Theo hangs out with his cousin Ralphie

We all watched in consternation as they fought incessantly. Okay, maybe they improved on the second day. But it was a little bit stressful.

It was something of a surprise for me, because Theo seems to get along so well with Gigi and Gerard in daycare. When I pick Theo up from their house, I always see them playing together and hugging and occasionally fighting over some orange toy car, but that never escalates. But for some reason, Theo is unusually anxious around Ralphie.

As I am writing this, Ralphie and Theo are hanging out at the zoo with Grampy and Grandma Gifford, and I hope it is going well. For now, at best, they might be able to ignore each other. Nobody wants to share toys with anybody. I have all kinds of theories about why their first real meeting did not work out so well, but the truth is, I don't know. At the same time, kids are kids, and they'll grow up and be just fine.

I wonder how Ruby and Theo will get along.

Theo turned two years old

Theo's birthday was October 17. We did not throw any big parties. It was very similar to last year, where we brought a birthday cake to his daycare and had everybody sing happy birthday, and then we had some small family celebrations. The theory is, at this tender age, he probably could not appreciate a huge crowd of people.

The days preceding his birthday, he learned to answer the question, "When is your birthday?" At first he would only say "October seven" but after a while he got that last syllable in. On the day of, he was really embarrassed when everybody started singing happy birthday to him. I didn't expect that reaction. He looked happy but covered his face up.

I'll post more a little bit later, after I get the pictures set up.

Wood blocks are fun for Theo

We got these blocks as a Christmas gift from Ted's Grammy. You can put them together to make a marble maze. For a long time, we couldn't really do the marble part with Theo, because he was too sneaky, and before you knew it, he could have a marble in his mouth. Now, he's big enough to know better, so Dad puts it all together and then Theo runs marbles through it. Then, when they're done with the marbles, they knock it over with great fanfare.

Theo playing in his gymini

The first picture was taken February 16, 2004 when Theo was 4 months old. The second picture was taken September 8 of this year, a month and some days shy of Theo's second birthday. We took the gymini out because we realized that Ruby is getting to be that age when she might be interested in the things that it has to offer. When we layed it out on the floor, Theo immediately started playing with it, even though he hadn't played with it in over a year. Ruby plays with it too sometimes, but we always have to watch, because sometimes Theo decides he wants to play with it at the same time. He might lay down beside her real nice, or he might shove her over, or even attempt to pick her up (which is not a good thing!) He also does this funny thing where he steals my keys out of my purse, and then hangs it on his gymini. If ever my keys are gone, the gymini is a good place to look.