tobey's train dance

tobey peed in his potty!

And he was so proud of himself!  We aren't really potty training him, but we did get a potty for him to start sitting on and getting familiar with.  He loves having his own "seat".

ezra trip pics

 Grammy sent Tobey a spider for Halloween.

 Me and little Ezzy

 Giving Ezra a kiss

 18 month difference

 Me and my nephew

 Tobey rocking Ezra

 Tobey looks like gigantor.

Chiliaxin'

that little ezra

I haven't written in a while but that is because I have been visiting my sister in Orlando so that I could spend some time with my little baby nephew, Ezra!  He is so precious and so cute.  He is such a good and easy baby, too.  I loved getting to snuggle with him because he is a little snuggle bunny for sure.  My sister took some great pictures of Tobey and Ezra together so as soon as she sends them to me, I'll post them.

Tobey did pretty good while we were down there visiting, but what was interesting was that I could really see how much he has grown up by comparing him to two month old Ezra.  I never realized how well I can communicate with Tobey.  I really do understand what he is trying to tell me most of the time between his words and his sign language.  Here is a list of things that Tobey did while we were in Orlando:

• Tobey started to use a lot more words, maybe even double the number of words he said before we left for Orlando.  He can say blue, green, pink (which comes out "kink"), and purple ("purp").  He can even say Ezra.  I think what really helped spur on much of this word explosion was that he was trying to imitate much of what we were saying.
• Tobey wanted to take a bath the entire time we were in Orlando.  He kept doing the sign for bath and kept trying to get in the tub.
• I saw Tobey crotching down to do him bowl movement so I rushed to him and pulled off his diaper so he could use the toilet.  But I was a little late because he had gone in his diaper and some on the floor as I moved him to the toilet.  I made sure to clean it up before his Uncle David got home. After that episode, he kept wanting to be put on the toilet to attempt to go, but he never did.
• One afternoon, Tobey was playing in Jessica and David's room and so I went to check on him. When I got into their room, I heard splashing from the bathroom, and sure enough, Tobey was playing in the toilet.
• Jessica and I wanted to take pictures of Tobey and Ezra side by side so we could always remember the size difference. But that is not what Tobey wanted, and he ended up throwing a car at Ezra, and it hit Ezra in the armpit.  Poor little guy took quite a long time to calm down.  It was by far the most upset I've seen him.  The next day, Tobey hit Ezra in the head with a bottle, but luckily, Ezra was in a dream-like state and was unphased.

Okay, I can't think of what else happened.  We basically chilled the entire time.  We did get to see my friend Lindzee and her adorable little guy, Grant, who is 9 months and has the best baby laugh ever.  He was such a happy little fella.  Tobey is awake from his nap so I got to go...  Pictures soon!

cat, cat, cat

This afternoon, Tobey saw three little puppies down the street.  He was so excited so he ran over to them to take a closer look.  When we got to the puppies, he started jumping up and down (although his feet never left the ground) saying "cat, cat, cat" over and over again.  After one of the puppies knocked him over, I took him the other way down the street so he could see what a real cat looks like.

tobey's third month (april 26 - may 25)

So I totally don't remember much of what happened in Tobey's third month.  I think it was a lot of the same from the second month, but he was adding new skills.  I remember that when he was 2 months old, it would only take 10 minutes to nurse him.  I called the lactation consultants at Northside because I thought that wasn't enough, but after talking through it with them, the nurse said that it sounded like he was just an efficient eater.  While it was nice that it was so fast sometimes to feed him, I also missed getting to sit down and just nurse him for 45 minutes like it was when he was littler.

Some highlights were that we ate dinner outside a lot so Adam and I would put Tobey in his bouncer set and put it on the table.  He'd be happy for a few minutes, but then one of us would have to told him while the other ate, and then we'd switch.  I don't miss doing that at all!

When he was 2 months old was also when he finally started grabbing toys.  His favorites for a long time were his links, which he got from his friend, Liliana.

My mom also came to visit that month for a few days.  We took him to the mall and got him some hats, including this one!

At this point, we didn't really understand Tobey and his personality.  He would be happy and laughing, and then we would be crying and screaming.  He still didn't like the car, and he still took his naps on me.  But things were getting easier.  Now we can see that he is a pretty happy boy, but he does like things to be a certain way, and he can be systematic at times.  When he cries, we know what he wants, but back then, it could have been anything.

