Surprise, surprise, Toren has opinions! The other day he insisted that Debi put on him a red sock… and a blue sock! So, what did Toren wear to daycare? One red sock and one blue sock:
he did have clothes on when he went to daycare, but dinner made it necessary to remove the clothes
The daycare workers wondered if we noticed when we put them on in the morning. When I told them that’s what he chose, they just laughed. The next day, he picked out Debi’s shirt. This kid is getting really, really picky!
Thanks to the “things-to-do” feature of the St. Pete Times, Toren and I made our way out to Treasure Island Beach on November 20th to see sand sculptures.
one of the sculptures, titled "Muse"
I had to hold Toren tightly while we looked at the sculptures as his favorite thing to do in the sand is destroy stuff, which he later did on the beach – he found a pile of sand and proceeded to destroy it:
Another word Toren has learned is “bubbles.” He says it regularly. In fact, just the other night he said “bubbles” then ran into the bathroom and opened the close where we keep them. He loves to run around popping the bubbles, and gets to do this at daycare as well, which is what the video below shows:
Ever since our trip to Europe over the summer, Toren has loved oatmeal (Rosemary, his grandma, brought some on the trip). He has it almost every morning and asks for it specifically (he can say “oatmeal”). I tried to film him using his spoon to eat his oatmeal, but as soon as I started filming he stopped. So, not a great video, but you get the point:
The St. Petersburg Times has a great feature every day called “things-to-do“. I didn’t follow it closely before Toren, but now I look pretty closely and have found a couple of winning ideas. After the mall and Toren’s nap, I took him to Largo Central Park to ride the free mini-train, the Largo Central Railroad. The train rides are open to the public the first full weekend of each month and are free (though they accept donations). I asked Toren if he wanted to ride a train and he said yes, so we made the trip (about 30 minutes) and rode the train:
the trains
Toren and I on the train
He was actually very funny on the train. He was excited when he saw the trains and would point. But as soon as we got on, he sat down, then didn’t budge or say a word for the entire 15 minute ride. I’m not sure if he was scared or nervous or what. But it wasn’t like him. I was thinking that I would have to hold him to keep him from trying to jump off. Not a concern…
Toren by one of the engines
The train track runs through about 1/3 of the park. There was also a big play area, with lots of toys. Here’s another photo of Toren, this time on one of the toys:
Toren tackling a dinosaur
And a video of Toren on one of the big toys:
Even though he isn’t very active in this video, it’s funny because he can see the path across to the other side, but it was blocked off with a piece of wood. He’s trying to figure out how to get past the wood to go across the bridge.
