Tristan is showing a lot of improvement and interest in learning to swim. At the beginning of the season, he was afraid to be in the water without being held, whether or not he was wearing a lifejacket or floatie. He was also drinking the pool water to the point where we had to stage an intervention program to get him to cut down on it. Now he’s cruising across the pool independently and putting his mouth in the water to BLOW BUBBLES! He finds the pool water to be cold, as do I, but has a harder time getting used to it than I do – poor baby.
All around, Tristan has been growing more mature and independent. When he woke from his nap today, he gave his iPad attention and didn’t even need to hang on me at ALL. For people who had seen him about two months ago, this will probably be shocking. I have also been able to do something I hadn’t in a long, long time – put him down for naps – and he’s stopped most of the screaming when he wakes up, provided we think to leave the door open. I have to hide my head behind a pillow to do it properly, but I’ve been enjoying several weeks of having a child who sleeps. His tantrums have grown far less screamy and more grunty, to the point where sometimes I can’t tell if he is upset about something or pooping. Yesterday he managed to sit through an almost 2 hour lunch (iPad in hand) and behave amazingly.
Potty training is still about the same; Tristan is making an effort to stay dry in his pull-ups and to pee in the toilet when brought. He doesn’t usually initiate bathroom trips and he still refuses to poop anywhere but his diaper. Thankfully, he does poop IN the diaper and doesn’t (yet?) try to remove it by himself or decorate with it. He says that he’s scared when the topic of poop in toilet comes up, and whenever I’m removing the diaper to deposit said poop into the toilet. But he has a solid (hah hah) understanding of what goes in the toilet and I’m confident that he’ll get there when he is ready. I’m really happy that we can get away with being slackers (read: not really on top of things) and he’s still progressing.
We haven’t gotten Tristan anything new for his iPad in quite some time, but he’s fine with that. He’s begun to write the names of numbers alongside the numbers in one particular application. His handwriting probably looks like any kindergartner learning to write. There’s a slingshot-type game called “Angry Birds” that has taken off tremendously, to the point where the plush birds are sold in every novelty store you can see – and I LOVE it that Tristan understands the rule, “You can throw Angry Birds only while in the house.”
Tristan is fully independent on playground equipment – I no longer have needed to go up with him to make sure he doesn’t kill himself. He is, however, becoming notably impatient – his New York blood is showing. He’s been climbing over other children who hesitate to take their turns or are lingering in any way when taking turns for slides and other equipment, and he’s been known to just plain cut in line while everyone else is picking their ass trying to decide who goes next. As a rule, I don’t mind this (which is why I let it develop, haha) but I need to teach him the rule of “Don’t climb over the SAME people over and over, and let others in front of you have a fair chance to take a turn before climbing on over.”
His conversational skills are picking up. One theme that keeps popping up is, “I’m scared!” He is scared of the aforementioned pooping in a toilet and of automatically flushing toilets, public toilets, being overtickled, and probably drowning (he’s been reportedly saying he’s scared when I dive under water). He is starting to be able to respond to the question, “What is your name?” – he does best with visual cues, such as the words to the question and answer being written out and in front of him to help.
Unfortunately, I am no longer wearing him in the sling, and him no longer being worn has very much coincided with him stopping climbing on my head.
He had an incident where he ran from me in a Kohl’s store when I took him there specifically to buy toys. He walked a bit in front of me and then suddenly darted into a rack of clothing when I called for him to stop, going instantly invisible. After panicking for a moment and wondering how to describe him to folks in the store to help me look and hoping he didn’t escape into the attached mall, I decided to look over in the toy section for shits and grins. Guess who was there and so very proud of himself? Unfortunately, that earned him prompt removal from the store and then the mall after he got the “never run away from me” lecture on a bench outside of the store. I am pleased to report that after a month or so of requiring him to be in a stroller everywhere (I was seriously unable to keep up with him for a short time), he’s currently responding nicely to calls to stop and stay closer.
That is where we seem to be right now.