Thursday, January 22, 2009

Prediction

There's one other little story I forgot to share about the ultrasound. As we were watching Baby Brother on the screen, Matt asked Tobin, "Do you think he'll be like you?" Tobin quickly responded, "Not at all." Which means Baby Brother may be a bit on the wild side, but possibly a not-so-picky eater and better sleeper.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

An amazin' day

"Amazing"--more accurately, "amazin'"--has become a regular part of Tobin's vocabulary. He uses it liberally, with amusing results. For example, last week (warning: poop anecdote!) Hannah had an accident in her crate shortly after Tobin had just had his own poop. As he watched me clean up Hannah's mess, he said, "My poop is brown? Hannah's poop is black? That's amazin'!" As I laughed, I couldn't help but get over my annoyance with the situation. Then later that day after Matt helped him plug in an emergency flashlight, Tobin looked at him and said, "Dad, you're amazin' sometimes." Appropriate usage, I think.

By any measure, today was indeed amazin'. We woke up to a couple of inches of snow on the ground and watched it fall throughout the morning. It was Tobin's first real snow and the first snow of any significance here in the past five years. Matt stayed home, extending our holiday weekend to four days, and we had a great time taking Tobin out to play in the snow.
perfect

After our late morning excursion, we came in and had a nice lunch of vegetable soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Then Tobin sat between us on the couch while we watched Barack Obama sworn in as the 44th President. Tobin seemed to take most of it in, although he probably enjoyed watching Aretha Franklin sing and Yo Yo Ma play his cello more than the actual swearing in. In any case, it was certainly a special moment for us to share as a family.

The only problem with the snow was that we feared it might postpone our ultrasound scheduled for late afternoon. The clinic called me early afternoon and asked, since I was still planning to come, if I could come immediately because they were planning to leave early. Matt drove us very carefully on the slushy roads to the clinic. And we were definitely glad we made the effort when we got a glimpse of our baby, our second SON! There's something so incredible about seeing this little person inside me--this little one who is definitely making my belly grow, but who I have not felt otherwise. At one point, we saw his little hand and told Tobin the baby was waving at him, and Tobin said, "Hi Baby Brother!" Tobin will proudly tell you that our baby is a little brother and/or "Baby Smith is a boy!"

We know Tobin is going to be a wonderful big brother, and we look forward to many, many more amazin' days ahead.
meet baby brother!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Good job, Daddy

Last night, I needed a haircut and decided to take Tobin with me. I was a little worried about how he would do in a new environment, and part of me wondered if he would take my time in the chair as an opportunity to escape to toddler freedom. Instead, he turned on the charm and pulled out the stops on the smart-boy routine. While we waited, he asked to read some of the books stacked up in the waiting area. The woman sitting next to us had mentioned that she had a two-year-old at home. Tobin told her that he is two and a half, then seemed to make the next few minutes a demonstration of the inherent superiority of two-and-a-half-dom.

He brought a book to me and read every capital letter on the front cover: "T-U-E-S-D-A-Y. What that says?"

"Tuesday," I said.

"Today is not Tuesday?"

"Right. Today is Monday."

He shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, and frowned as if figuring his harvest after a season of drought: "No. Monday is not Tuesday. Hmm."

The woman next to us looked up and said "I don't even know if my son knows 'A.'"

When called to the chair, I pulled up a seat next to me for Tobin to sit in. He watched raptly while Tammy used the clippers and scissors. He didn't say anything for a while, so I broke the silence, "Do you like my haircut?" He didn't respond for a while, so I asked again, reminding him that he could say yes or no.

He thought again for a second, then said "'Yes' is a word I can say with my hands, so I say it like this." Then he made the sign for yes with his hand.

Tammy said "He knows sign language?" I explained he knows some. Tobin talked a little more about the blue pickup truck in his pocket, then it was time to go. When we got home, I asked him to tell his Mama where we had been. He exclaimed, in a voice that I choose to interpret as proud of his dad, "Daddy got a haircut; and he didn't cry!"

Saturday, January 03, 2009

Christmas 2008, Part Two

We've had a good (almost) week in Kentucky with Grandma, Granddad, Sarah and Dan. We've logged a lot of miles, but it's been worth it for a Christmas break during which we visited the beach in short-sleeve shirts and saw snow flurries and temps in the teens. I've put together a short video of our experience in Kentucky. Hopefully, we'll get the time to type more and put up pictures after we're back in NC.