3 years developmental update

Wow, I still can't believe Tristan is 3 years old now! Bye bye under 3 freebies. We all knew the time would come. But really, time goes by quickly and kids grow so fast! I'm so happy to be able to spend so much time with him while he is still young. I feel like we have celebrated every milestone and everything we do together will leave behind great memories for the future. With another birthday behind us, here is the latest in growth and development for Tristan.

GROWTH

He really is getting so big! Physically he is a bit bigger than he was a year ago. He isn't growing at the rate he used to when he was a baby so we're able to let him wear his clothes for longer periods. He still wears some of his 24 month clothes even. Most of them are pants though. Last year's 3 year old winter clothes will get worn again, which I'm thankful for. Tristan has nice clothes and some of them are really expensive French clothes so if he can wear them for more than one season, then I'm happy! Some of the pants we let him wear last year no longer need to be folded at the bottom. He wore the same Halloween costume as last year! It was slightly big last year and this year it may have been a bit snug. Jean-Louis weighed Tristan a week or so ago and he's 32 pounds. When compared to the other kids at daycare, Tristan appears to be a bit on the small side.

FOOD & EATING

Tristan may be a bit small for his age (or maybe he's average) but I know he eats well and I'm not worried at all. Jean-Louis and I are both petite so I don't expect Tristan to be very big or tall one day. For the past week, Tristan has been eating well. He some times nibbles at lunch but then when dinner comes along, he eats all the food we give him. He'll have a bowl of vegetable and chicken soup, then yogurt, then fruit and maybe a cookie. Overall though, we still don't enjoy mealtimes very much. Whether or not Tristan eats all his food or not, we still have to nag at him or coach him along quite a bit. Sometimes we even have to soup feed him a bit to hurry him along. Jean-Louis really really hates doing that! Lately, it has been pretty good though and Tristan has been eating by myself.

Things are pretty much back to normal now. When we came back from vacation, Tristan became a bit more difficult at the dining table. Thank goodness we are back to our routine. We're allowing Tristan to eat more things now, including junk food like processed candies. He had his first lollipop just a few days ago. At first he really liked it but then after about 10 licks, he didn't want anymore. He has also tried pop, black licorice, M&M candies, and chips. When he does eat junk food, it's more like a sampling. The idea is just for him to try it and let him know that he can't have too much because it's not healthy. I think it's important for him to try all sorts of foods so that he at least knows what they are and will be able to follow when people talk about them. We also don't want to deprive him to the point where he would engorge in tons of junk when he's at a party because he can't have any at home. I heard that is a problem with some kids. Of course we are very strict with him as well or else he would be a very picky eater and not listen at the dining table.

POTTY TRAINING

Tristan is going strong with his potty training. He is fully trained when he is awake and 50% of the time when he is asleep. It could be more because he has been increasingly waking up with dry pull-ups now. I can't remember the last time we had a potty accident. When we were in Hawaii, Tristan didn't have any accidents, even when we were on the tour bus all day. We were very lucky because it turned out that we had totally forgotten to bring along a change of underwear and clothes for him if he had an accident. So lucky! I don't bother asking Tristan if he has to pee anymore. He tells us and some times he will even hold it a long time, while I finish something up in the kitchen. We used to run up the stairs every time he told us but now we just calmly walk up. It's so nice to be potty trained :)

SLEEP

Tristan sleeps a bit less now since he has pretty much given up his naps. He stopped napping at home for a few weeks now. Sometimes when we are out, he may fall asleep and then we just let him. If he can sleep, I'm all for the naps :) We just don't bother putting him down anymore. He seems totally energetic and happy about it too. His bedtime hasn't changed. He sleeps around 9PM and wakes up around 7:30AM.

Tristan still sleeps in his crib. He slept in a twin and double bed when we were on vacation and only fell off it once. We thought we would have to transfer him over to a bigger bed or extend his crib when we got back. It turned out he liked sleeping in his crib. It's not a big deal to us since we would prefer to keep him in the crib as long as possible. He doesn't jump out and this way he is contained. I used to hear my friend talk about how her kids would run to her room at 6AM and wake her up. I'm trying to delay this from happening to me as long as possible. I know I'm lucky Tristan listens a lot. He wakes up in the morning and he calls out from his crib "Mommy? Are you awake? I'm not tired anymore." I would look at the clock and respond "Not yet Tristan. Go back to sleep. Mommy needs 20 more minutes." That usually does it :)

SPEECH

Tristan is piecing together new sentences like you wouldn't believe it. He'll hear something once and then try to use it in a new sentence. I'm not sure how and when this all happened but we're noticing it right now. He is also speaking with better tense. He'll say things in the present and past and is figuring out which one to use and when. He asks "why" to everything. I think the "why" stage started when we went to Whistler back in May. He's funny to have conversations with because he has answers for most things even though they don't make sense. Let's say he has a reply to most things :)

Jean-Louis says that Tristan has no theory of mind. What he means is that he doesn't know that there are some things he will know that we won't know. For instance when we pick him up at daycare and ask him what he did at daycare, he says I don't know. Then he turns to me and asks me "do you know mommy?" The same thing happens when I ask him about the kids at daycare. This makes it extra hard to learn about who he plays with and who his friends are. It wasn't easy knowing who to invite to his birthday party.

