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 I was looking at Alan's 2019 photos earlier today, and what can I say? He used to be fatter and shorter. XDD Now his pants sometimes fall down ("uh-oh"), or ride up and show a gap between ankle and sock (also an "uh-oh" - fastidious about his menswear fit). I've been burnt out on "extra tasks" like, er, this baby diary, or measuring Alan's height, but my mom claims he's over 90cm. 

Speech therapy has been frankly desultory: my work schedule, plus C changed jobs, plus the lockdown. Alan will start with someone new after January 11, since he's still lagging on milestones like putting two words or even (mostly) two syllables together. He says "mi" for milk, or mix (verb), or cement mixer, or - I think - missing (piece). But he loves numbers and letters, almost as much as vehicles, can count 1 through 10 and recite the alphabet. From memory! He lies in bed and counts, not sheep, just says the numbers. XD; Actually, what is more impressive to me is that he's able to recognize broken-up letter pieces in the big alphabet floor puzzle his grandparents bought him, well enough to put the puzzle back together with gentle guidance. I got him a box of smaller, vehicle-shaped puzzles for Christmas, which were a big hit, as well as a wooden toolbox. There is no conceptual breakthrough yet with regard to nuts and bolts, which is just as well because I rely on him not being able to screw/unscrew caps ahahahah, but he learnt to hammer in the wooden nails and use the peen part of the hammer to pull them out, and that is very entertaining.

The third most entertaining gift was the child-sized snow shovel S's parents gave him. XDD Now that he's steady on his feet and has proper snow pants, it really brightens his day to go outside for sanctioned rough-and-tumble, i.e. throw snowballs at me for an hour. Like a good little Canadian, I am teaching him the varying qualities of snow - what is good for snowballs and snowmen and what is easy to shovel, versus not. The renovated playground down the street reopened earlier in the month, right on schedule, and it's been a hugely popular hangout since; the city did a baller job. It's nice to just be able to encounter A and her parents outside, or other families I have a nodding acquaintance with.

At this point, there is information on the Web that describes Alan to a tee, as well as myself. Eg. shows no sign of toilet training (FML), likes to line and stack toys, but cheerful and adaptable and socially normal apart from slight aloofness with other kids. But it is one thing to have diagnostic labels available; it is not the same as ways of being. I'd be in the "hyperlexia I" aka "normal" bucket but my subjective sense of self is non-neurotypical. I'm rather a big pile of autistic-"like" traits, dialled down enough to be mild hindrances to me and mildly perceptible to others: a finely tuned, high-performing engine with knowable, even loveable quirks, like a motorsports car from pre-platform days. Since the point of an autism diagnosis for the most part is to set the stage for support or intervention and/or insurance payouts, if you don't need any you won't - shouldn't, really - meet the cutoff, per design. But I suspect that what makes Alan tilt to "hyperlexia III" versus me is merely ("merely") biological sex, and that I and III differ from II mostly on on the point of maladaptiveness. To which point, if Alan didn't have a mild speech delay none of this would even be notable. I didn't have a kid with the expectation that he would hew to the mean. XD;;;

The terrible-twos "no," by the way, is not in the least delayed. Alan used to shake his head, which worked, but over the course of a few weeks in December he picked up, serially, three separate usages of "no": the discerning "no" of intentionally matching puzzle pieces to the wrong holes ("no! nno! nnno! yeeees!"), the dramatic-regrets "no" ("ohhh, noooo!"), and finally, the do-not-want "no" ("noooooooooooooooooo" *lies flat on ground*). My first week off after Christmas he threw two real tantrums, on stereotypical toddler points of contention that it was hard not to simply laugh at, such as wanting to eat ice cream after his teeth were brushed, following the model (but not moral) of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It physically distressed him to be so angry, though, and ultimately he needed me to calm him down more than he needed to pursue the argument. Since then I've mostly been able to redirect him, or work something out. 
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 Alan is almost two! He is really quite large. XD; His clothes are mostly 3-4 year old sizes, but when he goes to the local playground the slightly older kids still call him a baby. He doesn't understand their games, just runs after them screaming at random haha. If a ball is being kicked or thrown around so much the better.

Still very, very, very into trucks and diggers. Indeed the only book he volunteers to read these days is "100 First Trucks and Diggers". On the bright side, he has provably picked up all the concepts conveyed therein, such as colors and sizes and which workers drive which vehicles? Also likes dogs, is happy to pet dogs and be sniffed in return. I suppose he would pet cats and squirrels and pigeons too, if they would only stay still. A few weeks ago it was rainy the entire weekend and I took him out in boots during an afternoon lull. He chased a flock of ducks and was O_O when (as wild ducks do) they flew immediately out of sight and didn't just flap a few feet away. Then he was very excited at a muddy dog chasing sticks and eventually ended up falling into a mud pond himself, as one does.

