Toddler had no dinner tonight

There is a first for everything, right? Tonight was the first time Tristan did not eat a thing for dinner. Why? He was tantruming and didn't want to eat what we wanted him to eat. His unfinished corn bake from last night was combined with his leftover corn bake from daycare's lunch today. That was his dinner. If he finished that, we would have given him part of a ham and cheese slider. He only wanted the ham and cheese slider. We tried offering the corn bake for about 30 minutes and he screamed and cried and then we called it quits. Everything was taken away and he went up for his bath. After his bath, he went straight to bed. No playing, no reading, nothing. Bedtime was an hour earlier today. This was another first.

It's so sad really. I'm not sure who is more stubborn. Him or us. Or him or Jean-Louis. If it were just me I would have done thinks a bit differently. People talk about being careful with implementing discipline because it could create issues for the child in the future. What about the issues the child is creating for us parents? Now and in the future? I joked on Twitter about needing to save money now for therapy for myself in the future. I could use some now too. It's just one of those days, you know? :(

The mysteries about toddler tantrums

Tristan may appear like an angel to many but he's like any other toddler. When he was just an infant, tantrums from him were inconceivable to us. Everyone always told us how well behaved he was and we believed it too. The only time he would scream and get seriously mad was when he was super tired. Now, he can get mad at any time. Beware!

Tristan throws tantrums a couple times a day but they will only last a few minutes or less. The bad tantrums, which last 10 minutes or more happen once every couple of days or so. The frequency increases when he is under the weather or when he is lacking sleep. For instance, on days where he naps only 30 minutes, as opposed to 1 hour, he will likely lose his temper over the smallest and silliest things. Silly to us but a huge deal to him! When we are aware of this, we become extra careful in how we deal with him. If he doesn't eat all of his food, we're not going to insist as much. We have been pretty lucky in that Tristan has had most of his tantrums at home. He typically behaves well in the presence of other people and we stay home a lot too. So far, there has only been two embarrassing incidents of tantrums in public (knock on wood!). Here are some examples of situations that have resulted in tantrums:

• The procedure every morning is for Tristan to sit on the potty, while I clean his face, undress him and put on his shirt. One morning, he didn't want me to take off his pajamas. He wanted to keep them on and said he still wanted to sleep, but I knew he didn't. I took them off anyway and put on his shirt.
• The other day we were walking along the highway. There was a grass area that was on an upward incline and Tristan wanted to walk up. We allowed him to do it once but after that we said it was too dangerous and we had to go home. He refused to leave and kept trying to climb up. We had to carry him off. When he refused to walk with us, we gave him the option of walking or riding in the stroller. He was still in tantrum mode so we just put him in the stroller and walked away.
• Tristan was eating his orange for dessert. When I saw that he was throwing some on the floor, I yelled and asked if he was done. He said yes so I took it away. Then he said no and that he still wanted it so I gave it back to him. He proceeded to throw it on the floor. I then picked up the orange and carried it off. He cried, screamed, and refused to get off the highchair for 10 minutes.
  

Toddler tantrums are a mystery because as adults, we don't do that. We think logically and our brains are fully developed to allow us to control our tempers. It turns out that the part of the brain that is responsible for regulating emotion and controlling social behavior, the prefrontal cortex, PFC, is the last part of the brain to develop. The PFC starts to mature around the age of 4.

How do Jean-Louis and I deal with tantrums? We have learned to ignore the bad ones most of the time. If Tristan starts to get upset, we first try to talk with him and sometimes that distracts him. If that doesn't work and he is still fixated on what upsetted him, we leave him. A couple minutes later, we ask him if he is done being mad. Often, he says yes and then it's over. If he doesn't respond, we wait until he is more quiet before looking or talking to him again. We're also very firm with him. We don't want him to know that he can get his way just by throwing a fit. At the same time, we have to be careful when to allow him to make a decision and when we need to make a decision. Enforcing discipline also triggers tantrums. It's definitely not easy.

For the most part, Jean-Louis and I deal with tantrums in much the same way. He tends to be less patient than me so he likes to count to three and if the action still hasn't taken place, he will do it himself. For instance, Tristan like to press the button to start the coffee machine. If after counting to three and Tristan still hasn't come to press it, Jean-Louis will do it himself. Lately, I have been counting to three as well. I don't do this all the time though. What we do do all the time is carry out what we tell Tristan. If we make him a deal or if we say no to something, we don't change our minds. Everyone has their own way of handling tantrums and we could probably do better but so far it has been manageable. "Kids from about 18 months to 4 years are simply hardwired to misbehave." It's unavoidable, perfectly normal, and nothing we are doing wrong. Knowing this, I can't wait until Tristan is 5 :)

Toddler has strep :(

First time for everything, right? I imagine he contracted strep somewhere between Monday and Thursday of last week. Apparently, he got it 1-4 days before his symptoms showed up. He was feeling very tired around 3PM on Friday. We thought it was just the flu. Since we only went to the store for a short trip on Thursday and he stayed home with me the rest of the time, there is a good chance his strep is from being at daycare :(

Yesterday, we went out for a bit but mostly for the drive. Tristan got to nap in the car most of the time. We hadn't been out really for 2 days so I thought the fresh air would be good for him. He was quiet most of the time and didn't have much of an appetite. I also noticed tiny bloody dots under his chin. It was unusual but I figured it was related to his dry skin from the cold weather. This morning it looked worst and he complained that his teeth hurt a bit so as a precaution, Jean-Louis took him into the walk-in-clinic. We almost didn't either because I know the doctors here and unless it is really, REALLY bad, they won't treat it and would just send you home. It's cold season after all and he was acting sick. It turns out, we did the right thing. Jean-Louis arrived 30 minutes after the clinic opened and had to wait 2 hours to see the doctor for 5 minutes. It's the usual story with the walk-in-clinics here but luckily (and unluckily for us), the doctor didn't just tell him to relax and go home. Tristan was diagnosed with strep right away, even without doing a strep test. He had all the symptoms already and the doctors prescribed him antibiotics. His lymph nodes were swollen, he was still feverish, he had a rash on his chin, as well as inside his mouth, on his tongue and throat, and he just wasn't interested in eating or drinking because they hurt him.

