Transitions

As I mentioned in a past post, I anticipated many transitions for Aaron this year. Becoming a big brother, moving out of his crib, potty training.

We haven't had much progress on potty training. We still ask if he wants to sit on the potty or use the potty when he says he has to poop, but he declines. I'm not at the point yet where I want to push the issue. I think there has to be an interest on his part. We talk about it a lot. We talk about kids he knows who use the potty and don't wear diapers. We talk about the time he peed on the potty and how fun that was. We even look at pictures of him reading his book on the potty. He has shown signs of better bladder control, though. He'll often be dry when he gets up from a nap and goes longer stretches between wet diapers. All of which is a good sign of readiness for potty training.

I had hoped to have a big boy bed for him 8 weeks before Audrey's arrival. That hasn't happened, but we did finally find a bed to buy. It is a bunk bed with a trundle - so basically 3 beds in one. We had planned to get him a twin bed with a trundle so we could start him on the trundle and then move him up to the bed after he was used to sleeping on a twin mattress without falling off. But then we saw twin bunk beds with trundles for not much more than a day bed with a trundle, so we decided to get him that. and since the beds can also be two stand-alone beds, we'll be all set for when Audrey transitions out of her crib in a couple of years. Hopefully the bed will arrive next week. Now we are trying to find affordable mattresses that don't take 2 weeks to arrive. I did take him to a mattress store with me yesterday to look at mattresses and he ran around saying "big boy bed", so I'm hoping this will be a positive transition.

We've been trying to prepare Aaron for becoming a big brother. We talk about the fact that he is going to have a baby sister and that he is going to be a big brother. Some days he says "No baby sister. No big brother!" Other days he seems less opposed to the idea. We talk about what he's going to do with his baby sister (kiss and hug her, not hit or throw her). It's going to be a hard transition for him. I'm so glad we have Kim. At least she will remain a constant in his life and I won't have her deal with Audrey for the first month or two so that she still has one-on-one time with Aaron. And I know she will also help Aaron cope with the change in his life.

In preparation, I am also trying to encourage more independent play. Aaron is quite capable of independent play and is especially good about it around Thom. I tend to get down on the floor with him the first sign of frustration he shows or as soon as he asks. So when I find him playing well by himself, I try to be invisible. I also suggest he go play with his trains or play with his animals, things he tends to do on his own pretty well. Or I put him off when he asks me to do something, saying I need to do xyz, but I'll be there in 2 minutes. Often he will start playing by himself and I'll sneak back into the dining room and sit at the table and just observe.

Enjoying some watermelon

Trader Joe's had free samples of watermelon last weekend. Aaron enjoyed it so much, we bought one. When we first gave him a slice at Trader Joe's, he said "birthday party". It took me a second, but then I realized that the last time he had watermelon was at Grant and Oliver's birthday party last month. I think watermelon is now an integral part of birthday parties in his mind. Other kids would probably remember the cake, but Aaron remembers the watermelon.

Reading the morning paper

Very nice!

In the following video, Aaron leads Grandpa around the house pointing out his "very nice" things. He had done this recently with his cousin Alex who is home from college for the summer. He doesn't say it as much here as he did with Alex or as emphatically, but it gives you a good idea. Alex said he says "very nice" much like Borat, although I haven't seen Borat to verify.

We first noticed him saying "very nice" last month with our friends Aaryn and Dustin were here. They arrived on a Saturday and as soon as they came in, Aaron took Dustin around to show him his toys. The next morning, he did it again, but he was saying "very nice". We suspect that as he showed Dustin his toys, Dustin responded "very nice!" and Aaron now repeats this.

Just to clarify a few things in the video:

In his play kitchen, Aaron was trying to show Grandpa how he had figured out how to push the cutting board out from inside the sink hole (the sink is just a metal bowl that he often removes). He doesn't have words for the concept, so he just gestures and makes noises.

As he walks around the living room trying to decide what to impress Grandpa with, he suddenly says "dollhouse", which is in his bedroom. It is often one of the first things he likes to show people who come over. But Grandpa doesn't realize what he said and sits down to play with the train. Which Aaron points out is very nice.

