18 months
Feb 12, 2009 Uncategorized
DS turned 18 months last week and it occureds to me that I haven’t given an update on his growth and development in a long, long while. So here it is. According to the doctor, his head now has a circumference of 49 cm, he is 82,5 cm tall and weighs somewhere between 11 and 12 kg (I already forgot, but I know it’s just over 25 pounds). He is, therefore, in the 75th percentile for head circumference and height, and in the 50th percentile for weight. He has received his last vaccines until age 5, he can now run (although still slower than mommy and daddy, thank God!) and he is speaking more and more.
I come back from work every day to one or several new words that he has just started saying. He now puts more than one together, too. For instance, at supper time, I always ask him to say thank you to his dad for cooking a good supper. The other day, totally unprompted, he said “thank you papa souper”. Well, he still says “you’re welcome” instead of thank you, so it was more like “co-come papa souper”, but still! He regularly puts two words together, like “bike baby” to talk about his bike or “grrr papa” when he wants his dad to chase him while pretending he’s a bear or some other wild beast.
Oh, and he has tantrums, too, did I mention it? When we ask him to do something he doesn’t want to do, he lies on his back on the ground (even if we’re in the middle of the street) and starts screaming. Luckily, so far it hasn’t happened too often or lasted for too long and we have just waited him out, but it is definitely not an enjoyable part of parenting a toddler. The other day, he threw something at his dad and hurt him. We insisted on him apologizing (which means giving him a cuddle in a kiss, since “I’m sorry” is not yet part of his vocabulary) and he stubbornly refused for at least 15 minutes, during which he was doing his best to climb up on me to get a hug from me while I was refusing to pay him any attention until he apologized. He finally gave up and our life resumed normally.
But it did make me think of my poor mother who apparently, when my sister was just a little bit older, would sometimes have to wait for hours and then give in because the stubborn little thing just wouldn’t do what asked of her. I am crossing my fingers and my toes and knocking on all the wood around me in hope that DS won’t take after his aunt!
DS
Feb 9, 2009 Uncategorized
You may have noticed it by now, but I have been trying not to use my son’s name in this blog. I don’t know why I hesitate that much. I guess I tremendously value my privacy, and whereas Zak and I have chosen to divulge our first name on this blog, even knowing that anyone around the world can read it, my son cannot make such a decision yet. Not too long ago I read an interesting article about this new blog tendency, where parents talk about their children’s every pee and coo, and it raised the interesting question of the privacy of people who cannot give consent. So although I understand that everyone who knows me knows who my son is, I figure that by not naming him I can – somewhat – preserve his privacy from complete strangers.
But logistically, this sucks. I don’t know how many times I had to erase his name to replace it with “my son” or “my baby” or “my boy”, because I naturally tend to use his name. So I decided that I should find a permanent solution that can shorten my search for synonyms, something that I could get used to and that would become second nature. I don’t think I could get used to a randomly-picked fake name, so instead I found a solution in the parenting forums I visit somewhat regularly.
In these forum, posters refer to their children as DD (dear daughter) or DS (dear son). So from now on, whenever I talk about my baby, he will be called DS.
You are all warned!
Another milestone!
Feb 9, 2009 Uncategorized
Saturday we went to Ikea to buy some shelving to try and contain as much as possible the mess created by our baby’s toys. Of course, it didn’t really work since our boy decided that emptying the plastic bins on the floor is the most wonderful game ever. But I digress. What I wanted to say is that while at Ikea, we decided to splurge on a $4 potty.
We are not planning on potty-training our 18-month-old just yet, but he has shown interest on sitting on the toilet before, and when Zak babysat our neighbour he saw her use the potty and wanted to use it too, so we figured it couldn’t hurt to have one on hand. When we came back home, he pulled it out of the bag and asked to sit on it, which of course I let him do. I even convinced him to remove his pants and diaper, since he needed a change anyway. He sat back on the potty naked and, lo and behold, he peed!
I am deeply convinced that this was a coincidence – he was just at the right place at the right time -, but still, he peed on a potty! He – obviously – received plenty of praise for his success and – obviously again – didn’t repeat the feat since, despite sitting on the potty naked several more time. But it did give me something to write in his baby book!
Mothers take pride in the most insignificant things…
Tu vas aller faire un beau…
Feb 4, 2009 Family life, Français
Dodo!
C’est ainsi que, selon la légende, ma mère m’annonçait que c’était l’heure d’aller au lit quand j’étais toute petite. Malgré ma mémoire phénoménale, je ne m’en souviens pas, ce qui prouve que j’étais vraiment petite. La légende, toujours, raconte que quand je n’avais pas envie d’aller au lit, la conversation allait plutôt comme suit:
- Tu vas aller faire un beau…
- Pas dodo!
Eh bien ce soir, ce qui devait arriver arriva. J’ai annoncé à mon fils :
- Tu vas aller faire un beau…
- Dodo!
Eh! Oui, pour la première fois il m’a répondu comme un grand. Enfin, comme un petit, mais comme un petit qui devient vraiment de plus en plus grand. N’est-ce pas une des joies de la parentalité que de poursuivre les traditions que vos parents à vous avaient commencé (uniquement les traditions agréables, évidemment)? Déjà, je me fais un point d’honneur tous les soirs de mettre mon fil au lit en lui souhaitant “Bonne nuit, beaux rêves!”, comme le faisait ma maman. Ça, je m’en souviens.
Voilà. La roue tourne. Une nouvelle génération est née qui transmettra, je l’espère, un peu de moi à la suivante. Après tout, c’est la seule forme d’immortalité qui existe, malgré tout ce que peut en dire mon frère…