My little spy

A plethora of packages awaited us on our doorstep when we arrived home last night. Some of them happened to be Christmas presents from the wench to me, so she brought them into our bedroom and told me not to come in. T was helping me clean up a cats hairball in the living room and when I saw the boxes being moved back, I told T to go spy on mommy and tell me what she has. T ran off down the hall and into the bedroom and I could hear the boxes being opened. My anticipation peaked when I heard the wench ask T if he liked whatever she had pulled out. Then I heard a muffled reply from T through a pacifier stuffed mouth. My spy never returned. He had been turned against me. The wench claimed he found it, but I know that she gave T the pacifier to shut him up.

Rat A Tat Tat

T got and early Christmas present since we'll be opening presents at someone elses house on Christmas morning and this is simply too big to take with us. For some reason it didn't come with assembly instructions, but The Scoot managed to figure it out with help from someones Youtube instruction video. Thank goodness for the interweb.

If you're curious about what he said while playing - "I want to see Torin Crying" ... The Scoot took this video with the iPad and while we were at Oma's for the weekend she took a video of T having a small tantrum so she could play it back for him and show him what he looked like. He wanted to watch it over and over and over - every time he saw her iPad. I almost posted it because he seems to like it so much, but who posts videos of their kids crying!?!

ABCs

T performs the "ABCs" accompanied by a "violin" he improvised from a crochet hook and a stitch holder he borrowed from my knitting tool kit.

Thanksgiving

T has been asking to go to the Oport (Airport) and ride in an airplane (or helicopter) for a couple of months. But as our Thanksgiving trip to Oma and Opa's house approached he said he wanted to drive or walk instead. Recently he's developed a sense of fear - something I thought would never happen. He enjoyed watching the planes on the runway, but he was really uncomfortable about getting on the plane and he was positively terrified during take off - huddling on my lap in the smallest ball he could curl into. He did relax throughout the flight and he never cried.
Once we got there he had so much fun with Oma and Opa - playing in the yard, going to the park, going to Talbot's Toy Store to see Santa (but not actually sitting on his lap), riding the train to Palo Alto for lunch, playing with lots of fun new toys and books and eating a yummy Thanksgiving dinner. The Scoot and I had a great time as well and were particularly thankful that Oma was happy to spend so much time entertaining the little man so we could relax. I got to exercise every day and did a lot of Christmas knitting. The Scoot spent much of his free time with a new iPad game he found while looking for apps to entertain T. We ate so much yummy food (and not just on Thanksgiving) and got to spend time with uncle K and Aunt H. It was a wonderful vacation that ended too quickly (for us :)).
T still wanted to walk home, but he was much more comfortable getting on the plane and even touched the exterior as we were boarding. He napped for most of the flight and woke up just in time to watch our descent into Portland. Any fear he might have had was quickly over-ridden by all the cool things to see from the plane.

Leaf Blown

T is fascinated with leaf blowers, weed whackers, etc. He sometimes pretends my small portable bike pump is one of these tools, sound effects and all. While visiting Oma and Opa's house for Thanksgiving, T got to experience a real leaf blower for the very first time. He wouldn't actually go near the thing when it was sitting silently in the garage, but after about 30 seconds of watching me use it he decided he wanted a turn and turn he did ...

Turning Two

T really "got" the birthday thing this year. He was so excited to blow out his candles and opened most of the presents with little help. We did have to urge him to move on to the next one a couple of times as he really wanted to stop and play with whatever he'd just unwrapped. We started asking him how old he was about a week before his birthday. At first his answer was always "a boy" - "Torin's a boy," but just before his birthday he started answering "two."
T was a bit irritable all day and although he seemed to enjoy his cake and presents, I think you can tell from the subdued expressions that he might not have been in the best of spirits. As we were getting ready for bed he finally let us know that his ear was hurting and more than a little. He kept asking for an icey and then snuggling things (his blankey, his piggy, etc) up to it only to throw them away because they didn't help. He'd had a cold for a week or so with a lot of nasal congestion, so we made a quick trip to the Urgent Care down the street to have our ear infection suspicions confirmed and get some medicine. He was back to his lively happy self by the next evening.
The "Birthday Cake" - home made vanilla ice-cream cone cupcakes. This was my first go and I over-filled them so they don't look awesome, but they tasted fantastic!

The "Birthday Cake" with "Frosting" and candles. The "frosting" is banana cream instant pudding and whipped cream with sprinkles.