On top of strep, his bacterial infection, he may also have a viral infection. He's sick. He vomited three times today and barely ate anything. He hasn't vomited in a long time. The viral infection could be from Jean-Louis since Jean-Louis was sick last week. It could also be from daycare since I noticed one of the staff there was coughing and sneezing. It's funny how we're always trying to figure out how all this happened. It's not like he can avoid home or daycare. Well, sickness is bound to happen sooner or later and it is better now than during Christmas, I suppose.

Poor Tristan. Strep must be very cruel because he has been crying from pain on and off all day and he normally doesn't cry much. It has also been a long time since I blogged about Tristan being sick. Hopefully this winter won't be as bad as last winter. I hear that daycare kids don't get sick as much in their second year. Last year we got the H1N1 and seasonal flu shots. We still got sick a lot. This year we're going to skip the shots.

Tristan misses his daddy A LOT

Tristan is a daddy's boy. Ever since he was able to laugh and play, he had become a huge fan of his dad. After all, his dad is much like a kid himself and a big goof :)

Tristan spends more time with me than his dad. With me, a lot of the time is spent getting things done like feeding, cleaning up, getting dressed, and getting ready for daycare. We spend some fun times together and play but I'm usually quite exhausted to go on for too long. We also do not-so-fun things together like teeth brushing, nail cutting (used to be a nightmare but he seems fine with it now), nose aspirating, and soon hair cutting. Sometimes, I think he sees me as the evil parent. I have to be the evil parent because if Jean-Louis did these things, he would be the dangerous parent.

Tristan spends a lot of time with his dad. His dad gives him a bath and puts him to sleep at night. They play together while I get dinner ready every night. They don't see each other as much so they get to miss each other more. He miss his dad so much that it has become an inquiry about where his dad is when he sees me first. He doesn't always but he has been doing this a lot lately. For instance, I would go pick him up from daycare and he would ask where daddy is. Yeah, that is pretty much my greeting these days. Jean-Louis used to come pick Tristan up with me at daycare but now he is biking at home after work for his workout. When Tristan knows that Jean-Louis is home or if he has recently spent a lot of time with Jean-Louis, he would say "daddy do" because he prefers daddy to do it instead of me. I think he knows daddy will leave soon and he wants to get as much daddy time as possible.

Sometimes it's sad to see Tristan so sad because he misses his daddy. In the morning, he would get upset that I enter the room to get him. He would whimper and cry out for his daddy. This happens quite often even though I go get him five days a week. One day, I showed Tristan some video clips of us putting up the Christmas tree and Jean-Louis was in the video in the background playing an interactive game with him. There was music, laughter, and he could see himself and daddy in there together. After a few minutes of this, he had a sad face and started crying out daddy in the saddest voice. Watching the clips was making him realize that daddy wasn't home and made him miss daddy even more. I gave him a hug and I had to stop playing the clips. He's a sensitive boy.

On the weekend it can get bad too. He spends more time with daddy on the weekend than with me. This is because I sleep in in the morning, we go out shopping and it's mostly me shopping and Jean-Louis who watches Tristan in the mall, and I often cook on the weekend as well. Tristan loves being with his daddy but all the toddler clingyness becomes too much for Jean-Louis. By Sunday, Jean-Louis is often yelling at him and can't wait to get back to work on Monday morning. It's funny because Jean-Louis goes from being happy on Friday evening to feeling crappy and exhausted by as early as Saturday night. He is just not used to being around Tristan that much and he doesn't have as much patience as me. Because of all this, the weekend frustrations really stress me out too.

Sometimes I think Jean-Louis is too hard on Tristan. Sometimes I think he yells at him too much. But despite all this, Tristan still clings onto his dad and will cry out to him at night. He loves his daddy and his daddy is crazy about him too. It's wonderful to see, even though I'm the one he usually brushes off in favor of his dad :) In fact, he clings to us both but I have seen an increased preference towards his dad in the past couple of months. I used to hear other moms call the father of their child, "their kid's hero" but I never really understood what they meant. Now I do.

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

Plane ride back to Vancouver

We are back in Vancouver! Hooray! We also live to tell about our plane adventure :) Bring on the champagne!

I already told the tale about our 23 hour travel there. On the way back, we didn't have to take a train since we were already in Paris. That saved us at least 5 hours! We all hopped on a taxi to the airport and then took a roughly 12 hour flight back home. We had to order a taxi big enough to fit all of us since my parents-in-law wanted to see us off. We requested a car seat too but there wasn't one. Big surprise. The taxi sure was big enough and we also paid for it big time at a whopping $80 Euros. Then when we checked in, we found out we had to pay $144 for being excess 12 kg in our luggage. Damn. I knew we were over but that was a lot! The guy checking us in wasn't very nice too. Some times you get a nice person and they end up letting these things slide or charge you less. Nope, no mercy from this dude! They don't even take into account that we did not bring a playpen or car seat, which we could have easily check in at no charge. I guess even though we were not paying for Tristan's airline ticket, we were actually still paying for it through overweight luggage and crammed sitting space. But honestly, 23kg each for Jean-Louis and I was just not enough. I remember a time not too long ago when we were able to bring along 2 x 30kg each! Tristan's stuff took up most of our luggage space too. We barely bought anything. We were transporting tons of gifts back for him.

