Our Resilient Toddler

Tobias has been much more like the happy toddler he was before all of the changes that came with moving. For a long while there Tobias seemed to be a real cranky child. We were hearing the "no" word a lot and there were many many temper tantrums. As the upstairs started to come together, my happy baby seemed to return a little each day.

My lovely mother helped explain that there were probably two causes for his mood change. First mommy was stressed with all the work that needed to be done and he was taking my lead. As they say "When mamma's not happy; ain't nobody happy." The second was with everything put in its place there was no longer anything for him to get into trouble for getting into; the reason he started really using the word "no." It probably also helped that before going to pick Toby up from daycare we made sure that we would bring up a toy or two that he use to play with at the old apartment. It was always great seeing him enter the house, because he would notice all of the little things that mom and I did, and he was SO excited about everything.

At the end of last week Toby's big boy bed was finally put together and he has fallen in love with it! Mostly I think he likes the fact that he doesn't have to wait for mom or dad to come to him, he can come to us at 5 in the morning. In the almost week he has been sleeping in the bed he has only woke up crying once, and didn't hesitate to climb out of bed and find us in our room for a little snuggle.

Toby is also growing anxious for the arrival of his little brother or sister. Everyday he runs into our bedroom and straight to the bassinet saying "baybe baybe" we have to explain that baby isn't here yet. He still loves to kiss the belly and has recently started to lay his head on the belly as if to listen for the baby. When asked if the baby is a boy or girl, he consistently says "gir," he also will tell you he doesn't want the baby out of mommy's belly.

The last month he would scream and bawl when I dropped him off at daycare. Recently I've been able to drop him off with just a couple of whimpers. I think he's finally getting use to the children and new care provider. He's always gotten along with the kids, but now that the big kids aren't leaving for school everyday he likes that there are more kids to play. This makes me feel better when I drop him off, as I no longer worry about why he gets so upset.

I can't believe my little baby is 18 months old (1 1/2 years)! What is worse is his doctor says he acts more like a 2 year old. My baby is growing up too fast! I wish he would slow down, but he doesn't want to. He's always asking "Whas tis?" and repeating the word you say until it sounds very close to what you said. It scares me how much he can communicate in words and how much he understands.

Well this post has became longer than I was wanting to make it. It's just hard to not brag about Toby. I'd post pictures, but again I don't have the camera to take the pictures from. I'll post more soon.

Come baby come

I was planning on talking about making brownies with T on Sunday, but realized that hubby has the camera in his car. Actually is seems he has most everything in his car lately that I could use to relax. All because I packed my hospital bag while my mother was up last week, and Heath has decided to keep it in the car for safe keeping, and so that in our rush out of the house he/we won't forget it.

I realized I technically still have 3 weeks until the official d-day, but at last weeks doctors appointment I was 2cm dilated and 60% effaced. It didn't dawn on me until I left the doctor that I was already over halfway thinned, and she was just debating the need for another ultra-sound. So if I haven't had the baby by 2:30 tomorrow I will get to see he/she one more time on the screen. Honestly I would much rather be holding the baby than looking at it on a screen. All these ultra sounds make up for the fact that we were horrible at taking belly pictures with this one. I believe if I make it to Wednesday's appointment that it will be ultra sound #6 or #7. Honestly I find that to be too many ultra sounds.

On my side of all of this, is that I'm completely ready to have the baby. I'd be happy if he/she arrived today. My hips are starting to really hurt as baby dropped into the pelvis almost 3 weeks ago. My braxton hicks contractions have become more intense, still not painful and unfortunately no pattern. The baby has continued its active status even though there is little room for him/her to move in there, sometimes it feels as if a somersault has occurred in my womb. I have been nesting like crazy, which did not happen with little T so that is a whole new feeling for me, I just wished Hubby got the nesting urge too.

On the nesting side I have to be very thankful that God blessed me with the mother that he did. Last week hubby was traveling for work so my mother felt it best (I couldn't have agreed more) that she stay the week with T and I so that if I did go into labor someone was here for/with me. Not only that but she made our upstairs actually look like a house! We no longer have boxes upstairs except for ones that clothes are being stored in, all dishes were washed (this was a lot because we washed everything that came out of a box), and both upstairs bathrooms were cleaned top to bottom. If it wasn't for mom, I'd still be wondering around aimlessly upstairs deciding what to do because I was/am a big picture person, and mom had to show me its more manageable if I set small goals. Now my goal is to keep the upstairs looking that way while I begin work on the downstairs. In all that my mother has done for me in my 25 years has made me wish that I can be at least 1/2 the mother she is.

