Last night, Tristan decided that he wanted to give the toilet a shot! He didn’t deposit anything in there, but he sat for a good five minutes.

We were about to serve dinner and I went into the bathroom to use it. Tristan followed me in; this isn’t altogether unusual, although his interest is usually just limited to watching the routine and watching the toilet flush. At that very well-timed moment (dinner about to be served), he began motioning for me to lift the cover, and then the seat, and then put his potty seat on top of the toilet. We pulled his pants and diaper off and I sat him up there. He started to panic, as if he were afraid to fall in, and then James came into the bathroom and handed him a distracting light-up toy. Tristan sat there playing with the toy while seated on the toilet.. I made sure he was pointing downward so that we didn’t get a nasty surprise all over the toy. After a few minutes, he wanted to come down from the seat, but he did a really good job in asking to use the toilet (kind of hard, but he said “off” and pointed to the lid, and then gestured toward the insert, so his intentions were clear) and sitting on it for his first real try.

He repeated some of the process again today and one of his therapists was here to see.. yay! So we might have a new toilet user on our hands whenever the process works itself out. Not looking forward to nighttime training (this child fills up diapers overnight like nobody’s business) but very enthused about the possibility of this important step toward independence!

* Tristan can read at least the following words out loud: baby, eyes, go, hat, cat, kick, happy.

* Tristan’s last day at his school (the center-based program) is this Friday, 10/29. We decided to have him pulled out and have his allocated hours returned to in-home therapy. The gentlest way to say “why” is that the center is relatively useless compared to the in-home therapy. We spent a lot of time thinking about it all and decided this was for the best. I’ll miss my bike rides, but I won’t miss hurrying out the door to bring him somewhere the staff always looked pissed off to have to deal with him (and me).

* Naps are once again evolving – this time, OUT. We’re operating on a no-nap, 12-hour of sleep schedule. This involves some very heavy entertaining in the evening to keep Tristan from crashing at around 7pm for the night. Up until about two weeks ago, he was napping reliably but required a car ride to be lulled to sleep, and then we’d come home and I’d place him in his bed. He started waking up as soon as he hit the bed – and when he wakes up like that, he SCREAMS. I’m quite over the 20 minutes of very loud screaming and quite over the baby who goes to sleep at midnight because there’s just so much to see. This all didn’t work out so well last night, when he woke up and wouldn’t freaking get back to sleep. We don’t need anti-naps. But for the most part, it means we have some time in the evening where we’re not making sure Tristan is happy and not destroying shit.

* Tristan says “thank you” at contextually appropriate times where someone would normally say “thank you” to HIM – such as when he surrenders something I ask for. It’s still really cute that he says it spontaneously.

* Tristan’s been getting to know “stop” and “go” – when we’re at a stoplight, he will hum “ready, set” and say “Go!!” Thankfully, he’s honing the timing so that he’s now doing it when the light turns green and not the entire four minutes we’re waiting at a stoplight.

* Tristan’s been reciting letters in somewhat the correct order, even without actual letters being visible. He skips over the few he doesn’t say (G, J, P, R – I can’t think of any more he does NOT say) but you can even alternate letters and he will fill in the proper ones.

And right now, Tristan is asleep on daddy’s lap and likely about to be placed into bed. Wish us all luck!

Tristan started saying “thank you” yesterday evening! We were in the shower, and I was trying to brush his teeth. He hates the tooth brushing, so I’m trying to use positive reinforcement for successes in getting him to try it – whether by himself or having me use the brush. One thing I say a lot as praise is “thank you!” And he echoed it back to me! It sounds a bit like “eat you!” and it’s SO DAMN CUTE. He’s running around the house saying it now, in fact. 🙂

flower (sounds like “wowh” but used contextually)
wow!
uh-oh
hmmmmm, hmm, GO! (he doesn’t try the “ready” or “set”)
baby (usually when the word “baby” is printed)
kick (when it’s printed and said)
two
eight
hat
heart
“guh” for circle, square, and triangle
.. and most of his letters. He seems to forget how to say certain ones at times, but lately we have:
A C E F I K L M O P Q S T U* V W** X Y***
* he sounds REALLY excited when he says U
** W sounds like “dub” and hard to distinguish from his M sound
*** sounds like I but he always says it with a Y

Tristan likes to go through his Mr. Potato Head set and identify all the hats. He’s SO cute when he says, “Hat!”

