More Magical Tristan Moments

Daddy Antics a.k.a. Blinking and Telekinesis

A while back, George had told Tristan that blinking at the traffic lights would make them change color. So Tristan would blink at the lights, and George would laugh at him. He also thinks that this works for the DVD screen saver (you know, the one that flashes the DVD logo at different areas of the screen). OK, I admit, I found it hilarious too but I often wonder what would happen if I left the little guy in the care of my husband for too long.

No, but seriously, George is really great with Tristan and I feel that their relationship has grown closer these past months. There was a time when George would make “dabog” that Tristan didn’t want to kiss or hug him, and he is still very clingy with me. But now, I think he really enjoys when they can play the rougher games together and when he can be carried and “thrown about”. I also think that it helped that I was leaving him with George a lot more (because of experiments etc.). In the past, I always felt that everything would go to pieces if it wasn’t me who was giving him the bath and the doing the nighttime routine and putting him to bed. But when I had to leave him out of necessity, I found that he gave George very little trouble. Now Tristan gives kisses and hugs to Dada without needing a bribe (most of the time).

Bellybutton Comfort / Lovey?

All the sleep training books I had read suggested the use of a “lovey” to comfort the baby while he is transitioning. We have tried to attach Tristan to his Froggy which he used to kiss but he actually got somewhat attached to what we call Red Bear, a valentine gift George had given me a long time ago. (Sidenote: we always felt kind of weird bringing Red Bear to church as this bear is red because he is in a devil costume complete with horns and a tail). Anyway, we thought for sure he would use Red Bear to comfort himself in the crib, but to our surprise, he started doing something really funny. Tristan comforts himself by rubbing his bellybutton. I’m serious. When he goes to bed, he’ll look for it. When he wakes up, he’ll rub it. Once, when said bellybutton was obstructed by a diaper, I swear we saw him actually panic! Haha! Oh baby! Whatever works for you. Now, Tristan sleeps pretty well, crying for about 5 minutes before quieting and lying down. Then he either goes to sleep at once or will do a little whine/talk to sleep for 10 minutes. He sleeps most days from 8pm to 5am (this morning he slept until 6am, yeah!). If he is teething or has an upset stomach, this will disrupt his sleep. One night, he had a bad dream and bolted upright and started crying. It took a while to calm him down again. But most days, he has been pretty good and I think, in part, we have his bellybutton to thank for it.

Airshow and Thomas

The past Labor Day weekend, we decided to stay in Cleveland and watch the Cleveland Airshow. We rode the tram downtown which Tristan really liked because we called it a “train” and kept singing the Thomas and Friends song. We believe he only likes that show because of the song which he bobs and sways along to. Anyway, we didn’t pay for the Airshow and were just watching it from the pier. I wasn’t expecting much, but it was pretty impressive. The planes were flying so low and doing all kinds of stunts it was kind of hard not to be entertained. George was in heaven, of course but Tristan enjoyed it too…for about 30 minutes. Then the novelty kind of wore off and he just wanted to run after all the children and jump into the water (or at least look over the edge). So, good thing we didn’t buy tickets. We still had a blast and got to show baby some of his favorite things: planes and trains. Check out some of the pics above.

Roomba Infatuation

I guess I have mentioned previously that Tristan has always been fascinated with the Roomba. He starting out being terrified but curious, and now he is just infatuated with it. It is the first thing he asks for in the morning and we always have to say, “No baby, too loud”. He wants to start it but doesn’t want to push the button himself (still a bit afraid) so he will bug you and bug you to turn it on. Then after it’s been cleaning a while he wants you to make it dock (because it will home to its base and make beeping sounds). He imitates it and goes “beep” which sounds more like “bep”. Then he will demand you repeat the whole procedure again. Hey, I can’t complain. Our apartment is cleaner for it.

ABCs

We heard about this website www.starfall.com and have been going through the alphabet section for some time now. It’s pretty cool because there are real pictures, animation, and Tristan’s favorite, music! He’s also been requesting the Dr. Seuss ABCs…every night. We discovered he knew the sounds for many of the letters and even tried to sound out difficult ones like F and K. That was pretty cool! I think he might be starting to get tired of it now because he let me read him The Cat in the Hat tonight, instead. And thank goodness because I was so tired of telling him “That’s not right! There’s no such thing as a Fiffer-feffer-feff (or a Zizzer-zazzer-zuzz)!”.

Alrighty, well that’s about all that’s goin’ on in the Aranjuez household. Going for our 18th month check-up/shots tomorrow. Will keep you posted on how that goes soon Bye for now!