Week 41 already and only 11 weeks until the end of the year! I can’t believe how quickly this year has gone but at the same time, last Christmas, when Toby was only 6 months old, seems like it was forever ago.

It’s been a fairly ordinary week…except that Toby has started walking! Only a few steps at a time (and I’ve not managed to catch it on camera yet) but it’s very exciting! Unfortunately the week as ended with him having another cold, teething again (canines this time) and to top it all off he’s got conjunctivitis too! I feel so sorry for him (and for us when he’s awake for the fourth time in a night) but I suppose at least he’s building up his immune system and we should be thankful he hasn’t had anything more serious. And apart from the waking up in the night it doesn’t seem to be affecting him too much.

It’s been another busy weekend though – after a visit from my mum last week, Barry’s mum came to stay this weekend and Toby thoroughly enjoyed another weekend of being doted on by his Nana. (We’ve got Grandma and Nana here, but two Grandads – what do your kids call their grandparents?). It does feel like we haven’t really had any time to relax lately though. We’re all really looking forward to our trip to Yorkshire and then Butlins next week!

Anyway, this week’s photo is just a quick one grabbed while Toby was having his breakfast yesterday. It’s about the only time he’s still for more than two seconds these days!

It’s been another incredibly busy week here – I’ve been appearing on stage every night in Aida (the musical, not the opera) and so have had to leave bedtimes to Daddy every night. I’ve had a brilliant time rehearsing and being in the show but I have to admit I’m quite glad it’s over and so life can calm down a little bit!

My mum has been up to visit this weekend too and yesterday we took Toby’s Smart Trike (and Toby of course!) to the park for a ride around. We bought the trike for Toby’s birthday back in July but with one thing and another we’ve not really had much chance to use it. It doesn’t help that round where we live the pavements slope down to the road making it really hard to push the trike without it almost tipping over. I’m sure we’ll still get plenty of use out of it, especially when he gets a bit bigger.

The other big news this week is that Toby has started to walk with his walker and when you hold his hands (if he feels like it!). Although he’s been standing confidently for ages he just hasn’t been bothered about walking before so this is a big step forward – hopefully he’ll get the hang of it quickly and start walking on his own soon.

This week didn’t start off too well with Toby only napping for about half an hour at nursery on Monday meaning he was then up four times in the night! But things improved as the week went on and both Wednesday and Thursday he managed two good naps and pretty much slept through. On Friday though he was sick at nursery so I had to collect him early. He was sick again in bed in the afternoon but thankfully that seems to have been the end of it.

Toby is still loving to play and practising his new skills – he managed to stack his building blocks six high this week, all by himself too! He also loves anything with buttons to press and dancing along to anything that makes a tune (his dancing looks like he is conducting an orchestra – it’s so cute!).

I’m so pleased we set up the play area for Toby in our living room – he really likes it and we’re happy because we know there’s only a limited amount of chaos he can cause in there! And I love how bright and colourful it is… Toby’s almost camouflaged in this week’s Living Arrows picture!!

There’s not a huge amount to report for this week’s Living Arrows post. I have been back at work and Toby has still been enjoying nursery (even though he’s still hardly having any naps while he’s there). His cold is much better this week too which is a relief – he seems to have had it forever! We’ve certainly been getting plenty of smiles and giggles this week, as you can see here…

I know I keep saying this but Toby seems to be getting cleverer by the day! He has really started actually playing with his toys and this week he has worked out how to stack his blocks and stacking cups. And then he knocks it down and gives himself a round of applause! I love the look of concentration on his face in this picture..

Last week was a strange week – on Monday morning I was sent home from school when the HR department realised I was working when they hadn’t had my updated police check (the school hadn’t realised I shouldn’t have started work without it. And now I’m not allowed to go back until it comes through, which means I was off work for the rest of the week and might be off for all of this week too! I didn’t want to disrupt Toby’s nursery routine seeing as he seems to have settled in so well so I’ve still been taking him, although not quite as early as I have to when I’m at work.

Toby seems to have developed even more quickly than normal during his three weeks at nursery – he has been pulling himself up to standing since we were on holiday at the beginning of June, but this week has been the first time he’s actually let go and stood on his own for more than about half a second! He’s also started trying to cruise round the furniture more. He still won’t even entertain the idea of trying to walk if we hold his hands though, he just sits down if we even try!

We’ve also been getting much more babbling that is more of an actual effort to communicate – Toby has started saying ‘diss’ when he picks something up and I’m convinced he is trying to say ‘this’  He suddenly seems to understand so much more too – if you hold your hand out and say ‘ta’ he’ll give you whatever he’s got (or even tries to put something in your hand when he isn’t actually holding anything!), he definitely understands ‘no’ and is starting to remember and learn when he’s not allowed to touch something. He’s also been working out what to do with his shape sorter this week, and a few other puzzles too. My favourite one this week has got to have been when I was getting him dressed the other morning – his socks were next to him and he picked one up and put it on his foot! Alright, he didn’t actually put the sock on but he put it on top of his foot and he clearly knew what it was and where it was supposed to go.

Amidst all this exciting progress though Toby has still got a cold (he’s had it a full two weeks now). Not only is he still very snotty but he’s now got a cough too and has had a temperature all weekend. I kept him home from nursery on Friday and had him checked out at the doctors but his chest and his ears are clear so there’s not much we can do except keep him dosed up on Calpol and ride it out. On top of all that the last of his first molars is still coming through and so that’s been bothering him too! I feel so sorry for him, it must be miserable being ill and not really knowing what’s going on. Fingers crossed he manages to shake it off next week.