Tristan speaks English but has a full understanding of French. He says a few things in French and only French. He can say a few things and understand even more things in Chinese. One thing I'm proud of is that Tristan doesn't swear or say things like "damnit." I don't swear and Jean-Louis is controlling himself from saying things like "damnit" and "Jesus Christ." So far it's working because whenever Tristan is in shock, he says "oh my goodness." However, he does know dirty words and he'll say it to be naughty. For instance he says "caca" here and there to be funny. "Caca" is poo in French. Luckily, not many people know what he is saying and probably thinks he is just making funny noises.

BEHAVIOR

Some times we lose our patience at Tristan and then we yell and become aggressive. Tristan is learning from us and some times he protests and misbehaves for attention. A couple of times, he tried to hit or kick us when he was really mad. Every time, we pulled him aside, lectured him and got him to apologize. He's pretty good at saying sorry and he understands why we are sad when he is behaving badly. He is also polite and says thank-you and excuse me.

Tristan is rough when he plays so we're teaching him to be more gentle when pretending to play things like "kung-fu." We pretend fight him but he fights us for real and some times we really get hurt! I am definitely going to enroll him in some kind of martial arts class. He's going to kick butt!

He's goofy. He likes to make funny and weird faces all the time. I think he gets that from me. At his birthday party this past weekend, he had a hard time standing still with a straight face when everyone was singing happy birthday to him. He keep making faces and sticking his tongue out. I notice but Jean-Louis didn't. Some times he just does that.

Tantrums? What tantrums? Yeah, he still tantrums from time to time. They don't bother us much anymore since they hardly happen and when they do, they last maybe a few minutes at most. We're so glad the terrible-twos are behind us. From what I hear, threes are awesome :) It's already pretty awesome I think. Tristan really is a great little kid.

Audio: Tristan singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Audio: Toddler sings "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" by CocoaGeek

What it is like to raise a multilingual toddler

I speak English and a little bit of Chinese and French. I speak mainly English with Tristan. Jean-Louis speaks French and English and speaks only English with me and only French with Tristan. Tristan is 26 months old and is learning more and more language every day. His language consists mainly of English, some French, the odd Chinese and is accompanied by baby sign.

They say only the parents understand what their child is saying when they start to speak. It's not until around age 3 that they can be understood by other people. I can understand Tristan more than Jean-Louis since I am with him more. Some times neither of us can understand him. We would be asking each other "what did he say?" When Tristan speaks, he may be speaking with a mix of languages in his short sentences. We would then wonder if he is speaking English and just pronouncing it wrong or is he speaking French and pronouncing it wrong. Some times when we don't understand, he tries to say it differently and ends up saying the same word in both English and French. Ah ha! For instance, one day I was peeling eggs in the kitchen and Tristan was on the couch saying something like Tristan eat oeuf but he didn't pronounce "oeuf" right so he kept saying it. I asked you want to eat what? When he saw my confusion and I still didn't acknowledge him with an okay, he said "egg."

In fact, we have many examples of confusion over what Tristan is trying to say. The other day when I put Tristan in his stroller, he said big boosette. I repeated big boots? He said no and then kept repeating big boosette. Then it dawned on me that he was saying big poussette, where poussette is French for stroller. There are some sentences he will say which will be composed of English, French, and Chinese. Yeah, if we're having problems some times, an outsider would have no chance!

Tristan knows his construction vehicles in French since the books are in French. He also knows some of his insects in French. I'm learning these myself! He knows some of the English equivalents too but he refers to most of them in French. For everything else, it just depends. He may say it in French one time and then the next time he will say it in English. Or he may say it in French and English at the same time. Also, Tristan now knows how to curse in English (damn it) and French (zut). Watch out!

I would like to take advantage of this language spurt by teaching Tristan more Chinese words. He's interested in learning so why not, right? Sadly, I don't speak much anymore but if he knows some words, he will be able to understand my parents more. Although Tristan speaks mainly English, I would say his understanding of both English and French is probably the same. Here are some of the phrases he would say now:

• Today, prend le skytrain again.
• Papa prend le bus go working.
• Tristan cry. Tristan miss daddy.
  
• Tristan prend un bain. Papa prend un douche. Tristan grand, Tristan prend un douche.
• Mama cook. Papa do dishes.
• Coco at home. Eat du pain. (Coco is Tristan's friend at daycare)
• Tristan eat nouille. Coupe nouille.
  
• Papa carry petit Tristan. Mama owie arm.
  
• Peoples get on, peoples get off chou chou train.
  
• Tristan wear veste. Tristan put on gant.
• Hand main dirty. Mommy clean.
• Maman, what you doing?
• Mama happy Tristan eat all.
• Tristan wait mama downstairs.
  
• Banana muffin no caca.
  
• Caca in potty, not in couche.
  
• Doggie no eat Tristan.
• When Tristan grand, drive to Mexico.
• When Papa small, Tristan put vaseline on Papa.
• When big, Tristan drink coffee, go work, prend le cars.
• Carrot go home eat.
• Tristan wear pajama to sleep.
• Tristan wake up, Tristan play play-dough.
  

