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

Green Mountain Getaway

First off, this is my 700th post. Holy Moley!

Last weekend Aaron, Toby, and I ventured off to Vermont to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary. It was an absolute perfect weekend; the weather cooperated, we didn't have any telephone service, internet or technology. Just pure unadulterated family time. We left our home Friday afternoon and didn't return until Monday evening.

Every year, we make a big deal out of our anniversary and always take a long weekend away. We don't do gifts and such because, as a couple, we have always been more content with experiences vs. material. I would much rather have four days exploring the wilderness/nature than a pair of diamond earrings. Although, if Aaron were to buy me a pair of diamond studs, I wouldn't refuse them. Actually, Aaron, I already have the gorgeous diamond studs/necklace you bought me as a wedding gift. A tennis bracelet would be awesome.

Alas, I digress. The trip! The trip was amazing. We rented a small cabin in Bridport, Vermont, right on Lake Champlain. What a serene get away. As it turns out, the cabin is the studio of an artist/stage actress/writer/singer. She had her work displayed throughout the cabin. While her art wasn't necessarily my taste, I can spot good art when I see it. She is indeed talented.

I know I've mentioned it before but, I DO NOT like to stay in hotels. I really like the idea of staying in someone else's home. There are many reasons for this one being I don't like to support big business that comes in and builds this overpriced, anti-Earth-conscious buildings and then charges ridiculous amounts of money to basically sleep in a stale room with cheesy decorations and a small mini-fridge and microwave. No thank you. Further, I know how expensive it is to keep up a vacation home so if I can help a homeowner keep a family property in good graces of their family/tax collector, so be it.
Also, I love that I can stay in someone else's home, look through their books, bring my dogs, eat real meals in a real kitchen all for the price of what I would pay to stay in a hotel! So, here is my shameless plug for homeaway.com. We have successfully rented a cabin from that site four years in a row. Many of the owners are also really flexible in the ways in which you pay. With this particular owner we were able to book in early February and we made small payments up until 2 weeks before we were due to rent (and this place was more cost effective than a hotel given we could cook our own meals- it ended up being around $150 per night [really close to hotel prices!])

Anyway, enough about logistics. I'll let the pictures (and my commentary) show you exactly what I mean when I say it was perfect! (click on the picture to enlarge or scroll through the photos.)

 

 

The very first morning we went to Pratt's Country Store to get the best donuts ever. They are apparently renowned in the county. And we can totally speak to how delicious they are.

It must have been migration time. All we saw/heard was ganders and ganders of geese. There were over 100 in this particular gander and we saw several batches of these throughout the weekend!

We were only about 10 miles from beautiful Middlebury, Vermont. We spent one afternoon there.

 

 

In Middlebury is a factory that builds wooden toys. For a long time I had been wanting to buy Toby one of those magnetic train sets that spells out his name. You know which ones I'm talking about? Well, the factory was open and not only did we get him the name train, but we could watch it being made! So cool!

A large Vermont whoopie pie? Yes, please

 

We spent a lot of time walking around the property. The location felt really strange simply because it was in the mountains, in a forest, on the water and near a city. Really, the perfect location and everything we love all at once. We went on a lot of walks throughout the day. Bing and Manny loved it, of course.

So did Toby. I'm really happy to say that I think he enjoys nature/hiking just as much as his Mom and Dad.

This was the road to our cabin. Unbelievable.

So, we're standing on the shore of Vermont... directly across Lake Champlain is New York. So weird.

Toby learned how to skip rocks (which basically looks like him throwing them into the water.)

On Sunday morning we decided to take Toby on his first Ferry ride. When we drove our car onto the boat he looked so confused. He kept saying "Boat?" "Car?" over and over again. It was priceless.

We visited New York state. The Ferry dropped us at Ticonderoga/Ft. Ticonderoga N.Y (you know, where the battle was fought and #2 pencils are made?) What a beautiful part of New York.

 

We visited the Ticonderoga museum where they had tons of old fashioned wooden toys for Toby to play with and a pretty killer park!

While one way we took a Ferry to New York, we took the bridge back to Vermont. So neat!



We took out the canoe and kayak. We paddled from state to state. So, I can claim that I paddled from Vermont to New York.
 

 

So, I'm a bit of a crazy when it comes to my dogs. With our Alaskan trip being the only exception, I WILL NOT vacation with out my dogs. They enjoy to travel too; leaving their scent all over New England. Having my dogs with me brings such a peace of mind. I couldn't fully enjoy myself if they weren't with me.

This was our serene cabin. How perfect?

Because we only ate at a restaurant for lunch one day, we went grocery shopping and cooked real meals the other three days. We ate like Kings. Toby had smoked ribs one evening and LOVED them!

While I was sad to see it end, I'm already planning for our adventure next year. Like I said before, we're pretty simple people. We didn't spend a lot of money on this vacation. We left New Hampshire with $650 cash to spend and came home with $500 (which includes food and gas!) For us, if we can give our son anything, we want it to be an experience. While he might not remember this vacation for the rest of his life, while we were there he had a blast and Aaron and I had a chance to relish in the greatest gift our four year marriage has produced. At the risk of sounding completely corny, I am so incredibly lucky. I have an amazing life.