Some people may remember that we’ve been using the “Your Baby Can Read” video series with Tristan. He can read or recognize the word “eyes” – twice this week while I was watching, he’s said it while seeing the word in print with no other cues.

Tristan has busted out with “baby,” “mommy,” and “uh-oh” a few times and even a stranger would’ve understood what he was saying. Woohoo!

And.. he’s interested in counting! He now says “2” in addition to “8” and has been adding numbers/counting to his repertoire of interests.

2 years, 1 month (and 2 days at this point)!

And today my baby said to me, “Mom, up!” He PUT TWO WORDS TOGETHER! Wheeeeeeeeeee! And he did it at school so I wasn’t the only one to see and be proud!

Tristan’s become very interested in the letter “U” and says it gleefully whenever he sees it. He’s also gotten a lot better at recognizing letters in general and naming them correctly, although after some time he will just point to them and say them randomly. James just tested him with letter identification backwards (as to make sure he didn’t just memorize the ABC song) and said he got about 15 of them correct.

His language differences from other children are starting to become more apparent, especially when other children the same age can follow two-step instructions. However, his own language development seems to be chugging right along. What comes to mind is when I drew a heart on his Magnadoodle and asked him, “What is this?” and he said, “HAHT!” He also can identify and say “hat” appropriately, although he’s never worn one for more than seven seconds. His words for “circle” and “square” (sounds like “cuh”) are still very similar, and I think he’s generalizing ovals as circles and rectangles as squares.

He shows greater understanding of the rules now. He knows where he’s not allowed to go in the house – places we’ve kept locked or gated off – and we’ve been experimenting with leaving gates and doors open. He’s been VERY compliant and not even tried to test his limits. Awesome! (Yes, I know limit testing is normal behavior, but he’s already tested the limits enough times that we put locks on the doors and gated off rooms. :))

The sleep process is progressing. He’s used to his toddler bed by now, but he still acts like a cat – that is, if he wants out, you can physically hold him but not much else will convince him. Being in bed is not especially motivating for him, and the only thing I can think of to try next is to withhold a favorite toy until it’s bedtime and let him play with it only in bed. Naps have been hell; they’re still inconsistently taken and only when he passes out in the car.

The teething process is also progressing. The new bottom molars are trying very hard to burst out, and since the middle of last week we’ve been keeping him drugged up on a semi-regular basis. When we see his demeanor go from “can’t deal with life” to “lalalala yay!” in 20 minutes after a dose of Tylenol, we have a reasonable case for him being in pain. He’s still chewing on his shirts, but it seems to be more sucking than destroying lately. It’s been very easy to get him to take an interest in items intended for teething, as well.

He’s doing a very good job with making choices about what he’d like to drink. We place milk and juice in front of him and he’ll either point or touch the one he’d like. Not a big deal to most parents, but we’re talking about a child who doesn’t know how to say “yes” or “no” yet. He tries to say “drink,” “milk,” and “juice” but they are vague approximations that we can’t trust just yet.

Tristan is now a two year old!

We had a lovely party in honor of Tristan’s birthday.. and of course James’s, since they’re fated to share parties forever. A gaggle of family was in town to help us celebrate, and pictures shall eventually appear of the festivities. We decorated the complex’s community room and pretty much had a giant, festive playgroup with snacks.

Tristan has been fascinated with:
Singing – his “This Old Man” and “Clean Up” are fairly recognizable. We can make sense of his “ABC song” and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”
The alphabet – we still have old favorites A and H, as well as O, E, L, R, F.. and whichever one he decides to try to vocalize. His letters are pretty clear when spoken. He will follow a point if we are talking about seeing specific letters (H! Do you see the H?).
Shapes – he tries very hard to say “circle,” “square,” and “triangle.” It all sounds like the same word and a composite of the 3 words which is usually just one syllable (“ka” maybe?). He will kind of softly mumble “rectangle” with all of the syllables. He still says “star” like “car.” He recognizes most shapes and will attend to whatever you tell him might contain certain ones of them (that window is a rectangle!).
Colors – he seems to get REALLY excited when his videos discuss the colors pink, black, and yellow.. he also tries to say the words “black” and “yellow.”

