Evenings...

Filled with hide-and-seek...laughter...and loads of zit cream on my chin, naturally.

Merry and bright...

It's not too late for a holiday photo dump, right? Our season of Christmas through to the New Year was particularly merry and bright as we celebrated the "firsts" with Tobin. I had time off of work and there were lots of days full of relaxed schedules, baking, wrapping, and perogi making. And family, always family. Oh, and there was even a date sprinkled in for me and Ty.

It was, as Martin Lawrence Bullard would say, "Delicious, darlings."

And thanks to Instagram, it's all been documented for me to share...eat it up:)

Life is sweet indeed!

Some outtakes...

Marissa recently mentioned my lack of posts and that it "seems time for a new post." Oh how right she is, but where oh where does the time go? I know I won't be able to recap everything and if I'm going to even come close to wrapping up his one year (three weeks away!!!) projects, well...this will have to be short and sweet!

In all actuality, I need to do a picture dump from Instagram...nevermind that expensive camera we bought...the only pictures I take these days are on Instagram- ha! Oh well:)

Here's a few of my "real" camera faves over the past month...

We took Tobin to Zoo Lights - this was his expression upon seeing the baby elephant;)

We tried for  family pic, Tobin was clearly into it.

Oops just hit publish, meant to add some more pics...tells you how long it's been since I've done this...okay more pics round two:

We TOOK 11 mos update photos, I did NOT blog it. Oh well...

This is how that 11 mos shoot started out;)

This is what Margot does when we do the aforementioned shoots. This is also how we all feel right about now - ready for the weekend in a MAJOR way:)

Happy Friday! Have a wonderful weekend!!!!!

My present is presence...

Ha! Get it?

I said the title of this post to my mom in a conversation last night and thought I was very clever (you can laugh) so it's getting double-duty by appearing on the blog. But 'tis true.

There is something about this season, where on one hand you are full of joy and thankfulness and then a second later you can be overwhelmed with feelings of ohmygosh twelve more days till Christmas and there are no lights up outside, less than 50% of the gifts have been purchased, and the only gifts that have been wrapped were those that had to be shipped off (kudos to me for at least getting that done!).

But really. It's so easy to be overwhelmed. And dare I say, even more so when you've got a little one in the mix. But that little one, oh my. That boy - he is so demanding of my time in such a good way. I want to be on the floor wrestling with him every minute I can, or reading the books he's so carefully picked out and toddled back to me with in his chubby hands, signaling his wish to read said book.

For someone who finds delight in the hustle and bustle - the decorating, the wrapping, the planning, this year is so different. And while I still love those things, I am surprised at how easily and quickly I have lowered my expectations and let things go. Because there really is no greater present I can give my family - than to just be present.

And I think that makes us all feel pretty darn jolly. Happy holidays!

Our season so far - as seen through the lens of Instagram;)

Ten months...

Oh hey! Look at us - ten months...I can't believe it! It's been a rough week and how I'm sitting here busting out this blog post, I do not know. Tobin's had his first fever and we got over that hump to be followed by his first bout of diarrhea (too much information? sorry...), but anyways, that's where we're at. We had a doctor's appointment yesterday that was supposed to be for his fever, but of course by the time we got there the fever was dropping and he had no symptoms and was as happy as could be. We turned it into our long overdue nine month appointment and I have real stats now - the kiddo is holding steady between 25-26 pounds at 25.5 on the nose and he's 31 inches long. I think he's keeping the weight down thanks to all the walking he's been doing lately.

Tobin and his partner in crime...

Yup, walking. Tobin - oh, Tobin. You started walking at 9.5 months exactly. You are indeed a crazy boy. You have been dabbling in the pulling up and trying to walk phase for a while and I thought you were happy there, but you woke from a nap one day and it was a whole new ballgame and you had decided you were going to walk - it was written across your face. In fact, I called Ty and told him "He woke up and has decided he's going to walk." And sure enough - you did and you haven't looked back. Now, of course you fall plenty. But you can walk around the bottom floor of the house - and have done many a stretch from the living room all the way back to the washer/dryer area without dropping. And, you're fast. I think if you would slow down you'd fall less...just a hint;)

I apologize in advance for sharing this video twice, here and on Facebook. The quality sucks but I'm posting here for posterity's sake. Also, it must be said - why do I sound so ridiculous?