When we got on, we realized we had no aisle seat. I swear if we had a girl check us in instead of a guy, we would have definitely gotten an aisle seat. With all the commotion about the excess luggage, we totally forgot to request an aisle seat. Luckily, the passenger in the aisle didn't reject too much when we asked if she could switch seats with us. She wasn't very friendly though so we were a bit scared of her. The switch also split her up with her husband who also had an aisle seat across from her. Oops :( She may have been a grouchy senior but during the trip she actually complimented us by saying that "Tristan is lucky to have such nice parents." Grouchy lady was actually a nice lady after all :)

The second plane ride was much better. Tristan napped for about an hour in the beginning and then for about another hour near the end of the flight. When we noticed signs that he was super tired, we started to walk him up and down the aisle. As a result, he didn't go insane on us. He cried on and off but there was no vicious jerking and kicking like what happened on the flight to Paris. Eating was more of a challenge, especially because our airline, Air Transat, was less accommodating this time. They said we couldn't eat separately and we had to take all our food now or there might be none for us later. As a result, it was really crammed and challenging. Every time we had beverages, it was risky. A full glass of water got dumped on my lap and then at a later time, a hot tea spilled on Jean-Louis' lap. No fun at all!

This time around, there was no TV nearby to distract Tristan. There was also no annoying light from window shades nearby :) Once again, we had prepared a few newly wrapped toys and snacks for Tristan. He did so well that we even came home with some of the gifts unopened. In the last hour of the trip when we took off from our Calgary stop, he was in great spirits. We played and let him stand on the seat and he was goofing off with the passengers behind us. Since many passengers got off in Calgary, the lady at the window moved to sit with her husband and we had the window seat too. Tristan watched out the window when we took off and when we landed. He was more fascinated with opening and closing the window shade though :) I have to say the extra seat really made it more comfortable and spacial for all of us. Next time we go to France, Tristan will need his own seat and it should be much nicer. That and the fact that he will be older and more easy to handle :)

Boy, I cannot tell you how happy I am to have survived the trip and to be home. There is nothing like being home, especially when that home is in Vancouver :)

New milestones Tristan encountered on his first trip to France:

• First plane ride, first trip to France
  
• First train ride with his own designated seat
• First bus ride, first underground subway ride
• First meeting with his French grandparents, great grandfather, first cousins once removed, second cousins (according to the cousin's chart)
• Getting baptized at l'église Saint-Antoine de Padoue in Toulon
• First visit to Toulon, Nice, and Paris
• First visit to the zoo
• First white sand beach and foot dip in the Mediterranean Sea
  
• New French words spoken: non, bus, encore
• New Chinese words spoken: Gong, Ma
• New English words spoken: boat, help
  

Our 23 hour journey to Toulon, France

Considering we had no experience traveling with a toddler, our long journey to the South of France was actually not that bad. We boarded the plane around 12PM and remained on the plane for 12 hours. It was nice being one of the first ones to board for a change. When we first boarded, Tristan fussed a bit because he didn't know where we were and it was a bit hot. We sat in the middle of the plane but had an aisle seat. There were three seats in the middle so a lady sat next to us. When Tristan fussed, I noticed the lady glared at us and I am pretty sure I could have guessed what she was thinking. Long flight and I'm sitting next to people with a baby. Crap. I'm sure that was it. Hours into the flight, we proved her wrong. She was French. She ended up telling Jean-Louis how good Tristan has been on the flight. Sure Tristan poked her a few times while she was sleeping and even tried to grab food off her tray but overall, he was well behaved :)

Tristan is your typical toddler. He always has to be doing something and is always moving. I had prepared lots of wrapped toys and snacks for him to have throughout the trip. Thank god for the different toys. We brought out a new toy every few hours and then rotated them afterwards. We also walked him up and down the aisle a few times for exercise. We sang to him, we read together, we tickled him etc. We did everything we could to keep him happy. Unfortunately, we sat right underneath the tv screen and when we would look up and watch every now and then, he copied us. He has never really watched tv before so he was obviously fascinated. It didn't happen a lot since he had toys to play with. He probably watch a bit of tv for something like 10 minutes. But still. Another annoying thing was that the people on the left side of us had their window shade up most of the time and there was a lot of light in our direction. That didn't help with getting Tristan to sleep at all!

Thank god for the snacks! I had to throw away most of Tristan's lunch since he managed to put his shoe in the bowl and then I realized I forgot to pack his dinner that I had in the freezer. Basically, he had no meals for the next 20 hours. It sucked. I did have lots of fruit packed, cereal, and Mum-Mums. We fed him some of our dinner too. He drank lots of milk and water and it turned out just fine in the end. Food wasn't the problem. Sleep was.

Nap time for Tristan was a breeze. He fell asleep over us on the pillow I brought when we laid him down and rubbed him a bit. He was pretty much on schedule for the nap so that was perfect. He slept for an hour, which is more than he typically naps for too. The night sleep was a mess. He tried to get comfortable and we tried to help him but nothing worked. An hour before we landed, 11 hours into the flight, it was 2 hours passed his bedtime in Vancouver. I think it was something like 11PM time back home and by this time, he was overly tired and ticked off. He basically went insane on us for 15 minutes or so. I had to get out of my seat and carry him over to the bathroom area to calm him down. Of course at this point everyone was staring and probably pissed off too since it's been a long flight and they were all tired too. I felt embarrassed. It felt like time stood still. This was exactly what I feared and it was happening. When Tristan finally passed out, I sat back down and he had a good 30 minute nap before we landed but then he woke up screaming again. He was so tired and scared of the plane noise. Man, I couldn't wait to get out of there. When all the people stood up to get their stuff, Tristan freaked out again. Man, there was no place to go. It was hot and everyone was tired and we were trapped. It was a terrible feeling. He basically freaked out on and off until we arrived in the customs line. It sucked. We had no sleep at all on the plane, but that is nothing new for me.