Blowing out the candles

Opening presents

Play-dough from Aunt E, Uncle S, and Cousins S and A

A cute book called "Press Here," also from from Aunt E, Uncle S, and Cousins S and A

What's in the bag?!? - Soccer Ball!

A talking animal book from Oma and Opa. T and I spent quality time with this book in the Urgent Care waiting room later that night - torturing the other patients in the waiting room most likely.

T couldn't wait to play with the construction trucks - steamroller, dump truck, bulldozer, front-loader, and excavator. I couldn't get the package open fast enough.

Snuggling up with a book after our trip to Urgent care and a dose of antibiotics

Ghosties

A very cute little boy happily models his ghost costume while waiting for the cousins to arrive for Trick or Treating.

Even though daddy says he's a "happy ghost," this little toddler ghost is still wary.

A very snugly and very excited little ghosty

T and cousin A show off their "happy faces" and "candy purses."

A warm fleecy toddler ghost from the back

The Monkey class, all dressed up for the schools Halloween parade. T is one of the youngest kids in the class as evidenced by his small stature in relation to most of the other kids.

Notes on my 2012 toddler masterpiece: When making costumes for T, I pick styles and fabrics that I believe he'll be comfortable (and warm) in all day and through trick or treating. This year I chose white rayon spandex and fleece for a super soft ghost costume. The first time T put on the pants he ran his hands down the fabric and said "soft." I made the pattern for pants and a long T-shirt by tracing comfy knit pants and a slightly oversize raglan t from T's wardrobe. Making these patterns and cutting out the costume made up the bulk of my costume production time (several hours). For daytime, I designed a square cut hooded poncho in the same fabric as the pants and t-shirt. I added a short seem under the arms to keep the poncho from sliding around and cut the edges ragged all around for a more wispy appearance. For evening, I made a longer version of the hooded poncho out of fleece. With my two sergers side by side (one for seems and one for overlock) the sewing took very little time. I really left this to the last minute, but managed to crank it out in time for Trunk or Treat the Friday before Halloween.

Getting Ready for Halloween

T has really enjoyed Halloween this year. We pulled out the Spookytown decorations, carved pumpkins, read numerous books about ghosts, witches, and goblins, and even attended a "trunk or treat" last Friday with T's cousins. T is so excited to put on his ghost costume and take his "candy purse" trick or treating tonight. We don't usually have much junk food around, so he's been binging on "cany" for almost a week now and he's especially fond of kit-kats. I'm so sorry he apparently inherited my sweet tooth, but I'm grateful he also inherited my love of books. Our current favorite Halloween stories are listed here, and we read these and several others almost every day.

• Goodnight Goon
• Room on the Broom
• Ten Little Goblins

Goodnight Goon is a parody of Goodnight Moon. We've added our own sound effects to both books and I love it when T fills them in when I forget and when he associates them with pictures and objects outside of the books. Room on the Broom is a clever original story in rhyme that I never get tired of. Ten Little Goblins is a parody on Over in the Meadow. It's so much fun to sing and with its clever lyrics and cute illustrations ...
Over in the forest
Where the trees hide the sun
Lived a big mommy monster
And her little monster one.
"Scare!" said the mommy;
"I scare," said the one.
So he scared and he scampered
Where the trees hide the sun.
We visited the Plumper Pumpkin Patch on October 13th and acquired a plethora of pumpkins. T and The Scoot also launched some tiny pumpkins with big sling shots. We also watched others shoot tiny pumpkins out of an air cannon into a big field.

T waits for a pony ride. When his turn came around he didn't take it because he wanted the brown pony that the other little girl had already taken and he wouldn't ride on the white one. We used the pony ride tickets to slingshot pumpkins instead.

T searches for the perfect pumpkin

Monday night we carved the pumpkins that each of us picked at the Plumper Pumpkin Patch. The Scoot did some online research ahead of time and carved and awesome Jack the Pumpkin King from Nightmare Before Christmas. I barehanded my medium sized pumpkin and helped T carve his initials in his tiny one after he had sufficiently poked it full of holes with a mechanical pencil while The Scoot and I carved.

