Under construction

About a month ago, the City of Toronto started ripping up the street in front of the daycare and repaving it. Apparently, this caused much excitement in the infant room. In particular, the teachers reported that Dex was especially fascinated by the whole process. He was the first one to rush to the window and press his face against the glass as the construction equipment moved in for the job. He stood there mesmerized the entire day as the "diggers" ripped up the street one day, graded it, and paved it on subsequent days. Dex loved watching the construction so much that he stood in front of the window and blew kisses at the construction workers all day. Now how cute is that?

Jon was amused that the teachers did not know the proper names for the equipment so when we found a kid's puzzle with construction equipment, we made sure we took it to the daycare to show the teachers the difference between an excavator, a backhoe and a frontend loader. Dex loves this puzzle. He seeks it out first thing in the morning and it's the last thing he puts away in his toy box at night. He knows the puzzle pieces very well. "Can you bring me the dump truck," I would ask and he will walk to his puzzle, pick out the right piece and hand it to me. I have absolutely no idea where this fascination with machines came from. On the nature vs. nurture thing, I have to say that nature gets a definite point for this. He certainly did not get it from my nurturing. Just like the teachers, I called those big yellow things with the claw "diggers" all those years.

17 months

Aaah, our cute little toddler. Here he is now at 17 months. A year ago, I was clapping my hands in glee when I first witnessed him roll from back to tummy. And here he is today: walking (can even change directions now), trying to run, kicking a ball. What phenomenal physical progress. If he continues at this rate of physical advancement, I would think that he should be able to levitate or fly by age 20!

He's liking this new walking thing. Of course, this new level of activity comes with the occasional spill and bruise as he tries to find his centre of gravity and understand the limits of his strength. That's the un-fun part for me. Luckily, he seems to have a pretty good instinct for self-preservation as he is refraining from more daredevil-y maneuvers like flinging himself down the stairs or climbing furniture.

On the diet front, he's still showing sensitivity to dairy so still drinking soy milk not cow's milk. He can tolerate yoghourt but he definitely reacts to cream cheese and some hard cheeses. I'm also still peeling his grapes.

Progress report

- can get up from a squat position unaided
- can kick a beach ball
- can hop on and off a toddler bike by himself
- can go down from Mom and Dad's bed by himself (feet first)
- now wants to go up the stairs standing up rather than crawling up
- outgrown his size 4.5 shoes and most of his clothes (must shop)
- more signs (help, gentle, and train)
- more words ("ball" is the word of the week)
- starting to say "no"
- teeth number 13 and 14 are out, with 15 and 16 threatening to erupt
- now eating what we're eating
- recognizes construction vehicles (backhoe, crane, dump truck, etc.) and will bring you the right piece from his construction vehicles puzzle if you ask for it

new experiences
- discovered water play!
- cherries, blueberries, nectarines, mushrooms, grapefruit juice
- some refined sugar in his diet now (unfortunately)
- first injury involving blood (his) -- but no worries, he's fine

He is pretty active at daycare so by the end of the day, he is often tired. This means a short night with mom and dad, but on the other hand, this means he's also sleeping a little bit longer. His vocabulary (spoken and signed) is still quite limited (mom, dad, Fergus, cat, ball, milk, more, banana, help, bear, backhoe) but everyone tells me not to worry too much. As long as his comprehension is good, everyone assures me he is doing just fine.

One day last week, as I watched him sleep, I cupped his melon-sized head with one hand. When he was born I remember thinking his head was the size of an orange, and here he is now, my little melonhead. I am utterly amazed by this growing, thinking, beautiful thing we have.

Top three list

Here are three things we've said to Dex that Jon has never, ever heard from his own parents:

"My, my, you ate a lot of fruit and vegetables!"

"We're just warming up your breakfast croissants."

"Nice tan."

Looking good

Well, it's been a week since he took that "tumble" (How do you like my euphemism for "fall on a hard surface that caused his mouth to bleed and necessitated a visit to a health care professional?"). So far, his teeth seem fine. No discoloration and he is not showing any signs of distress or pain. I am feeling slightly reassured, but I can't shake the guilt. I'm not really sure if we're in the clear yet so I think I'll continue obsessing about his teeth for at least another week.

Food matters

One of the reasons I love Dexter's daycare is because of the food. The catering company is amazing. They use mostly local, fresh ingredients. No trans-fats, artificial colouring, flavour or preservatives. Meats are from local sources, ethically-raised and no artificial growth hormones. Essentially, they supply food that I would normally give Dex myself. No fish crackers and twinkies here. And no chicken fingers or hot dogs which seems to be the commonly accepted shorthand for "kid's food."

You should see their lunch menu. They go for multicultural variety and serve at least one vegetarian lunch a week. Dessert is always fruit and milk. Here's a sample:

Monday: BBQ turkey with wholewheat couscous and mixed veggies
Tuesday: West Indian channa (chickpea stew) served on wholewheat roti
Wednesday: Carrot and flax fish fillet, organic quinoa, baby green peas
Thursday: Wholewheat pasta with homemade Ontario tomato and organic soy cheese sauce with cauliflower or broccoli
Friday: Cowboy beef stew with homemade corn loaf and mixed veggies

Mid-afternoon snacks are also nutritious and tasty, mostly fruit and yoghourt (at least twice a week), but these things also get rotated into the menu: organic corn chips with homemade salsa, banana loaf, fruit muffin, rice crackers and soft cheese, carrots and cucumber with hummus dip.

