Toby: Dancing to 17 months

A week ago Toby turned seventeen months old! How did that happen? Not a clue.

Mr. Mister is right full of it. It really feels like he does something new every single day. He is certainly developing his own personality... or the "terrible twos" are making an early debut. Either way, I am enjoying (for the most part) watching him exert his independence.

Here are a few fun tidbits:

• He's still in size 4 diapers
• Obsessed with animals

• He sleeps through the night 7:30 to 5:45/6:00/6:30
• He eats like a boss. Seriously. I'm very lucky to know my kid gets a healthy diet.
• October 23rd officially marked the LAST month where he will be able to have a binky at nap/bedtime.
• The kid still hasn't watched television. I am contemplating let him watch a Halloween cartoon tomorrow night. We shall see.
• His vocabulary is out of control. He has so many words now (both sign and verbal.) Yesterday I was walking him out to the kitchen (we have a gate between the dining room and kitchen) and we both got to the gate at the same time. He looked up at me and said, "Go." I almost died. I can't even count on all my fingers and toes how many words he has.
• He's really good at identifying objects too. If I'm reading him a book about different animals I can ask him which animal is which and he'll know.
• Music is still his favorite thing, ever.
• He is TERRIFIED of mascots of any type. I recently tried to expose him to Skippyjon Jones and he had a fit! I've attempted with Clifford, The Easter Bunny, Arthur, and Skippy and he'll have none of it. Because of this, we're only going to bring him to a couple of houses for Trick or Treat tomorrow.
  
  One other quick story I want to share. Recently our Nanny brought Toby to a musical storytime and she recounted a story that absolutely melted my heart:
  
  

  "We were all sitting around in a circle listening to the story and at the end, the leader took out a guitar and started playing the blues. Toby stood up and closed his eyes. He started dancing and swaying to the music. He didn't have a care in the world."

  I can't even begin to tell you how happy this story makes me for a lot of reasons. I love love love music. I also love to dance. I've never taken a dance class, I don't know any of the "popularized" dances and I don't even look graceful/cool/svelte when I do bust a move. As a matter of fact, I'm quite certain that I look pretty hilarious. BUT, I don't care. I can honestly say I don't care what I look like when I dance. It's one of the times that I feel most free; and if you know me you know I'm pretty reserved and buttoned-up. Once I'm dancing I don't have a care in the world who's watching or what they are thinking. I am so happy Toby feels that way right now. I plan to do everything I can to keep him from feeling ashamed of his body, his appearance, his clothes or anything else. It's my hope that if he fully accepts himself, he'll also, inherently, be tolerant of others. I just really love the thought that my son, at 17-months-old, felt secure enough to get up in a room full of children and adults and let his body respond to the emotions the music evoked.
  
  Happy 17-months Toby. You are just such a neat little guy. We love you!

Here are a few cute pictures. They were taken with my phone so please excuse the poor quality.

Yeah. Not happy about this. He WON'T go down a slide feet first.

You know, just chilling at Barnes and Noble