Toby turned 2 years old on 3 October.
He started school the same day.
Starting school has been a breeze thanks to having big brother there by his side.
Everyday Jude walks Toby up to his classroom. No tears or clinging to Mom. They hug and kiss me and are off. It’s a wonderful feeling to leave happy kids.
Toby’s teacher, Miss Kitty, says that the first thing Toby does everyday is paint.
She sends us a weekly email with photos and info on what he’s been up to.
They go on field trips once a week, which she said Toby just loves.
They also bake bread or some kind of of snack almost everyday.
Toby tells me about all his friends. Miss Kitty said he is very chatty with them even though they are speaking different languages.
It seems like the right thing for Toby at the right time. I pick them up at Noon everyday and they are excited to share all the things they did.
Apart from school, Toby is all about his bike and scooter. He has mastered the scooter and now is really mastering the balance bike. He’s going down hills and getting quite fast. When we run errands, he insists on riding his bike while Jude and I walk.
At 2 years old Toby is an awesome sleeper. He doesn’t always get to bed on time as him and Jude are so chatty. He loves his cloud pillow from Ikea (which he calls his ‘sunshine’). He loves lots of blankets and things to cuddle with.
He is a fantastic eater. We haven’t had any mealtime battles with him yet. The only issue is that he won’t eat a green veggie when it is out in the open on its own. So I dice them up and add them to rice or pasta and they go down just fine. 
He loves to draw and paint. He will happily sit for an hour working on a picture.
He loves water – bath time and swimming. I took the boys swimming earlier this month and Toby was a total independent little fish. He has his little wings on and was happily floating around and dunking under without a worry.
Toby is really into his things. He likes to have hats on this head or sunglasses and keep them on. He carries his sunshine pillow around all morning and then slowly piles more things into his arms. He inevitably starts dropping things and then cries because he get it back into his grip. So I have started giving him a little bag to put his things in. I know its normal at this age. He is not interested in sharing with Jude and feels comforted by his possessions.
Toby can still throw great fits. He is so much better than before but he can still really make it rain. We get a lot of crocodile tears from him and it’s usually something Jude has done to upset him.
But Toby has matured a lot, even things like haircuts (which used to be unbearable) are no problem now.
Toby can be shy around people but he is outgoing when it comes to trying new things. He’s fearless on the playground. He loves climbing high and going down big slides.
Toby loves being helpful, and since school has started he has been refusing to let me help him do things for him, like put on or take off his shoes. It’s been awesome. He’s getting better and better at pulling his pants up after the potty.
At 2, Jude is still the center of Toby’s universe. He loves his brother so much. I hope this bond never changes between them. They are always looking out for one another. If I give Toby a snack he will immediately ask where Jude’s snack is. If Toby falls down Jude will cry out for him as he is so upset by Toby being in pain.
Toby’s actual birthday was a bit crazy this year as I was in hospital due to a burst ovarian cyst. Despite the drama, we still managed to celebrate his bday spread out over the week. 
Once I was recovered, I baked this. Toby is our little dinosaur. He loves to ‘roarrrrr’.
We invited best buddy Jessica over to celebrate with us and we all had a great time.
Happy Birthday, Toby! We love you!
He is changing a lot. He can relay such complex thoughts and sentence patterns now. He watches our mannerisms and copies them. And he is so hungry to understand how things work. I must get at least 500 questions a day from him. We are always talking.
At school he has been getting to do some awesome things, like cutting with knives and scissors, and so at home I have been letting him do the same.
Here is his work from school this month:
Jude is so keen to help me out with everything I do. I’m having a lot of trouble getting him to nap at the moment because he knows I do housework while they nap. So quite a few days this month he stayed up with me and baked, did dishes or laundry. One day I was really tired and I told him I needed a nap but he said he didn’t and wanted to play instead. After I woke up I found him in the playroom like this:
Jude is so curious about where we live, and where our extended family lives. He understands now that we have family in America and New Zealand and that we live in Taiwan for Luke’s job. He loves to ask me questions like, ‘What is daddy’s work’, or ‘why doesn’t our house have stairs like Grandma and Grandpa’s?’. He also always asks me to what a word means if he hears one he doesn’t understand.
