opening doors

Tim has only just grown tall enough to reach the door handle, but it seems that he's been studying how to operate it for some time. It took him only a couple of tries before he got it open.

car toy

Jenny bought Timothy a wonderful little remote control train, but it didn't work properly. I wasn't able to get another one; instead, I found something for him to have in the car. He loves it. It makes all kinds of car noises like turn signals and the horn and it has emergency vehicle sirens. The bad thing is that we're becoming immune to the siren noises and may miss a real cop!

happy birthday

Tim was one yesterday. We celebrated his birthday last week when Neville and Jenny were here. Mom and Jenny bought a cake and balloons, and we sang to him and offered him the whole cake and then, when he did nothing with that, just a slice to bury his little hands into. He wasn't very interested.





I think that having six adults standing around staring at him was a little intimidating. Stripping him down to his diaper in anticipation of the mess probably didn't help either. There were no tears, which is better than a lot of first birthday parties, and overall I think he enjoyed it.


The cake was very special as it had a photo of Tim on it. It's printed with food coloring for ink and sugar paper for paper. I don't think he even noticed. Wanting to stay away from nuts, chocolate and sugary sweet icing, they had the bakery make a plain white cake with whipped cream frosting. I look forward to next year when we can have a cake that tastes as good as it looks.





In a replay of Christmas, Tim's extended family once again loaded him with gifts. He doesn't seem to have a favorite yet.

Today, we had a little store bought spice cake for him and put a candle in the shape of a '1' on it. He didn't know what to do with the candle, but the wind blew it out for him. He ate a little more of this cake, and played with a lot more, but he still wasn't all that interested.



The weather was so glorious that we had cake outside.


never too early to start

mechanical cars

the hot dog van

the school bus

the hot dog van again

We went back to the playground at the mall today, but he wasn't interested in the climbing toys or the other kids. All he wanted to do was look at or get in the mechanical cars. Mom said it was the same when she took him last, but when he was in one and the two quarters were put in to start it up, he started to cry. I let him play on them for about twenty minutes today, until there were too many other kids with paying mothers who wanted to use them.

playground

We took Tim to a playground inside the mall. He was delighted with the other children and all of the equipment, which is all made of some kind of rubber, hard enough to hold shape but soft enough to work as shock absorbers.







Before this boy came along, Timothy had been playing with this alone. When he couldn't get to the slats, he figured out on his own to go to the back.

staying warm

The cabin was cold soaked when we arrived, and we all stayed bundled up for several hours until the fireplaces started to take the edge off of things.

you say braai, i say barbeque

While the men drank beer and cooked meat, Tim studied the grass and leaves in the yard. Jenny and Neville's friends in Colorado Springs took the recipe for Boerwors (sausage) to a local butcher years ago. They sent some to Fort Collins for us to enjoy.

kicking with grand-da

Typical of Colorado, the weather changed and we enjoyed a day warm enough to cook outside and play in the yard. Tim's kicking skills improved greatly under Neville's tutelage.

containers

Tim had to be coaxed into this container on the first day that we had it out. Now we can't keep him out of it.

knitting gran

Jenny makes beautiful sweaters for Tim. This is a sample of her work.

red head

Some of you have commented on the changing color of Tim's hair. The only red hair that he has left is the old growth on the crown of his head. I've cut it four times now; it was very long and thick on top when he was born. The new stuff growing in underneath is very blond. If he's like his mother, he'll go through several color changes before his hair finally settles. Who knows what he'll do with it once he discovers hair coloring.

stairs

climbing the stairs

We keep gates at the bottom and the top of the stairs to keep Tim off of them when he's unsupervised. He's an expert at going up but his going down skills are still in question. He goes down a short flight, two or three, backwards like a champ, but he's never tackled the whole staircase. He's more interested in going upstairs where Gee Gee and Gramps are than in coming down to where we live. When we go upstairs we open the gate and say 'open sesame.' He knows what that means and heads straight for the stairs. If we forget to close the gate, he goes stealthy silent and climbs them. Once when we left both gates open, I found him at my father's computer banging the keys. He'd opened a dozen or so programs.

learning

helping dad sort out the camping gear

Tim learns much more and much faster than I do, but I AM learning. Apparently, we've been starving the poor boy. He likes his food, but unlike many babies that we've seen, he doesn't LOVE his food. He still prefers to be fed than to feed himself, and when his hunger pains stop he loses interest in eating. However, we've always thought that he was eating enough. A couple of weeks ago, he refused his food at dinner (he turns his head nearly around backwards in his high chair and clamps his mouth shut tight) after eating what we thought was too little. So we let him down to play and brought his meal downstairs with us. Jenny fed him as he ran around,and he ate all his dinner. And more dinner. And a fruit cup. And a tub of yogurt. And another tub of yogurt. It never seemed to end. He ate until he was ready to sleep. And then, guess what? He slept through the night! Since then, we've been feeding him 'on the hoof' every night. He hasn't slept every night since then, but he's sleeping more nights than he has since he was six months old. Last night, he slept from 20:00 to 07:30.

hanging out in the wagon

My sister found this wagon on the side of the road, put out by someone for trash collection. Mom gave it a good cleaning with bleach. We put him in it and pulled him around the house, but he never got too excited about it until recently. Jenny bought a pair of boots while he was here, and he crawled inside the box. She punched a hole through one side, strung her scarf through it, and pulled him around the basement, much to his delight. When the box finally fell apart, she switched him to the wagon. He can now climb in and out of it himself, and he will ride longer than I want to pull. As much as he likes to ride around in it, often with Pooh or another friend, he likes to just sit in it and talk to himself.

this was taken by jenny after the death of the box

breckenridge

These photos were all taken by Jenny while we were at Breckenridge before Christmas.

deciding what to order

helping in the kitchen

enjoying a meal

now that he's walking, he gets more bumps and bruises. the old one is on his left, the new one on his right

playing with grand-da

christmas

Tim thoroughly enjoyed his first Christmas. Like all children his age, he loved the wrapping paper, boxes and bows best. However, he was also pleased with the many gifts he was given by friends and family. Thank you all very much! We couldn't get pictures of him playing with all his gifts, but here's a sampling...