A lot has changed in the last 6 years. We went from zero kids to 4 kids. We’re in a different house. I’m at a different job. We’re 6 years deeper into this bizarre institution called marriage. It’s amazing to look at this big 6-year-old kid and try to remember what it was like before him. It’s all such a blur, I really am unable to remember.
When Toby was first born, one of our first conversations was about how Carson Palmer would be our QB for a long, long time. Welp, this was the year Toby fell in love with sports, and has a whole lot more to do with AJ Green than it did the Great Golden Boy Interceptor. Between a spring of playing T-Ball and a summer of rooting for the Reds and an autumn of playing soccer and a winter of rooting for the Bengals, The Tobe has become quite the sports fan. (Go ahead, ask him about the final MLB standings or the current NFL standings. He knows which team is in which place in which division.)
He has continued to grow into his role as the big brother. He and Aimee have been really great friends for a while… it’s fun to hear their conversations as they play together! Such grown up little people! This year, he became “The Baby Whisperer” because of his impeccable ability to sooth Katie when it seemed an impossible task. And he’s learning to love Lucy, though that is admittedly a harder task for a big boy. (Aimee is old enough and advanced enough to hang with him in all of his games and adventures. Lucy typically ruins his fun.)
He graduated from pre-school and is now the big Kindergartener. His brain continues to impress. Kid can read anything we put in front of him, and it’s getting harder and harder for Robyn & I to spell things out in “secret” conversation with him around. He even had his first “big boy” birthday party the other day. Scallywag Tag. A laser tag party. For my little boy. Gulp.
Who knows what is to come for this young man? We’ve already thrown a lot at him… and we’ll probably continue to do so. One of my biggest problems as his daddy is that I forget how young he still is. He’s such an impressive little dude, I need to remember that he’s still a little boy and shouldn’t always be expected to act above his age. I NEED TO PLAY MORE so that he can play more.
And as always, there’s a lot more, and I surely could find more perfect pictures, but these little girls are pretty tired of me ignoring them for a blog post, so… [/out]