Happy Chinese New Year 2011!

Gong Hay Fat Choy from Mommying Around on Vimeo.

My name is "Tristan." I am "2."

Tristan has been talking for awhile now but he never could or would say his own name. He would say other people's names but not his. We thought maybe his name was hard to pronounce but then he has cousins with uncommon names and he could say them. I was beginning to think he just didn't like his name since he would rather call himself "Dune." A couple of months ago, he would refer to himself as Dune or Doon. He points to himself and says "Doon do it." He still does that by the way. We have no idea where Doon came from.

In the past week, we have been trying to teach him how to say his full name. I have heard him say his first name from time to time, usually when he is copying me. He just doesn't refer to himself as that. He obviously knows his name since everyone calls him Tristan. A few days ago, he was saying his first and last name but he added a few extra syllables to his last name. Yesterday was the first time he pronounced his full name clearly. Well, as clear as toddler language gets :) It's actually very cute to hear. We were so excited, we recorded him saying it several times. Yeah, we're those kind of parents.

When we ask him "what is your name," he responds correctly. We then ask him how old he is and he says "2." We started to teach him his age when he turned 2. We're not convinced he knows what 2 is because he says "2" every time we ask him "how many." How many grapes would you like? 2. How many fingers am I holding up? 2. Everything is 2 whether it's right or wrong! Research studies also suggest that children under the age of 3 1/2 do not understand numbers the way we do. They live in a logarithmic world. For instance we see 1 and 2 as being the same distance as 8 and 9. They are both 1 apart. Toddlers see a huge gap between 1 and 2 and little gap between 8 and 9. Why? Because going from 1 to 2 is essentially doubling. When children turn 3 1/2, they finally understand numbers as discrete units. 5 is now 1 more than 4. Now, the child can learn mathematics! I'm a math geek so I can't wait to do math with Tristan. I found the number podcast on Radiolab very interesting. Jean-Louis introduced me to Radiolab awhile ago and the talks are so interesting, I now have a subscription to them in iTunes.

Camera. Action. SING.

Camera. Action. SING. from Mommying Around on Vimeo.

2 year developmental update

I kind of dreaded arriving at the terrible twos but now that we are here, I really don't mind it. Sure the tantrums are increasingly bad and it makes you want to scream at the top of your lungs too but if you remove that, raising a two year old is great!

SPEECH

I can't speak for all kids who arrive at two, but Tristan is a thrill to be around most of the time. He can speak in 4-5 word sentences now and has a good understanding of what we say to him in both English and French. He can pronounce a lot of words well and will attempt to pronounce almost anything you throw at him, even if it's not close. For instance, there is a Hawaiian fish called humuhumunukunukuapua'a (hoo-moo-hoo-moo-noo-koo-noo-koo-auhp-oo-ah-ah) but when he tries to copy, it's "hoo-moo-ah-ah." He understands basic concepts like hot/cold, big/small, happy/sad etc. He is learning how to be polite by saying please, thank-you, and excuse me. We find ourselves having to be what I consider overly polite, just to set a good example for him :) Most of the words he speaks are 1-2 syllables long.

Example of phrases he will say:

• Papa clean hands
• After eat, brush teeth (or take bath)
• Papa come home, hurry
• More please water
• Papa ride choo choo train
• Go up bus
• Dune (aka Tristan) take off Papa vest

CLOTHING

He is wearing anything from 18 months to 2 year old clothes. His ski outfit is 18 months and it fits perfectly, although the sleeves could even be an inch longer. Most of his clothes are 23 months to 2 years. He is starting to receive 3 year old clothes as gifts and they probably aren't overly big on him either. His shoe size is 6 or 7. We just bought him snow boots that are size 8 though.

FOOD & EATING

Tristan is not as picky as he was a few months ago. He is at the age where we can bribe him to eat his dinner before he will get any fruit for dessert. If we tell him one or two more spoons of food and then we can move on, he usually agrees and does it within a few minutes. He may not be happy about it but he does obey. He some times surprises us by eating a vegetable in his dish like watercress before eating the fish or chicken chunks, which are some of his favorites. Some times he eats everything we serve him and asks for more. He is definitely eating more these days than what he did last month. Maybe he is going through a growth spurt?

We allow Tristan some sweets, such as homemade sugar cookies (without icing), and he had a few bites of his birthday cake. When he ate it, he didn't ask for more than what we gave him. The taro cake also wasn't as sweet as your conventional birthday cake and there were real fruit on top as well. He hasn't tasted candy or chocolate yet. He is well fed so I don't think he feels like he is missing out on a lot :)

Tristan is only getting one bottle of milk a day now. We give him 220ml first thing in the morning. I think that sounds right for now since he also gets cheese and yogurt with some of his meals. We do paninis a lot, which always have cheese, and we have kefir pancakes twice a week or more. The oatmeal I make in the morning for him also has milk in it.

He doesn't make a big mess! We are thrilled about this progress :) We used to line the carpet with a garbage bag so that any food that landed on it wouldn't stain the carpet and it would be easier to clean up. We threw away that garbage bag over a month ago! Hooray! Tristan still drops food every now and then but most of the mess is in his lap or on the highchair. There have even been times where there were no mess at all!