I mean, he's not even two yet and he's already eating quinoa! I bet neither set of grandparents has ever even heard of that. My daily reports from daycare alternate between "ate plenty" or "lots" beside the word lunch.

The consequence of all this good food is that he's gotten quite bored with my home cooking. I've been quite conservative with the spices and lately, he's been expressing his "disappointment" by throwing every second bite of yet-another-poached-organic-chicken-ho-hum over the side of his high chair.

Then, a suggestion from my family visitor from Toronto public health: "He really should be eating what you are eating," she said. So, starting yesterday, I heeded this advice. We had grilled chicken (marinated with olive oil, lime zest, dijon mustard, tarragon, and rosemary) on white rice with fresh petit pois. He loved that. And he slept like a log. From 8 pm to 7 am! No feedings in between! That was so amazing. I had eight, count them, eight full hours of uninterrupted sleep. And he woke up happy!

Inspired by that, I made some beef stir fry for him tonight: steak strips with ginger, green beans, and mushrooms on rice. Another hearty feed, I must say. And who knew he loved mushrooms so much? Crossing my fingers for another good night's sleep...

The other woman

He ditched me for Vicky.

Sure he was clingy and cuddly and he let me change him to his outdoor shoes, but as soon as Vicky held out her hand to take him to the playground, he let go of me and, without looking back, just walked out the door. No tears. No hesitation. Leaving me there stunned and empty. Wasn't it just a couple of months ago when he was inconsolable at the thought of being left at daycare? Oh, wait, that was me.

But seriously...it is so nice to see my little boy growing up. I know there is absolutely no substitute for our love, but it is so nice having the support of great teachers.

Dex is having a great time at daycare. He loves playground time where he has his choice of bikes to test his gross motor skills, the sandbox and the garden for sensory stimulation, and on Wednesdays all this summer, he gets water play in a nice wading pool. Inside the building, he loves all the puzzles and other educational toys to help him develop his fine motor skills. He also loves doing creative, messy play. He's got a little locker and at the end of the day, I often find his fine artwork there -- craft paper with bits of randomly arranged stickers, or feathers glued on cardboard, or manic swirls of paint applied by hand.

He is learning so much. The other day, at dinner, he lifted his arm to the side of his face and made a "hrrrhmpff" sound. "Are you an elephant," I asked. "Yeah," he said, looking very pleased with himself. Or sometimes, he would roar or sing the chorus from the "Seals on the Bus," one of his favourite books at daycare (kinda like Wheels on the Bus, but the bus is filled with seals, geese, monkeys, and other animals.) His teachers do a great job with the programming and there is always something new for him to experience.

Today was "crazy hair" day so before heading off to daycare, we spent part of the morning trying to spike up his fine hair. All we managed was a modified Einstein look. In the end, Einstein ditched me for Vicky. Vicky had her beautiful dark hair in tiny little ponytails with multicoloured elastics all over. Now how can I compete with that?

Because he's one

Because he's only 16 months old and it's summer, he can run around his backyard completely naked.

His dad got him a new wading pool today and Dex couldn't wait to get in there. We were going to leave the water out for a couple of hours to warm up, but no, as soon as it was filled, in he went. Splash, splash, giggle giggle. Because he's one.

Here's a picture of him after we coaxed him out of the pool and into a diaper.



ps. Update on his teeth: No discoloration so far.

Guilt trip

How did we (or our mothers) ever survive our childhoods? Dex is going through the toddler stage and I'm a nervous wreck. At every turn, there seems to be unavoidable perils especially when he's practicing his walking.

He took another tumble today. He was tired after dinner and was clinging to my leg as I was trying to put dishes away. Then he tried to reach up and he must have lost his balance. Down he went and the cry started right away. (When they cry right away, you know they ain't faking!) I held my crying baby and cuddled him. I slowly took him upstairs for bath time while he cried on my shoulder. Then when I got upstairs and started to change him I realized that there was blood coming from his mouth. Of course, when we tried to take a closer look, the more he screamed and turned his face away.

So, another weekend, another emergency visit to a health professional. We're lucky that we only live five minutes away from our dentist and that our dentist is open late. At 7:30 pm tonight, we headed over there to get his teeth checked.

No obvious damage to the front teeth -- just a cut in the gums but we are to watch for any discoloration (b/c discoloration means nerve damage). Poor, poor boy. How guilty did mommy feel after this incident?

SPF zero

So I turned my back on him for a second. It was dinner time and he was doing a great job self-feeding. I knew he needed a bath before bed so it didn't matter to me how much cereal, banana or broccoli he got on his hair and his arms and lap (and my floor for that matter). He had moved on to the dessert phase of his meal and he was having a great time eating yoghourt, scooping it with his spoon and putting it in his mouth with various degrees of success.

As I said, I turned my back for a second to wash something in the sink. Between the time I left and the time I got back to him, I guess he had decided to get up close and personal with his dessert. He had taken the yoghourt and lathered it all over his arms and face and hands -- you know just like sunblock. I guess I can't blame him. If you think about it, the yoghourt must have felt like Coppertone. Same consistency even. Cute guy.

Another sign

So yesterday we were having dinner and he showed me another sign: two hands together, one hand pulling the other upwards. Out of the blue, he started signing "help." I was so proud of him! Of course, I would be just as proud if he actually said the word, but apparently we are holding off on the speech thing and working on dexterity instead.

btw: In case you're wondering why the little guy would be signing for help: he wanted me to open the lid of a Tupperware container that he was playing with at the time.