Maxwell can stand on his own

Maxwell standing from Daniel Too on Vimeo.

Maxwell is 10 months old!

Maxwell is very quickly turning into a small boy. He is so determined to be doing whatever Preston is doing, that it is spurring him on to develop a bit faster. He races around everywhere with expert crawling and climbing around the furniture abilities, and the last few days he has been practicing standing up without holding on to anything. The look of extreme pride on his face each time he lets go is so sweet! Since yesterday, he has increased from not being able to stand on his own, to standing for about 5 seconds. He initiates all the attempts on his own, so it is something he has decided he's ready for, and I would say over the coming week he will be a pro. Then he'll be walking in no time!

His baby signing is also developing in leaps and bounds. We are now at the exciting stage where he will point at something of interest and I can say the name of it and show him the sign, and he will repeat it after being shown it only once or twice. This is very exciting for communication!

And yesterday I discovered that Maxwell can play a game of bouncing a small ball to each other - he loves this! He understands the concept, and it's so fun, especially when Preston joins in and we all play. They love each other so much, it melts my heart. :) Cute boys.

Preston is 4!

Wow, Preston is finally 4, after acting like he's been 4 for ages and surprising people when they ask how old he is and he says '3'. He's had a pretty exciting year and has developed all sorts of skills, including being able to play computer/video/iPod/Nintendo games on his own and actually very well (Dan and Preston play co-op games all the time now where they have to work together), and swimming, and also Lego. He is very good at following the diagrams to build things - it's quite impressive to watch. He had a Lego birthday party, and he's going to a Lego school holiday program (and also a swimming program too).

Here are a couple of party pictures - I made Lego cupcakes and Lego crayons:

Thanks everyone for all the amazingly generous presents - he now has more Lego than some toy stores, and also lots of new inspirations such as drawing with magic reveal pens, and books. And with the added bonus of Christmas a week after his birthday, it's been very exciting for him lately!

Preston builds a Lego Tie Fighter

Lego Tie Fighter from Daniel Too on Vimeo.

Kathy draws our life

My lovely friend Kathy made us this amazing piece of art for Christmas - it details our life, it's so clever! In case you don't know us as well as Kathy does, here is an explanation for everything in the picture, starting top left:

Baking Delights: I do heaps of baking, especially cupcakes, and I bought a fancy cupcake display stand while Kathy was staying with us
TradeMe Sales Parcels: Kathy and I did an intensive Trademe few weeks of selling all sorts of random stuff, which resulted in millions of parcels to pack up
Blendy: I'm playing Rock Band, singing and being an Expert Guitarist, and sock knitting (the pink socks that I knitted for Kathy, and because I'm writing a sock knitting book so i'm always knitting)
Zombie Garden: Preston was quite addicted to a game called Plants vs Zombies for ages, so we planted a zombie garden (to protect our brains from being eaten) with the plants in the game. The yellow flowers were the power-producing plants, and the pea shooters were peas that could shoot the zombies (who said 'Braaaains!' and some wore road cones on their heads for extra protection)
The Too's: our family. And put on a drum kit. We play a lot of Rock Band.
Dan: He is playing Expert Drums and singing, plus holding a chef spoon as he is an excellent chef, and also conducting international commerce on his computer.
Christmas Tree: decorated with socks that i've knitted - i designed some patterns for christmas tree decoration socks :) It is also covered in World of Goo - this is from another game that Preston was very addicted to.
Preston: He is jumping off the couch (typical), wearing a cape saying 'Presto!' which is what the Little Einsteins (tv show) say when they want to go super-fast. He is singing the zombie song (from Plants vs Zombies), and is playing both the iPod Touch and the Wii. He is leaping over his Lego city (his new obsession), and past his games of Tantrix and Magnetix. The TV is showing NumberJacks, (Kathy and I call it 'NumberJerks') which is a really annoying kids show with some weird characters trying to teach something about numbers.
Maxwell: He is dancing to the music, while rattling something, and eating asparagus, and has food on his bib, and is also rather obsessed with Lego.

Maxwell learns baby sign language

Baby Sign from Daniel Too on Vimeo.

Maxwell has just started to figure out how to do some baby sign language himself (we've been doing it to him for months, and now he has the dexterity to do it properly). It's very exciting - now we can have signs for everything and can communicate so much better!