Another thing Jude is getting the hang of is drawing. Here is his first drawing that resembled something! So proud!
Running is still one of Jude’s favourite things to do. He always wants to be the fastest.
We did a few swimming lessons this month and then Jude got sick so we had to take a break. But I was impressed how totally fearless he was sticking his head under water! Way too many mouthfuls of water!
Being sick was no fun but they both developed a deep love for the Minions.
These two are so thick. They fight a lot but are usually both to blame. I know its just a normal part of sibling hood. More and more I am leaving them to work out their own conflicts as a lot of it becomes about who can get Mom’s attention.
At the end of the day though, Jude can also make Toby laugh harder than anyone else. It’s pretty special.
We are so proud of our soon to be 3 and a half year old!
Toby took a bit longer to warm up to being in Ohio. He’s more cautious by nature and so his instinct is always to cling to me in new situations. It was pretty exhausting at times as Toby really can throw a good fit.
I think it took a good week or so until he really started to go to Grandma or Grandpa for something. It took even longer for him to let them pick him up (rather than constantly demanding me). My parents encouraged me to get a little tougher with Toby and to stop always giving into his demands. Once I stopped always picking him up, or giving into his cries, I felt more in control and over time Toby began to accept things. It can be very hard not to baby the baby of the family.
So it wasn’t the easiest trip with Toby but I think we made progress and it was still a lot easier than when he was a baby. Despite these bumps in the road, Toby still managed to have a great time. Like Jude he loved being outside.
I tried to teach him how to roll down a hill but he didn’t quite get how to maneuver the roll. It was really funny to watch his attempts.
Toby is always getting up to something funny. He makes people laugh all the time even if he is not trying to.
His mannerisms, the way he moves his body, how he talks are all so unique. As I’ve mentioned many times before, Toby has to be experienced for people to understand.
Toby also enjoyed all the great food we had in America, especially the ice cream.
He was pretty good at getting back on routine sleepwise. He’s happy as long as he has a pillow to cuddle.
He is so inquisitive. He’s always asking, ‘whats that? what’s that?’ and then resonding with ‘oh’.
He gave me so much trouble on both the flights but especially on the one back. Our flight on the way back was made particularly bad because of the time it left (1:45am). We were all so happy to finally land and see Dad. Toby loved returning to the familiarity and comfort of home.
Toby has a tough shell but underneath he is so kind and gentle.
He is Mr. Entertainer. He is always talking, making up games, or trying out new tricks. I love that his imagination is so big and is only going to keep getting bigger.
He loved being outside exploring my parent’s yard. We caught so many frogs.
It took him a good week to get over his jet-lag so he would end up in my bed quite a bit.
Jude always wanted to be doing whatever Grandpa was doing.
Jude ate so well in America. In fact, we haven’t had any issues with him being fussy about food for quite some time. He’s grown out of whatever it was he went through and now happily sits at the table and eats without a battle.
Jude loved watching Disney Junior on a big flat-screen. He also got to go to his very first movie at the theatres with Grandpa. They saw, “The Secret Lives of Pets”. Grandpa said Jude ate a lot of popcorn and was very good.
I love this age so much as he really understands things. He understands that we live in a different country from Grandma and Grandpa. He understands that if he waits 5 minutes, I will come play with him after. I can tell him when something is difficult for me (usually Toby) and he will empathise and try to help me out. On the airplane he was incredible. Toby was a big challenge (from being over tired and super needy). When Jude had to pee, he asked me to come with him but I couldn’t as I was knee-deep with Toby, so I told him to go ahead by himself and if needs help to ask a flight-attendant. Without a second thought, he hopped up from his seat and did exactly that. He continued to do so though out the flight, even when he had to poop! I was really impressed by how grown-up this was!
He certainly still has his moments. We have this book called, ‘Clark the Shark’ that we love reading to Jude as it describes him so well. Clark the Shark has a big personality and sometimes he is just too much for other people and so he’s always getting reminded to ‘stay cool’. Jude gets overly excited and becomes a wrecking ball so we’ll tell him to remember Clark the Shark.
He’s a busy kid and when things slow down, or he gets bored, it’s usually prime time for him to act out.
Go Jude, go!
Five years in Taiwan 