May the waiting game begin

I've never been good at keeping a blog, and it has probably been evident. Although one of my avid readers reassured me that it was okay I had lots of things going on in my life keeping me from the computer. She was right! So now to play catch up.

First off school finished last Friday. Boy was I excited to get out of there! I was asked to return for the next school year and will be teaching two preps next year. I am keeping 3 classes of Math Strategies III (Juniors) and adding in 3 classes of Algebra IA (first semester Algebra I all year long). I'm excited for this change, but I also know that changing my pacing is going to be a big struggle for me. In my strategies course we were on to a  new topic every week, that will not be the case with Algebra IA, but I accept the challenge. I also had one of the Junior English  teachers ask if she could come observe me next year, because our shared students rave about me, and only have had good things to say. This made me feel good, but at the same time I couldn't think of what I was doing that was any different from any other teacher. As excited as I was to start my summer; I am equally excited for this next year.

Enough about work; on to what we are all excited about. The new house, I know I posted pictures when we did our final walk through before closing on the property. Well April 23 (which also happens to be the in-laws wedding anniversary; sign that it was a good day) we signed the final papers and received the keys to the house! The next two weekends were spent cleaning, fixing the minor repairs, and painting.

Toby helping Grandma paint the wall.

We thought Toby would enjoy playing in the leftover paint.

We were correct (no worries it's latex paint it came right off, and we know he's not allergic to latex now)

The master bedroom with its new color

Toby's room (I really want to add white clouds to his walls)

The awesome closet Grandpa was in the process of building for Toby

The baby's room (still don't know the gender)

The old office, but what will be the Toy room

The guest bedroom/office

We left the rest of the house the brown/beige color, mostly because it would be too much work and we were ready to move in.

We moved in May 12/13, and have unpacked a few boxes since then. The kitchen and the den downstairs are probably our most put together rooms. We are still working on finding all the pieces to Toby's new bed and then his room should be (mostly) complete, and we are planning on ordering our new bedroom set this weekend so then we would have our room mostly put together. At the moment Toby and I are sleeping on the double bed which is already placed in the guest room, and Heath has been, by his choice, out on the couch. 

My parents are coming to stay with us next week, for reasons we'll get to in a moment, and so during that time dad is planning on finishing the baby's closet and we'll be putting the room together as well. Along with trying to sort/unpack many more boxes.

So for all of you who follow me on Facebook, you may already know that this past weekend, on our drive out to Colorado, the belly dropped. Meaning this baby is saying it is ready to come out. Visited the doctor yesterday, she told me not to worry I still have a couple weeks to go, baby shouldn't be coming any day. From my experience though (and I know each pregnancy is different) I have about 2 weeks until baby arrives. We'll see if I make it to the next weeks appointment. This is the reason my parents are coming to stay with us next week. Heath currently received a new position which at moment has him out of town on training. He will be gone next week as well and Mom and I felt safer if I wasn't home alone. Plus my mother knows how I am (too much like herself) and when there is stuff to be done I have a hard time giving myself boundaries and try to do it all.

To finish it off I'll leave you with photos of Tobias

The family Easter egg hunt

Enjoying his spoils

Playing catch with the cousins (he's running it over to Averie)

Easter egg hunt at Grandma's on Easter

Making sure there are no more eggs on that self

Helping us pack his room

At the zoo, I believe we were looking at monkeys here

Roaring at the lions

Watching the Sea lions perform

Uber excited about the Kangaroos

Intently watching the meerkats 

We have a builder

Bath Time

Helping with the move

I got this one! Maybe

Okay I'll just try pushing it then

Adventures of Little T

With all the many nice days we've had this past month we've taken advantaged by taking Toby to the park. He loves being outside, and hates these rainy days when he can't play outside. Here are a few photographs from our adventures outside.

 I can do it all by myself!

 Can I hug you? (She started crying after he tried)

 Daddy are you coming?

 There you are!!!

Time to go home

 Are you coming outside with me?

 Yeah I'm adorable

What do you mean I need to go back inside to eat :(

Earlier this month Cousin London came and visited. It was a great visit, we all enjoyed playing together, and Toby wanted to take care of London in whatever way he could.

 You want to play with this?

 Kisses

 Here's a puff!

Bye Bye

We stayed home sick from daycare one day last month with a virus. Daddy did his best to make T feel like he wasn't so sick. Could even say we felt like SuperT!

 This is how I started my day feeling.

 But after some reading

 and just some running around.

 This is how I ended my day feeling