There were maybe 5 or 6 other babies onboard. There was this one baby maybe 20 rows down from us who cried a lot. The baby was maybe a few months old and haven't been able to sleep much. The stewardesses were often crowded around the mom trying to help out. The mom was tired and frustrated and the baby was crying for hours. I felt so sorry for them :(

It was morning when we arrived in Paris. When we stepped outside, there was the smell of cigarette smoke. Ah, the memories! Then we had to pay 0.50 Euros at the train station so I could pee. Again, great memories! :( Because of the sunlight, Tristan was wide awake but then he became overly tired again about an hour or two into the train ride. Luckily, there was a compartment I could take Tristan in between the train wagons where they normally store food and no one sits in. I walked and rocked him there for probably 20 minutes or so before he passed out. He then slept for maybe 2 hours.

We timed our journey from the time we left our house to the time we arrived at my parent in law's place. 23 hours! But we left 2 hours after Tristan woke up that morning, which means in over 24 hours, he only slept maybe 4 hours. I maybe slepted on and off for maybe 30 minutes during that period. It was definitely rough for the little guy :( I felt so bad putting him through all this. Tiring for us but maybe worst for him, I think.

Habits are easy to adopt but hard to break

What am I talking about? What we view as bad habits and dependencies seem easy to acquire but are so hard to break. As you know, for the past few weeks we have been standing in Tristan's room until he pretty much falls asleep. We didn't think it was so bad since we didn't have to do anything but just stand there by the door. Sometimes we found ourselves standing for 20 minutes though. We thought it was going to be temporary but it's been going long enough that we feel he is developing a new dependency over it. We actually weren't going to do anything about it because we're going away soon and everything is going to be messed up anyway. After talking about it some more we decided we should since there still is a couple more weeks before we leave. This is so bad. We are usually very cautious about these things. It's completely our fault for allowing it to happen for this long. Now, to break the dependency we have to go back to some sleep training. Sadly, yes :( Tonight was the first night.

Some of you who may not be familiar with our sleep patterns in the past may wonder what is so terrible about just standing in the room. I mean we all sleep through the night still and get 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Plus, when Tristan wakes up at night, he puts himself to sleep almost right away. It seems like just getting Tristan to sleep initially is the only problem, which is sort of strange. Am I annoying you yet? ;) As far as I know, he sleeps fine at daycare so nothing has changed there. It's worst there too because they all cry it out in the same room, whether you like it or not. Okay, so here is why we see it as a problem. It takes longer for Tristan to fall asleep because he is paranoid and checks on us every so often to make sure one of us is still there. We can't just go up, put him down, and walk away immediately, which is what we have been doing pretty much for the past year. I agree this is not a big dependency but compared to what we were used to it feels like it is and it could lead to something worst in the long term.

Still not convinced why we feel a need to solve this problem? Like I said earlier, we're very cautious people. We are also very strict. We were careful not to let Tristan suck on the pacifier too much and although we did depend on it for awhile, he just stopped using it without anyone noticing. We didn't have to wean him from it. We encourage him to play on his own and as a result, he doesn't constantly cling to us and want us to hold him all the time. He can also play happily on his own in the playpen. We allowed and helped him to eat on his own at an early age so now that is what he wants to do. We had him sleep in his crib since day 1 but we did let him sleep with us for an hour here and there when it got so frustrating in the first month or when he was sick. When we did sleep with him we felt tremendous guilt and was so scared that a bad habit was going to form. We don't have a TV and we won't allow him to watch it at daycare either until he is at least 2 years old. Same with sweets. He can't have cakes, cookies, candy etc. until his second birthday. The sweetest things he eats is fruit and vegetables. We will likely let him try cake at his next birthday but he will only have a thin sliver. When he tries chocolate for the first time, it will likely be dark chocolate with at least 72% cocoa. He doesn't drink anything but water and milk. Do you get the picture yet? We're very strict and independent ourselves.

So word of warning for those who have sleep trained their babies, don't cave into anything for too long and be consistent all the time. A few weeks of disturbance like this and we're back to sleep training.

Just the beginning of toddlerhood

Tristan is your typical active toddler. The only time you can expect to see him fairly still is when he is drinking milk or when he sleeps. When he first started daycare in January, I remembered one of the staff there saying that when the babies start to push the highchair around the room, that is a sign that they are ready to leave the Infant room and go into the Toddler room. I thought that was strange because Tristan was already pushing the highchair at home way before he started daycare.

He has been in the infant room for four months now and I am actually quite anxious for him to leave soon. I think after about 2 months, when he was 15 months old, he must have been pretty bored. The infant room is very small and if the kids don't go outside, I can see how it could be very boring for them to be there all day. I think the main entertainment is the staff and other babies. The toddler room is so much more exciting and once they go into that program, the staff puts them on the potty right away. That is something I'm looking forward to :)

Tristan loves to imitate what people do. Big people and small people. Tristan likes to do what we do and copy us, which is nothing new. Apparently, he does this at daycare too. One of the boys at daycare and Tristan imitate each other. One of them would throw their hands in the air and the other would too. Then they would both laugh. Something like that. Also, one of the girls likes to hug and kiss Tristan. When I first saw her do it, I was a bit uncomfortable. Tristan just stood still the first time but then started to push her away and run away when she tried it again, the second time and the third time. The little girl had a runny nose and she was trying to kiss him on the mouth. I actually took kleenex out of my pocket to wipe his mouth afterwards. Then, when I went to pick him up that same day, I saw the little girl do it again and this time Tristan did it back. Oh my goodness! Tristan is making out with the little blond girl from daycare! At just 17 months? Anyway, when they tried to hug and kiss each other, they ending up knocking each other over. I went to catch them but the little girl hit herself on my knee a bit and cried. Yup. That was a quick end to that make-out session. I wonder how often this goes on at daycare. Or maybe I don't want to know. What kind of surprises me is that the staff don't intervene at all. Should we be encouraging this sort of behavior towards strangers? I don't know.

