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!