A handful – a full hand

I realized I haven’t mentioned much about our 19-month jabbering Tobias lately so here goes…


Toby’s sentences are blowing us away. Today he said, “Milk please” After taking a taste he demanded, “Put chocolate in it.” After yawning he says, “I’m sleepy.” He often tells his daddy, “In a minute.” (Do you think he hears that often?) Last night, I carried him into his room and as a last ditch effort to avoid bedtime he pointed to the CD player and said, “I want a song!” Then as I was lowering him into his crib, he put his finger on his nose and declared, “I have boogers.” A frustrating part of his language development: when he doesn’t know the word for something he says, “Da – boe” So we hear, “I want da-boe!” UGH! Probably the most touching of his verbal expressions are when he spontaneously says, “I love you.” And points to stain glass windows or books and shouts, “JEEUS!” “I want Jesus!”

He also started singing words – of songs that we understand. He has the first couple lines of “Twinkle Twinkle” (in a 19 month old way) and sings his bedtime song, “Good night, Toby.”

Tobias spends time with Pop-pop aka Gpa aka my dad on Thursday mornings (while I have a blissful hour of “me” time at the Y). Pop pop is teaching him how to spell. He knows “D” “O” of dog and if you say, “D.O.G., what does that spell?” He’ll shout, “DOG!” He has learned a few letters: “A” “T” “O” and “Y” by sight and counts to 3.

Toby loves doing ANYTHING and EVERYTHING his sister is doing. Here they are "helping" me prepare "Green Eggs and Ham" in celebration of Dr. Suess' birthday.

And he's such a character - he's quite enthusiastic vividly shown by his facial expressions and volume.
Playing "Peek-A-Boo" in daddy's closet.

"OH NO!"



You'll notice there aren't a tremendous amount of photos of Tobias. Yes, it's because he never stops moving! Tobes continues to be a climbing machine and in fact, we’ve started putting our kitchen chairs up on the table (grade-school style) to thwart his ventures. Toby can definitely shake a groove thang – in fact, last week I had to interrupt a VeggieTales dance party for naptime.

Some of Toby’s favorite toys are his “choo choo”s.


He used to just say, “choo choo” but now he says “Thomas choo choo.” He’s also discovered the ball-popper: Endless hours of entertainment. He’s found other objects besides balls actually fit inside of it which is great fun, until he realizes that then the balls don’t come out. Then we have a sad Toby and frustrated mama… The worst so far was plastic straws. Daddy had to break out the screw driver and dismantle it to recover them. Thankfully, it promptly returned to working order. Whew!

Tobias often wakes up from his naps very very sad. Now, I know this is NOT normal for his age. We often find him screaming and writhing around followed by tooting. Poor kid has belly pain! He’s also obviously not ready to wake up as he’s doing eye-rubbing, thumb-sucking, and putting his head down (not to mention he’s very grumpy). I’m going to adjust his diet a little and see if it has any effect. A napping child makes the whole family happier. And we sure do like a happy family. ☺

As I was explaining to my dear friend Jen the other day, Tobias brings the greatest joys yet the greatest challenges in my life right now. He certainly is “precious in His sight” and ours. He's a handful, but we view our lives as having a full hand knowing our gracious God has ordained His life and blessed it...