It’s hard to tell if some of his recent “terrible twos” sorts of tantrums have been due to sickness and change, but there’s been plenty of that.. he seems to be a bit more agreeable for the past day or two than he had been for some time. He’s still working on some stubborn second molars, as well. We’ve had some fun ones where we had to leave him in his room to work out his frustration for a good five minutes because I would not allow him to do something he’s not allowed to do. This kid is SMART about consistency; if you go outside the lines with the rules, he will CALL you on it and be pissed – we’re just now getting him to not run off with cell phones and other small electronics after some generous family members started letting him play with theirs. 😛

He’s been amazingly adaptable as well: last Thursday was Food Poisoning Day at the Long household, and James and I were kind of unable to… move. We woke up puking overnight and were completely sick throughout the day, to the point where we slept every spare moment. But Tristan was a freaking trooper and he let us lock him and us in his room for the entire day. We mostly passed out on his floor and he mostly watched videos.

Yes, we did put a TV in his room. Either it’s a second birthday gift or a baby bribery device. It’s a small one and it’s wall-mounted. It plays his videos nicely from a Slingcatcher. Speaking of second birthday gifts, we also got him a balance bike.

We signed up for another ‘semester’ at The Little Gym. We figured that since he learned how to swing out of his crib, we should encourage further gross motor skill augmentation. He’s really freaking impressive on the balance beam – requires just one hand holding one of his elbows to keep his balance – but he still is having trouble grasping and swinging from the bars. Even still, the environment is very good for us because it’s set up for kids like him who like a LOT of exercise and stimulation but whose parents could use a break from the constant toddler supervision.

And there we go, almost a month late!

Last night, Tristan figured out how to climb out of his crib, finally. Hilarity did not ensue. He’s not very stable when he does so, so we couldn’t quite just let him go for it (he tended to effectively dive out head first, and, if lucky, grab the post and swing – if not, head first drop).

So we converted the crib to a toddler bed. Turns out he wasn’t having any of that. So last night, we wound up spinning the crib so the higher back rail was in the front, and the now-open front was against the wall (so he wouldn’t climb out). He thankfully didn’t think to climb out the side (still low enough that he can).

Well, until this afternoon that is. He wouldn’t stay in with the open side out, and when Kirin spun it around again, he started climbing out of the crib. So, he just didn’t get a nap today. Still didn’t actually go down for his nightly sleep until 9:30 – but the interesting thing is, we just took out all of the most dangerous stuff, left some night lights on, left his door locked (with the toddler lock at the top) and let him roam as he would. After 15 minutes of climbing in and out of bed and running around his room, he finally climbed in, flopped over, and decided to go to sleep.

So now, for the first time, Tristan has chosen to sleep in his own bed, of his accord. Yay!

On Monday, we started Tristan’s evaluation/ABA sessions. On Thursday (right now), I finally managed to get around to writing. So far I’ve spent five minutes writing and erasing everything. Not a good start so far!

Anyway, they are going fine. We’ve met all five of the therapists.

I have to interrupt this to mention that I can’t look at the word “therapist” without giggling.

Five ladies, all seeming to be in the mid 20s-early 30s age range. All of them seem nice and all of them are positive and caring with Tristan. Of course, since ABA relies on positive reinforcement, I’m glad to see positivity! A big bin of toys and materials for observation, play, testing, teaching is present in Tristan’s room, which has been designated as the therapy area since it’s about the only place he can be corralled.

I feel very bad for Tristan being stuck in this little bedroom of his for three hours a day of his awake time. He’s taking it well, though. I think. He’s been a bit tantrummy but also a bit sick – that level of having a cold that is just short of calling off work/school. Like many males (sexism!), Tristan likes his snuggles and not a whole lot of conflict when he’s not feeling well.

Tristan’s teachers/therapists come in very quickly, in rapid succession, one relieving the other in many cases. Food has to be sneaked in, because there’s actually no time for him to eat in many cases. He’s not supposed to be idly munching during the sessions – that’s a bit distracting. He hasn’t been taught to eat his meals quickly or with purpose and he might need to learn that out of necessity.

