Last night, after James got home from work, Tristan brought me his shoes and handed them to me. He looked at me expectantly. I put the shoes on him. Then he got up and walked toward the stairs, holding the gate and bouncing as if he were in his crib. I opened the gate and let him climb downstairs, and he very purposefully went to the front door and waited. Then I opened the door, and he also very purposefully led me on a walk outside. James joined us and we explored most of the condo complex.

Later on in the evening, Tristan brought James his shoes and they went on a walk together while I rested upstairs like a zombie.

Tristan has whims other than food and drink, and he’s very clearly asking for them in a way that even others can understand!

Two appointments have been set in response to our filling out massive packets of paperwork.

The first one is with Early Start and it’s on next Tuesday, April 13. This is the one to determine what services he needs, as far as I know.

The second one is with Kaiser Permanente’s regional autism center on Wednesday, May 12. This is the one to determine what the doctors with opinions think this is – autism, something else altogether, a delay/difference of insignificant quality.. as far as I know.

***

I do a lot better day to day when I don’t focus on all of this autism crap. I know damn well that if he has this condition, the earlier we act, the better. But it’s lost among what is normal for his age group, since a lot of 1 year olds don’t talk so well or otherwise express themselves yet. It’s also lost among the fact that he’s fairly opposite from what one expects in a child with autism… he makes eye contact, he says words, he laughs and giggles and interacts.

I was going to write more, but as usual lately, Tristan is awake when he should be sleeping. And screaming.

* Since his grandma Didi’s visit, Tristan has been using plates very well. Instead of setting up his high chair tray somewhere, we set his plate on a bookshelf in the dining room that he can reach comfortably. Until his recent lessons, he used to be compelled to flip plates over.. now he seems to be able to resist the urge while food is on them. Anyway, we are REALLY pleased about this. It’s one giant step from babyhood to childhood that I’ve been looking forward to.

* I think Tristan’s working on those two year molars on top of the nasty canines. I definitely saw outlines of these molars while Tristan was screaming mid-nap. I didn’t stick my finger in his mouth to find out, though. I’ll do that later on, when he’s not nearly so pissed off.

* Tristan the punkass really needs to quit eating wood chips. I’d let it go and let the behavior go extinct, since we’re just talking freaking tiny mashed up WOOD CHIPS here, but he routinely picks up and examines things I think are likely choking hazards from the same pile. So far mouth sweeps have revealed only wood chips that I was unlikely to even see again in the poop. I suppose age 3 is when we trust our children not to choke themselves on dumb shit, so that’s why we have that distinct cutoff point for small parts in toys.

* I had a successful game of peekaboo going with Tristan and one of his playgroup buddies, Hugo. I’m always excited to see multiple children playing together in some fashion. I also have hopes that other children will be able to engage him through peekaboo and chase as they all start initiating the play more.

I’m not kidding. Every time I sit down with communication in mind, like to respond to comments, Tristan somehow distracts me. It’s the second time he’s woken up during this nap.

Happy Easter – no more prunes for you!

James was concerned about Tristan’s output since he seemed to be somewhat constipated. In order to lessen the potential discomfort, James gave Tristan a 3.17 oz pouch of prune puree.

Later on in the evening, we’d had enough of being cooped up indoors for this lovely Zombie Jeebus day so we decided to dress up and go to Wal-Mart. As some of you have read in the past, Tristan hates diaper changes far more than walking around full of shit, so we try to keep this in mind when planning diaper changes in public. And speaking of diaper changes, we smelled that very familiar smell a few minutes into the Wal-Mart trip and knew we’d need to keep an eye.. or a nose.. on things.

So, we spent a good while at Wal-Mart looking through tons of crap for sale. The poo smell was getting progressively more noticeable, but I dismissed it because I know my nose is way too sensitive. I thought I was imagining it, because he was in the sling.

I took Tristan out of his sling to load him into the car and found that the front of my shirt was COVERED in stinky shit-sweat. I tried to arrange for his butt to land on something protective in the car seat, but we decided to just let it go since we sort of hate the car seat in James’s car and are looking for a good excuse to replace it.