Our once sweet baby is showing signs of throwing tantrums such as stomping his feet and crying when we don't let him have something. Sometimes he rolls on the floor and has a fit too. We ignore him for the most part. I think we're getting a preview of what people call the "terrible twos." It doesn't happen a lot but we would prefer not to see it at all :)

For the past week or so, he has been picky with his food. I hear this is a toddler phase as well. He wasn't sick or anything else so we can only conclude that he was just picky. We fed him how we had always fed him but some times he would refuse to even try the food. This is all stuff that he has eaten and loved before like broccoli, carrots, peas, noodles, and even some fruit. Actually, there was a day where he basically only wanted to eat cereal, fruit, and milk. What did we do? Well, we just kept trying and if he wouldn't eat, we would just skip that course and move onto fruit. We didn't give him any more fruit than we would normally give him because we didn't want him full on just fruit. We figured once he was hungry, he would want to eat. We packed him the same food again to daycare and he refused to eat it there too. It's the first time he has ever refused to eat his main dish at daycare. They were somewhat shocked too. Anyhow, this went on for 2 days and then he decided to eat again. And then he decided not to. It seemed like almost every other day he would eat a bit more of the main dish. That was Friday.

On the weekend, Tristan ate everything we offered him. Not a lot but he ate some of everything, which was good enough for us. I think new food and alternating between two main dishes helped. Things were even better today. Tonight, I made French veal stew with green olives, mushrooms, onions and served it with rice. It has been awhile since I made that. Tristan ate so much we thought he was starving. His daycare report said that he ate most of his food too. He must have really liked the dish and he is probably still hungry too from not eating too much last week. I don't know if we have our old Tristan back yet but we'll give it a week before introducing plain steamed vegetables to him again. If this week goes well, maybe we'll steam a little something green next week or at the end of this week.

Sudden sleep changes at night

For the past week, it has been a bit more difficult to get Tristan to sleep at night. He still sleeps around 9PM every night and sleeps through the night. The problem is that he relies on us more in putting him to sleep now. In the past, Jean-Louis would take him upstairs and put him down and leave right away. Tristan doesn't fuss at all and if he doesn't sleep right away, he will minutes after. It really has been more or less that easy for us since he was sleep trained at 6 months old. Lately, when Jean-Louis steps away to leave, he freaks out. Jean-Louis has to come back and stay for him to calm down and lie back down. He doesn't pick Tristan up, he just stands at the end of the crib. That is enough to make Tristan happy.

Tonight, it was my turn to put Tristan down and watch him sleep. Yeah, we take turns now too. We want Tristan to get used to us both putting him down at night. We have both learned quickly in the past week that Tristan will not cry at all if we just put him down and stand nearby for a few minutes until he is super sleepy or asleep. It's a bit of a dependency but it's not too demanding on us and it sure beats him crying hysterically. I have forgotten how much his crying bothered me :(

When I put him down earlier tonight, I slowly walked away just to see what would happen. He sat up and started to protest so I stopped and turned back. He then laid back down and tried to sleep. After a few minutes, I tried again and got to the door and out of view. There was no response for a few minutes but when I was about to leave, he whined a bit so I walked a bit closer. He then tried to sleep again. I made another attempt to leave and he actually stood up and tried to peak around the corner to find me so I made myself visible. He didn't fuss at all. He just wanted to know that I was still there. He laid himself back down right away and tried to sleep. Then I started to hear him breathe. There was actually the sound of him breathing and I took that as a sign that he was finally asleep. I was right :)

I was in the room with him for 7-8 minutes. He didn't cry at all but I had to be there. He's obviously scared if I'm not. One night, Jean-Louis stood in the room for around 15 minutes. Another night, it was just 1-2 minutes for me. It all depends on how tired he is too.

Babies don't hold grudges

A couple of evenings ago, on my way upstairs to go shower, I heard Jean-Louis curse and yell at Tristan in the bathroom. He was bathing Tristan. Like any toddler, Tristan likes to stand up, splash water, pull out the plug in the bathtub etc. and that makes it challenging to clean him properly. Jean-Louis didn't have a lot of patience that night and because Tristan wouldn't cooperate during the bath, he was mad. When I came back downstairs from my shower to fetch the milk for Tristan, I entered the office only to find a grumpy looking Daddy just sitting on the floor with Tristan. Tristan had drool all over his mouth and chin and a big runny nose. However Tristan was happily playing on the floor by himself. Following our nightly routine, I set Tristan up for his milk and Jean-Louis went to shower. I signed to Tristan that Daddy was going to shower (or more like bathe) and Tristan and I waved good-bye to him. For the first time, Daddy did not wave or say good-bye back. He just glared at us and then closed the door. Ooookay.

This whole event got me thinking how great it is that babies don't hold grudges against us. Tristan gets yelled at a lot and he sometimes struggles with us when we try to change or dress him. Sometimes he will even cry out of frustration. But unlike adults, he forgets and forgives quickly. One minute he may cry and if presented with the right stimuli, the next minute he could be giggling and hugging us. It's incredible really. I think we can all learn a bit more from babies.

Why do we act mad at people? So that they will feel guilty and say sorry? A 16 month old will not do that. So they will learn what makes you unhappy and behave better next time? Again, I don't think a 16 month old will do that. I have learned that no matter how frustrated and mad I may get from taking care of Tristan, I just can't be mad or act mad at him. It doesn't benefit everyone. I just try to brush it aside and move on. Sometimes it is very difficult though! Depending on the situation, I may try to explain to him that I am sad and that it would make me happy if he would act differently. He may not understand it but if I keep saying it, maybe he will learn one day. I also feel better because I tried to do something about it.

