Saying “Hiiii!” over and over in my crib; should NOT be awake for another hour yet

went from crib to musical toys in 3.4 seconds!

Things are getting slowly better in some areas, but it’s annoying when Tristan’s very cranky. I’m grateful that holding him helps soothe him, and I really am going to pull for us getting a cheap rocking chair.

At the playgroup today, he had to be held for a good 45 minutes. I took us out to Babies R Us for another temporary door lock and other assorted crap, let him run around the store for a good 20 minutes (he was not cranky at that point, either!) got him home, and let him play since he seemed very content and feeling fine at that point. I changed his diaper in anticipation of his nap, and noted sorrowfully that he had not yet pooped. This is sorrowful because it means such an event was destined to happen between that diaper change and the placing of the toddler in the crib. Such an event did happen, so I had to fight through an extra diaper change before the prenap screamfest.

Something’s been happening to Tristan over the weekends lately. I suspect that it’s correlation rather than something dependent on it being the weekend, since he’s had his major duels with colds over the weekends. Anyway, he goes from being fairly cooperative about the daily duties of life such as having his diaper changed and being put down for naps to giving me screams, struggles, and generally poor behavior. This week seems to have gone very fast, because his behavior today was reminiscent of a typical cranky Tuesday.

Diaper changes will go one of two ways:
1) Tristan is passively cooperative but kind of annoyed to be brought up for diaper change. I stand him on the table and take off his pants, asking him to remove his feet. He removes them and is really proud to remove them. I have one of his giggling or meowing stuffed animals make noise and he starts playing with it. I try to entertain with one hand and change with the other, but he is cooperative and by the time it’s done, giggly. It’s a lot of damn work, but giggly, cooperative babies are nice.
-or-
2) Tristan is passively resistant and screaming his head off when he realizes he’s being brought up for diaper change. He won’t stand on the table, so I lie him down to remove his pants. Sometimes I try “toddler-ese” from the Happiest Toddler book, sometimes I just perform the change quickly and whisk him off to what seems to be developing into the time-out pillows. He only gets time-outs when he throws tantrums, and it’s really more of “lie here and finish that screaming, and then let’s continue with life.” Anyway, diapers. In this scenario, he usually twists, gets up, or puts a hand, foot, or clothing into poop. He also screams like he’s in severe pain, resulting in both of us being in severe pain.

Through a lot of snuggling and him generally getting over whatever’s making him feel like shit, we can transform the type 2 diaper changes into type 1s.

Sleep for him is usually just fine – he may protest but he’s not usually inconsolable. He gave me a bit of type 2 diaper change caliber screaming on his way to nap. Ow..

I’m looking forward to a little bit of a happier and more cooperative kid. Of course, I’m looking forward to him feeling better. I think all of the above are sort of necessary. Besides, a snuggle cures most ills even now.

Fixed those damn headlines to be a little bit prettier and in all of the browsers, too!

woke up screaming during nap, but got myself back to sleep within 3 minutes

Added Newest Photos to Galleries and hacked the menu so it vaguely looks the same in the major browsers.

Added new 16 – 17 Month and 17 – 18 Month pictures.

Tristan’s mostly over whatever the neighboorhood cold was. Thankfully by now – it’s when the “play” week tends to start. His mood has improved vastly. He was very, very pleasant to hang out with yesterday. Also, his molar that was stubborn is completely visible now.

He’s very reliably saying “Hiii!” to us when he hears us/we greet him from naps. It sounds to most people like “aaaah!” which is probably why we didn’t give him credit for it. Come to think of it, he was able to say “hi” when he was spitting out words like “kitty” and “stat” (thermostat) but just recently he seems to say it spontaneously. Still no waving or pointing, though.

Tristan did something that was very adorable to me yesterday. A little bit of backstory: I use an epilator on my legs for hair removal. Tristan has always been fascinated by the whirring noise and light on the thing – it’s a handheld little plucker. If he’s in the mood to play in the bathroom, I will often whip that thing out and work on the furry legs a little bit. We have an understanding that he doesn’t get to touch it if he wants me to continue entertaining him with it. Anyway, I stashed it on the counter in the bathroom after unplugging it and Tristan grabbed my hand to lead me into the bathroom and indicate to the hair remover that he’d like me to use it. This is about the most actively he’s communicated that he’d like me/us to do something without any whining or tears. It was a very sweet little moment.

We have this gear toy that is Tristan’s favorite. We purchased it on a whim around Christmas shopping time, and since then, it’s one of our favorites as well because when we hear it running, we have a busy baby. The gears are removable, and for the first month or so he had this thing he would insist on removing the gears and running the motion alone. Now he’s been putting gears and everything else he owns on it to see what happens. I should get some video when I think to film him playing independently (since I’m usually conked out on the couch at that point!).

We’ve still been practicing stairs, stairs, and also stairs. He’s getting good at them. I want to go to the museum now and practice with their toddler-height stair rails.

Life is good when little guy is cooperative. Life is painful when he’s not feeling well. It’s part sappy mommy stuff and part that I can’t deal with people crankier than myself well.

I may take on a babysitting venture for two “shifts.” I’m due to find out more today.

Updated the design of the 1st 12 months collage and added the 2nd 12 months (well, so far 2nd *5* months :D)

making my gigglepaw bear giggle over and over and awake too damn early!