobes decide to escape and then longed to return to his family...

...REALLY badly!

Lots of reading happening on Christmas day. Cherishing these moments...



Family photo after Christmas dinner.

Unfortunately the ice prevented Mark's parents & Aunt M from joining us (and prevented us from worshipping on Christmas Day). Two big disappointments. We are thankful, though, that everyone was safe and sound.

Mark modeling my cousin's Snuggie during our trip to Johnstown on the "Feast of Stephen"

Toby showing the fam how he does "TWO!"

Great Aunt Judy reading her gift to Toby

"Princess Lydia" showing off her new tutu that Aunt Laura made for her Christmas gift and her new jewelry from Aunt "M". A rockin' visit to Rockville for all. :)

Cousin group hug

And here's the missing cousin (she was eating dinner when this photo was taken). It was a year ago on Christmas eve that this darling girl received a heart transplant at Johns Hopkins. What an amazing testimony of the Lord's faithfulness and goodness her life is! We love you, sweet Ally!


More cousins!

Lydie and Tobes got their first "American Girl" dolls - the Bitty Baby twins!
Toby loves to point out the "eyes". He really loves dolls (in case I haven't mentioned that before.)


Thanks Great Aunt Vic and Great Uncle Eric!

Rachey got a Christmas dolly too!

What a cRaZy crew!

"I can love because God loves me
I can give because God gave
Jesus' love is why I'm smiling
Why I'm giving every day..." ~VeggieTales

"Talkin' up a storm"

Big event in the (or should I say "outside of") the Willson household is the SNOW!
Here are some shots of our first mini-snowfall: Toby wondering, "What is this stuff?" and Lydia chowing down. :)


Of course, last weekend we got "the big one", over a foot of snow. The kids were in awe watching from the inside. We couldn't resist taking them out in this gorgeous snowfall. Unfortunately, the amount of time it took to suit them up was the amount of time they stayed out (maybe 15 min.) before they were too cold and honestly quite miserable. Definitely not the "picture perfect" "fun time" we had imagined.



Yesterday afternoon with sunny skies and warmer temps, we tried again. And look how happy! :)




Now, on to my Toby-boy...


A recent big motor development for the Tobe-man is that he figured out how to go DOWN stairs. Although I still am wary about his solo navigation (he has fallen down the steps twice so far!), it’s nice that the kids can choose where they’d like to play more independently.

The huge development with Tobias this month is his vocabulary explosion. I’m including this adorable video and thought I’d try to catalog all of the words he says. Here goes… “Amen, Amy, Baby, Bubble, Ball, Book, Boot, Buddy (sometimes refers to “Bunny”), Bus, Bye-bye, Candy Cane (“Kahn – Can”), Cheese, Choo-choo, Cookie, Cow, Daddy, Doggie, Done, Down, Duck, Eye, Ear, Fish (shish), Go, Happy, Hat, Hi, Hot, In, Lydia, M&M, Mimi, Mommy, On, Papa, Pee, Poop, Potty, (what lovely “P” words), Please, Pretty, Pickle, Shoe, Snow, Sock, Stuck, Sun, Teeth, Tree, Truck, Two, Yucky



Basically he will try to repeat everything we say to him. If he can’t quite get the words, he’ll mimic the inflection in gibberish. What a character!

I’m not sure exactly how this developed – likely when we were working with numbers or counting with Lydia, but Toby holds up 2 fingers (thumb and pointer) and says, “TWO!”

Although we’ve noticed him saying, “I-unt-dat” (I want that) or “I-unt-dis” (I want this), we’ve finally have an official “first sentence”… Yesterday Toby woke up VERY early from his nap. After reading to him for about ½ hour I decided to cuddle with him in the glider before attempting to put him back in his crib. He obviously wanted to have NOTHING to do with snuggling. In fact, he pulled himself into sitting, gestured toward the bookshelf, and declared, “I want a book.” I couldn’t believe my ears but, due to my shock and lack of response, he repeated it!

