Double Birthday Party

My two, cute boys had birthdays on November 20th. I can't believe it's been a year since Tobin came into the world. We are so blessed to have Tobin-he truly is a "Gift from God". To celebrate we had a few friends and family over. It was a blessing of a day.

The two birthday boys


Tobin loved the icing!!!


Tobin loved opening his gifts.


Daddy's way of celebrating his birthday.(no, Grandpa didn't have a cigar. I'm not sure if he enhaled or not):)

October

October was a fun month of firsts for Tobin. Tobin loves being outside so of course he loved going to the pumpkin patch. We pretty much went for the chance to be outside all day and for Tobin to enjoy the pumpkins and other children. Don't tell anyone, but we didn't even buy a pumpkin(too expensive at those places). SSHHHHHH!!!!!

Tobin and I also had the privelege of joining my MOPS(Mother's of Preschoolers) group in a costume parade at a Nursing Home. This was a great idea. The residents loved the little ones dressed up in costume and the little ones loved strolling around entertaining who ever was in their path. Tobin strolled as a monkey-we thought it was appropriate. :)

And Another One is coming?????

Wow, in this last week I have wondered to myself how I am going to be able to handle another little one around here. Tobin is in to EVERYTHING!!!!! I always said I wanted children with lots and lots of character, and I got it. Tobin isn't even walking yet and I'm a little nervous to think about that stage coming in the near future.

Let's see this last week Tobin took some of his stuffed animals for swim in the toilet(a toilet that hadn't been flushed). He found out how much fun the toilet paper roll could be. Tobin has discovered that hardwood floors can make a great canvas for finger painting with spit up. He has discovered what drawers have clothes in them and likes to empty the drawers. Trash cans are his favorite. Daddy's guitar always needs to be banged on. Any time the dishwasher is opened Tobin feels the need to crawl up in the dishwasher. Tobin eats almost everything with his hands now and has discovered that it's great fun throwing pieces of food over the side of his tray(thank goodness for hardwood floors). And we're going to have another one?????? Yes, and what a blessing it will be.



*No, of course I don't let Tobin do this but it was worthy of a picture to capture the moment.

He loves entertainment

Tobin has a few favorite things that he likes to do around the house. About 3 or 4 times a day Tobin races to the DVD and CD shelf. For some reason he usually heads right to the Radioheads CD. He loves pulling the DVDs off the shelf, especially the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. I just wish he could learn to put the DVDs back on the shelf.

Tobin loves helping daddy play the guitar. Tobin has always loved music and anytime he has the opportunity to make music is even better.

Tobin also loves pulling all of daddy's blank, CD jackets out of it's storage container. He pulls them out and puts them back in. He enjoys hiding these under rugs and going to find them later. He's like a dog hiding his bone.

What a cute bed head

Tobin was born with a pig tail swirl on the top of his head. It's the cutest thing ever and often is called the "Gerber Baby" when we're out. However, this cute little swirl can cause for some problems when trying to tame the hair.

Tobin's Big Boy Seat

Tobin is not doing a whole lot of growing but he has grown out of his car seat. This is Tobin in his new car seat. He likes sitting up so tall even though he still has to face the back of the car. We decided to leave the other car seat in the car since we'll need it come May. Yep, that's right, another bambino is on it's way. We have already had an ultrasound. The baby still looked like a sea horse but that heart was just beat, beatin away. The sea horse is guessed to arrive May 12th.

City Gardens

Tobin loves going to the City Gardens. It's a few city blocks made up of flowers, sculptures and fountains. We set Tobin down in the fountains and he takes off. This particular day he had everyone's attention. He was squealing and crawling as fast as he could from one spray of water to the next. He had quite an audience.

A Buddy

Tobin has become quite the social, little guy(I'm not sure where he gets that from?). He is finding that the church nursery can be fun and has been making it through the entire church service. We also started MOPS yesterday and Tobin really enjoyed meeting new kids and playing while mommy got to be social for a little while. Tobin loves kids and dogs. Both of these things make the boy laugh and make this really weird excited noise-it sounds like he's gasping for air. Tobin's excited noise scares other people because they think he's having a hard time breathing.

The last two days were so much fun because our neighbor Thomas came over to play with Tobin. It was so cute to watch them. The boys are 3 months apart, Thomas being the oldest and the biggest(poor Tobin has some catching up to do). They would sit and make noises back and forth as if they were talking and understood each other. There were a couple times in their conversation in which is sounded like Tobin was preaching to poor Thomas. We love Thomas and hope he can come over more often.

Family Reunion

Tobin and I just got back from a family reunion. We traveled with Grandma and Great Grandma. It was great to see family and introduce our newest family member. Rob wasn't able to go and Tobin really missed him. Tobin had a great time playing with my cousins little boy, Hunter. He also took quite a liken to my cousin Tony-which I guess reminded him of his daddy.