Anyway, this has been a bit of a long update for what is supposed to be a photography post so I’ll leave it there and share this milestone photo with you – here’s Toby standing all by himself! (And wearing his first proper shoes too – I know he isn’t walking yet but he kept getting wet feet in the garden at nursery).

Another week gone, and the second week at work and nursery for me and Toby. My second week at work wasn’t quite as bad as the first (but I’m still counting down the days to the holidays!) and Toby has settled in so well at nursery. There is one downside to all the fun and freedom he’s having at nursery though – Toby really doesn’t like being in his play pen any more and would much rather be crawling around the living room and kitchen causing chaos! His favourite things at the moment seem to be turning the PlayStation on, pulling all his books off the shelves and trying to get his hands on all the remote controls, phones and anything else with buttons or wires! I love that he’s so inquisitive and always exploring but it isn’t half tiring trying to keep up with him.

I had the camera out for about fifteen minutes the other day and got so many photos of Toby that I couldn’t choose just one, so here’s a few of my favourites…

Last week was my first week back at work and if I’m honest it was pretty awful! I’m going to try and find time to write another post about that though, seeing as this Living Arrows post is supposed to be all about Toby! He has been an absolute star this week; his first full week at nursery. He has coped with being woken up two hours before he normally gets up – he’s going to bed earlier too but has still missed out on a lot of sleep this week. At home he usually still has two naps a day, usually at least an hour each and often over two hours. At nursery the most he has managed is two one hour naps, and there have been a couple of days when he’s only had about half an hour all day! I’m hoping as he gets more used to it he’ll manage to stay asleep a bit longer.

Apart from the sleep thing though he’s doing great. He’s eating really well, doing lots of good playing and despite the fact he’s still teething there have been very few tears all week. He has managed to catch his first nursery cold though so he’s been pretty miserable all weekend with that.

Anyway, what with work and nursery there’s not been much time for photo taking this week so this one is just one Barry took on his phone. Even though he is coming home knackered and is still suffering with his teeth our little bear nearly always manages to find a smile…

I feel like this is all I ever say, but it’s been another week of teething here. Toby now has his two first molars half through on the top, a corner of one of the bottom ones and the other bottom one on its way so he’s been pretty miserable. And he’s been waking up in the night a lot too which is no fun for anyone.

Toby turned 13 months old last week as well but I’ve decided not to do monthly updates any more. Although I did get him weighed and measured when he got his vaccinations last week – he’s 24lb 10oz which puts him above the 75th centile (a massive jump considering he was in the 9th when he was born), and at 84cm he is still off the top of the height charts! Other than that there haven’t been many changes since I wrote his one year update – still no walking but I’m sure that will come when he’s ready.

So, to this week’s Living Arrows photo. This one when we were out for a walk on Saturday to a local gala/fun day thing (although it wasn’t that much fun!). As you can see, Toby wasn’t too impressed either….

We’ve had quite a busy week this week. On Monday we went to our swimming lesson – I swam nearly a whole length (of admittedly a very small pool) with Toby holding on to my back all by himself! It was awesome. He’s ridden on my back before but I’ve never let go, and I didn’t expect him to keep holding on while I kept swimming. He’s been quite clingy at swimming lately though so perhaps it actually helped him for this one!

On Wednesday we had Toby’s first settling in session at nursery – it was only for an hour and I stayed with him but he seemed to enjoy it. He just spent the whole hour crawling round the room and picking up all the different toys! He didn’t really seem to notice whether I was there or not and only came back to me a couple of times so hopefully he’ll be OK when it comes to staying there on his own. He’s going again today for two hours and then three hours tomorrow and I’ll leave him there (I’m planning on going shopping for some new work clothes while I have a chance!) and then on Wednesday he is going to do a full day. I don’t start work until next Monday but we wanted to do a proper practice run (for us as much as for Toby) to make sure we all know what we’re doing and can get up and out of the house on time. Getting up and being dropped at nursery at 7am is going to be a massive shock to the system of my wee boy who normally sleeps until 8 or 9!

We also saw a couple of friends from our NCT class on Wednesday who we’ve not seen for a while – Toby is definitely massive compared to them! It was lovely to see them though – I can’t believe our babies are all one now.

Wednesday’s busy-ness finished with Toby getting his one year immunisations – he doesn’t seem to be having any ill effects so far but I know a reaction to the MMR can come later so we’re still keeping an eye out.

Thursday and Friday were fairly quiet. On Saturday we went for a walk along part of the Fife Coastal Path near where we live which was very pleasant. It’s not somewhere we’d been before but I’m sure we’ll be going again.

This weekend also brought more teething with it though – I am so fed up of these teeth now (and I’m sure Toby is too!). Both the top first molars are half through now and I’m fairly sure it’s one of the bottom first molars that is really bothering him too. Teething just makes Toby really grumpy and whiney. He’s not been eating very much either – he keeps putting food in his mouth, chewing it a bit then spitting it out again, which is very frustrating (and messy!). It’s really hard though, because although he’s clearly miserable he rarely wants to be comforted with a cuddle. He moans if you put him down but just wriggles like mad to get away if you try to pick him up. Anyway, it hasn’t been affecting his sleep too much this time so fingers crossed that continues at least.

This week’s Living Arrows picture does capture Toby in a rare moment of peace (and it’s actually a bit of a cheat because it was taken last Saturday). He does like cuddles sometimes, and when he does they really are lovely!