This type of determination has also developed into temper tantrums when he doesn’t get “his way.” He’ll run with all of his might into something (his crib, a stack of toys), he’ll throw what he doesn’t want (a cup of milk), and then throw himself on the floor, face down crying and whining. Yes, definitely a “textbook” temper tantrum. I tend to ignore them, try to distract him, or remove him to a safe place alone. All of which eventually are effective in ceasing the tears. I find myself with the ability to “tune out” this behavior much more than the first time around (where I would get emotionally upset and try to “fix” the issue). I suppose I’ve built up some tolerance over the past 3 years. ;) Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one in the world with this issue, but then I receive my babycenter weekly email that confirmed that these outbursts are “normal” and I’m responding “appropriately”. Whew!

http://www.babycenter.com/0_your-16-month-olds-behavior-letting-it-all-hang-out_1213784.bc?scid=mbtw_post16m_3w:603&pe=2TSbwDP

Mimi & G-pa took the kids to "Music Together" class again this fall. Lydia adores dancing and the other little girls there. Each girl took a turn "dressing up" for the class. This is Lydia's outfit.




Both kids had a blast, as you can see. Tobias truly has rhythm - he pats and taps amazingly accurately to the beat. He also LOVES to dance - he twirls, and shakes his hips and head. I wish I had a video of it!

Lydia continues to develop her "pretend" world. She enthusiastically cares for her baby dolls, recently acquired as an early Christmas present, this one is "Lily Michelle"


Lydie is becoming a better "helper" and following multi-step instructions with much more accuracy. She loves to "help" with meal preparation, particularly when it involves the outcome of cookies.

As Christmas approaches, she is gaining more of an idea of what it's all about. When we first brought out the Nativity, Lydia would rock baby Jesus to sleep while singing him a lullaby. Not sure He would actually sleep to this rendition ;).


From our family to yours, have a blessed Christmas filled with the true JOY, PEACE, and LOVE of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

November

Here it is, another month gone by, and 16-month old Tobias is exploding with activity, energy, excitement, and development…

Some of his favorite “activities” are…
• Attempting to jump. He goes up on his toes and raises his hands above his head. Mimicing his sister, he will then lift one foot off the ground at a time. So cute.
• Playing with G-pa’s watch (which he calls “dock” – maybe a combination of “tick tock” and “clock”)
Here he is with G-pa's "at" (hat)

• Putting things together, putting items “in” like trash cans, baskets, cups. And figuring out how things fit together. For example, the other day I gave him a plastic cup and he spent the time it took me to fix breakfast putting magnets in and out and in and out and carrying it around, and dumping it...
• Clearing off bookshelves (oh so much fun for mommy to clean up!)



What’s new with Toby?
• Tobes got 2 more teeth this month. I forgot how unpleasant this experience is since it hasn’t happened since he was 10 months old.
• Beginning to hit and push Lydia (and mommy and daddy) when he’s frustrated.
• A break-through at MDO: Tobias did not cry one tear this past week! Definitely lightens my heart to know he’s finding comfort there and having fun.
• Following more commands like “Go to your chair.” “Go upstairs.” “Throw this away.” “Take this to daddy.”
• Talking up a storm. It’s hard to write every new word he’s said. Some of his favorites… “dee dee” (DVD), “Bah-bool” = bubble (for anything related to water), “ah-pool” = apple, “ruck” = truck, “chooch” = church, “eat”, “byyyeeee” = bye, “mommy and daddy” (developed from mama and dada), “moon”… He’s also putting words together like, “Hiiieeee, daddy!” He pointed to my coffee one morning and said, “Hot juice.” Toby is very possessive and infatuated with drinking. I refilled his cup at dinner one evening and without thinking, gave it to his sister. He was not going to let me get away with that mistake and declared, “I WANT JUICE!” (his first sentence).

Sleepy head...


Truly Tobias is into anything his sister does. If he wakes up before her, he cries at her door, "Dih-dee-ahhh!" This month we've had instances where they used the dog water to mop/sweep the entire kitchen floor and where both of them decided to paint daddy's shoe (and themselves) red. Lydie the leader, Tobias the willing accomplice. Most days they spend a significant amount of time playing peacefully with one another. What a blessing that my children are becoming "friends"...

Here are a couple "Lydia-isms"

Lydia: speaking gibberish to Toby
M: It will help Toby learn to speak words if you speak to him using words.
L: Well, I’m speaking Spanish right now.

Since the weather has become cooler and drier I’ve been putting Vaseline on the kids’ faces to prevent chapping. Last night after tucking Lydia into bed, she declared, “Mommy, you forgot to put gasoline on my face!”


I love you, kiddos! :)