We scheduled a park playdate at Thamien Park for this morning, even rescheduling the removal of some very cumbersome tables from our home in order to make the playdate, since I was the one to organize it. Most of the folks cancelled ahead of time on account of the nasty weather – some thought it would be too cold, some saw rain – but I wanted to go just in case somebody showed up. Turned out that we were late as it was, but almost nobody was at the park – friends or strangers. Nobody I knew was there, but it’s possible that someone arrived before us and turned back upon seeing nobody they knew there. The weather was pretty nasty, but at least not bitterly cold – pretty much just Seattle-ish, weepy rain that is enough to keep people indoors. The field at the park was soggy enough to be considering becoming marshland. My shoes are quite soaked and I’m glad Tristan was in the sling, because he’d probably have wanted to play in the muck and I don’t believe I had a towel on hand big enough to deal with that and the fact that they tend to use ‘reclaimed water’ in the maintenance of the landscape as it is.
I brought Tristan to the mall and let him walk around the Carter’s store while I picked out some 24 month lightweight stretchy pants for him – I love those particular pants because they have been pretty age-appropriate for him throughout his pants-wearing days and they come in colors that go well with any outfit. Whenever I see them in whatever size he is or is on the cusp of, I like to snap up a few pairs since they tend to be scarce in whatever size I am looking for. I also got him some mittens for shits and giggles, since he won’t wear them unless it’s frostbite-cold, but I’ll bet if it gets that cold he will appreciate them. I also grabbed another pack of socks since we do share a home with the Sock Eating Monster as many of you have experienced in your own homes.
The worst of the teething seems to have passed for now. The lower molar he’d been working on is finally visible, and there are some teeth poking around up on top of those that are causing him a bit of grief, but it seems paltry compared to the week of diaper nastiness.
But diapers are getting very nasty. We tried very hard to be respectful and understanding when the diapers were painful for him because he was all rashy. He seemed to be grateful and cooperative. Now that he has the energy or is getting old enough to protest more forcefully, he is going back to squirming and refusing to lie back without screaming. I’ve been trying many methods for dealing with this and depending on the time of day or week or whatever toddler whim brings that moment, some work and some do not. I have had to resort to lying him down to remove the diaper and wipe a tiny bit (hopefully enough to avoid shit-prints on the changing table, but not always that lucky) before he squirms out and up. I manage to face him so that I can continue cleaning him as he squirms, and then I’ve had to apply the new diaper standing up. Of course, I already suck at diapering this kid so this makes the new diaper sag oddly on at least one side until I’ve spent five extra minutes straightening it. Anyway, I suspect that lying on his back at some moments is uncomfortable and I plan to get his pillow back out, but I also believe he’s just getting more assertive.
He is definitely making leaps and bounds in the language department, at least as far as understanding it goes. He understands the concept of “no” and after a few tries can be convinced to heed it. For instance, we have a new TV peripheral stand with glass doors, and we have our stair gate that is meant to keep the eager baby from going head-first into trouble. As any good toddler does, he does try a lot to see whether the rules have changed, but we’re all pretty good about not making a game out of it where he does the obnoxious thing over and over while laughing. Except for the last time we were at the playgroup, and I was trying to convince him to bang on wood and not glass.. but that was the only time I can recall. I’m sure that my tone of voice was not the same as when we run into these issues at home, and I realize that I should’ve led him away from the glass to show him something appropriate to bang on instead of trying to show him the windowsill of the window he was banging on.
He’s been napping very well this week, and I hope that continues. He’s preferred to take one nap and a bit earlier than he used to – he was asleep by 1pm today instead of the 2:30pm we had been going for – and these past few days he’s slept until at least 4pm.
Oh! He is able to put things back on command (and on his whim) now. He doesn’t do it very reliably, but we’ve made a game of taking things out of drawers and putting them back in, or taking books off of bookshelves and putting them back on. Also, he is still VERY obsessed with opening and closing doors and drawers – ah, my little OCD Virgo. Whenever we have the refrigerator door open when he’s wandering around, he tries to close it even if you’re standing in the way holding it open. He also wants to close open car doors and the trunk. I’m trying to keep putting these behaviors – open, close, in, out – on cue so that we don’t start fighting over it and/or he doesn’t hurt himself or others and/or he doesn’t lock my keys in the car.