Have yet to see Alan unscrew anything properly, but has recently managed to remove a gear from my office chair, as well as pry off one of the spray fans(?) from the dishwasher. Put a chain on the front door so he can't get out by himself, but he's also locked me out twice - luckily I either had the key or came in up the back stairs.

For Halloween I got him a plush tiger onesie outfit and he ate some chocolate (which he often does anyway...). Since then we've been having unseasonably good weather, so trying to spend more time outside. Was able to meet up with A & A at the park and for a walk down to the waterfront. Extremely crowded, of course, enough that one really has to stay masked at all times.

Talking progresses apace but slowly. Alan has many more words now (most recently "big," "small," and "dog") but still hums to make requests, although he will nod in response to leading questions like "do you want water?" or "do you want to watch TV?" And I'm not sure he's learning other people's names (he doesn't say his own). Speech therapy is kind of mixed. I think I'll ask C to stop withholding toys as motivation as I don't think it does much except frustrate Alan. I was kind of the same as a kid, indeed now: I don't respond well to something I want getting withheld in exchange for me jumping through hoops.
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 It's been nearly a month since I've posted! Alan's only gone to two speech therapy appointments in the interim, because I had a COVID scare (he went to my parents for the weekend because I was fall cleaning, and ended up staying with them for a week). Incidentally, he ate a big lunch before the first one then got carsick and threw up on the way. So we were half an hour late and used a whole Bounty roll and wet wipes pack trying to get presentable, and he wore my jacket to meet the therapist. =_= My parents had to hose down the car seat afterward.

Alan's speech therapist is a young man, C. They play with cars and blocks and bubble blowers and such, and meanwhile C prompts Alan to say words, use the baby sign for "more," and to make eye contact by withholding toys. Alan enjoys himself but seems to find it exhausting, and after 45 minutes or so attempts to take his leave (says "out", fiddles with door knob, brings me my purse). He's continued to use the "more" sign, though, usually when prompted, or in situations where he's been prompted before - like getting a bottle in the middle of the night, or... with C. :P Meanwhile, he has become a bit more vocal and "talks" to himself while playing, even though I mostly don't understand what he says other than "uh oh" and "vroom vroom". But he has enough words now that there is communication happening, eg. "hot," "out," "go," "on."

He also learnt a few numbers and letters, like 10 - can recognize "10" on a block and say "ten" unprompted. I think he remembers 8, 9, 10 better than 1, 2, 3 - maybe because they come at the end of the count?

Other new things this month: raging vehicle maniac mode. Will watch 10-minute videos on, say, how the hydraulic piston system is installed in an excavator (this sort of thing evidently has quite a viewership base among the preschool set). I got him "Good Night, Good Night, Construction Site" and a 100 trucks picture book. Took the side off the crib, which Alan wasn't using at all, so now he will at least nap in it during the afternoon. While at his grandparents Alan learnt how to walk (not crawl) up and down the stairs by himself, holding onto the railing. He's started experimenting with sliding down the playground slide on his bum (previously only tummy, but it rucks up his shirt and now the plastic is cold, I guess). Good at catching a large ball at short distances, can also kick one around. Climbs more: I have my coffee pods on a shelf and he now steps up onto the shoe rack in order to get them in the morning, to "help" me make coffee. I'm not very worried about him climbing, because he's not a daredevil, and he's still a tall kid with not a lot of core strength. XD; Having experimented at the playground, I know he can't get high enough by himself to be a problem.

I got him a very cute yellow push bike, but his legs are too long to sit well and he completely rejected it. He was considerably more interested when it was disassembled, immediately figured out how the IKEA-style wrench worked, etc. Had a lot of fun the other day playing with yo-yo string and threading it through his other toys. Think I'll order some arts and crafts stuff, as we'll be stuck inside more.

Appetite is recently good, after having been poor for a lot of the summer. Eats apples and cherry tomatoes happily, will accept scrambled eggs if made to a hotel chef's standard. Still very into chasing squirrels and pigeons in the park. I've been introducing him to fall concepts, like coloured leaves and conkers (I gathered a whole bunch from a tochinoki tree in the Botanical Garden). No trick or treating, of course, and I'm sad at the missed opportunity to put Vulcan ears on him and take him to Comic-con - I suspect he'll default to it eventually anyway, given his eyebrows, but it really would have been maximal cuteness this year. 
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 Last week I took Alan to be assessed at a speech therapy clinic (recommended by my sister's colleague) and he was diagnosed with a mild delay, although it's unclear whether this has more to do with word formation or pragmatics or both (more?) There was a long questionnaire and a written report coming, but what I was told and retained was to work on his social skills: for instance, that he doesn't make eye contact when he's asking for an object or bringing one to you, doesn't respond to his name unless he feels like it, indeed doesn't have a consistent name for anyone, and doesn't answer questions like "what is it?" The idea being that he doesn't speak at least in part because he doesn't grok how he's meant to hold up his end of verbal communication.

