Tobias is 11 months old

What’s Tobias up do?

People reminded me that I might be sorry I wished Toby to crawl hinting that he’d be more of a handful getting into things. While this may be true, he is such a happier boy now that he is free to explore his environment. He loves throwing, then chasing balls particularly a big yellow punch ball and Guinney’s tennis ball. He has discovered the dog dish – a constant battle as you may guess. However, the way he goes about it is so cute. He’ll sprint-crawl to the dish then ever-so-cautiously place his hand in the water as if he’s testing the temperature. Typically I catch him by this point, but after a few “trials” like this, he’ll begin splashing away!

Now that he’s pulling to stand consistently he finds great joy in the singing Leap Frog standing table. It was one of Lydia’s favorites too – the best yard sale purchase I have ever made by far. Not long after he learned to pull to stand did I find him crawling up the steps. Needless to say, Mark got the stair gates back out just in time to avert disaster. He’s still not doing much “cruising”. In fact, until yesterday he was petrified of standing on his own. He does do “finger-walking” (holding onto someone’s fingers and taking steps) but will go immediately into a silent scream with full-fledged tears if the fingers disappear and he is left to fend for himself. He pulled to stand on my lap yesterday and, one hand at a time, let go. The standing didn’t last long, but it was definitely his first solo attempt. When he’s on a mission he can speed-crawl but when just exploring he loves to do the “bear crawl” – getting up on his hands and feet.

In contrast to Lydia, he actually sits on laps.



He has also really started doing jibberish. He’ll go on and on mixing vowels and consonants and playing with his tongue. His current “word” is “BOOM” – he also exclaims, “Ding, Bahumah, Dahng”. His second word (dog was first) is “Ball”, one of his favorite toys. The Dortenzo family has even heard him repeat, “Lydia”, but Mark and I have missed it so far.

After our beach experience (see the vacation blog for details), I thought Tobias would be satisfied chasing balls in the grass. But, no, he LOVES the sandbox. He crawls in himself and plays with the shovel, digs his toes in, and uses the little seats to pull to stand. Such an unexpected thrill!



Tobes continues to prefer adults to shovel puree into his mouth, but has expanded his “finger foods” to cheese sticks. He has become quite adept at using a sippy cup – perfect timing as he needs the water during these hot summer days and mommy is ready to start the weaning process.
Here he got his first taste of the famous Olympia chocolate-covered pretzels. Can you tell he was in heaven?



His sleepy routine begins by head rubbing followed by left thumb-sucking and right ear-pulling.

And, naturally, yawning...



I love…
• How he twists his hips and shakes his head (kind of Stevie Wonder style) all the while beaming in delight. G-pa is so proud he has rhythm.
• His snaggle-toothed grin (he got 6 teeth this month for a grand-total of 8! WHEW!)
Ok, so he's not exactly smiling here but you can see his mouth full of teeth. And they are even more prominent now.

• How he points to all sorts of animals in books and exclaims, “DAH” (dog)
• His slobbery kisses that he gives spontaneously and upon request.

• The way he loves his big sister and the grin she elicits from him.
• This irresistible grin as if to say, “Am I doing something wrong, mom?”

• When he crawls unto my lap, finds objects, and places them in the hole my Indian-style legs create.
• Snuggling by putting my nose and lips up against his fuzzy head and the occasional smell of drool on his temples

Love you, Tobers!