We also took Tobey to the pool for the first time.  He didn't really know what to think of it.  It took him a few months to warm up to it.

Also, this month was when I resigned from Northside in order to stay home.  I also started using cloth diapers and found out how easy it really was.  We also were finding all kinds of wildlife in our backyard, including four baby bunnies.  Well, I can't think of what else happened, so here are my Facebook statuses.

Casey Jaye Walker Slide Tobey is 2 months old today!

April 26, 2010 at 9:31 am 

Casey Jaye Walker Slide is so glad she got to have lunch with her sister and can't wait for her mom to come to visit in 3 weeks. To top it all off, she fits into more of her non-maternity clothes. It has been a good day indeed.

April 28, 2010 at 2:48 pm 

Casey Jaye Walker Slide Tobey is now 10 lbs and 7 oz (25%) and 23 inches long (50%). He handled his shots like a champ!

April 29, 2010 at 5:01 pm

Casey Jaye Walker Slide 's baby slept through the night for 8.5 hours!

May 1, 2010 at 8:52 am

Casey Jaye Walker Slide finds the smell of baby hands intoxicating.

May 5, 2010 at 11:49 am

Casey Jaye Walker Slide is so proud of her son! He grabbed a toy all by himself today!

May 6, 2010 at 8:23 am

Casey Jaye Walker Slide is hoping Tobey will take her to Starbucks tomorrow for mothers' day. It does not take much to please me.

May 8, 2010 at 6:04 pm

Casey Jaye Walker Slide Why is it that my dog maybe fatally wounded a baby bunny today in the back yard yet she was terrified of the snake that was back there? Seriously Penny. That should have been the other way around.

May 9, 2010 at 9:50 pm

Casey Jaye Walker Slide is taking Tobey to the mall and is hoping he doesn't freak out.

May 12, 2010 at 9:54 am

Casey Jaye Walker Slide Trip to the mall was a success! Thank you baby bjorn and pacifier!

May 12, 2010 at 1:55 pm

Casey Jaye Walker Slide Mom's Night Out = Grocery Shopping

May 17, 2010 at 7:56 pm

Casey Jaye Walker Slide is going to Northside to pick up her stuff from her old office.

May 18, 2010 at 9:00 am

Casey Jaye Walker Slide my mom is coming to visit tomorrow!

May 18, 2010 at 6:36 pm

Casey Jaye Walker Slide my mom is here!

May 19, 2010 at 3:37 pm

Casey Jaye Walker Slide is finally doing the cloth diapers!

May 20, 2010 at 8:39 am

Casey Jaye Walker Slide My baby slept through the night two nights in a row! :)

May 22, 2010 at 7:38 am

Casey Jaye Walker Slide Putting Tobey to bed early tonight so I can watch LOST! Tobey - Please stay asleep for mommy!

May 23, 2010 at 6:38 pm

Casey Jaye Walker Slide met Adam at Suwanee Town Center for lunch and got interviewed by the ajc. Article is supposed to be in Sunday's paper.

May 25, 2010 at 1:29 pm

Now here are some of my favorite pictures from that month.

 Taking a nap with mommy

 Look how little his foot is!

 Hanging out with daddy

 Jordan outfit from Aunt Terri

 Hanging out in the backyard while we eat dinner

 Lovin' his links

 Happy boy getting ready for bed

 Snake tongue

 Mommy and baby

 Laughing at his bouncer

How he takes naps

End of 3rd month - 3 months old

frylock v's

Adam and I can no longer safely say the word "train" (or Tobey's word "gaga") without him going bonkers. So we have come up with a random code word to say when we want to talk about trains without Tobey knowing. We decided on "Frylock" after the character on Auqa Teen Hunger Force (a cartoon that Tobey won't be watching any time soon). We also figured it probably was a good idea not to use the word "video" either since Tobey would run to the computer, cross his index and pointer finger, and raise his hand towards us, which is the random thing he does when he wants to watch a "gaga" video. So if you hear Adam or I say "Frylock V's", you'll know what we are talking about.