Well, frankly, my own eye contact "skill" leaves a lot to be desired, but I'm trying. Alan now says "bye bye" properly to his grandparents, and to people we've interacted with in the park when we leave. But I feel worse about the whole thing because I don't like thinking of his delay as being cognitive, if that makes sense. Nevertheless, the clinic wants to treat him and it makes more sense to start now than to sit around waiting. So he'll go for a biweekly appointment starting next week, and we'll see what it gives.

In the meantime, because he was super into the toy car ramp they had him playing with at the clinic, my parents ran out and bought him one. It's very ingeniously put together, but the concept is "police car chase" -- you can set it up such that the car being "chased" goes directly to "jail" -- and really feels like mindless prison state propaganda.

Other than that, Alan came home at the start of last week having sprouted quite a bit, and more settled into his physicality: he can now step off the curb by himself, and wants to go on the (slightly) bigger slide that requires climbing, not just steps. But this past week he hasn't wanted to eat anything, it seems like -- even "white foods" are on thin ice -- and expresses that by spitting out mouthfuls onto his shirt and floor. >_<
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Maybe I should switch to a biweekly schedule for good? The hiatus has been because work is stressful, though. Alan has been at his grandparents the entire week, which we agreed to because my parents' car is in the garage for repairs. But I hardly feel as if I've gotten a breather. Meanwhile, Alan is spending a lot of time outside, drawing on my parents' concrete terrace (and his own shoes) with chalk, pulling up dandelions, or chowing down on watermelon. 

Friday last week I took him to the doctor, where he had a total meltdown. It was a confluence of factors: he was bored, a couple of other moms and babies had just come into the waiting area, but all of a sudden we were called and he was wheeled into an examination room with someone he didn't recognize (masked and gowned of course) and the door was shut. That really set him off. In a way it means he has good self-preservation instincts? :P He howled and kept pointing and wanting to leave and go home, and the more we attempted to weigh and measure him the more upset he got. So in the end she couldn't check Alan's back, though his posture has improved somewhat. I was given an M-CHAT-R to fill out at home and a referral to a speech therapist. Tried contacting one who didn't call me back, got another clinic recommendation to reach out to on Monday. 

Although Alan is behind on speaking -- and has been behind from day one: he never babbled at 6 months -- he's always progressed at his own pace. I've gotten used to him mostly just humming and whining, though; he never does that thing most toddlers do, chattering volubly but incomprehensibly, so I get taken aback when he trots out a new word. Last weekend he said "down," quite clearly, to mean that he wanted to be carried down the stairs. Then I took him into the toy store on Wellington to get him sidewalk chalk and a toy bucket, and when we wheeled up to the cashier he saw the ball bin and was like "BALL! BALL!!!" I was so surprised that well, I bought him a very handsome rainbow-coloured ball. Then left before he could do more damage. But oh, he was self-satisfied!

We went to the park after that and met J (he of the water gun) and his mom and mom's friend and younger brother. Alan was very popular because he showed up with toys: they were like "Ball?" "Ball :)" at each other. Then J came up to me to ask for chalk: he *did* have his charming patter all ready, but I couldn't understand a word of it. XD

Since then my parents tell me he's also learnt to say "home," which is a concept I'm sure he understands well (I always say "we're home" when we arrive). He recognizes not only my front door, but my parents' too.

Maybe Alan just has high standards for himself, and won't say anything until he knows he can do it perfectly. :P
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Uneventful week. Lots of rain, lots of time spent indoors. We made a 45-minute foray to the "beach," but I still can't countenance Alan going into the river water.

Alan has not been getting taller or heavier, but his limbs seem to be lengthening, so he is getting more willowy? And tanned. He still insists on walking on his own, no handholding, and I've noticed him doing the slightly OCD things kids do, like step on particular sidewalk tiles. I've been trying to get him to sleep in his crib this week, but the issue is fraught: he cries angrily then poops so I have no choice but to take him out and deal with it. It's easier to let him fall asleep in my bed and cart him over. It's easy when he's very tired (as today, we had a family BBQ for my sister's birthday and everyone left after Alan's usual bedtime), not so easy when he wants to jump around and build piles of pillows and have kick-fights with me, let alone drink milk at 2am. His favourite game right now involves me raising my legs in the air and him playing peekaboo around them. But there is some "core engagement" required so I can't humour him indefinitely.

