* We got our schedule for June. It is considerably different but is comprised of just about as much time. I’m trying to get more time tacked onto the end of playgroup because we’ve consistently had to scurry out of there to beat the *insert various expletives* traffic lights on Tasman Drive. Noon is corporate hell lunch time, and we live smack in the middle of the high tech version of corporate hell. Anyway, the important thing about the June schedule (and the “what’s different”) is that Tristan will be attending the Shining Stars center three days per week. This is a preschool of sorts. I will certainly elaborate on it when I get to know it! Also, I think there’s a possibility of seeing a park or other families again outside of the playgroup…

* Sleep is back to normal..ish. It’s much improved and I am Learning Some Shit. We started him on probiotics to help keep his digestive system from giving him so much trouble if that is what it has been. (Remind me that we all need to start fish oil soon!) We’ve also been experimenting with Tristan’s naptime. He does like to go down by about 3:30pm whether he admits it or not, so that’s what I’ll aim for. I also learned between yesterday and today that there is a lot of environmental noise that wakes him up (like people revving motorcycles or honking at the drive-thru next door) that was easy for me to hear as well from the garage, and that he really doesn’t want me hanging around trying to soothe him to sleep because sometimes the crying is part of the process. I knew that about the crying from when he was very young, but somehow I get caught up between the stress of him crying and thinking he will benefit from being soothed.

* We went to Bounce-a-Rama today. Those bastards keep raising the prices. They also keep changing the policies about parental play with their kids, but they didn’t give me any trouble when I joined Tristan this time. I don’t think Tristan is yet ready to play with other children in a bouncer while he doesn’t have a ninja parent, family member, or friend available to either make sure he doesn’t get his back broken by being trampled upon, he doesn’t splatter the shit out of a smaller kid accidentally, or he doesn’t provoke an older kid into a fight with his shoving/touching behavior. Besides, we tend to do the attendants’ jobs of making sure the kids in the structure aren’t being little assholes to each other, so they tend to shut the hell up. Anyway, Tristan really loves the bouncy structure that they toss about 20 balls of different sizes into. This is an “all-ages” bouncer – not that it matters, because the older kids tend to storm the toddler section while toddlers are in it, so what’s the point of having a “safe” place where the babies can go without a clinging parent? Oi. Anyway, Tristan likes hanging out with the older kids and the 20 balls. He also likes the little toddler slide, and he takes turns with other children very nicely on it. However, he also likes to sort of walk off the edge of the slide and tumble down. All in all, both of us got some much needed exercise.

We went to Bounce-o-rama yesterday and Tristan thoroughly enjoyed the toddler bouncer.. for about twenty minutes. I’d paid for an hour (because that’s how it works). They told me that you get two hours when you pay for one with some sort of mumbled goodness about a sale going on. No matter, he did have a lot of fun for the twenty minutes he was in there.

* Tristan’s walking now looks pretty proficient and I don’t worry about him hitting his head when he falls, like I used to. I have confidence in his fall-breaking skills. That being said, he’s also been climbing things and standing in his little armchair. I am not sure where my confidence lies with regards to that yet.

* Eating has been evolving somewhat. First of all, as of last Thursday, he’s no longer completely on strike as far as being spoon-fed. While we were over at a playgroup with his friend Bryan and his mom was feeding him, we gave some to Tristan for S&G, because playgroups are for complaining about the little things about children and the refusing to be fed thing came up. So, he allows a spoon in his mouth again sometimes. That being said, we’ve started doing two things instead of trying to resume spoon-feeding him. Once a day, I aim for some self spoon-feeding practice, where I load up a spoon and hand it to him, whereby it’s his responsibility to get more of it in his mouth than in his hair, and he does fairly well at that. The second thing is that baby food puree now comes in little squeezable or suckable pouches that he can (and so far will) manage on his own with absolutely none in the hair. Aside from that, he enjoys pea crisps and isn’t too much a fan of the sweet that is not fruit – which works just fine, considering. Also, he’s getting a little more adventurous with the food he will pick up and eat by himself – I gave him rice on Saturday and for the first time, he shoveled it in and gobbled it up. Yay!

*The babbling! He says ‘up’ very frequently, and he’s been trying very hard to talk in general. I have no idea what else he is saying because it seems to have little context. But it sounds so cute.

*Airplanes. One of his first “must see” items whenever one passes overhead. He still won’t point, but he does indicate what he is looking at. I think he tries to say a word for airplane, but it doesn’t at all sound like the word airplane.

*He can kick a ball around a field as if he were trying out for a soccer team. Perhaps we should look into tot-soccer at 18 months. :p

Thankfully, Tristan has been in better spirits for the past day than he had been since the tooth started getting ready to pop.

We moved the crib into his room on Sunday night and so far it’s going well. He’s no longer waking up half an hour before me – now I get to eat breakfast! Getting him to go to sleep is getting challenging again but the most important thing is that he still sleeps through the night (except for Saturday night, where he guzzled a bottle at 6am).

He’s started to guzzle down solids – about half a jar of Stage 1 baby food in a sitting. I think he’s up for a new food today.

Last night, Tristan did the following –
* giggled when we said “go to sleep” among other really punkass things to laugh at
* bounced on his butt while sitting