grocery store

Whenever I take Tobey to Kroger, and he starts to get a little restless sitting in the cart, I buy him a Hot Wheels.  So yesterday when I took him, he was starting to wiggle and cry, so I picked him out a Dalorian (from Back to the Future)...not that he knew what it was, but he seemed to like it.  When we got to the check out, I had put his car in his pocket because he was starting to get bored with it and was throwing it around.  While I am checking out, he kept crying about this box of change that was sitting at the register.  I kept telling him he couldn't have the change because it was in the box.  Finally, I looked over, and he had put his car in the box with the coins.  The lady checking me out got the manager to unlock the box to get Tobey is his car.  Everyone there was laughing about it.

play dough

Me:  Tobey, you don't know what to do with play dough, do you?
Tobey:  No

changes

Tobey has really taken to Adam lately. Before, everything was about "mama", but now things are starting to become more about "dada". When he wakes in the morning, he starts to call for "dada" more than "mama" (he is also not nursing every morning now). When Adam is around, he often follows him rather than me. Before, he always wanted to be with me. I guess that is natural for a boy to want to be with his dad! I don't feel rejected; I think this is a good thing. Adam and I read that this would happen sometime between 15 and 36 months, and for Tobey, it's at 19 months.

Okay, duty calls...but not for mama, for dada! Guess I better take care of that for him!

tobey's second month (march 26 - april 25)

Wow, I so don't remember much about when Tobey was a month old! The one thing I do remember is that he cried A LOT! He slept pretty good at night and only got up 2 or 3 times, but during the day, he would cry from about 7am to 1pm or 2pm on and off. No napping, some nursing, mostly crying. I still don't know what the deal was, but I think he was mostly overstimulated and didn't know how to calm himself down.

One thing Adam came up with to help Tobey calm down was we would take him in the nursery, rock him in our laps, close the blinds, turn of the lights, put on a sound machine, and put a paper plate over his face. It sounds a little cruel, but it would keep Tobey from looking all over his room. It actually worked in getting him to calm down and take a nap. Eventually, we could take away the paper plate, but from then on, Tobey would only nap while being rocked in his dark room with the sound machine. He would do about four or five naps a day like that for many months.

On a more positive note, it was during this month that Tobey learned to smile! He also discovered his mobile which he loved to look at!

In other significant news, Tobey was baptized on March 27th, and he did so well! We thought he'd cry the whole time, but he just sucked on a paci. We also had a little party for him afterwards at out house. My parents came, and my dad was able to see Tobey for the first time. The following week, my sister came to town for a week to hang out with Tobey and I. Every time we got in the car, Tobey would do what we coined, "The cat cry" because he sounded like a screeching cat. Tobey really hated the car, and he still does, but he has gotten much better.

Well, I don't really remember much else, but here are some of my Facebook statuses:

Casey Jaye Walker Slide Tobey is one month old today!! :)

March 26, 2010 at 9:48 am 

Casey Jaye Walker Slide is glad Tobey was an angel during his baptism but is sad her parents had to go back to Florida.

March 27, 2010 at 3:32 pm


Casey Jaye Walker Slide has a bee in her house and is hoping it stays away from Tobey! Not sure why the dogs haven't eaten it yet…

Casey Jaye Walker Slide is wearing a pair of non-maternity jeans!! :)

April 2, 2010 at 9:10 am

Casey Jaye Walker Slide Tobey is now 9 lbs, 5.5oz (25%) and 22.5 inches long (+50%)! Good job Tobey! Keep growing!

April 7, 2010 at 3:52 pm

Casey Jaye Walker Slide would like some advise on how to get Tobey to sleep longer than 2.5 hour stretches at night.

April 10, 2010 at 9:36 am 

Casey Jaye Walker Slide is loving her little baby!

April 14, 2010 at 2:20 pm

Casey Jaye Walker Slide is watching the Boston marathon.  (I got really into watching Universal Sports during this time. I'd watch all kinds of things like marathons and cycling.)

April 19, 2010 at 10:59 am

Casey Jaye Walker Slide last night Adam said "Hey Tobey, hey Tobey" in his sleep.

April 23, 2010 at 3:47 pm

Casey Jaye Walker Slide has such a thoughtful and loving husband! He set up the laptop so I could be on the computer for the many hours I hold Tobey in his dark, quiet room while he naps.

April 24, 2010 at 4:52 pm


Wow, I can't believe I had forgotten some of that! Thank goodness for Facebook statuses! Here are some of my favorite pictures!

