* Tristan can read at least the following words out loud: baby, eyes, go, hat, cat, kick, happy.

* Tristan’s last day at his school (the center-based program) is this Friday, 10/29. We decided to have him pulled out and have his allocated hours returned to in-home therapy. The gentlest way to say “why” is that the center is relatively useless compared to the in-home therapy. We spent a lot of time thinking about it all and decided this was for the best. I’ll miss my bike rides, but I won’t miss hurrying out the door to bring him somewhere the staff always looked pissed off to have to deal with him (and me).

* Naps are once again evolving – this time, OUT. We’re operating on a no-nap, 12-hour of sleep schedule. This involves some very heavy entertaining in the evening to keep Tristan from crashing at around 7pm for the night. Up until about two weeks ago, he was napping reliably but required a car ride to be lulled to sleep, and then we’d come home and I’d place him in his bed. He started waking up as soon as he hit the bed – and when he wakes up like that, he SCREAMS. I’m quite over the 20 minutes of very loud screaming and quite over the baby who goes to sleep at midnight because there’s just so much to see. This all didn’t work out so well last night, when he woke up and wouldn’t freaking get back to sleep. We don’t need anti-naps. But for the most part, it means we have some time in the evening where we’re not making sure Tristan is happy and not destroying shit.

* Tristan says “thank you” at contextually appropriate times where someone would normally say “thank you” to HIM – such as when he surrenders something I ask for. It’s still really cute that he says it spontaneously.

* Tristan’s been getting to know “stop” and “go” – when we’re at a stoplight, he will hum “ready, set” and say “Go!!” Thankfully, he’s honing the timing so that he’s now doing it when the light turns green and not the entire four minutes we’re waiting at a stoplight.

* Tristan’s been reciting letters in somewhat the correct order, even without actual letters being visible. He skips over the few he doesn’t say (G, J, P, R – I can’t think of any more he does NOT say) but you can even alternate letters and he will fill in the proper ones.

And right now, Tristan is asleep on daddy’s lap and likely about to be placed into bed. Wish us all luck!