I sat in on the first two days of sessions and James sat in on the first session. The time went very quickly for me; I was watching someone else play in a directed manner with my baby. This is what I’ve wanted for so long – someone ELSE to focus on him, engage him. I’m one of those freaks who likes to see my baby bond with other people so long as he doesn’t decide to replace me or something, so I really enjoyed it when Tristan finally became comfortable enough with his new friends to let me leave the room without screaming. In general, we can sit in on/watch/even record with permission these sessions but it defeats the point if we participate more than requested to, so by Wednesday we were out of Tristan’s “work” area. Actually, we had a meeting with the supervisor of the program on Wednesday so the first day of our nonparticipation was required.

I had something rare happen yesterday during Tristan’s second session – I got housework done! Of course, he came bursting out of his room hungry while I was in the middle of said housework, making me go from idly cleaning stuff up to having to collect a few things frantically.

Tristan himself has been making progress. Since Monday, he has:
* shown that he can make the sign for the word “more” at least with regard to being tickled
* learned to roll toy cars back and forth
* been making more attempts to communicate his choices for desired foods
* been impressing everyone with how much eye contact he does make and how much of a cute little baby ninja he is
* not taking his damn naps! more on that later

(there’s one more thing I’m forgetting, but that is the liability of not writing immediately!)

We went out to Thamien Park yesterday afternoon at around 2:30pm – we’re getting to the point where I slip in park trips that technically cut into his nap time. The park was fairly dead since most normal babies are asleep at that time or something. One other family was there – two little boys, older one was 3 and younger one was 2. The 3 year old wandered around chasing Tristan and being chased by him – they both loved it! It was so sad when the grandma of the 3 year old called him off, but I went to make friends with them later. Turns out that the 2 year old, who spent some time next to Tristan in the swings, is also autistic. I learned this after I complimented the kids’ mom (pushing the 2 year old while 3 year old was off with grandma) because the 3 year old was so good with Tristan. Turns out he has had practice! The family had to leave around then, but I gave them contact information and hope to run into them again.

So.. naps. We’ve been having all of this nap trouble lately. We’ve been racking our brains to figure out What. The. Fuck,. Child? So far, we’ve come up with:
* he probably wakes up because his stomach hurts – when he farts he tends to calm down
* he may just be waking up from an excess of environmental noise
* he may also be waking up screaming because he needs less sleep, though he tends to wake up happy when he’s had enough sleep
* teething again? There are still a set of molars to go and we don’t even HAVE any Tylenol until they figure out that clusterfuck with the recalls

I should note that for the most part, he sleeps through the NIGHT with minimal interruptions. There are times when he wakes up screaming, but he can be calmed down quickly or will actually calm himself down quickly still. He does not calm himself down from the naptime screaming anymore. I don’t know if that’s because he’s in pain or because we taught him that screaming during your nap gets you comfort. He seems to be in true pain of some sort during the naptime awakenings until he lets out a huge fart and then relaxes enough to be held. He actually will push my hands off of him while he’s having the episode, and he wants to be touched any and every other time, ESPECIALLY when he’s just fussy.

We’ve been trying various things, such as:
* putting him down later/earlier for bedtime
* putting him down later for naptime – earlier is no longer an option as his schedule extends until 3
* making extra special sure he’s fed/beveraged enough to last through a nap
* attending to him quickly before he’s exceptionally worked up
* giving him time to settle back down before going to him
* giving appropriate medications to known situations: Tylenol (before recall), Mylicon, and now our new favorite, Benadryl —

WE ARE LUCKY! Our kid does NOT go all hyper and unable to sleep on Benadryl! We started giving it Monday night to help him with the symptoms of this cold. We figured that 20 months isn’t so far off from 24 and we know the proper dosages. Anyway, I believe we have Liquid Airplane Insurance on hand should that ever become an issue. We should discuss whether we should try a dosage prior to his nap today and see if he sleeps through it.

But he won’t go back to the nap after being soothed through these episodes anymore for me as of this week. He’s taking 1.5 hour naps instead of the solid 3 hours he used to take. I also think part of this is that he will need substitution for the exercise he’s missing while indoors for his sessions. I’m sure 20 months is also in the midst of a predictable sleep regression according to the toddler literature, so none of this should even be surprising to us. 🙂

Anyway, therapy is going well/fine/good/great etc. and his midday sleep could use some improvement.. in case you didn’t much get through all of that.