BEHAVIOR

Tristan is very good at listening. Some times we have to train him a bit and then he catches on pretty quickly. We know he is trying to test us a lot so we are careful in what we allow or don't allow him to do. He tends to order us around but I think it's also because we tell him to do stuff all the time. We want him to be helpful and we need him to know that we are "the bosses." When he wouldn't get out of his chair to bring his finished milk bottle to the sink and wanted me to come and get it, I kept explaining to him that he could help by dropping it in the sink so that I could wash it for him. He didn't like that much and protested for a good 5-10 minutes. After a couple of days of this, he now automatically brings his bottle to the sink each time. He is teachable but some times it does take work and patience.

Tristan is very playful. He loves playing chase and he loves playing rough. He runs fast, climbs and jumps from almost anything. He does know his boundaries though and so far he hasn't hurt himself badly. It's nice that he is teachable :) We thought putting up the Christmas yesterday with all the glass ornaments on it would be a disaster but so far, Tristan has stayed away from it. If he does touch it, he knows to be gentle. Phew.

And then there are tantrums. They sometimes come from nowhere. Maybe we didn't let him do something he wanted to like jump off the counter. He knows he shouldn't but he just needs to pick a fight out of silly things so he can release his anger at us. Once the kicking, screaming, and tears are over, everything is forgotten and forgiven. Just like that. We get bad tantrums from him maybe 2 times a week. He protests a lot when we put a full bib on him (the ones with arms) before his meal, force brush his teeth after he has done it, and put him in the stroller when he wants to walk. It's just like that.

He makes funny faces all the time. I think he gets that one from me :) He also loves making funny noises. Some times making these noises hurts his throat and then he coughs. What a nut!



Making funny noises inside cup from Mommying Around on Vimeo.

POTTY TRAINING

We have been more relaxed in the potty training department because we don't want him to feel pressured. We also can't do it alone since daycare trains him differently. He seems more aware of his bladder now. He will tell us when he is peeing, but not before he pees. He tends to pee more often when I put him on the potty first thing in the morning now. Poos are still hit and miss. He usually tells us after he does it.

Here's a quick rundown of some of the good and bad right now.

GOOD:

• Sings/dances with you and then claps when it is done
• Eats well and is not as picky as before
• Is old enough to go play in the snow
• Can take to a selected number of family-friendly events and have a good time
• Has good understanding when we explain some things to him
• Has a much improved understanding of language overall and it's getting to be a joy to talk with him
• Likes to clean himself and doesn't like to have dirty hands
• Is very playful and has a wonderful laugh

BAD:

• He insists on doing everything on his own
• He throw tantrums out of frustration
• He's acquired this bad habit of letting saliva out of his mouth part way and then sucking it back up
• He protests when we brush his teeth
• Some times he clings to my legs when I am washing dishes, usually when he is sick of playing alone
• Doesn't listen to us as much as we would like

Ah! Smart toddlers.

No, we're not bragging about Tristan again. Today, we had a playdate with a toddler who is way more advanced than Tristan. He is only four months older!

Every parent loves to hear that their child is advanced and smart. We're no different. We some times hear that Tristan is smart from the daycare staff and since Tristan seems to be learning 3 languages and does baby sign, we always thought he was smarter than average babies around his age. Until today. Once you meet another child that is way more advanced than your own, you begin to question your own child's intelligence. Ok, so Tristan may just be average now.

So who is this wise child friend of ours? He is definitely smarter than most kids his age. As far as I know, he has always been smart. He was playing the Towers of Hanoi at a young age, for crying out loud. Ok, Tristan started to walk at an earlier age and can sign but this kid started to talk way younger. Now at just 26 months, he can say four syllable words like helicopter and motorcycle perfectly! He speaks two languages and can assemble puzzles designed for 3-6 year olds. Incredible. Tristan can sign airplane and make airplane noises :(

I know. It's silly to compare kids so young because some my appear more advanced than others but it may not mean anything. Although I'm pretty sure my wise friend's child will be brilliant and will have a bright future :) I once read that a child could start speaking before another but then could catch up and start forming sentences before the first child that was initially more advanced. All children are different, even within the same family. As parents, we just can't help but compare our child with others. Today, I found myself doing this a lot more than I would have liked. Now, I understand how parents can be so competitive with their children. If you have watched the Joy Luck Club, you'll know exactly what I mean. Oh boy!

22 months developmental update

Tristan is 22 months old today. I haven't done developmental updates for awhile so I thought I would this time around. In no particular order, here are the updates.

A big boy but still baby-like:

In many ways, Tristan is such a big boy. He is speaking more and more every week and learning to potty. He goes up and down the stairs on his own now. He is a little daredevil and sometimes like to slide or jump down the stairs . He just likes to climb and jump off things, period. In the past several months, he sure has matured a lot. This is why I am sometimes surprised, he can still be so baby-like. Making funny faces or noises still makes him laugh hysterically. Baby entertainment still amuses him. If he gets upset either because one of us won't let him do something and he gets yelled at, he cries for the other parent. He runs around making funny noises. He's a monkey. He's a goof. All these things still remind me that he is still very much a baby.