Tobey's baptism

We used to let Tobey sleep like this if he fall asleep while I was nursing and then I had to get up for something. If I didn't have to get up, I'd just hold him. 

2 Months Old (April 26th, 2010)

tobey and the gaga

We took Tobey to watch a train (a gaga) go by the other day. This was his first time watching a train pass close up, and he seemed a little scared at first. His whole world seems to revolve around trains. When he wakes up in the morning, the first thing out of his mouth is "gaga. gaga." because he wants to look at his train book. So this was probably his best day ever.

let nothing trouble you

Let nothing trouble you, let nothing make you afraid. All things pass away. God never changes. Patience obtains everything. God alone is enough.
-St. Teresa of Avila

i guess we have taught tobey well

Every day before Tobey goes to bed, we read him a book and then say a prayer starting with the sign of the cross. He sees how we do it, and he'll point to his forehead to imitate us. A similar process happens for nap time, but I didn't normally do a prayer. Then one day after I read Tobey a book before his nap, he started pointing to his forehead to do a prayer. Now every day he does the same thing. It's funny how I can totally forget to prayer, yet my little toddler never forgets.

first time randomly falling asleep

Yesterday Tobey fell asleep on the couch for the first time. Since the day this boy has been born, he has been really picky about where he sleeps. At first he would only sleep in my arms. Then starting at 5 months, he would only sleep in his crib. Very rarely would he fall asleep in the car. He must have been really tired.

shinkansen and pinterest

So I think I might be a little crazy. Tobey has a book about trains that has a picture of Shinkansen, which was the first Japanese bullet train. The word is funny to me and Adam so we always laugh when we read it. But I am so crazy, I say it in my head all the time. It's like a song stuck in there! I also say Pinterest in my head a lot, even though I really don't understand what the big deal is about Pinterest and why people like it so much. I think I am just trying to figure out how to pronounce it correctly.

Today, Adam found a video on youtube of the Shinkansen. I'll have to make sure I watch it tomorrow with Tobey.

gee

Adam and I had named Tobey's lovey "blankie", but today, Tobey started calling it "gee". This name applies only to his main lovey, not his alternate lovey that is supposed to stay in the car.

Tobey also learned how to say "cake". While he was playing with his cars, I sneaked into the kitchen to have a bite of cake. But then I tilted my head and saw Tobey watching me. He started to say cake and point to the counter. He somehow got distracted and asked for a banana. I gave him the banana, but then he started to ask for cake again. I told him he could have cake if he ate his banana he asked for. He ate all but two bites so I told him no cake. He was so mad that he went over to where the cake was on the counter and was saying cake and hanging off the edge of the counter trying to climb up.

sick boy

Tobey's been under the weather the past two days. Last night he had problems sleeping so I let him lay down in our bed with us. At first, he seemed to be doing well. Then he started to beat his head against a pillow, and it was all downhill from there. He started to beat his head against my arm, then he was pulling Adam's ear, and then he was standing up. Adam had to take him back to his crib because I knew I would be suckered into rocking him in the chair, and the whole process would start over again. Tobey cried again sometime around 3am, but Adam went in there since I am too much of a pushover. I'm so thankful to have Adam!  What a great husband and dad!

two things to note about when tobey was born

Tobey, you were born during the 2010 Winter Olympics and on a Friday during Lent. I don't know what else happened on your day of birth, but we can Google it sometime and find out.

tobey's first month

Okay, so I'm finally starting to do Tobey's monthly updates. I can't capture everything, and I can't remember everything so these will really just be highlights of the best information and the best pictures.

in the hospital
Tobey was born on Friday early afternoon, and we finally made it up to our room around 4 or 5pm.  Not long after that, my mom and aunt Becky arrived (and as I am writing this, it is their birthday!). Adam's family arrived to visit later that evening. Not much happened that first day or night, other than everyone commenting about how Tobey didn't look like a newborn...he wasn't all crinkled up or anything.  Even the nurse said he was really cute, and she said she doesn't say that to everyone.

