Another reasonable quiet week for us. We were back at swimming on Monday enjoying the Turtle Tots summer school. Toby was a bit clingy in the pool but we didn’t have any crying. I’m still holding out hope that he will actually start enjoying swimming soon! On Wednesday I left the boys at home while I went off for my job interview (and I was offered the job, which means I’ll be going back to work and Toby off to nursery very soon), and then at the weekend Toby had his first experience of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (in the rain, as is typical for Edinburgh in August!)

It’s another picture of Toby’s cheeky face that I’m sharing with you for this week’s Living Arrows. He is such a little boy now, always chattering and babbling away – I do wonder if he is actually trying to communicate yet, or just practising using his voice!

There is another picture I wanted to show you this week too though – Toby is a happy and smiley boy most of the time…but not always!

At the beginning of this week my brother and sister-in-law were up visiting from London. They haven’t seen Toby for months and apart from a brief wobble (and some tears) when we first picked Mark up from the station Toby got on great with his uncle and auntie. On Tuesday we went to visit the Kelpies – massive horse head statues that have just opened in a new park outside Falkirk. We had a look at the horses, a lovely picnic lunch and very melty ice cream. I managed to set the camera up on the timer on a wall and get this photo of us all (Claire and her twins came too).

In the evening we went for dinner to a new pub that has opened recently near us. Toby is so good when we go out, as long as I keep him topped up with breadsticks until the food arrives! I can’t actually take credit for this week’s Living Arrows picture – my sister-in-law Becca took it while we were waiting for our meals to arrive. She’s a photographer by trade and always takes such great pictures, even when it’s just an iPhone snap!

Toby has been a bit happier and sleeping better this week too. I was definitely right about the teething though – both his top first molars have cut this week. We’ve only got a tiny corner of each one so far though so there’s still plenty more upset to come I’m sure!

I feel like I’ve gone rather quiet on the blogging front lately. I just seem to have lost my mojo a little bit so I’m just giving it a bit of a rest until I get my inspiration back. Nothing sinister, I’m just not feeling the blog love at the minute. I couldn’t miss a Living Arrows post though!

This week has been all about teething and it’s been pretty horrendous. Toby has been refusing to nap, taking hours to settle at night and generally just being grumpy and crying most of the time. I really wish we could do more for him but apart from dosing him up with Calpol and Nurofen there doesn’t seem to be much else we can do. He won’t let me put a finger in his mouth to apply teething gel, he doesn’t want cuddles but he doesn’t like being put down either. We have had to resort to a few long buggy walks and even a drive in the car to get him to calm down and have a nap. He does seem to have been a bit better the last few days so hopefully he (and we!) might get some respite for a little while.

I don’t think the heat has been helping either, although we’ve not had it quite as hot as those of you down south. In an effort to distract Toby from his teeth, and cool him down, I got the paddling pool out that we had bought for Toby’s birthday. He wasn’t sure about it at first and he actually got chilly quite quickly, even with warm water, but I think he enjoyed it – especially when I got the bubble machine out too.

It’s been a very busy weekend for us – Toby turned one on Friday and on Saturday all his grandparents came to visit for a BBQ party. I’ll be telling you all about that in another post but what with shopping, organising food, baking a cake and generally planning the weekend I’ve not had time for much blogging this week!

We’ve had a very mixed week sleep wise too so everyone has been feeling pretty tired. I think a combination of getting over last week’s cold and teething (possibly a first molar coming through!) has been disturbing Toby’s sleep; he’s been resisting naps and then waking in the night. On Wednesday night he was awake from half past two until nearly five o’clock! I can’t remember ever having a night like that before. There have been nights when he’s woken up a few times but he usually settles again fairly quickly after a cuddle and maybe some milk and medicine if he’s teething but on Wednesday night we tried everything and he was just wailing every time we tried to put him down. He then had two nights of sleeping straight through to eight o’clock but then last night he was awake for ages again. He refused to nap this afternoon and has already woken up once since he went to bed an hour and a half ago so I’m not feeling confident about a quiet night! You never know though, there never seems to be any logic to when he’ll sleep through or when he’ll wake. Fingers crossed for sleep though.