Music and stories:

He can't make up his mind. What music does he want to hear? He'll first say "Daisy do" (aka Daisy Daisy or Bicycle built for two) and then once you play it, he says "no" and sign and make monkey noises. Now, he wants to listen to "Five little monkeys." Start playing that and he will say "Daisy do" etc. He has been doing this a lot! This week, he seems to be more interested in "Ashes, ashes... down!" (aka Ring around the Rosie).

Speaking of music, he likes to sing and read but since he doesn't know the words, he just mumble jumbles and hums the tune. There was this one hum he was doing for awhile and I had not idea what the music was. He repeatedly did it so I figured it was something he heard at daycare. The end part sounded like "dive jive... nanana." It was sort of driving me crazy trying to figure out what the song was. Then one day, he repeated it after I sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." The verse he was singing was "Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky." The tune was the same, the lyrics - not so much!

He recounts stories or things that happen days or weeks ago. When he hears about it or when he is at the location that it happened in. For example, I sprayed some lemon pedge on a big spider to chase it away by the fireplace. Tristan watched this from the couch and now won't stop recounting the story. Go near the fireplace or mention spider and he will go on and on about how mommy sprayed the spider :)

Speech:

He speaks like us. He would say something that is partly in English, partly in French and partly in Chinese. That's our fault. Instead of just sticking to one language we tend to speak a bit of everything. For myself, I focus on English but will say some things in Chinese. When I know that Tristan only knows how to identify something in French, I may say it in French. I'm not consistent and it may be screwing him up. Jean-Louis sort of does this too. He sneaks in Chinese here and there but he can't even say it properly.

Potty Training:

We're in full swing here with Tristan's potty training. It's a lot harder than I expected and is taking quite some time. Part of the problem I think is that we're not consistent with him because when he is in daycare three days a week, they don't put him on the potty a lot. Some days he will only sit on the potty once while he is there. Often it's 2 or 3 times. When Tristan is home with me, he is on the potty at least 7 times and we sit for 5 to 10 minutes each time. We sit longer if he tells me he needs to poo beforehand.

It's been hit and miss but lately there has been a lot of misses. It's getting to the point where I'm so frustrated some times that I actually get mad and want to go on strike. Maybe we're too hard on him and it's backfiring or maybe he's not ready after all. Sometimes I find myself waiting all day for a poop so I can try to catch it and when I miss and it's the only one of the day, I get so angry. It's terrible! I need to chill out :(

It's crazy how missed potty trips can make me so upset. At the same time, I find myself overjoyed when we have a successful potty trip. Like this morning when Tristan told me he had to "caca" (aka poo), I dropped everything I was doing, rushed him upstairs, and we sat and played with the etch-n-sketch for less than 5 minutes when he had a big poop in the potty. He cheered first and then I cheered. It was awesome! Gross but awesome :)

Sleep:

We are lucky. Tristan is a great sleeper. He had always slept a few hours less than average babies but when he does sleep, he sleeps well. He is sleeping more now than he did when he was less than a year old. We figure it's a growth spurt.

Tristan moved into his own room over a month ago and it was almost as though nothing changed. We also moved right next door to him. We're pretty much the same distance away, except that a wall separates us now. The first few days, he would wake up crying, just like the way he would wake up from an afternoon nap. That was the only difference I noticed. Now, he wakes up calling "mama" or "baba." When we step into the room, he signs and says "all done." Yup, he is all done sleeping!

Food:

Tristan is little Mr. Picky. I already spoke about his little picky attitude when he eats so I won't do that again here. The past few months, we have been more lenient with him about what he gets to eat. I remember when he first started the toddler room at daycare, I gave the staff there a small list of things he could eat from their snack list. I'm sure they all thought I was a high maintenance mom. He wasn't allowed any perogies, pizza, baked fries, sauces etc. They would only give him Shreddies, plain whole wheat toast (no butter - nothing), bagel and plain cream cheese, plain yogurt, veggies, and fruit. Now, he is having whole wheat toast with butter, some perogies, cheese pizza and if they accidently give him something like flavored yogurt, I would not flip out :) See! I'm not so uptight anymore :) This is sort of what I call gradual transition into the world of adult food. In the past month, he has even had bites of homemade bakes!

Teething:

Tristan has 10 teeth, including one molar at the bottom. He's got 3 more on its way. We can clearly see two more molars and another tooth at the top that is partly out already. I think the teething can be blamed for some of his crankiness lately.

Getting smart:

Tristan knows that he is not allowed to bring his big toys into the kitchen. He has a toy vacuum that he likes to push around. We tell him carpet-yes, kitchen floor-no. He repeats this and understands. The other day, Jean-Louis told me that he took the vacuum into the kitchen but he was lifting it above the ground. He told Jean-Louis he was lifting it and he walked into the kitchen. As long as the vacuum didn't touch the floor, it should be allowed, right? Nice try buddy.

He is very teachable now. He seems to know what his boundaries are with me and what they are with his dad. Around me he doesn't climb the chairs in the dining room and yank things off the table. With his dad, he does. Why? Because Jean-Louis let him do it a few times.