T and The Scoot in action

The family pumpkin trio

The Scoot's Pumpkin Jack

Mine! This was loosely anime inspired

T's ... That's supposed to be a "TM," but the tiny pumpkin was very thin and I overshot my cut mark on the second half of the "M" so now it looks like a wonky "N"

Speaking of pumpkins ... I got sugar pie pumpkins in my CSA this fall and have enjoyed experimenting with tasty pumpkin recipes including curry pumpkin soup, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and amazing pumpkin ginger bread made with home made pumpkin puree ... Delicious!

Eating with Salad Tongs

Since my last post (actually very shortly after) T began counting to ten without skipping any numbers. He can also sing large portions of his "ABCs" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" all by himself. He's still communicating so well, but has also started asserting his will with force. He had quite the temper tantrum the other day which left both the Scoot and I laughing as he ran bellowing, full steam, arms flailing down the hall to his newly converted toddler bed and threw himself into it. Needless to say he was really really tired. T helped The Scoot convert his crib to a toddler bed over the weekend and he's really enjoying the freedom of getting in and out on his own. He still does call for us to come get him at night though.

T's school informed us last Friday that they are ready to tackle potty training whenever we feel ready ... we're ready! So, T wore underpants for about half of the weekend. On Saturday we kept asking him if he needed or wanted to go and he would say "no" and eventually would produce a puddle. On Sunday I wised up and took him to the potty ~ every hour and this resulted in dry undies or diapers. He was dry when we got home from school yesterday and was still dry when we dropped him of this morning (with potty trips of course). We also dropped off some training undies and let his teachers know that they are welcome to use them any time. It will be so nice to be done with diapers. Regardless of what they do at school this week, I plan to go full undies next weekend.

T's creativity continues to surprise me ... for example, pretending the tire pump in his stroller is a weed whacker or leaf blower complete with sound effects. In the following pictures, T demonstrates that it's much more fun to eat with salad tongs than a fork.

Agility challenge #1

Agility challenge #2

Intermission - bubble wrap

No, TWO sir!

1 ... 3 ... no, two sir! T is so funny. He counts all the way to 10 with perfect pronunciation, but leaves out 2. He frequently talks about having two things (two toys, two fingers, etc) even when the quantity displayed is actually greater than two, but when it comes to counting, I guess two is not a number.

A Stream

T sung with me for the first time on Saturday. We like to sing in bed - it's one of the ways I get him to lounge with me so I don't have to get up so early. Saturday morning, we were lazing (before 7am) and I started singing "Row Row Row Your Boat" when suddenly I realized he was saying some of the words with me. I slowed down and we sung together. The gently down the stream and life is but a dream portions get mostly truncated to a stream and a dream, but I'm not complaining! We even performed our song for our neighbor, L, during the Sunday morning walk. It's adorable and I'm so excited to sing together more.

Monkey Talk

T moved to the "Monkey" classroom at Bright Horizons in September. Drop off has been hard for the last few weeks as he really doesn't want us to leave, but his teachers assure us that he cheers up only moments after we're gone. By the time we come back for him at the end he's so settled in that he's not ready to head home right away. I found him in the reading corner almost every day last week either by himself or with another child. Last Thursday he and a friend were sharing and discussing a book side by side when I came in.

For the last two weeks he's teachers have sent a little "newsletter" letting us know that that kids have been doing. Here's an excerpt from September 11, 2012:

Today started off with children making choices around the room. Then we enjoyed some outside time in the sunshine. For circle time we read the book The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the big hungry bear by Don and Audrey Wood. We sang a few songs such as If your happy and you know it, the days of the week song and five little ducks. For morning activities we enjoyed water and bubbles in the sensory table, colored blocks and ABC magnets.

We asked the kids the question of the day and here are their responses.

Q: What color do you like?
A:Torin- A blue

... and One for September 17, 2012:

We have had a busy week. We have been working on Colors and sorting. Everything that we have been playing with has several colors such as the pegs and boards. We have wood bears that are colored and have numbers on them. Colored wood cubes. The children have been enjoying playing with all these. We have them at the tables in the morning and then at different times through out the day. Usually we have bowels with them and they like to match up the colors of the items with the color of the bowels. They are really enjoying this.

We have White sand in the sensory table and they have been enjoying pouring it in the tubes and then dumping it out. They also really like picking up handfuls and watching it fall out through their fingers.

Our new gym has been a big hit for our room, they all really enjoy playing in there with the balls and running around. They also like to climb up the big blue wedge and jump off on to the green mats.

Today during Circle time we talked about what we were wearing. They all gave their own answer.