The first night went well, and the next day went well too.  Just a lot of people going in and out of the room for various reasons. But that second night was crazy! Adam and I didn't sleep at all. Tobey was a cry baby, quite literally. At about 4am, I walked down the hall passed the nursery and saw 9 babies all lined up sleeping so we sent him to the nursery so we could get some sleep, but they brought him back to us an hour later saying there was nothing else they could for him. He was keeping all the other babies awake!

That third day I was screaming for a pacifier for Tobey, even though I said before that I didn't want to use one. Didn't take long for me to change my mind!

home
Sunday around noon, we finally got to go home. Tobey did well after that second night of his life when he was up all night. He pretty much just slept and never cried. I thought we were going to have an angel baby.  He was just so easy, with the exception of the first time Adam and I changed his diaper at home and had a mess all over the walls. My mom stayed with us the first week and did the cooking and cleaning. When Tobey was 4 days old, on March 2nd, it snowed here, and that was Tobey's first snow AND my mom's first snow!

The second week that we were home with Tobey, Adam had to go back to work so my aunt came to stay with me. It was during this second week that things started to change for Tobey. As he was becoming more alert, he was crying a lot more and becoming restless at times. But he was a great nurser, and he was only waking up 2 or 3 times at night and going right back to sleep. Nights were easy and enjoyable, but days were challenging.

Here are some of my Facebook updates from that first month. I can't think of what else to say about that first month other than it was wonderful, but a lot harder than I ever imagined.

March 15, 2010 at 8:49 pm

Casey Jaye Walker Slide can't belive she is about to say this about her beloved dog...but if Penny wakes up my son one more time from his nap, she is getting a muzzle!

March 17, 2010 at 10:21 am 

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Casey Jaye Walker Slide did not have as a successful of a day as yesterday. Tobey didn't nap from 8am to 4pm...just feed, got changed, then cried over and over. I thought newborns were not supposed to stay awake for longer than like an hour??

May 30, 2010 at 10:13 pm

Casey Jaye Walker Slide so far so good today...no screaming as of yet (but it is still very early)


Casey Jaye Walker Slide must be going crazy because she is hearing a baby cry even though Tobey is sleeping. :-/

March 24, 2010 at 9:16 am 

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Casey Jaye Walker Slide put gas in her car for the first time in a month! Woohoo for not commuting to Atlanta everyday!

March 26, 2010 at 9:22 am

Casey Jaye Walker Slide 's new pet peeve is when people say that they are tired.


And here are some of my favorite pictures of Tobey as a newborn!

Sorry, I don't know how to flip this yet.

 One Month Old

finding balance

I took Tobey to Mass this morning, and he was such a perfect angel! (With the exception of a few squeals here and there...loud, high-pitched, deafening squeals.) It made me think that I should bring Tobey to Mass more often. He didn't seem to mind being there at all.

But then I was thinking about a conversation I had with a neighbor friend of mine the other day. She is a wonderful person and a wonderful mom to a little boy about Tobey's age. (We are trying to get them to be playmates, but they just don't seem to get it so far.) She was telling me how she doesn't like to take her son on errands or to the places she wants to go. She tries to do that stuff while he is at his school. I've been kind of at the other end of the spectrum.  I take Tobey EVERYWHERE, and ANYWHERE I want to go (or have to go).I've even taken him to my doctor's appointments. I just figure he wants to be with me and learns by going places.

So anyways, thinking about that conversation with my neighbor, it made me think about what is the balance for taking care of your kid and your agenda. What is the line between caring for them and getting done what you need to get done? Should they go on all your errands? I still think Tobey learns from being in real world situations. How would he learn about the world sitting at our house all the time. But beyond that, what about the things I need to get done during the day while watching him? What is the balance between caring for him and doing the laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc.? How much time should he be entertaining himself versus how much time should I be entertaining him? What is best for him, and reasonable for me?

I am really not sure, but I think I spend more time entertaining him than working on my own agenda. Otherwise, I'd be getting more done. And I think it is okay to take him to Mass at least a few times a week. It's good for me, and it's good for him. Would that hour be better spent playing at our house with toys he is familiar with, or spent playing in the pew? I'd guess the pew.

the mullet is no more

Before Tobey's first haircut

He did so well! He didn't mind at all that his hair was being cut off. He must remember seeing Adam get his hair cut because he seemed to understand what was going on. Tobey just looked at his new train ("gaga") book the entire time. He's such a handsome, young boy now! (And always was, of course!)