In other fun developments you wave bye/hi when you feel like it - not at all consistently - but when you feel like it. And you clap, but it's kind of backwards, so it looks more like you're trying to wipe your hands off, it's funny. Noises and the imitation of them is your favorite and you are currently enjoying growling or clearing your throat loudly. It's very becoming when we're out places, thank you for that!

Evenings at the park and swings - a winning combo!

This last month brought with it Tobin's first Thanksgiving - which was much too fun and thankfully, also very relaxing! And now we're just THREE weeks away from Christmas...oh and then we're about SIX weeks away from a certain someone's first birthday. Pass the tissues, folks. I'm already picking out songs for his one year slideshow and planning a blurb book. You know, in all my spare time;)

Tobin and Grandma at Thanksgiving. Tobin and I share the same feelings about food, obvs.

Ten months and counting...and we're having a ball!

Nine months!

Here we are...nine months! I tried to get back on track this month with taking pictures in his chair with his bear, but it is NOT easy. The boy just doesn't really sit still and trying to do it alone is just a hazard to us both. Grandma was over, so we took advantage of her help and attempted some shots and this post will have the best of that little shoot:) If I'm being honest - this is really what about 99% of the pictures look like:

You think I'm just going to sit here? Hahahaha...

So, nine months and where to begin? This last month has been all about connections for us which is so neat! Like routines are starting to make a lot of sense to him and you can tell he KNOWS things vs. he's just a baby along for the ride. Like every night, when we're done nursing I say "Where's Tobin's turtle?" and almost every time now he will look up above to his little turtle nightlight and then we stand up, turn it on, and kiss goodnight. And he smiles every single time it lights up - and you can see he expects it. That's so cool to me!

Here's some other fun bits about our little dear at nine months:

• He shakes his head no - a lot. He's been doing this actually for a long time (and being the crazy person I am, I was seriously worried there was something neurologically wrong at first, bc could he really be shaking his head no?!! - turns out it's just his mom with problems with her head...) but now you can really tell he uses it to relay no or to play back with you. SO fun!
• He's making lots and lots of noises, mama's a popular one. But his favorite thing is to do this breathy "pa-ba-pa-ba" while kind of blowing raspberries. Because raspberries are how we roll over here.
• He is obsessed with trying to walk and he really thinks he CAN walk. Which is problematic. Because - newsflash, Tobin - you can't. Thankfully he does understand gravity a bit more now and has a little trepidation (there were a few weeks where this was nonexistent), but he's definitely getting closer with every day. Tonight was SO exciting because he took at least seven unassisted steps going between me and my mom. But that was over a couple tries.
• He continues to be a wonderfully easy boy - he is just SO joyful and funny. He's very flirtatious. Even when he was really feeling down earlier this week (he has FOUR teeth coming in on top at the same time), you take him out to the store and it's like a light flip switches. He turns it ON for people. It's so ridiculous that at times it's a bit embarrassing. He will call attention to himself by yelling really loud and then will give people the most smirky grin you've ever seen. He's a performer. 
• He's really tall, I don't know exactly how tall but he just feels so so long lately. Oh, and he's 25-26 pounds, depends on the day. Thanks to the height thing, we also made the move to the big boy car seat this past month. It's been wonderful - I love it and he's much happier. 

Okay, I could go on and on, but I'll finish out with some more pictures!

He didn't want to sit in the chair, he wanted to stand up and peer over the top, so we went with it...

All he really wants to do. And also baby zombie and scary pug on the right;)

And why does ten months sound so much like 12 months? I still feel safe in the nine month zone for some reason, like he's not that close to being one. Oh, how I hope this month takes it time...we'll be back soon!

Zeus...

Apollo, Poseidon...the greek gods don't have anything on this guy.

what, me? just standing here naked. totally normal.

This happened while we were trying to capture his nine month photos today (nine months!). Hopefully I'll get to that later this week, the fact that we even took pictures on time amazes me so a post within a week's time will be considered impressive.

For now, this should give you enough Tobin for a while...and I don't know why people say he's so big. Ha! Really, isn't it funny what you get used to seeing? The other day I told someone he was thinning out. And trust me, he has...he used to have moobs (man boobs) for miles.

Oh, how I love my chunk of Toblerone!