My sister always gets chocolate raspberry mousse as her birthday cake. Alan likes it too: I've never seen him eat so fast. Of course, after a dozen forkfuls he promptly threw it all up and toddled away cheerfully, no worse for wear. 
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 It's probably safe to say that no one had COVID at A's birthday party. Meanwhile, having chosen the party over the pool that weekend, one of the lifeguards came down with it a few days afterward, so now the pool is closed for cleaning. (I feel bad for the lifeguards, who are familiar faces - the same college-age kids every year.) Alan went to his grandparents over the weekend with water wings in tow, but developed yet another 48-hour mild mystery fever. Thus far they remain unused. 

Sandlot and splash pad playdate with S. The boys remain very similar in size, and the 5-month age gap is less and less of a factor physically. Alan has surprisingly good fine motor control with pens and such and is now able to both throw and catch a ball at short distances. S is a voluble talker, though, and Alan can't even copy him, because he only speaks French. ^^; 

Very into books now. Bedtime reading now comes in stacks. Alan's comprehension is quite good: if I say "where is ____?" (the pink flower; the baby reading a book; the bottle of milk; the sky) he is now able to get almost everything in his first 100 words book, and major body parts. I'm particularly thankful that he understands and follows the instruction "be careful of your head." But this is still all pointing and humming, not talking, though he now expects and is amused by my animal sounds.

Annoying things Alan does:
  • Squirts milk out of his bottle and makes a mess whenever he's done drinking, if I don't stop him
  • Scribbles everywhere with marker
  • Stashes objects in inaccessible spaces, like under the oven, then complains about not being able to find them anymore
  • Has gone into a "refuse all fruit" phase at the exact time of year when fruit is best
  • Grabs my boobs, all the time, still
  • Unbelievably, chortles whenever he sees me wearing a top that shows I *have* boobs, as if this were an invitation
  • Attempts at toilet training have only induced a fascination with flushing bits of paper down the toilet
  • Won't sleep in his crib anymore, wakes up wailing whenever he rolls around and hits the sides at night - feels a bit like when he was 3 months old and outgrowing his bassinet
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 Have not been successful in controlling screen time lol. But in the past week Alan started saying farm animal noises, only when prompted (eg. "What does the horse say?"). So far horse, sheep, duck, chicken, in a mix of Chinese and English. He also says bye-bye now, instead of just waving. And he's getting pretty good at pointing to the right photo in his 100 words book, even when it's something he's only seen pictures of (eg. a frog).

Still no yes/no, although he's taken to shaking his head when a song video comes on that he's lukewarm about. So not only screen time, but he's picky about it. :P

Bought flotation vest but have not had a chance to use it in the pool. On Saturday we went to the market and the park instead, where we bumped into the cheerful 3-year-old from the other time, this time with mom, little bro, and water gun (until the inevitable time out). Alan was sprayed in the face a few times and was O_O but not upset - he was focused on snatching away other people's toy buckets so he could play games of his own devising. (I was a lot like that as a child: other kids could join me, if they liked.)

On Sunday we went to A's second birthday party down the street. There were more people in closer proximity than I would have liked, albeit a much smaller party than A's first, but I did after all decide to go so fingers crossed. >_< Alan enjoyed himself immensely as there were many balloons and balls and wheeled toys -- as predicted, no interest in attempting to ride birthday girl's new balance bike, a lot of interest in figuring out how the wheels are attached. Both afternoons he downed a bottle of milk then slept like a stone for hours. But it does seem that the more he tires himself out playing, the worse his appetite becomes the following day.


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 Telehealth call with Alan's doctor (which was supposed to be an in-person appointment, but the Quebec government hasn't updated its automated reminder message that says only "the doctor will call you," so we didn't go to the CLSC). Asked about his shrimpy spine curvature, and relative lack of speaking. In the end, he's going in person in August so she can check all of that. Meanwhile, it was reiterated that babies under 2 should have no screen time, so that led to two days of sniping with my mom, who is of the generation of immigrants that is a true believer in educational television for language acquisition. =_=

It must be said that Alan's learnt a lot from the past 4 months of nursery rhyme videos, but he understands much, much more than he's willing or able to say, in both languages - and if there's a gesture that'll do the job (yes / no / bye-bye etc.) he'll go with that instead. I think he feels his tongue is clumsy, because if there was a delay it was early on: he hardly babbled until he was nearly 1. But for instance, this morning he had gone under the toddler slide in the neighbourhood park, and when I said "Alan, be careful of your head," he looked up to see where the "ceiling" was (he'd never been in that spot before). And he's now quite often able to point at the right picture in his 100 First Words book when one says, "Alan, where is the [object]?" Though he doesn't... always distinguish between the picture and the real thing? When one say, "Where are the socks?" he'll point at his (sockless) feet. And hilariously, "Where is the sleeping baby?" elicits lying down in "child's pose" and pretending to sleep.

