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.