This is the sort of thing that you just do not have any choice but to laugh. It’s that absurd. We spoke in the car about our mandatory bath while every single traffic light in the 2 mile commute mocked us and made us wait. After what felt like three months sitting in that seat, we got home and stripped us for the bath. There was so much poo that a “spoonful of peanut butter” fell right out of his pants before I got to the diaper. The diaper itself was overloaded, but that hardly mattered now that we had shit-sweat AND peanut butter poo all over both of us. Even still, I was amazed that nothing came out the top and sides as well.

Anyway, we had a good shower without any additional pooping. The sling should be dry now. And this kid should never eat prunes again.

What a waste of time!

Ugh. We just had a lousy experience, that’s all. We might try again, because the suckitude had nothing to do with our kid.

There were a couple of earlier events that we skipped out on because we’re all half a workday off from the world. At 10:30, Tristan was still wearing the previous night’s diaper and we were probably eating a horrible fast food breakfast. We aimed for a 1:00 egg hunting event over at Live Oak Park (by the Safeway at Rivermark, for those familiar with this area).

We expected parking to be uncomfortable at best, and it was – we only had to park the car ten minutes from the destination by foot. The weather here has been interesting and unpredictable lately as well, so the field where the hunt was set up was soggy and cold. We were all dressed for summer, and as we all know, I pack extra clothing for Tristan all of the time except when I actually need to use it. Anyway, we were all in sandals and walking all over the place. We didn’t even let Tristan down from the sling until well after we got there with all of the muck going around.

We had what may have been a moment of luck – a bunch of families were lined up to get participation wristbands, but we were approached by people giving them out to kids Tristan’s age while we were wandering aimlessly trying to figure out where to go. He resisted the wristband, as he hates shit on his wrists with a passion. After a moment, we gathered around the “Under 3” egg-hunting field that was roped off and waited. Some dude with a megaphone announced that the hunt would take place in 15 minutes, so I ran off into Safeway for a potty break while James entertained Tristan back at the egg hunt area. From time to time I kept looking around to see if anyone we recognized was there, but nobody looked the least bit familiar.

The megaphone dude announced a few time intervals, and then finally called out, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls..”

And about half of the crowd gathered around the toddler area – which we thought was parent-assisted but it looks like it wasn’t even intended to be – rushed the ropes. Confused, I squeaked to James, “Get in there!” as I was poised to take the pictures of this wonderful moment.

The announcer tried sort of feebly to regain order and then gave up and openly gave the rest of us (read: those of us who try to play fair) permission to get in there. So James and Tristan went. And not an egg was left to be found among the crowd of parents hauling toddlers and collecting. Tristan was far more interested in trying to remove that wristband than to insert himself among hundreds of clamoring people to find nonexistent eggs.

The entire thing was over in about one minute. One family came out of the toddler field with a basket full of eggs, and the kid she hauled looked older than 3. We saw what had happened with the parents all getting into the toddler field and being competitive.

I am so glad that Tristan didn’t seem to know or care what was going on – it’s kind of useful when you don’t want to explain why the adults are disappointed. Anyway, we left at that point, speaking badly about people who hoard all of the resources and leave the little ones with absolutely none. We wandered back to Safeway and did our shopping and then walked the ten minutes back to the car, all while wondering why the people announcing didn’t tell the people who rushed the field that their prizes would be cancelled for failure to follow directions.

So, we..
drove for 10 minutes
walked for 10 minutes
waited for 14.9 minutes, which is an eternity when you are trying to keep Tristan in one place
watched adults vulturify the toddler egg hunt field for less than 1 minute
shopped for 30 minutes and that was the most worthwhile part of the trip
walked and drove for 20 minutes.

Happy Easter! At least Easter is on 4/04 this year. Can you find it? 🙂 (really funny but obscure web designer jokery!)

saying “hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!” in my crib

We’ve made it to 19 months without any climbing out of the crib. Tristan showed us twice yesterday that he’s likely fully capable of climbing both INTO and OUT OF his crib, but chooses not to. I won’t be encouraging him at this skill quite yet if I can help it!

waiting patiently in the crib for mommy to come get me

Added 4 new videos to 18 – 19 Months and 19 – 20 Months.