Anyway, I think an hour of TV a day is not the end of the world, so we will probably slowly pursue our Ghibli regime. But I'm going to try to minimize the slumping-on-couch-watching-Youtube-because-grownups-have-to-work time, despite COVID. It could only improve his posture, for one thing. 

(Today he ate fresh cherry tomatoes and strawberries very well, but refused cherries.)
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 The food-related fussiness has continued since the last post. It's not neophobia, precisely, since the issue is more that Alan will refuse foods he's eaten steadily, like banana. Even the pear puree packets are a no-go. Or he'll eat a couple of bites and stop; or accept the food the third and seventh time it's offered (out of ten), for no perceptible reason. What he will eat consistently tends to be junky, eg. lobster chips and animal crackers. He also guzzles milk more the hotter it gets, which kills his appetite.

Still, he manages a bit of fibre and fruit and veg in a day, enough not to be disastrous. He still eats green peas and cucumber, and I have a photo of him sitting at the table with my dad, gnawing respectively on corn on the cob. But that only increases the mystery: acidity isn't the problem, since he'll guzzle every variant of lemonade (we've tried yuzu and kalamansi, and I have a rhubarb batch infusing in the fridge), and eat strawberries and raspberries. Bitterness isn't the problem either. He wants to try every adult's beverage, and as far as I can tell, if I didn't stop him he would simply continue drinking my Heineken and cold brew coffee. He's pretty into seltzer now; I don't let him have soda pop, but he enjoyed some fizzy rose-hibiscus kombucha on our way back from the pool.

Sleep is also a bit fraught. If he's not in my room he seems to wake up easily, and I'm back to tiptoeing around in the dark. (During the day he's often tired from playing outside, so naps well at least.) He also gets upset at more things? When he meets other toddlers w/ parents he starts crying when we go separate ways, even though he doesn't know how to share toys and mostly stares with fascination as the other kid smiles and babbles and runs circles around him. There's a little girl, for instance, who usually passes by Parc Poirier in the mornings as her mom walks her to daycare, and Alan thinks it's just the best to swing side by side. Yesterday we went to the pool for the second time, and bumped into S and his parents there. So of course he cried to leave after our public health-mandated 45 minutes, and cried that he couldn't continue hanging out with S afterward. 

(45 minutes is a perfectly reasonable timeframe for toddlers to take a noontime dip in the kiddie pool, and indeed for a grownup swim - before Alan I would typically go after work, swim 30-45 minutes, and leave at 7pm closing time. So much the better if I don't have to go through the germy public showers and locker room. But now that they only let in about 50 people at a time, there's a queue during peak hours, and half an hour is a long time to queue in the sun with a toddler.)

Other notes: )
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 Another fussy period. All of a sudden, Alan won't eat fruits and vegetables - except the puree packs and lemonade. He'll even put the berries or whatnot in his mouth himself, but chew and spit it out as if it tastes weird. So, today for breakfast he had corn puffs and applesauce. Yesterday morning, to be fair, he had a couple of bites of pan-fried halloumi, which I suppose is superior to most cheeses.

He's also had a couple of episodes of waking up from his nap in a huge temper. On Father's Day this happened while his grandparents were over and my dad didn't really take it seriously and kept laughing and getting in his face, which made him more upset, until he ended up barfing his bottle of milk all over my bed. =_= In fact there were a few barf episodes altogether. Still, on other days he naps and wakes up just fine and cheerful. He's been sleeping more during the day; waking up early and going to bed late due to the sun, and being tired out from more playing outside. There's been another heat wave, very dry this time with no rain for 10 days so all the public grass turned yellow. I've been taking Alan to the splash pad down the block nearly every day, very early before the heat becomes too crushing. He doesn't really like having water showering down on him, but he likes playing with the smaller streams, filling his cup and emptying it, or trying to drop pebbles down the drain. I keep having to stop him from putting pebbles in the grilles of parked cars.

Alan's getting reasonably tanned, as am I, studious application of sunscreen aside. Since he usually wears rubber shoes with aeration holes on the top, he has a pattern of tanned spots on the tops of his feet.

Saw the mom 'n' baby yoga group at the park near the marina, since one of the families is moving back to Calgary. May have been due to shyness, but none of the kids said much bar a couple of words, like "yes" or "nana" (E, who very much wanted my banana). My dad's been on my case about Alan not talking, but it seems to me his expectations are overblown.
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 Friday was not much of a fuss, as my sister was hospitalized for most of the week (not COVID, and she's recovering at home now, but... not great). A batch of toys went back to J for his little girl, another to W's new granddaughter, so I got Alan a half-birthday present: two board books and a Fisher-Price Swiffer. He was lukewarm on it at first and still wanted the big one - it's always evident to children when they're being fobbed off on a toy - but today he pushed it around happily enough. XD XD As for the books, he liked "I Love You Through and Through" (nods of approval) but summarily rejected "Everything Is Mama". 

