* Tristan’s reading list: baby, eyes, kick, hi, mommy, daddy, hat, cat, happy, go, me, shoe, yes. Possibly also read are stop and no, but we’re not sure when he says those words.

* We’ve been having him say the word “yes” in order to gain access to some foods he wants. He won’t say it if he doesn’t mean it, but it does require a lot of prompting to get him to say it at all. It’s really cute, though. And we learned he could read it soon after we got him to say it.

* We had a very low-key Thanksgiving with just us and some KFC and home/microwave-cooked goodies. It came out very well, except that I forgot about the cranberry sauce because I don’t eat that crap, and I didn’t make enough gravy. Tristan mostly had chicken rice instead of any of the Thanksgiving goodies, although I slipped some chicken into the rice.

* Within this week, for the very first time, I was able to tell him verbally only (no gestures) to go get his shoes.. and he did! He’s also starting to seek and retrieve toys that went flying in the wrong direction or out of bounds.

* Tristan can descend stairs without holding on to either side and with no help. He’s been able to ascend them for a while. It makes going anywhere with him a WHOLE BOATLOAD easier, as I can either send him ahead or have him catch up instead of having to hold him and block him in. I don’t trust him alone with a full set of stairs but he’s proven himself with the set of 5 that he’s flown down twice about a year ago.

* Tristan can correctly identify cats but insists on calling Samurai a cat as well. If you say, “No, that’s a dog!” he just says, “Cat!” I think he knows but is aware that it’s funny when he mislabels the dog.

* Tristan is largely cooperative when we ask him to walk along with us while holding his hand. He does get restless quickly if there’s no action (you make him stand still and wait, for instance).

* We’ve been having many, many playgroups these past few weeks. Since his preschool stint ended, we’ve been having peers (of his and mine) over here during some of the sessions. At this point, it’s pretty neat because we can include our friends in Tristan’s world. We’ve been seeing a lot of his friends Ethan, Evan, Allyssa, and Bryan (and their moms Karissa, Danya, and Helena). Every playdate has been wonderful so far; although they’re still work for those of us who aren’t naturally social, they pass the time rapidly and with much enjoyment. The kids play together very well minus Tristan’s frequent lack of interest (rectified by engaging in his preferred activities) and the typical kids’ sharing drama (which even Tristan engages in from time to time).

* His singing of the ABC song is starting to include actual letters in sequence. He gets to the “LMNOP” part and falters. I’m sure this will improve over the next day or two.

* I’m sure I’ve forgotten much more, but that’s what writing future entries is for!

* We discovered recently that Tristan really enjoys the Wii Fit. He’s giggling hysterically and counting down “3, 2, 1” as his dad plays right now. I think we’ll have to create him a profile and try to convince him to play!

* Tristan’s vocabulary is far more versatile now. He can fill in the “go” if I say “time to…” and “ready, set…” Thus, he will follow directions to the best of his ability when they are simple and involve “going” in some fashion. He’s been repeating a lot of what other people say.. no swear words yet, though, but I bet that will change if he continues to watch playing of the Wii Fit. His words for milk and juice are starting to come out recognizably and he’s making a lot of the choice in beverage these past few days (something we’ve been trying to teach him for ages!!).

* He reads the following words out loud: baby, eyes, kick, go, me, mommy, daddy, hat, cat, happy, and possibly stop but he says stop kind of missing a couple of consonants so hard to be sure. I feel like I don’t have them all, either. 🙂

* He put his shoes (Crocs) on BY HIMSELF for the first time TODAY!! And we just noticed that he must’ve taken them off himself, as well, since he’s not wearing them.

* His singing is starting to include the “words.” His rendition of “Twinkle, Twinkle” is highly jargonful, but his “ABC” song includes some actual letters. He also will fill in “two” and “shoe” in “This Old Man.” Oh, he knows the word “shoe” contextually as of yesterday, as well! That one violates simple phonics rules so let’s hope he knows his reading words by memory. 😉

* He’s becoming so much more independent. He was able to climb out of the car today when unbuckled from his seat, and we can trust him on stairs for the most part. We can definitely trust him around stairs – specifically, he respects the boundary when we leave the baby gate over the stairs open.

* Mostly, Tristan is a complete ninja and becoming cuter and cuter as his personality is definitely like the rest of us here – a complete wiseass. 🙂