So to this week’s Living Arrows photo – this is Toby on his birthday having his first go on his new SmarTrike. Safe to say he likes it!

It’s been another fairly quiet week here at Toby Goes Bananas HQ. It’s the school holidays here in Scotland now so most of Toby’s activities have finished for the summer. We have had some nice weather though so managed to get out for a walk with my friend Claire and her twins (and a had a sneaky McFlurry!) on Tuesday. The end of the week has been mostly about staying in as Toby has come down with a cold. It’s his first proper, snot running down the face, cold but he seems to be feeling OK in himself. He really doesn’t like me wiping his nose though and in his efforts to escape always seems to manage to spread snot all over his face. Lovely! The snot-sucker has had to come out again too and we’ve had some delightful results there… Can someone tell me at what age they learn to sniff (or even wipe) rather than just letting the snot trail down his upper lip into his mouth?!

Moving on, on a slightly less disgusting note, we did manage to get out for a walk this afternoon. There’s a fun fair on the park near us at the moment so we went to have a look. But at £6.99 just to get in (it did give you unlimited rides but we didn’t actually want to go on anything) we decided not to bother. A short stroll in the fresh air and a go on the swings for Toby was more than enough fun for us this afternoon!

And lastly, I’ve just realised that this will be my last Living Arrows post with a baby under one! It’s Toby’s birthday on Friday and with all his grandparents coming to celebrate on Saturday, hopefully we’ll have some party snaps for next week.

I can’t believe we’re on week 26 of The Living Arrows – past the half way point in the year! I couldn’t choose just one picture this week so you’re getting three! I’ve noticed that quite a lot of my photos seem to show Toby in his play pen  – I promise he’s not in there all the time but it’s often the only way I can get him to stay in one place long enough to take a photo!

His hair is going a bit bonkers again these days – it’s so fine and fly away (just like mine), it just seems to have a life of its own!

That pesky eighth tooth has finally cut through this week so a good chew on Jemina (I refused to called the giraffe Sophie – we do like to be different!) always helps!

And lastly, I had to include this one. Since Toby learnt to pull himself up to standing on holiday at the beginning of the month this is usually the sight that greets me when I go in to get him up in the morning or after his naps. I can’t believe how big he’s getting though – I swear he’s grown another 10cm in the last month. We’ve dropped his cot right down to the bottom but you can see how far above the rail he is – I wonder how long it will be before he starts trying to climb out?!

We had a lovely holiday in France but I am glad to be back home with reliable wifi and a comfy sofa, and back in our big bed! I’m going to write a post all about our holiday but Toby was a little superstar the whole time we were away, he didn’t seem phased by living in a mobile home for ten days, eating al fresco or anything else. We had lovely weather for the most part too despite how it looks in this week’s Living Arrows photo. This one was taken alongside the harbour in Vannes after a tasty lunch and a wander round the shops.

We’re on holiday in Brittany this week and the campsite wifi is intermittent at best so it’s only a quick post for week 23 of the Living Arrows project. Toby has been a star this holiday, after three days of driving to get here and then lots of late naps and unusual meal times he seems to be coping much better with the changes to his routine than he did when we went to the Lake District last month.

So anyway, here he is, looking like a super cool dude in his new holiday cap!

All being well we should be on a ferry to France when this week’s Living Arrows post is published (I know, the wonder of the internet!). The last week has been one of last minute organising and packing (and yes, Toby’s passport did turn up in the end) and trying to remember that it really doesn’t matter if we forget something – they do have shops in France after all.

So anyway, I’m just going to give you this week’s picture without further delay – here he is, mon petit singe!

It’s been a fairly quiet week this week. Toby is STILL teething although one of the new teeth has cut through now and he doesn’t seem to be struggling quite as much. We should be getting excited about going on holiday next week but I can’t get excited until Toby’s passport turns up – it’s so stressful waiting to see if we get it in time! We’re ringing every day for updates and fingers crossed it will all work out OK. As long as it does then this time next week we’ll be on a ferry to France!

And so to this week’s photo in the I Heart Snapping Living Arrows project. Another close up this week – I just can’t resist his little face! Over the next few months I really want to try and take the camera out and about with me more – from looking at these Living Arrows photos you’d think we never went anywhere as they always seem to be taken in the house!