Other progress:
  • Last week he finally figured out the shape sorter, as opposed to trying to fit every shape into the last hole that happened to let a shape in.
  • Now likes to point and say "oh oh" loudly.
  • Still only has a couple of real words, though. Stopped saying "car" (maybe a strategic retreat after figuring out not all wheeled vehicles are cars?) 
  • When unloading the dishwasher, wants to put utensils into the utensils drawer himself.
  • Understands he has to wash his hands after being outside.
  • Spins himself round until dizzy and falls down. :)
  • Suddenly started pointing to picture of elephant and making elephant noises one day. In my enthusiasm I showed him the Teletubbies episode in which a little girl washes an elephant, and I think he was so taken aback by the real thing that it killed his interest. ^^;; Now he's trying to quack like a duck, but at least I'm sure he knows what a real duck looks like.
Alan's not as into watermelon as he was last year, it seems, and cherries aren't doing much for him, but we got strawberries at Atwater Market and he [Kirby emoji]ed them down - just gorgeous fruit. And he ate radishes today, the fresh ones being crisp and not sharp at all. I have to say his favourite fruit are still those wasteful but ubiquitous pear puree squeeze packets, which I keep around so I can lure him back to the stroller when we're out. Otherwise, he doesn't pay attention to me when I try to get him to leave the splash pad. :P He's happy to play at a middle distance from me and doesn't want to hold my hand at all when we walk.

This morning I took Alan to the CLSC to get his 18-month jabs (6 in 1, MMR-V). He did *not* like being held still and was definitely a lot madder than before: not that he cried for long at first, but afterward he got upset a few times thinking about it, and would seemingly complain to my mom (who wasn't in the room). Well, at any rate, that's the last needle until kindergarten or a vaccine for Sars-Cov-2, whichever comes first.
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Alan with his grandparents since last night, so I can deal with the AC repair that got pushed to Monday. (As I write, even chance it gets pushed to Tuesday.) We had great weather over the weekend, though, so spent a lot of time outside. With the COVID-19 reopening, the playground equipment in Verdun is now accessible, and since we were very early in the park with not a lot of others around, I gave into temptation and allowed Alan to play on the swings and the toddler slide and even the splash pad. He adored all the new games. But now there is no social distancing happening at all among the parents and young children, at least beyond what you would expect pre-COVID from strangers in public spaces. People wear masks and take care when entering stores, but I suppose they think, what's the point if the kids are back at daycare?

We also spent some quality time at Verdun Beach on Sunday morning. Again, Saturday was quite hot and the beach was packed -- I dislike packed public beaches at the best of times -- but Sunday was rather cooler/windier and there was hardly anyone at 10am. Alan dug about happily in the sand, wearing rubber boots and long sleeves and sun hat, and took wistful note of the other kids in swimsuits who were allowed to splash in the water. He is too cautious to immediately imitate even if he clearly wanted to; which is good because he will probably NEVER be allowed to go into the water at Verdun Beach, which is just the good old Saint Lawrence River and known to contain unacceptable E.coli overflow after a heavy rain.

I'll do another update on Friday, when Alan'll be 18 months old. :)


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Gradual improvement on various fronts.
  • Into songs that count fingers and body parts, and so on: he knows how to do "If you're happy and you know it," and most of "Head and shoulders knees and toes."
  • Plays readily with his trains and blocks set, making vroom-vroom noises.
  • Picks up tiny pebbles outside and examines them, only occasionally tries to lick them.
  • Has marked preferences with regard to books. Refuses to read half of those he has. I'll have to make space for others...
  • Sometimes imitates what he sees on TV, whether it's a Teletubby saying "dog" or New York City Ballet dancers waving their arms around.
  • Laughs adorably when tossed into the air, but this is a difficult operation.
My AC's been ailing for some time. Refrigerant leak is the consensus, it blows readily but is only able to get the house from, say, 35 Celsius to 30. (The Gree guy is coming on Friday, because we called early: they now apparently have so many installations booked that there's a moratorium on repairs.) After a couple of heatwave days Alan and I escaped to my parents, where he of course was delighted to explore the big house and relearn how to get up and down the stairs, not to mention the car ride. The environment change and the heat did a number on his routine, though, so he would barely eat anything all weekend, and slept at all the wrong times. Actually, it became evident that he believes everyone in the household should go to bed at the same time (I always pretend to sleep to get him to sleep): he wouldn't accept that my parents stayed in the basement doing their thing while we went to bed, and herded everyone upstairs, like a sheep dog.