Loves and Hates

Tobin LOVES to eat!!!! We are trying so many new foods and most of them Tobin loves. The only thing that we've learned he hates is chunks of peaches. He likes blended peaches but not chunks. Daddy says that's ok because peaches are nasty. How dare he say that being the Atlanta boy that he is. One thing that Tobin can't get enough of is yogurt. The problem with yogurt is that it's sooo messy. When daddy feeds Tobin he usually ends up with a yogurt beard.


Tobin LOVES tv. He especially enjoys commercials and tv programs that include animals. He really likes "Wallace and Gromit" and "Shawn the Sheep"-thanks to Gram and Poppy. Tobin hates it when we pull him away from the tv because he's banging on the screen with excitement.

New and Exciting Toys

The other day we got a special package in the mail from Gram and Poppy. You know since they live across the pond they sometimes like to share some of their culture with Tobin. Usually they bring us yummy digestives or to die for chocolates but this time we received not just one but two Wallace and Grommit DVDs. They are supposed to be for Tobin but I think mommy and daddy will enjoy them just the same.

Well, Tobin was excited to receive the package in the mail but of course what he was really excited about was the bubble wrap that it was wrapped in. Thanks Gram and Poppy.


Yesterday I had about 5 loads of laundry to fold. Folding 5 loads of laundry is a lot of work but not as much work as it was to occupy Tobin while I was folding. He went from playing with my flip flops, chewing on dryer sheets, making music with drawer handles and then it all came to a halt when he saw his reflection in the mirror. Oh, how pleased I was to find a babysitter for the next 20 minutes. Tobin loved the mirror. He's seen lots of mirrors before but I guess he had never seen one on his level before. I placed the mirror on it's side and that boy kissed the mirror, laughed at the mirror and just had a blast. Yeah for new found obects in the house. :)

Visit to Grandma and Grandpa's

Tobin loves going to Grandma and Grandpa's. Rob and I love going to grandma and grandpa's as well.:) Rob and I get a date nite, Tobin loves being with his grandparents and they LOVE being with him. It's really to everyone's advantage.

During this last visit grandma took Tobin outside and strolled him around. He enjoys being outside but at grandma and grandpa's there's so much more to see. They have kittens which make Tobin giggle and then there's grandpa and his tractors. Tobin LOVES grandpa's tractor. This trip, he got to ride on the tractor and have the pleasure or watching grandpa fix the tractor. It was a great time had by all 3 of us city folk. We look forward to every trip.

I think we have a reader

Tobin is moving on to books now. There for awhile he just wanted to chew on the books or scoot them around on the floor. Now, he is turning pages and actually reacting to what he sees on the pages. It's so much fun. Of course it helps when there's textures on the pages. His favorite book is a book about dogs. He will sit and just pet the book as if it were alive. We need to get this little guy a puppy.

Just for cuteness sake

Please just ignore all of the crib safety rules we're breaking and look at the cuteness of the little booty in the air. I just couldn't resist-there's just nothing more precious than a sleeping babe.

Milk Gut

I have been trying to wean Tobin in the last couple of weeks-so he gets bottles during the day. Well, now that he's 8 months he thinks he supposed to do everything by himself. So, today I propped him up and away he went on his bottle. I just had to capture the "milk" gut he was sporting. With the gut and his plaid pants he almost fits the Rodney Dangerfield look.

Escape Artist

Now days every time I got and get Tobin from his crib he's standing proudly at the end of his crib. Not only is he standing at the end of his crib but he has this grin on his face as if he's up to great planning and scheming. I think it's time to lower the mattress.

Who let the dogs out?

Rob and I are hoping that we always have good insurance. We are so going to need it. Tobin is soooo active!!!!!!! In the last couple of days we have had a busted lip(which is so hard to heal up on a boy who is constantly putting things in is mouth),fell backwards and hit his head 3 times and has scratched the inside of his ear(don't ask-it's a mystery to us). Tobin never stops. He's been pulling up on everything and taking giant leaps that are clearly impossible to my eye. I've been going behind him putting down blankets where ever he might fall. We have hardwood floors which are so scarey for moms and dads of 7 month olds.It's so hard-we want Tobin to be able to discover and learn all these obstacles but we also want him to be safe. We just want to put a crash helmet and a mouth gaurd on Tobin for protection.

We're trying to figure out if it's easier to clear all the shelves and pack it up or to keep saying "No, Tobin". Right now Tobin's favorite spots are the DVD player, dishwasher, the metal rack where I have all of my fiesta ware, trash cans and all bottom shelves of our book shelves. Yesterday he found a new hideout. Tobin crawled under our bed while Rob and I were putting on our shoes. He was like a little swiffer-wiping down the hardwood floor under the bed-YUCK!!!! While he was under the bed he found one of my flip flops and preceded to chew on it-another YUCK!!!! Even though it was "YUCK" I still grabbed the camera to snap a picture. He was just like a little puppy. So, if we ever have a shoe missing we'll know to ask Tobin and expect to find teeth marks when we find the shoe.