Our toddler loves toy-size vehicles

Tristan may not always look like a boy but he plays like one. Okay to be fair, girls can act like this too. Tristan loves to play with cars and trains. He signs train, car, bus, airplane, and bike. He can say bus but only signs and makes motor noises with the rest. Well, he calls a bike "dooy." Not sure why but he just does :) I know Tristan played with dolls a bit at daycare, which I thought was cool but he definitely has a preference for vehicles and things that involve interaction and music.

Tristan's favorite toy size vehicles are found at the playground and at the mall. He loves being in them so much that it is always a challenge to peel him off when it's time to go. He becomes territorial too and if he sees others approaching it, he gets upset. Toddlers! :)



What is better than playing with miniature toy cars, trains, buses, and airplanes? Actually, riding in a toy size car, train, bus, and airplane! I say toy size because when Tristan is in the real thing, he is not really aware he is in the real thing and because it isn't as colorful as the toy version, he isn't as amused. As an observer, he is always excited to look at and hear the real thing though.

The development stage we have been waiting for

For myself and I think I can speak for Jean-Louis as well, life became more enjoyable with our toddler when he started to recognize and call us mama and dada. This didn't really start to happen until about a month ago. I remember people used to tell us how wonderful it was to have their child call them mama or dada when their child first sees them. Not only does Tristan call us by mama and dada, he also runs to greet us with a hug and some times a kiss. This was one of the moments I have been waiting for.

In the past month or so, it seemed like Tristan's vocabulary and understanding had exploded. As a result, he is such a joy to be around. He tries to repeat what we say, even though he can't pronounce it perfectly. At the same time, we are still learning more new signs and he is picking them up quickly. He would sign and try to say the word at the same time.

Playing with him is more fun. He would draw on his etch-and-sketch and then he would sign squirrel. He shows it to me, then if daddy is around, he would run to show it to daddy and tell him that he just drew a squirrel. Then he would do the same thing again, with fish :) After that, he would go back to squirrel and so forth. Yes, he loves to brag and show off!

Here is his drawing of a squirrel (or squirrels? - you decide!) :)



Tristan has enough language to tell us what he wants most of the time. For instance, if he wants to eat bread because he heard one of us say it, he would sign bread and then say pain (French for bread). If he is hungry, he would sign it. When he had a stomach flu, I didn't feed him much and all day long he would sign hungry to me. It was sad to see really :( This next one I really like. When he is stuck or can't do something, he will sign help and say elp or up because he can't pronounce it properly. He can also understand what we are telling him. For instance, when I am about to take his picture, I point and tell him to go over there so I can take his picture. Some times he will do exactly what I say and turn towards me. Then I tell him to say cheese and he says tease. These are just a few examples.

I imagine it could be very frustrating for the baby and parent if there wasn't any communication. The baby wants to tell the parent something but the parent can't understand and can only make guesses. We were like that until Tristan started to sign back at us at 9 months. That's not to say we still don't wonder what he is trying to tell us some times. He is 19 months now and we are so thankful we learned baby sign. It's fun to do and we even sing and sign to the song, "The Wheels on the Bus." We started singing this song about 2 weeks ago and now Tristan even knows the song. Well, he can't sing it but he knows what the next verse is and kind of prompts us with the sign before it comes on. As a parent, I find it so remarkable!

It's not all red roses though. Is that the saying? Well, he is a toddler and he does throw tantrums and some times he'll do it for no apparent reason. He can also create a huge menace if you let him and he often won't listen to your "no's" anymore. However, I like to think that most of the time he is a sweet and fun toddler :) Throughout the day, we give each other kisses and hugs. Some times when I would put my face near his face, he would lean over and kiss me. Just like that. I think when your child starts to show this sort of affection towards you, it is the most wonderful feeling. It makes parenting all the worth while. It is as though he is finally able to return our love. If it hasn't happened to you yet, wait for it. It's just amazing :)

Tristan is finally talking (sort of)!

At 18 months, Tristan can finally refer to each of us by "mama" or "dada" or "papa." He points to us and he calls us quite often :) Last month, when we were at our Mother's day brunch on Grouse, Jean-Louis mentioned that when I left my seat to get more food, Tristan was calling "mama" after me. I still thought it was random back then since he was never consistent enough to show that he really understood what "mama" was.

I have heard of other babies who started talking earlier than Tristan and the Babycenter newsletters I receive gives me the impression that Tristan is a little late at talking compared to many other babies. I have also heard of late talkers, including Albert Einstein who didn't speak until he was 3 years old. I was never too worried about when Tristan was going to talk because we sign with him and I knew he would be a bit late since we speak two, sometimes three languages to him. Right now, as far as I can tell, he can only say a few words in English. I am not paying attention to the French side and Jean-Louis can't recall any time Tristan spoke French with him. That makes sense since I speak to Tristan mostly in English and so does daycare.

Here is what he can say with full comprehension (however, the pronunciation is not perfect):

• mama
• dada (or papa)
• hi
• bye
• ball
• squirrel
• over there
• done

At the moment, these words are questionable:

• fish
• downstairs
• door
• what's that?

