We haven’t yet done “Christmas” with Tristan yet – we’re waiting for our friend Jason to arrive so we can try to convince him to wield a camera. Besides, we’re hoping Tristan naps his little butt off for a couple of hours. We did give him a couple of his gifts ahead of time – a big felt-plush dragon for babies that we discovered locally and the Imaginarium 5-Way Giant Bead Maze Cube, which has already paid for itself in baby-entertaining time.

Tristan’s been spending much of his time opening and closing doors, cabinets, drawers, and the like. Since we decided to put this potentially annoying behavior on cue, he delights in getting it right when we let him open and close things.

He definitely recognizes words and enjoys the hell out of his language videos. I am not sure if he recognizes basic body parts, but he recognizes the words for them. Whenever he sees or hears a word he knows, he tries to say it – which sounds a lot like gutteral growling – and gets grinny.

We brought him to a local Gymboree yesterday and played with Chun and Marcus. Tristan ADORED the place and we’re definitely going to sign up so we have access to the open playgym times, if nothing else. In fact, we were just about to when Tristan tried to be a bit of a gymnast and flip beyond his means, earning him a headache and us all an earache. After we calmed him down from that, we realized it was getting late enough that he’d likely be a pain in the ass while we tried to sign up for anything, so we put it off for next time.