Tristan’s been pretty delightful to be around this past week. Perhaps every time I see what looks like my baby learning and behaving developmentally appropriate it brings me pride instead of just taking things for granted or looking so forward to his naps that I overencourage him to be independent.
A few things have improved for us. First of all, he has started being a bit more demonstrative about stuff he wants. Now he usually reaches up toward the counter when thirsty instead of just breaking down into tears, although there are still bugs to work out there. He is developing signals to express that he’s hungry instead of tripping out. I have also learned to detach my emotions from his screaming most of the time and quickly decide how I think it should be dealt with instead of getting upset by it.
He responds very well to positive reinforcement, and this has shaped how discipline works. When I say discipline, I don’t mean only the correcting of poor behavior, but mostly the shaping of good behavior. This means that Tristan’s pretty easygoing and is accepting of shaping (gets attention for good so repeats good), but it also means that behaviors not offered (shit he don’t do) are hard to train (make him do).
Digression: I think his obsession with opening and closing cabinets is likely a game of peekaboo with the contents of the cabinets. I could totally see that, considering he usually doesn’t empty cabinets or even disturb the contents.
Anyway, we had a playdate with Elizabeth and Eileen. That went very well – we were there for over two hours without anyone getting exceptionally fussy (adults and children :D) and I think we can learn a lot from each other. Elizabeth is about 19 months old and she can echo back perfectly audible two syllable words. I’m completely amazed by this, as she’s way ahead of her peers (or at least the kid I brought over today). Anyway, this was a first playdate with the two of them. Elizabeth’s been kind of stubborn lately – I encountered her yesterday and she was not happy to be in her stroller at ALL. Tristan’s been a pleasant kid but I’m all worried about him. The two kids were very similar in physical ability and size and really interacted marvelously, I think. Tristan spent most of his time playing with cabinets, refrigerator magnet toys, and sometimes coming in to join us all in the living room. Elizabeth spent most of her time trying to impress me.
Pardon me. Tristan woke up screaming and I went to comfort him and then set him back down. I should really remember by now that he tends to wake up screaming sometimes and get over it himself but it’s hard when I see him standing in the crib howling to just let him be. So whether I go to him depends on how annoyed I am at the intrusion or the thought of losing the free time. Today I didn’t give a shit about losing that time so I went to him, but I probably prolonged his agony because he does need to scream it out for a few minutes sometimes. I need to teach him how to express that he is tired other than the spontaneous rubbing of eyes and/or crying. With time.
Anyway, so Tristan and Elizabeth playing. Neither of them needed much hovering but they both needed spot discipline. Kind of like at home, actually.
I give up. Ninja began meowing. I heard it through the monitor. He was locked in Tristan’s room. Either way, Tristan was going to wake up – meowing of doom or me opening the door. He woke in a pretty good mood but obviously still sleepy. I just put him back down but who knows if he’s going to go BACK to sleep?
Maybe I will talk later.