Shortly after this video was filmed, after Aaron repeatedly tried to help Grandpa by handing him his coffee, Aaron caught Grandpa by surprise and not only went to hand him the coffee, but tilted it so he could take a drink. I only realized this when they came into the kitchen and Aaron pointed to the paper towels and said "right there" and I saw Dad had coffee on the front of his shirt. Dad had asked Aaron for a napkin. I was actually surprised that Aaron knew where they were.

Too sour

Thom likes foods with strong flavors. Spicy hot foods. Salty foods. And vinegar. He has been eating salt and vinegar potato chips lately. Aaron, of course, wants whatever Thom is eating. Even I am not a big fan of vinegar chips, although I will eat them when that is all we have.

When Aaron asked for a chip recently, and received the first salt and vinegar chip he's had in awhile (I can't remember his reaction the last time he had one), we watched him expecting a negative reaction. He quickly complained that the chip was "too sour". But he wanted another one. Each small chip that he ate would make his right eye (and only his right eye) blink and he'd complain that the chip was too sour. And then request another one.

His eye no longer twitches when he eats them but he still occasionally says they are too sour. But that doesn't slow him down. He will eat as many vinegar chips as Thom will give him and ask for more even after Thom has put the bag away. I guess my son has the vinegar gene. Along with the other genes he gets from Thom's side of the family: the butter gene, the bacon gene, and the jerky gene.

Language and Pronunciation

Considering Aaron didn't say his first word until 15 months and seemed slow to say new words, I just assumed he was still slow for his age. But I met a new neighbor with 3 kids, 2 boys who are older than Aaron, and she was impressed by how much he was talking. So I asked Kim about it and she said he's definitely talking a lot and has more than caught up.

He does communicate quite a bit, despite not using proper grammar. He doesn't use articles at all for example. But his sentences usually have a subject, verb and object.

His pronunciation has also gotten much better. He still has trouble with L's. For example, he says "wibary" instead of library, and flag is unfortunately pronounced without the 'l'. He also has trouble with words that start with a combination of 's' and another consonant. Like spoon. The s seems to get left off, although he can say other words that start with s.

But suddenly "a-a" is now "Aaron" and "fff-fff" is now "seven". He thinks it is fun to rattle off the words as he used to say them and wait for me to ask him what that is, then he proudly pronounces it correctly. It goes like this:

Aaron: a-a
Me: What's a-a?
Aaron: Aaron! bay-bay
Me: What's bay-bay?
Aaron: Bacon! stro-stro
Me: What's stro-stro
Aaron: (silent)

He still can't pronounce stroller correctly, so it's funny that he includes it in the game. This is also when I realized that when he can't pronounce something, he usually just repeats one sound, like the first part of bacon.

Morning Walk

I have incorporated a morning walk into my routine to help control my blood sugar. I started with an evening walk with Thom and Aaron, but since my post-breakfast blood sugar was often too high, I began walking for about 15 minutes in the morning, too. Over the weekend, Thom went with me, but during the week, I take Aaron out by myself.

Since he is often playing contentedly when I want to go for a walk, I entice him by asking him who he wants to take for a ride in the stroller. This usually gets his interest. The other morning, he decided to take his two monkeys (formerly oo-ahs) along. (Technically, the big one is a gorilla and the smaller one is an orangutan, but when you are 2, they are all monkeys.) But when we got to the stroller, we discovered octopus and moose were in there from the night before. So of course Aaron wanted to take everyone. You can't see, but under the dark-colored gorilla is another monkey. The light blue animal on the right is moose. He managed to hold onto all his friends during the walk, although I think I had to rescue gorilla one time because he was sliding under the safety bar.

Aaron's latest obsession on our walks is reading numbers on people's mailboxes. It started one morning on our way home. He was trying to read the numbers and I didn't realize and as soon as I passed the mailbox, he arched his back and whined and said "go back. turn around." Now we know to pause at each mailbox while he reads off the digits. He typically reads the first 3 somewhat quietly, but the last digit is read out loud with excitement as he realizes he has read the entire number. Sometimes, something like 3134 goes like this: "Three. One. Three. TWO THREES! Four!"