Jean-Louis has a harder time than me handling Tristan because he doesn't have as much patience. He gets mad when Tristan doesn't listen to him. This is beginning to happen more and more often now too. When he watches Tristan while I cook, he wants to just sit down and tweet, while Tristan plays in front of him. Unfortunately, watching Tristan means running after him a lot. If you are lucky, you do get to sit and relax for maybe five minutes. He gets annoyed every time Tristan starts to climb the stairs because he will have to go get Tristan and bring him back to the living room. Then Jean-Louis tries to explain no to Tristan and tells him the stairs are dangerous. What happens next? Tristan keeps climbing the stairs and Jean-Louis keeps going after him. I then tell Jean-Louis that Tristan is playing "catch me if you can" so just play with him.

Tristan is a toddler and he won't stay still so don't expect him to. I point out to Jean-Louis that he is actually using the same tactic to get Tristan to do something as Tristan is using when he wants something from us. What does he do when Tristan doesn't listen? He says it again louder and then repeatedly louder. It just doesn't work. How should we deal with disciplining Tristan and getting him to listen more? We don't really know. We have a book on this subject so maybe it's time to start reading it. But having said all that, Tristan does listen a lot too and we think he behaves quite well most of the time. I guess expecting him to always listen is unrealistic of us too.

End of the 1st full week of daycare

This week was a big week for Tristan. His first full day of daycare was just last Friday. Starting Monday of this week, he had been in daycare for around 6 hours each day. He is definitely getting used to it. Apparently, each day he seems to cling to a different staff member too. I was told they were all getting turns :)

As the days go by, he seems to cry less and less when I leave. Yesterday, he cried for just seconds. I was still putting on my coat when he stopped crying. Today, he only gave me a sad face. It's the first time he didn't cry at all when I left! He also wanted one of the staff to pick him up this morning. It's great to see he is definitely getting used to the people there :) When we pick him up, he doesn't whine much anymore either. Two days ago, he actually flashed us a big smile for the first time when he saw us! We are loving the progress :)

Tristan is making sleep progress too. Apparently, it doesn't take him long to fall asleep in the crib room anymore. However, the past two days, he only napped 15 minutes each time. Yeah, he sometimes does that at home too. As a result, we have to put him down to nap just before dinner time. He still goes to bed at 9PM.

This morning, I found out that the new girl went home sick soon after she was dropped off. Many of us know that daycare is home to all sorts of germs and it's just a matter of time before the baby falls ill. I remember one of the staff telling me that by the time they reach kindergarten, they will have a strong immunity and won't get sick much. Kindergarten! That's like 4 years away! So, the new girl took two weeks to become sick and I'm wondering when it will be Tristan's turn. I can't help but think he is already a bit off. He spit up for the first time in a long time last night when we got home. Then he did it again at night after his milk, and then again this morning after breakfast. Maybe I'm just being paranoid. Or maybe I jinxed us by stocking up on baby Tylenol yesterday?

Daycare: Week #1

On Thursday, we left Tristan at daycare for around 4 1/2 hours. He was calm lying on one of the staff's lap when I arrived to pick him up. At least he wasn't crying for a change. I was told that he had a preference for one of the staff there and had been clinging to her the whole time. She would only pick him up if he stopped crying and after a few times, he understood. He cried on and off that day and fell asleep on the comfy cozy area early that day for 40 minutes. It's good that he actually slept this time even though it was not in the crib room. He didn't eat any of his main food and only ate some fruit and baby cookies. He didn't even drink all of his milk. He was pretty much starving when we got home that day. I fed him a bunch of different things when we got home and he had no problem eating them.

On Friday, Tristan had a much better day. We left him there all day for the first time and Jean-Louis and I both went to pick him up. I expected another bad day since he was screaming, crying, and kicking when I left him that morning. That was partly my fault though since I lingered around way too long talking to one of the staff members about his food and sleep. I packed him yummy food because I wanted him to eat well. I made salmon and cream cheese sandwich bites for him so it's not surprising he ate everything! He also ate all of his fruit and all of his pasta. He drank all of his milk too. The staff there told us that he played more and would wonder around and look outside a lot. He apparently likes to help with laundry since he did it both Thursday and Friday. They even made him laugh playing peekaboo :) If that wasn't good enough, they finally got him to sleep in the crib room at the scheduled nap time with all the other babies. He slept around 35 minutes. What an excellent report! Yes, Thursday seemed horrible but Friday sounded great. What an amazing difference.

It's been three days now since he has been at daycare without us and we're already seeing the impact of it at home. He is definitely going through separation anxiety with me. When I am out of sight, he flips out. He never used to do that. I guess he is scared that I may not come back since I am the one that leaves him at daycare. It's definitely hard to see. When he is really distressed, like when he is tired, he doesn't even want to be with Jean-Louis. When I left the room to go shower last night, he reacted the exact same way when I left him at daycare: stomping his feet in terror and crying. Jean-Louis said it didn't last long though.

Other changes since introducing daycare:

• His bedtime is now moved down to 8:30 or 8:45PM, instead of 9PM
• We now bathe him every day, instead of every other day
• His dinner is now given 30 minutes or 1 hour earlier than usual
• We change his clothes every day now
• He signs baby all the time (because there are so many babies at daycare!)
• He snacks more on puffs, and cookies (only the baby ones that we provide)
• He waves goodbye now
  

Baby cried at daycare

It's no surprise, Tristan cried at daycare the first time I left him. Apparently, him and the other new girl was setting each other off today when they cried. I imagine it was a tough day for everyone there. I think I took it pretty well on his first day without me but I did constantly think about how he was doing. For the two hours I got to spend at home alone, I was very busy cooking, cleaning, and having lunch. I was hoping to get other things done too but time was up.