Compared to before, he markedly wanted to follow grandpa around, as if to get "guy time" in - my dad was doing various household tune-ups, like putting screens in the windows, and even hammered together my sister's old toddler bed for Alan. It's a sturdy thing: IKEA furniture from the late 80's was different.


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Alan is a lot of fun at this stage. He understands and responds to quite a lot - "we're going out," or "would you like some water?" for instance - though for some reason, he still doesn't have a word for milk/bottle/thirsty and just acts distressed until we guess right. He's not as cautious as he was outside and is happy to march down the sidewalk by himself and explore the neighbourhood green spaces, as long as I'm following along. (He also seems to have gotten over trying to touch every parked car.) In the park we play peekaboo by ducking around the trees, and today I took a soap bubble wand out so he could chase the bubbles.

He chases birds too, though very slowly, considered no particular threat by robins or pigeons. Also very cat: he broke a glass by climbing on the dining table and knocking it off. He hasn't tried to climb out of his crib, but then, he's never awake for any length of time in his crib. He gets deposited there after he falls asleep in my bed or on the sofa, and in the morning he hangs over the railing crying to be set free. When he's sleepy, he demands his pacifier, then demands that I accompany him to nap.

It's also fun to see what kind of principles about the world Alan's derived in his mind. Now, Instead of knocking my glasses off, whenever I set them aside, he unfolds them again and attempts to replace them on my face. He takes laundry out of the machine and surprisingly tends to guess right as to which ones need line drying and which ones go in the dryer. I'd always been afraid that if I opened a window, he would try to clamber out. It turns out that an open window is an invitation for Alan to close the window (by slamming down the sash). He's only squished his own thumb once. But how to get fresh air... at this time of year my place heats up dramatically, so we're now in high summer clothes and bare feet indoors. 

Hung out with S and his mom for a bit in the back alley on Friday morning, though trying to respect strictures. When Alan saw S getting dressed through their balcony door, he was so hyped he tried to open the door and go in. Mostly, we observed the big blue garbage truck empty the dumpsters of the old folks' home (S is in a truck phase). 
petronia: (Default)
 Alan developed a low fever on Mother's Day, and spent the next day as a sleepy couch potato, though he didn't fuss. I had a bad moment in the evening when I thought his breathing was more laboured than usual. He woke up recovered today, though, and so full of beans he didn't nap at all, instead falling asleep at 6pm. Blessed free evening! Hope it lasts.

We measured him "officially" today: he's an inch taller than when the shutdown started, and there's basically nowhere he can't reach. Today he kept climbing up from dining chair onto the table, like a cat. He doesn't shake his head "no" much, but he nods frantically to indicate that adults should do something, or that there is something Alan wants, the two being functionally the same eg. "more goldfish crackers."

(He eats too many goldfish crackers.) 

Some firsts this week:
* Listened to me read a book (with no flaps or holes or dongles) from start to end, without knocking it out of my hand; even though he vastly prefers books with flaps, still
* Imitated someone saying "ha ha ha" in a video
* Pretended to make distressed noises for attention
* "Did" his farm animals puzzle

Went and picked up Alan's remaining stuff from the daycare, although it was technically slated to reopen (not bloody likely). Bell is in no hurry to make its office workers return to the office, and in no practical sense would Alan go to daycare in the same building if I'm not going myself.
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 Missed a week. Alan definitely fussier than usual, expressed mostly in capricious appetite and refusal to nap at the appointed time, and if it weren't for the timing I would have attributed it entirely to teething - top first molars nearly completely sprouted, canines coming, early-ish as were all his teeth. For a while he was napping on the sofa when he got sleepy, now he'll only go to sleep if I lie down with him.

New foods: likes okra, surprisingly. Won't eat bologna or most salty cured meats, but stole my salami this morning, as well as a chocolate chip cookie baked by my sister. Loves my mom's lemonade, which she reconstitutes from sugared lemon slices, but lemon-orangeade made from the juice seems too intense. 

Very into rules now. Always liked switches but now understands that specific light switches control specific lights. (The great puzzlers are remotes around the house that don't seem to control anything in particular.) When he needs to take his pacifier out to drink from a bottle, he always takes care to place his pacifier in the cap of his bottle. His height is measured against the wall with the help of a specific book, and sometimes he goes and gets the book out in order to be measured (and petted and made a fuss of). We moved his bedroom furniture today, and he took care to put his little table - and the objects on that table - back where he thought it ought to be. He's able to carry plastic footstools around and step up onto them, but thankfully, only at a couple of locations "designated" in his mind. 