Tristan is 18 months old

At 18 months, Tristan is doing awesome. He is a normal size baby. I used to think he was a bit on the small size but he must have had a growth spurt because he looks normal compared to the other kids at daycare now. He still eats well, although it is getting harder and harder to feed him plain steamed vegetables. He is definitely picker with his food and is really starting to eat exactly what we eat now. He eats well with a soup and fork. He feeds himself dishes that are as thick as yogurt and he doesn't make a big mess. Anything less viscous gets quite messy. His face and tray is always messy but we haven't had to pick as much food off of the floor lately.

Once again, it seems as though he is in between clothing sizes again. Some clothes go from 12-18mo, 18-24mo, or just 18mo and Tristan is wearing all of those. I think I may be in some kind of denial about his growth because I still dress him in a few things that are 6-12mo. I keep telling myself one more time before he grows out of it but after the one time, I still won't pack it away. Now, I'm just waiting for the weather to change so I can really pack it away :) In a way, it is sort of sad because it's the much smaller clothes that are really cute and he is starting to wear big boy clothes now :( Diaper size 3 still fits well and it's a good thing too because we still have plenty! At 18 months, this is starting to mark the end of counting months. 24 months is next and then I will only be buying clothes for 2 years and up :( Today he is exactly 1 1/2 years old! See, I'm already counting in years! Oh my.

Sleep is still going well. He naps for around 45 minutes around noon and then sleeps at 9PM. Lately, he tends to freak out if he is alone so we stand in the room until he falls asleep. He wakes up at around 7AM. If anything, he is sleeping more now than he used to. Must be a growth spurt!

He can sort of say a few words but it's unclear if he understands them. He says "mama" and I think he mostly understands what that is. He says "dada" and "papa" too. He can say "bye" and "hi" or at least that is what it sounds like. He also tries to mimic us when we speak but he can't pronounce properly. You can definitely see he is trying. Somehow in trying to make sense of all his baby talk, we missed his first word. To us, he really isn't speaking with full comprehension of any word so we sort of don't count any. However, he has been repeatedly saying words like dada and mama for awhile. He makes the "uh-oh" sound a lot too and he is using it in the correct way. For instance, when something drops on the floor. He uses a lot of body language and facial expressions too when he is trying to tell us something. Most of the time we just look at him blankly. We still sign to each other and he is picking up new signs faster now.

Still waiting for that first word

I received a monthly newsletter from Babycenter and it mentioned that at 14 months, my baby may only know a few words such as ball, dog, and bye. It also said that some early talkers may know up to 20 words. 20 words! Wow! Ok, Tristan is definitely behind since he hasn't even spoken his first word yet. Jean-Louis was a late talker and I hear that bilingual children tend to be late talkers as well. Einstein apparently didn't talk until he was 3 years old so I'm not too worried yet. Also, I noticed that most of the babies at daycare who are older than Tristan don't seem to be speaking either. Some of them are 17 or 18 months old and only know a few words too.

Over the past week or so, Tristan has definitely been more vocal. He has been making a lot of sounds, mostly babbles. Some of the babbles are repeated but nothing he is trying to use to communicate with. Seems like he is just experimenting with sounds because they sound neat. Because of this, we feel like his first real word will come any day now! It will be so much fun to talk to him. Luckily, he can sign to us as an alternate way of communication. Can you imagine how frustrating it would be not to be able to communicate with someone?

Baby sign is a must-teach for all parents

Our baby loves to sign to us. He can't stop doing it and I'm thinking when he starts to talk, there will be no stopping him either :) When I stroll him to daycare, he will sign things that he sees. He points at the bus first and then he signs train. Yeah, I can see how the different kinds of vehicles can be hard to distinguish for babies. We'll walk a bit further and then he sees a small boy coming towards us and he'll sign baby. Instead of cradling and rocking, he puts his hands together and rocks. You can see this in the first photo here to the left. He sees the baby in the book so he signs baby :) He loves to sign baby! We arrive at daycare and babies are everywhere so he signs baby all the time.

At home, when he hears water noises outside or on the stereo, he signs rain. We're in Vancouver so most of the time it is rain but some times it's a plane or thunder noises on the stereo. When we read a book with drawings of wolves in it, he will sign dog. There are definitely some confusions but most of the time he is correct when he signs. We just love that he is signing and learning so much! He understands way more than he can sign. Right now, his only way of communicating with us is through sign language. We're still waiting for his first word!

These signs he had already been doing from the last post on baby signing:

• more (also used for "I want it")
  
• milk
• ball
• clean
• bed (sleep is harder so he signs bed when he is tired)

Here are some of the new ones since then:

• baby
• train
• dog
• fish
• bird
• rain
• hat
  
• down, downstairs
  
• eat, food
• book
• cooking
• bath
  

He is learning these and have used them a couple of times:

• danger
• hurt
• banana
• hug
• music
• outside
  
• light
• cold
  
• toothbrush

He can also identify these body parts on his body when we ask where they are:

• nose
• mouth
• ear
• feet
• hand
• head
• (sometimes eye)

The following is a list of ones we're teaching him but he hasn't sign any back yet. Some of them we have been doing since we started, when he was just 6 months old.