Torin- A Baseball

The "A Baseball" remarks reminds me that he wore a PJ top to school Tues-Friday last week. He wore a real shirt on Monday because his favorite (for the time) orange shirt was clean and we were able to talk him out of his PJs and into the orange shirt. On the "A Baseball" day he was wearing his PJ top with a little cartoon baseball player on it, so the answer makes more sense that one might initially think. Today I convinced him out of his PJ top by asking if his favorite (for the time) piggy stuffed animal could wear his PJ top. The piggy was sad T didn't want to share, so T showed compassion and let me take off the PJ top and put it on the piggy ... then cheerfully put on his orange t-shirt. Getting him into pants - even pants with airplanes on the cuff) was another story.

Being the mom of a nearly two year old is much harder than I expected - mostly because I'm such a pushover - ugh! He's defiantly got his own agenda and isn't having any of mine (unless they happen to coincide), but he's still a very sweet and compassionate little boy who likes to snuggle. Despite the little force of nature personality factor, I have it pretty darn good!

Summer Nostalgia

With the days getting cooler and shorter, I'd almost forgotten how miserably hot it was for a few days in August ... and of course I'll take every chance I get to post cute picture of T!

August 17, 2012 at Magnoia Park

You know you're a mother ... when

You know you're the mother of a toddler boy when you stop in the middle of the parking lot at work to watch a noisy jet take off and barely resist the urge to shout "Airplane!" while clapping your hands.

Big Truck Show

T is such a boy! The Scoot took him to the Big Truck Show in Beaverton, August 11, 2012.

The highlight of the show - watching the life flight helicopter take off from the adjacent field. It was here on display, so no emergency flight.

T fell asleep on the way to the show while playing his doggie guitar. He had already had a fun filled morning of baby circus by this time.

More Gabage Hchruck!

T explores his size in relationship to his toys. He CAN lift the Rody Horse, but he will never be able to climb into the garbage truck no matter how hard he tries. August 10, 2012.

Boo (too) Big!

Still boo big to ride in the garbage truck

Heavy! ... and Mom, please buy me some pants that fit

Hard Work!

A Bug in a Rug

August 9, 2012

Sugar Fly

I finished this wrap a couple of weeks ago, but didn't have time to post it. The Pattern is Summer Flies by Donna Griffin and it's made from two shades of Araucania Ruca (100% sugar cane). The free pattern and project details are available on Ravelry

I really enjoyed working with the Ruca yarn. It has some weight to it and drapes beautifully, much like other plant fiber based yarns (bamboo, rayon) and silk. The drape worked especially well for this lacy pattern. I don't think I would have liked it as well in a loftier yarn. This was a stash buster project, knit from two different colors of the same fiber because I didn't have enough of one color. I'm so glad I didn't have enough because I love the depth of the two tone finished product.

What's Hotter than Hot?

.... Beveraton in August, apparently. This outing came in the middle of a nearly week long heat wave that left the inside of our non-air conditioned home over 80 degrees AFTER sunset. After a quick dinner in a dining room like a sauna we loaded the kids into our wagon and stroller and took a trip to Magnolia Park. It was nearly 100 degrees outside, but it still felt nicer than the stifling interior of our house with it's windows shut to keep out the extra 15-20 degrees of heat.
We chose Magnolia because it's right by Whole Foods and we planned to play and grab some ice cream. I should have realized that all three kids would go straight for the water feature. We didn't have any towels or extra clothes, but it was so hot, we decided it really didn't matter and it didn't.

T and Cousin S dive right in

Propper Little Miss A circles the water feature before taking the plunge.

T dances through the water as he watches Cousin S divert the spray.

Cousin S thinks T's water dance is silly

Aunt E wants to be like T when she grows up. Look, she's practicing?

Cousin A eats a Yogurt pop. She's still dry, but won't be for long

Splash!
Uncle S and Aunt E stopped at the park to on the way home from their Anniversary dinner to pick up their soaking children. The Scoot and I removed T's sodden clothes and bundled him in the wagon (padding) blanket for the walk home. He was shivering, but he warmed back up in less than 10 minutes.
Photos and Video taken August 16, 2012 on my HTC incredible mobile phone. I think I bought the cheapest smart phone I could get, but after using it as a camera over the last year and not being satisfied with the image quality (especially when the subject is a toddler in motion), I'll be buying my next phone for the camera. I never have THE camera when I need it, so I might as well get a good camera phone since I almost always have it with me (and sometimes it's even charged).