So Big!

We've been playing the "How big is Topher? So big!" game with Topher since he was TINY and it looks like he finally gets it. It is so exciting when your child learns something new, or makes a connection. This particular one took him about a year to master, so it's a pretty big deal.

Topher has also been playing with his computer that he got for his birthday. We found a setting that plays songs for him and he loves to bounce along to the beat. Also, whenever it turns off, the computer says, "Bye bye!" and Topher always, ALWAYS says bye-bye back to it.

We have a lot of fun playing with the laser light, too. Usually it's the cat running after it, but sometimes Topher is fooled and can't help chasing it himself. It turns out that cats and babies like a lot of the same things, which comes in handy for us.

We hope everyone is doing well and finding many reasons to be thankful this season. We're thankful for our little family, full of love and laughter (and lots of wrestling, if Topher has anything to do with it.)

--KC

Laughing in Lieu of Sleeping

I know it has been a little while since I have posted anything new, but our son decided he doesn't need to sleep anymore. He is trying to do away with his naps during the day, and he's still waking up a few times a night. It's exhausting. Furthermore, I cannot blog if he's awake because he LOVES the computer and if he sees it out, he goes straight for it and starts banging on the keys with his signature genteel touch, lol. However, he is taking a cat nap at the moment (thank you!) and I wanted to post a video of him laughing. He likes to pick up his little ball and throw it for the cat, but after watching him do this over and over again without any interest from the cat (sometimes she just doesn't feel like playing) I felt so bad for Topher that I pretended to be the cat instead. Whenever he would throw the ball I'd jump on it and bat it around and throw it back to him, and he just found it hilarious. If there is one thing Topher was born with, it is a great sense of humor. I'll try to get some new pictures and videos up as I have time. Topher is getting very close to taking his first step so I hope we'll be able to get that on camera. Last night he stood up by himself without holding on to anything and stood for a few seconds before falling back down, so we know he's learning to balance and walking shouldn't be far behind.

We are looking forward to a visit from Lindsay and Jo this weekend, the Clark Family Christmas next weekend, and a visit to KC the weekend after that. It is definitely the beginning of the holiday season, and we are so excited about it. We still have not even started shopping, though, so we need to get started soon! TJ is staying busy at work and I'm busy at home. There's not really anything else to report except that we still love it here--SO much--and memories of the flood house are thankfully fading away.

Sounds like someone is waking up. Back to work. :)

--KC

So Much To Say

I literally never know what the day will bring. Today brought me a son who suddenly learned how to "talk." Topher has babbled before, but nothing like this. Today he talked incessantly. It really seems like he knows exactly what he's saying, even if it's not at all in English. It's pretty entertaining to say the least. The problem is, whenever I grab the camera and start recording, he goes mute. So after a few failed attempts at capturing him on film, I waited until he was distracted and I took this video of him through the legs of the coffee table. He's sitting in an enormous pile of his books that he has scattered around, and he is "reading" to himself. (Either that, or offering up detailed reviews on all his baby books, how are we to know?)

As you can see, as soon as he spots the camera, he stops talking. I have no idea what he is saying, but I think that's one of the puzzles you get to solve as a parent, the deciphering of a primitive language that is spoken mainly in squeals. I can't tell you how much we love hearing his voice. Even though we're still learning his language, it's music to our ears.

--KC

Clapping and Catching Up

So much happens every day and I take so many pictures, it's hard to know what to post and what to skip, so this post is a little random, just some pics and a video that were too cute to keep to myself. First, I wanted Terry and Kathy to see Topher modeling the shirt they got him for his birthday. He looks so cute in everything. Then yesterday Topher was being such a little rock star. Mat & Angie, the sunglasses still fit and Topher totally rocks them. Can't you just imagine a guitar in those little hands?? Then this morning Topher was figuring out the camera. He really gets it now. As soon as I take his picture, he'll grab the camera, turn it around, and start pointing at himself on the screen. They learn so young! We had fun taking pictures of his dog and cat, too. Is that a great smile or what??? And for his big achievement as of late: clapping. I know some other kids have been clapping for half a year already by his age, but he just got it this week and it's adorable.

Hopefully this will satisfy my mom's "Topher fix" for the day. She calls me all the time begging for more Topher. We're so lucky that so many people love this little boy of ours, but even if TJ and I were his only family in the whole world, we would never let him go a second without feeling loved. It's a tall order, being a parent, but it turns out that it's pretty great, too.

--KC

Playgroup at the Mall

Topher and I have been invited to a playgroup a few times by a woman at church, and this week we decided to check it out. So we made our way to Merle Hay Mall and I think it was great for Topher to get out and to see a playground he wasn't familiar with. I think the real appeal is for all the women to be able to socialize, but unfortunately Topher is at that age that doesn't allow me to do that. He's too old to sit still but too young to play safely by himself. So for an hour and a half, I crawled around on the rubbery floor with him and tried to keep him from hitting the other kids. (He doesn't do it out of cruelty, but he likes to "pat" other kids the way he "pats" the cat.) The crazy thing was that every single woman there--I think 5 in all other than myself--had a toddler that was a girl and a new baby that was a boy. It's definitely a trend in this particular playgroup.

Topher playing on the assorted foam animals

Spinning these cubes around and around...he kept pointing to a picture of a raccoon and saying "bup" meaning "puppy"

Climbing the "castle" slide...all this equipment is very slippery so he didn't stand a chance in his little socks

Standing up using the fish

"Pulling" the foam boat through the water

Topher played hard, and was pretty well behaved. It's fun to see him around other kids, but he was at that in-between age (too young for the toddler girls and too old for the newborn boys) so this might not be his ideal playgroup. Luckily, later in the day our neighbor brought over her tiny little daughter Emi, who is about 6 months old, and Topher had fun patting her on the head. (Is he around animals too much and now thinks that everyone loves a pat on the head???)

Trying to love on Emi

Marianne taking on the full-time task of watching Topher's hands

It was a very social, very busy day for him. Unfortunately, it did not equal a solid night's sleep like I was hoping, but at least he had fun.

--KC

Tigger Treat

This was Topher's first real Halloween, considering last year he was only a week old and we weren't about to dress him up (he used to scream bloody murder if you tried to dress/undress/bathe him, etc. so we thought it best to just let him be. Plus we were brand new parents and just trying to survive the bomb of bringing our new baby home. Trust me, a costume was the furthest thing from our minds.) But this year he's a big boy and his costume was Tigger, from my mom. She said it was the closest thing to a Mizzou tiger she could find. My mom is awesome. Because beggar's night turned out to be a cold, windy, and rainy night here, Topher had to sport his long john underwear under his costume. Topher, in his long john's...I could have died it was so cute Posing with the puppy

Posing with daddy

We went over to Aimee and Dale's house (my sis and bro-in-law) because they only live about 5 minutes away and we were having dinner with them anyway. We went to 5 houses before Topher lost his patience and wanted to get the costume off.

Topher's very first trick-or-treat house

My little tiger

Daddy and Tigger

Carrying the little one back in out of the yucky weather

One last picture before the costume came off

Topher's spoils Aside from the weather, it was a good time. Next year we'll aim to hit a few more houses, but I'm not sure that Topher could ever look cuter than he did this night. Happy Halloween!

--KC