Andrej, Jessica, Kaiya and Tobi

It happened! No matter how badly I wanted to slow down time and enjoy my little baby boy as a baby, he just kept on growing and growing and on May 25, Tobias Daniel turned one. We were planning to throw him a big first birthday party during our trip to South Carolina a few weeks later, but I just couldn't imagine Tobi's special day coming and going without some type of celebration. As I started asking around among our friends who would be in town during Memorial Day weekend, I was reminded of a conversation I had with one of our postpartum nurses in the hospital shortly after Tobi was born.  (Read more …)

I cannot believe it, but in one month our sweet boy will celebrate his first birthday! His. First. Birthday. I’ve asked this question before, and I’ll ask it again, where does the time go? Tobi at 11 months is one active little boy. He took his first unassisted steps on April 15, five consecutive steps before he dove into my arms in a fit of laughter. Each time I would stand him back up and cheer for him to try again, he would laugh even harder as he wobbled towards me. Since then he has taken more and more steps each day. He looks like a little tin man as he moves his stiff legs one foot at a time. It is amazing to watch him learn to balance and navigate upright. I didn't think I would be so excited since I've already experienced one child's first steps, and I knew Tobi would walk eventually, but it seems that no matter how many children you have it is truly amazing to witness each one take their first steps.  (Read more …)

When I finished Tobi's 8 month post, I thought that there wouldn't be a need for a nine month post. How much could change in one month that would be blog worthy? Well, I had forgotten that these months leading up to the first birthday are jam packed with developmental leaps.  (Read more …)

About two weeks ago, I went in to get Tobi up from his morning nap and I found him standing up in his crib leaning over the top rail with a huge proud smile spread across his face. My heart dropped at the sight because he could have easily fallen out of the crib. I immediately scooped up Tobi and called Andrej to tell him about Tobi’s latest accomplishment. We agreed that Andrej should come home for lunch and lower the crib mattress to keep our little man safely contained. I then recreated the scenario and snapped the cute picture to the left. What a proud boy he is! (Read more …)

One night after dinner, Kaiya was in a silly mood so I grabbed the camera hoping to capture some of her antics on video. The video is a little long, but really cute. Kaiya answers my questions about Santa, sings, at one point breaks into Baa Baa Black Sheep (I'm still not exactly sure why), demonstrates her spelling skills and ends the video by wishing you all a Merry Christmas! You can also hear Tobi jabbering away as he shares his thoughts on Christmas as well. Enjoy!

Tobi is over half way to his 1st birthday! At his 6 month well-baby checkup, Tobi weighed in at 17 lbs and 12 1/2 ounces, and measured 27 inches tall. Andrej calls him his Valibuk, which doesn't really translate into English, but in Slovak it's a fairytale character that is so strong he can push over trees. That's our Tobi!

It's been three months since I last wrote a detailed Tobi update, and so many things have changed in those three months. At six months, Tobi finally sleeps soundly through the night. He nurses around 7:30 pm and goes straight to bed afterwards and sleeps until about 7:30 or 8:00 the next morning. It's pure bliss! I didn't think Tobi would ever consistently sleep 12 hours at night. (Read more …)

At Tobi's four month well-baby check-up, he weighed in at 16 pounds, measured 25 inches long and had a head circumference of 40 1/2 cm. He is one healthy, happy baby!