Shortly after we arrived at daycare today, there were about three babies crying. Tristan was perfectly content playing and then he had this scared look on his face. Minutes after the crying fest started, he came towards me and started to fuss. Babies crying sure does scare him. It was just a big crying day. When I left him, he cried. When I was on the phone with one of the staff, I heard him cry in the background. When I arrived to pick him up, he was fussing and crying while clinging onto one of the staff's leg. The staff lady was on the phone and Tristan just clung onto her leg. He does that to me quite a bit at home too. When I asked, one of the staff said that he cried on and off while I was gone. So sounds to me he wasn't quite as easy as they expected.

Overall, Tristan had a tough day so I have been feeding him more of his favorite foods like bread and cheese. He eats his main food too, which is good. I am amazed at how much he is eating now. Either he is making up for the lack of food when he was sick the past two weeks or he is going through a growth spurt. I'm allowing myself to baby him a bit more too because of daycare. Of course, Jean-Louis doesn't think I should.

New developmental changes leads to sleeping problems

Since Tristan has learned to crawl and stand up last week, it has been a struggle to get him to lie down and go to sleep. He cries more and does not sleep as long anymore. As a result, he is a cranky baby most of the day. For the first time in at least 2 months, he woke up at 4:30AM last night and would not sleep again. We had to throw everything at him, including nursing, just so he would sleep another 30 minutes to a hour. All the sleep problems are compounded by the fact that he is teething too of course. Maybe I will give in and just give him some Tylenol. I'm starting to lose my patience :(

We're going to have to start to sleep train him again and let him cry even more, even if he stands while doing it. I'm so not looking forward to it. We already let him cry but not until he passes out. We usually abort after around 30 minutes of crying. In the past, it would normally just take him 2-3 minutes to fall asleep on his own. I'm stressing out because he is very clingy when he is tired. When will this phase pass?

Our experience with sleep training

It has been over 2 weeks now since Tristan started sleep training. It was very difficult for all of us initially but now it has just become part of our routine. The results? Tristan will still cry most of the time when we put him down but then 5-10 minutes later, he will settle down and sleep. When he is interrupted and wakes up, he puts himself back asleep almost right away. He sleeps from 9:45PM until 6:45AM. He naps twice a day for 1-2 hour at a time. He usually takes longer to fall asleep for his second nap. There was even a time when he didn't cry at all and slept almost instantly. The worst was near the beginning when he was interrupted during his sleep and he cried for 52 minutes.

Before sleep training:
Tristan depended on nursing to fall asleep. If that didn't work, we used the pacifier. We also rocked him and played music. In the middle of the night, we used the pacifier and rocked him. In most cases, it didn't take long but in the worst case it took hours. It was not good practice but he did sleep through the night and he napped well in the day too.

After sleep training:
Tristan sleeps just as much as before but probably sleeps better now since he can put himself back to sleep. He does not depend on milk, the pacifier, music or rocking to fall asleep.

Here's our night routine:

6-6:30PM - solid food for dinner
7-7:30PM - bath time (if it's a bath night), change into PJs
8PM - last milk feeding
8:25PM - teeth brushing, followed by cuddles and a little play time with us
9PM - dim lights and quiet chit chat
9:20PM - last diaper change
9:30-9:45PM - put Tristan down in crib

We kept a record of the sleep training for 2 weeks. The following is a graph of the results. There were 2 sleep interruptions which resulted in him waking up and were not plotted on the graph. As you can see below, Tristan will cry more on certain days but most of the time, he would spend no more than 15 minutes crying. Crying time is plotted but some of that time is spent fussing or whining and sometimes even a bit of cooing and playing. He never cries at the top of his lungs the whole time. He cries less for his first nap and sleeps longer compared to his second nap. Since we stopped recording data, he has actually been crying even less now.

Overall, we are pleased with the outcome and Jean-Louis and I both agree that he has done well enough to graduate from sleep training :) Psychologically, it was difficult and stressful and sometimes it still is. So is it worth it? Yeah, I think so. Wait until your baby is at least 6 months old before you start sleep training, especially if you take the cry it out route. Others have recommended waiting that long as well.

Baby sleep training underway

No more procrastinating - we finally started sleep training Tristan this past weekend. I have to say, it is a lot harder to handle than I thought. I was okay the first 1 or 2 times he cried it out but after that I just felt horrible. I'm just looking at him right now in the exersaucer and his eyes are puffy.

For the sleep training, we are implementing a modified version of the Ferber (or cry it out) method. On Friday night, Daddy placed him down when he was tired and left the room. When he cried for 2 minutes, Daddy went in, picked him up until he was calm again, and then put him back down for 3 minutes. We basically repeated this according to the times we agreed on, which were 2, 3, 5, 8, 12, 12, 12..... until he passed out. When it was nap time, I would take over since I'm the one responsible for most naps. Gradually, we removed the picking up and putting down and only went in the room to pat and kiss him. We would do this every time he woke up or when he would sleep or nap. Let's just say over the course of the weekend, he cried a lot. Once this is over, I'll post the outcome of the sleep training.

If I tell you that prior to sleep training, Tristan was already sleeping through the night and naps 1-2 hours straight twice a day, you may wonder why we even need sleep training for him. There are days where he doesn't sleep well or cat naps during the day. It doesn't happen often but it does happen. The real problem is that he still depends on us to fall asleep or fall back asleep. That's our fault since we wanted our sleep badly and got in the habit of helping him to sleep since he was born. In order to remove his dependency on us rocking him, sucking on his pacifier (that is a big one!), or us nursing him, we need to train him to sleep on his own.

