Welcome to my page for my son, Toby!
I became pregnant with Toby almost as soon as Ross arrived here in the USA in 1997. Toby was born on September 18, 1998 and is currently nine years old.
To be quite honest, the first nine years of Toby's life have gone by in a flash. I've been thinking back to decide what to say on this page, and the truth is that the years have gone by so quickly that I don't really remember that much.
However, when I think about Toby's childhood, the most important times to me are these:
~ Toby living with his grandparents for 6-7 months as an infant due to my post-natal depression. We got him back when he was around 15 months old and I was doing much better.
~ Toby started to understand symbols of places when he was around two years old, and started reading the newspaper when he was three. He was always an extremely bright child and reading and math came very easily to him.
~ Around the age of five, Toby started doing complicated math sequences. Such as 64 + 38. I would have to think about what the answer would be, but Toby would just pop out the answer. He had a way of working it out in his head that was truly astounding. Sadly, most of this has been pummelled out of him by teachers who 'want to see his work'. Its a shame...
~ Going back a little, Toby became a brother when he was three years old. He was a wonderful brother, always wanting to help out with everything. He was 'our little helper'. He also had to go through a lot at a young age as Chloe, his new sister, was in and out of the hospital all the time. This hospital visits really upset him, and he wouldn't relax again until all of our family was back home again.
~ Toby's first day of school - he LOVED it. Absolutely loved it. and his teachers loved him.
~ Toby had a heart operation in 2006 for a heart murmur that he had since birth. The doctors said that it was the least complicated procedure you could have on your heart and the most common one, but still, it was a worry. and poor Toby had to be very brave to go through with it. The surgery went perfectly though, and now the doctors can't even tell that Toby ever had a heart murmur!! He is still supposed to have checkups every few years, and the heart murmur could come back, but we're hoping not... *crosses fingers*.
~ Moving to the USA in 2006 - Toby had just turned eight. I came over with Toby first and we lived with my mother. I was also about seven months pregnant at the time. My mom would go into flying rages, which scared both of us. Toby was such a good little boy at the time - he tried so hard to not be naughty and not to put any extra stress on me. When we got enough money, we left my mom's place and went to a hotel for a few days and then moved into our rental property. Ross came to join us later that day... and a couple of days later Toby had his first full blown temper tantrum in at least two months. Ironically, I was so happy to see it, and so happy that he felt comfortable enough again to get that angry and know that things would still be okay. I remember this time a lot simply because my mom would complain about Toby as he always wanted to play cards with her or board games with her, and she wanted him to just play on his own. It really upsets me that he was doing so much to be good, and she couldn't recognize that. Nor that we had moved over here without Ross and Chloe, our family was split apart for at least seven weeks. We were living in what can only be described as a hostile place, and we had brought no toys with us (no room for them) and we had no money to buy any. Toby had ONE CAR when he came over, and seriously, that is mostly what he played with for the seven weeks that we were with my mother. It makes me sad and angry that my mom can't or won't realize everything that Toby was going through. I could go on about this all night though ;-) so suffice is to say that Toby is an amazingly helpful boy whom I am really proud to call my son.
~ And since then? Toby started off at his school in the second grade. They quickly realized that he was past that, and moved him up to the third grade. This is despite the fact that they told me they have a strict 'no moving kids up' policy. Toby thrived in third grade, and LOVED his teacher. He learned a lot that year, and I'm glad he had such a great teacher for his first year at this school.
~ Toby is in fourth grade right now. He has had an absolutely appalling teacher this year, and we'll be glad when he gets a new teacher next year. We've had so many problems with this teacher that the psychologist for the school has offered Toby a chance to pick who his fifth grade teacher is and... he's still not sure if he wants to decide that or not, but I think it is wonderful that he has the option... and also if he changes teachers for the last two months of the school year...
~ Toby made the very mature decision of staying with the teacher he had all year. He felt they were doing a little better together than they had been previously and he didn't want to upset his entire daily routine just for a month or two at the end of the year. He also decided not to choose his fifth grade teacher, preferring to leave it to chance. I'm sure he will get a good teacher this coming year :)
~ At the end of the school year Toby was invited to have lunch with the principal of his elementary school! He was allowed to bring along one friend and he chose his best friend Connor. Why the honor? His class does something called 'Accelerated Reading' which is basically that you read a book and answer some questions about the book. Depending on the difficulty of the book, you get a certain number of points. Per semester the goal for each child is to gain 17 of these points. Toby received 120 the last semester of school! WOW!!! His teacher also hosted a pizza party for those that did well with their reading this year - so Toby was invited to that of course :)
~ Summer of 2008 has been good so far - Toby has been playing soccer on a team - my husband Ross is the coach for the second year. His team wins some and loses some, but they are doing really well! He also attented a British Soccer Camp with his cousin Isaiah at our local park and has been doing soccer at summer camp! its soccer, soccer and more soccer ;-)
and so it goes... this page will be updated as new things arise in Toby's life :)