I take Alan out on long walks over the weekend, since he doesn't spend much time outside during the work week. He tried to imitate the older boys he saw at Verdun Beach, who were able to climb the sloping lawns and stairs. Also spent a while investigating the new concept of sand, eventually throwing a handful in glee that ended up in his hair, the basket of the stroller, and his diaper. 
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The nights are becoming short and so I tend to fall sleep with Alan, from dusk to dawn, and only wake up enough to put him in his own bed half the time. But I can't stand that he gropes and pinches me all night! :P I try to explain to him - more for my satisfaction than his understanding - that my boobs belong to me and not him, though he had the use of them for a while. But whenever we hug his hands wander. I suppose it's a common predilection to many toddlers (a detail used to sad effect in N.K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season).

Cleaning is still big. My mom lets Alan push the Swiffer around, and he will dust with any paper towel he finds. This morning he even did his best to wipe up his own spit-up. He doesn't put away his toys and books, though... There are so many skills it's hard to take stock of them all: I don't think I took a note of when Alan began to climb on the sofa and sit and loll around as he pleases (a month ago?). He holds a pen surprisingly well and can scribble on paper, though he prefers his foam floor tiles or his hands as surfaces, and is considering the window frame against which we measure his height (if grown-ups can write with pen there, why not Alan?). 

When the weather is good I take him to the park in mid-morning, where he plays with sticks and stones and usually manages to spot a vehicle or two -- a cement truck, a fire engine, even a CN freight train along the tracks by the canal. Today we stopped at the Russian grocery and replenished our stock of Jaffa cakes and gingerbreads and those dusty Soviet chocolates. Alan came home both sticky and dusty, and now is blessedly napping.

71 weeks is supposedly the start of another fussy period, so we'll see.
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 Alan really started walking consistently over Easter weekend, and now can toddle around the house to his heart's desire -- still with arms raised for balance, haha. When he gets hold of something, particularly something he's not supposed to have, he carries it around above his head like a trophy, crowing. He even tries to dance, or to stamp his feet and turn around to "If You're Happy And You Know It." After a week of this, he's now able to squat down and stand up again, without having to hold onto furniture.

He also talks more. We watch the Teletubbies together, which strikes me as surreal but Alan as good comedy, and sometimes he repeats "uh-oh" or "bye bye" after the characters. At this point, every motor vehicle is a "car" (said very quietly), and every caretaker is "mama". I think I've become "mum"?

A good game this week has been dusting. Alan takes a piece of paper towel or terrycloth and wipes around with utmost seriousness. He does a good job! I don't like dusting, so this can be his chore if he wants it. :P

He's also started to resist napping: when he's sleepy he fusses, but after resting quietly for a while he forces himself to get up again and keep playing. I remember doing the same when I was little: sleep seemed extremely boring. ^^; But sometimes he will pass out on the couch before he knows it. Today he nearly nodded off in his high chair during lunch, and went to sleep as soon as I put him horizontal.

UPDATE -- I've noticed Alan thinking differently about certain topics, trying to apply principles. For instance, some of his toy plastic balls and eggs fall into halves, so today he tried to break the injection-molded balls into halves -- and when that didn't work, to get me to do it. Very frustrating when I said I couldn't! (He understands and indeed makes a hilarious exaggerated shrug, a la "guess I'll die" meme, to mean "all gone" and sometimes "can't be done".)
petronia: (daisies)
Alan started walking by himself this week! It's very incremental - first he would only take one step before handholds, then three, and now four or five. But he will only do it when launching himself at someone's lap, not to get around the house. For that he finds a mobile piece of furniture, like the laundry basket or a footstool. But he's finally realized that it's easier to carry objects in his hands when upright. And he gets plenty of praise when he walks, so he's very pleased with himself, particularly when he reviews videos we took of him, like an athlete in training.

It may be because he's standing straighter, but he measures half an inch taller against the window frame, versus two weeks ago. His head circumference is also bigger, which I know because he can no longer wear my yellow mixing bowl as a hard hat. ^^;

Favorite game: hide and seek with the grownups behind the sofa. He has such an adorable laugh!



Rainy Sunday morning, got out rain boots handed down by O and took Alan for a walk in the alley, and eventually around the block - quite an adventure. Plenty of dogs and cars and squirrels and pigeons, sprouting weeds and rocks in muddy puddles. Alan doesn't seem to want to crawl around and eat dirt, thank goodness, but he does want to touch the tires of parked cars. 

Sleep is good about half the time. Unfortunately, he doesn't go back to sleep as easily when he wakes up anymore, and when he started howling at 1:30am last night, I brought him into my bed... but he wouldn't sleep and was wide awake for 90 minutes. We finally got up at 8:15am and made it up that way.

December 2020

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