I'm actually having trouble sleeping these days. Too many things to think about and now with the sleep training stress, I am having trouble going back to sleep after getting up to pee at night. Maybe after we are done training Tristan, I should work on sleep training myself.

Afraid of spoiling the baby

I just let Tristan cry in the exersaucer for 8 minutes and I videotaped a part of it so that he could see himself having a cow one day. I did it because I thought he was crying for attention. He didn't seem tired, hungry, or uncomfortable. I tried many times to place him on the floor so he could play with his toys but he protested. Usually when he is fussy, I would start to play with him first and then leave him but it didn't work this time. I finally carried him to calm him down and then I started it again. I put him down to play but he wouldn't. Fine. It was about time to feed him so I nursed him and after just one side, he passed out. Now, he is in his crib napping. So far so good. I was wrong. He was still tired. He usually naps 1-2 hrs straight but it wasn't the case this weekend and I thought maybe he was on a different schedule now.

I don't want Tristan to rely on me holding him or playing with him too much. I sometimes leave him to cry until it becomes a screaming cry and then I take him. I read that is bad since babies will learn that screaming works. Allowing them to cry a little bit longer each time is what you are supposed to do. It's hard for me, as his mother, to tolerate him crying so much with a wet face and choking on his salvia between each scream. I'm trying my best to be cool with it but babies can sense your emotions and know that you are really not ok. It's so hard to be a good mother when every thing you do or don't do gets criticized by someone. Jean-Louis thinks I give Tristan too much attention. But then again, if it were up to him, he would have had Tristan cry it out at his first month. We talked this weekend about this because I wanted him to see where I was coming from and understand why it was so hard for me. It may have helped just a bit but I'm not sure.

There will definitely be changes and Tristan will be allowed to cry more but at the level I'm comfortable with. I don't want to spoil him and I know I need to act fast or it will get much harder. As I see it, the window of opportunity is here since he is just 6 months old and it's not too late yet.

Yes, no more noise coming from the baby monitor! Looks like Tristan is still enjoying his nap :) Phew.

Tristan is 6 months old

It's Tristan's half birthday today. Can't celebrate today though since Daddy won't be here tonight. He's off to a iPhone meetup downtown. These meetups take place once a month so he got the okay from us to attend. Instead, we will celebrate tomorrow night.

Tristan, Tristan, Tristan. He has become quite the handful. Today, he's a big crank. Other days, he is very good and plays happily by himself. Guess, it's a good thing we are not celebrating today.

Solid food has made Tristan's poops more solid. In its current state, I kind of like it. It's easier to clean and it doesn't leak much and stain his clothes. But he isn't even eating much rice cereal yet. The rice cereal has eliminated one of his poops so now he only goes twice a day. That's better also. The introduction to solids is the biggest change for him right now.

Tristan has outgrown more of his clothes. Some of the clothes from 3-6 months no longer fit him so I have put them away. He is not big enough for the 6-12 month clothes yet though.

Tristan sits very well now. He barely tips over now. We leave him on the floor and check on him every minute. He doesn't hurt himself when he falls but he does scare himself and then he cries.

His cries are starting to sound more like whines to me, which is totally annoying. I leave him and watch him sometimes just to see what he does. He seems to have a lot of perseverance. I can see him crying non-stop for a long time. Sleep training is going to suck - big time! The plan is to start a no-crying method this weekend, unless something else comes up.

We now have 6 months of experience taking care of a new baby. Here is to surviving this long! Woohoo! Tristan can definitely interact with us more and we love making him laugh. I think the laughter of a baby is one of the best sounds you will ever hear :-)

Perhaps the worst is behind us now but we still have a long way to go. We're not at the place where we can honestly say that we love to spend every minute with him. In fact, both Mommy and Daddy wish to have a break from the baby. I have been itching to travel somewhere. Sadly, this may end up being the first year we don't go anywhere :( Oh well.... I'll make sure we have a great summer anyway in Vancouver.

Another productive weekend - can this keep up?

Tristan did not sleep well last night. His ability to sleep better at night is deteriorating or something. When he first goes down to sleep, he usually sleeps around 3-4 hours straight before waking up. Then he'll sleep maybe another hour and then we have to rock him or give him the pacifier. This repeats another 4-5 times before we actually get up. It seems to be his typical routine now but I'm not used to it. I wake up every morning feeling super sleepy and kind of jet lagged. Last night he woke up so frequently, we were both basically up since 4 AM. I think I may have had a 20 minute snooze somewhere in there. The entire time, I was trying to rock and hold him. Bringing him to bed with me did not work this time. I'm wondering when most babies start to sleep well at night? At this point, I'm starting to consider the crying it out method, at least some version of it. He'll be 6 months old later this month so he'll be more ready for it.

This past weekend was one of the most productive ones I've had. Saturday, I had a research meeting, then we submitted our iPhone app and then that night I got enough of our website done to make it live. On Sunday, I finished another page of the website, then we went shopping in Coquitlam. We finally bought our high chair for Tristan and some feeding tools. Every time we go to Baby's World, we always spend a ton of money. We also shopped at Babys R Us and Ikea. iKea just ended up being a food stop since the line up was too long. We didn't go grocery shopping really this weekend so we stopped by the Langley Farm Market on the way back and quickly grabbed a few fruits and vegetables (and a mango crumble pie!). When we are so busy, we don't eat well. We've been dining on frozen food and can food the past 3 days. On top of that, we have been snacking on junk food and sweets. I know it's terrible. I will make sure I cook something today.

Tristan sat in the high chair last night with us when we had dinner. The chair can do many things, which I like, but it's quite bulky too. Most of them are I suppose. We just have space issues at our place and there seems to be more baby things in the living room now than furniture for us. I will write a review for the high chair once we use it a bit more. Tristan is just sitting in it and playing for now. We're starting him on solid food in a couple of weeks.