I wasn’t always sure he would make it to his first birthday due to his big brother’s inability to be gentle at times. Toby was sat on, held in an upright position by the head and then dropped, squeezed around the neck (Nathan’s version of cuddles) and I’m sure the list goes on, I just can’t think of all the “Nathan STOP” heart-in-the-throat-type moments of Toby’s early days.

Now Toby walks, though he still crawls a lot and his walking is a bit on the wobbly side, is a bit of an explorer and is quite happy to roam quite a distance from Mummy or Daddy. He totally adores his brother and tries to follow him everywhere and giggles his head off at Nathan’s antics. He hates the shower but loves the bath and simply playing in any water he can find. He loves eating melon of any kind and gets very excited when he sees any, but he’ll have a go at any food.

Toby had six teeth for a very long time. I kept checking his mouth, wondering when the next one was going to come through. It seems that many of them decided to come through almost at once. About 3 weeks ago I noticed that he was getting two more teeth to make it four on both top and bottom, then a week later and just as the 8th tooth was coming through I saw that one of his molars was starting to come through the gum, then before it was through three more molars made an appearance, and they aren’t all through yet and it looks like his eye teeth are about to crack through the gum. There is certainly a lot of activity happening in Toby’s gums at the moment.

EC is certainly going a bit more slowly this time round, mostly due to not having enough time to focus on it as much as we did when Nathan was a baby, but it is still going well. The majority of poos end up in the potty, we catch several wees every day, and we are getting lots of dry nappies at night.

And finally, just so I can remember if I ever want to for some reason, Toby generally wakes around 6 am, has a nap around 9 and another one at around 2 pm, and goes to bed at 7:30ish pm. The times are all a bit rubbery depending on how well he sleeps both at night and during the day, but there is definitely a bit of a routine thing happening.

Happy birthday little man, your Daddy and I love you.

Toby has been taking small, single steps for over a month now. He would take a small step with one foot and then sort of shuffle the other foot forward as well. That was about all he could manage for what seemed like a long time. Then he went for a week without us observing any steps at all. Then, suddenly, he started taking multiple steps. Each one is very careful and small, but he is now doing more and more walking every day. The following video was taken 4 days ago because he was taking multiple steps, and he has improved his walking a lot since then.

Well, the video isn’t working right now so I’ll have to try to fix it later. It can also be found here.

Toby has been practicing his standing the last couple of weeks so much that he is now much steadier and wobbles less while standing. He reminds me of a little meerkat in the way he pops up and looks around, grinning because he is so pleased with himself.

Toby is loving his food as much as his brother did at the same age. He just loves it all, and gets really cranky if someone is eating something that he isn’t. He sits really well in the high-chair, and is dropping less food as time goes on. I guess more is going into his mouth.

Toby is now pointing at things and making a noise that sounds like he is saying “this”, though it sounds more like “dissss” with a bit of a lisp. He also sounds like he says ‘Nathan’ in the same way that Nathan would say his name when he was little…sort of a ‘neh nen’ sound.

Andrew has been spending more time with Toby which is great. Andrew had been saying that Toby didn’t like being with him, but now he is happy to be held and carried by Daddy. I guess that he is at the age when separation anxiety from Mummy is high.

Toby is just getting stronger and stronger at standing. He quite happily hangs onto his support with just one hand, and occasionally let’s go and balances for a second before either holding on again or sitting down. He is trying to take steps, and would love to climb. He tries to get his right leg up onto whatever he is holding onto, but so far all his supports are too high (couch, big plant pots, chairs, etc) to climb onto. He does love hanging onto the washing basket and pulling all the wet washing out of it, one piece at a time.   Toby also balances in a squat position, and tries to stand up. He always overbalances, because he does this without hanging onto anything.

Toby is very talkative and chats away happily to toys and us. Nathan desperately wants Toby to be able to play with him, and spends a lot of time tickling Toby to make him giggle. Unfortunately, though, Nathan isn’t always gentle with his play, and Toby often complains loudly/cries when Nathan sits on him, picks him up, drags him, rolls him over, or simply pushes him over while he is sitting. When sitting, Toby topples over like a skittle when pushed. Toby does quite a lot of biting these days, and now Nathan has decided that biting is fun and bites Toby on his fingers, head, back and front.

Toby seems to be starting to get interested in books. He still likes chewing on them, but he is starting to turn the pages on the board books. We haven’t spent anywhere near the amount of time reading to Toby as we did to Nathan, but hopefully he will still learn to love reading.

Finally, Toby loves getting outside, and the first thing he heads for is a couple of big tubs that have herbs plants in them. He picks the plants (not helped by Nathan pulling entire plants up by the roots) so that there aren’t many left alive, and so the potting mix is left to pay with and eat. Toby takes handfuls of the potting mix and either drops it onto the ground, or transfers it to a pot next to the tub. That is, of course, when he isn’t eating it. Nathan has been digging holes in the potting mix, and helping Toby to relocate it. We sooooooo need a sand pit!