Toby's Progress

Toby is doing really well. He can write his name, say his ABCs (and even recognise a few of them), he can count to about 13 and count backwards from 5. His vocabulary is really coming along and he often surprises us with new phrases. I think he might have the speech impediment that runs in my family, but it's nothing that a little speech therapy won't correct.

He says things like 'That would be lovely' but it comes out 'Dat would be wovey', which is just adorable. We've noticed that he's experimenting with his past tense now which basically means that he adds -ed to the ends of verbs. He's come out with some crackers like 'We go-ded to the shops' and 'I eat-ed my dinner'.

He also comes out with phrases that leave J and I trying to guess from which one of us he's picked them up. For example, Tobes says 'you guys' and 'cool'. No problem guessing who says those things - that would be the American. Tobes also says 'fantastic' and, much to our delight, 'bugger'. I'm guessing they both come from the Englishman.

Tobes is at a really gorgeous stage now but a heartbreaking one at the same time. Every day I see more and more little boy and less of my little baby. He's getting taller and thinning out and his face is losing its babyishness (if that's a word). He's getting smarter too and, though it's much easier to reason with him, it's harder to fool him too. He wanted to play his music in the car recently but the thought of half an hour of The Gruffalo was more than I could stand so I said that the stereo wasn't working (shameful, I know). Toby said 'Just push that button and it'll come on'. I pretended to push the button then said again that it wasn't working. 'Dat's cause you didn't weawy push it.' Outsmarted by a three year old.