• Mommy, Daddy
• Grandma, Grandpa
• friend
  
• diaper
• dirty
• water
• drinking
• home
• hear
• see
• all done
• hot
  
• car
• monkey
• bear
• tiger
• horse
  
• cat
• tree
• wait
• quiet
• come here
• up
  
• sun
• snow
• work
• toy
• hooray
• playing
• red, blue, yellow, green, orange, white
  
• apple
• girl, boy
• kiss
• walking
• spider
• dancing
• bread
• sit
• thank you
• potty

Finally, to end this post, I would like to share a small video of Tristan signing taken a week ago. I would have preferred to place this video above but moving it seems a little hard right now in blogger so I'll just leave it at the bottom. In this video clip, Jean-Louis asks him what is outside, he looks, sees the bird, then signs it. Jean-Louis only speaks French to Tristan so if you don't understand, you will have to take my word for it :) Tristan is bilingual though and can sign bird in English too. Just thought I'd add that :)

Baby can't talk but he can sign some

We are still waiting for Tristan's first true word. He babbles right now and noises such as mama, dada, and a bunch of others come out but he doesn't know what any of them mean. Apparently, Jean-Louis was a late talker but I don't know about myself.

We started to sign to the baby when he turned six months and we still are but two months ago we sort have slowed down. Now that he is 1 year old and beginning to understand more, we're trying to sign more again. A lot of time we just forget to do it. It has been over six months now and I think he is making a lot of progress in the signing department. Here are the signs he has been consistently doing for us with an understanding of what they mean:

• more
• milk
• ball
• clean
• bed (sleep is harder so he signs bed when he is tired)

These are the questionable signs:

• sun
• book
• eat or food

Signs we did not teach him but he is coming up with himself:

• self (he pats himself with his hand)
• diaper change please (he touches or squeezes his diaper from underneath)
• smelly (we all fan away the stinky smell by our nose)

He also sort of understands some of the words we say even though he cannot repeat them himself. Here are some that I have noticed:

• doggie
• train
• water
• pillow
• "give to Mommy"
• music
• no (to some degree)
  

So far so good! It's definitely nice to have him communicate with us even before he can speak. Our favorite is when he can tell us he is tired or when he wants his milk :)

Our first year experience with a baby

The first 3 months following the arrival of our first baby was the hardest. The first week was absolutely crazy. We had anywhere from 0-2 hours of sleep in the first few days and mid week we actually started to act a bit delusional. It's amazing what you can turn into with so little sleep. Emotions were also very high and I think the baby blues kicked in for both of us. When the beginning of the third week came along and Jean-Louis had to go back to work, I was scared and nervous to be alone with the baby. Then came all the crying. That lasted until at least 3 months. I can say with certainty that the first 3 months was absolutely the hardest.

We knew we were blessed with a new baby and we did our best to step up to the challenge but it was no fun. Without family or friends to count on, we were alone and it was scary. Taking care of the baby was not the only challenge. We were hardly able to take care of ourselves. We were sleep deprived and hardly had time to eat and also eat well. After we exhausted all of my frozen cooked food I had stocked up on prior to the birth, we ended up ordering pizza, or buying frozen food and canned food. We had to. We had no choice because we had to eat. Me especially because I was breastfeeding so much.

Things started to improve a lot into the 4th and 5th months. The baby got used to his routine and pretty much slept through the night (at least 5 hours straight), if we used the pacifier on him. He also became more responsive and started to smile and look and strike at toys. This feedback was really important and rewarding for us to see. At last!

At 6 months, things got even better. We introduced solid foods so Jean-Louis was able to help with the feedings. We decided to sleep train the baby and after just 2 weeks, we got him sleeping by himself. He slept through the night without any nursing, rocking, pacifier - nothing at all. Needless to say since then, we have been enjoying life a lot more :)

As the months went by, things improved even more. Tristan started to sit up, crawl, stand up, dance, and walk. Now, I find we are really starting to enjoy each others company. He laughs, he plays, he interacts with us, he is signing back and understands certain things that we say, even though he can't speak yet. He is sleeping for even longer periods during the night and that allows for us to stay up late again. But of course at this age, there are new things that we are finding frustrating such as feeding.

As it turns out, our baby is a typical baby. I wouldn't have it any other way but it's so interesting to see how much of a textbook baby he is. For example, now that he is a toddler, he is starting to show signs of throwing tantrums. Oh boy! But, whatever challenges are thrown our way moving forward, I honestly believe we can handle it because not only have we survived the first 3 months but we have also made it this far doing more or less what we were set out to do :)

A-meh = Mommy?

When he is distressed normally, Tristan would say "a-meh." He does this when he is in his crib crying to sleep. He does this when he wants out of the exersaucer. Some times he will just say it like that. He repeats sounds when he likes the sound of it but this particular sound seem to be associated with a cry for help. I noticed he has been saying it a lot today. Is he trying to call out to me? I read that a baby's first word may not even be a real word. Could "a-meh" be his first word?

At one point, Tristan was saying dada a lot and then he switched to mama. I haven't heard him say dada for awhile. "Mama" comes and goes at random so it is apparent he doesn't know what mama is associated with. All this baby talk and beginnings of language is so bizarre and fascinating to watch!