Ni hao

We were in bed telling stories as part of our pre-bed ritual last night when Dexter started blurting out random Mandarin words.

ni hao
xie xie
zai jian

One of his teachers speaks Mandarin and she's been teaching her little sponges a few phrases. Jon said that one more word and Dex would surpass his Mandarin fluency level.

Stars needed

For the last two weeks, he's been lining up his "babies" (his teddy bears and assorted stuffed animals including: Piper, his favourite teddy bear; Teddy, a smaller bear; Sydney, a floppy eared dog; Sam the monkey; Duckie; Grover; Ox, his ugly doll; Naughty Naughty Keifer, another ugly-doll-like thing; Horsie; Doggie; Sophie the giraffe; Tad, a talking frog-thing; Baby, a musical teddy; Dino, a green dinosaur, etc. etc.) and insisting that I change their diapers.

It's a funny little ritual. He will take the babies one at a time and insist that I wipe their "bum-bum" and "change their diaper." I would, of course, play along, and once we get to the end (pardon the pun) of the babies, I will say "now, it's Dexter's turn." But oh no, no. The babies might need to be changed, but no, not Dexter. He will protest, resist and procrastinate until I finally insist (read: forcibly hold down a crying, squirming boy) it's his turn at the change table.

The last few days or so, he would actually stop in the middle of play to rush upstairs to "change babies." We figured it was his way of letting us know that "somebody" had filled their diaper -- in fact, all the babies apparently, except for Dex, of course (wink, wink).

Did someone say potty?

Last night, I just had his dinner ready and as I was rounding him up to strap him to his high chair, off he went to go upstairs to change the babies. I rushed in after him and when we got upstairs, I changed one or two babies. He wasn't really into it and it finally occurred to me to ask him if he wanted to go to the bathroom. Surprise, surprise: He allowed himself to be led to the bathroom and once there, he actually allowed me to remove his diaper and to let him sit on the potty. Wow!

Believe me, this progress on the potty training front was totally thrilling. Quick -- I tried to jog the memory to see what else I should be doing. I read somewhere that I should have some reading material just for sitting on the potty so that he gets positive reinforcement. I scanned the horizontal surfaces within arms reach: not looking good. Here's the paltry choice:

- Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics by Nick Herbert
- The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
- Dropped Threads 2, edited by Carold Shields and Marjorie Anderson
- Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
- Barrel Fever by David Sedaris
- Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson
- Sharp, a Globe and Mail freebie magazine with Ewan McGregor on the cover
- Design Within Reach, a catalogue for mid-century design furniture and accessories

As you can imagine, only the last two had pictures so I reached for those first. The Eames chairs in the Design catalogue only held his interest for half a second so we moved on to Sharp Magazine where (1) he noticed the motorcycle behind Ewan, and (2) ads for Porsche (inside front cover) and Audi (centre spread). We talked about the cars for a bit but then that wore thin and the only other thing I could reach was the David Sedaris book with a cover photo of two guys in hats with their tongues out. That entertained him for the rest of the potty session.

While ooohing and aaahing over the car ads, my little boy had a quiet tinkle. I was so proud of him.

And not only that, later that night, after dinner, he wanted to sit on the potty again for a #2 -- too late, of course (the diaper was already mighty full by the time we removed it) but still, I think we're making progress.

The report from Daddy is that Dex also sat on the potty first thing this morning. I think we are on a roll!

So, things to do today: upgrade the reading material in the bathroom to include toddler-appropriate books, and buy gold stars or stamps to reward Dex every time he sits on the potty. Yaay!

Healthier bones and teeth

I forgot to mention that Dex is now drinking whole milk!

For the last couple of months, I've been slowly introducing whole milk to his diet. I started by giving him a splash of milk with his usual soy milk, then increased the ratio bit by bit, week by week. Last week, I started giving him whole milk straight up and I am happy to report that he has exhibited no adverse effects. No redness. No signs of irritation around the mouth, his previous reaction to the stuff. I think he managed to outgrow the sensitivity/allergy to dairy. Yay.

This new development is a relief to me. I've been worried about the long term effects of insufficient calcium in his diet. The soy milk I've been giving him did not have a lot of calcium but that was the choice I made. I got to be the expert nutritional information reader in my time and basically, with soya milk, the trade off is calcium versus sugar. Most soy milks out there have so much sugar. The brand I decided to give Dex had no sugar, but alas, as I said lacking in calcium content. I mean, I wasn't sure he was deficient in calcium (we made sure he got yogourt or cheese or broccoli and other calcium-rich foods on a regular basis), but I still worried (this seems to be a recurring theme with me on this blog).

Now that he is able to drink milk, he is drinking it by the jug! I swear he drinks half a litre a day. Maybe now the legs will start growing.

Snow!

He wanted to see the snow first thing this morning. Here he is staring at the back porch.

Night night

It's too bad I already documented elsewhere that he has already said his first sentence because another one was said today.

"Daddy's home," he said when he heard someone downstairs. He repeated it a couple more times as Daddy was climbing up the stairs.

He was having a tough time sleeping and we were in bed at the time. Funny, as soon as his daddy joined us in bed, Dex was asleep within minutes. Sure looks like someone really missed his daddy last week.

Sticks, stones, snail shells

Little boys, or maybe kids in general, are such magnets for things we take for granted. Dex is a curious one and every time we go for a walk, he always picks up a small object or two as a memento -- a smooth pebble, an acorn, part of a snail shell, a small broken bit from a plastic toy, a leaf, a twig, a dead bee.

"Would you like to show that to Daddy."
"Yeah," he'd always say.

So he'll clutch the object in his little fingers (he hasn't discovered pockets yet) for the rest of our stroll for me to pry off from his warm little fist once we get to the house. Jon's gotten used to the sight of these offerings at the front step. Usually after a day, I can sweep them off the porch and Dex wouldn't miss them, but the dead bee was a source of fascination for days.

Good night soup

Since Wednesday, Dex has been waking up at 2 am screaming for Mommy and Daddy. At first I thought it was because we have disrupted the order of the universe (Jon left for an out-of-town conference that same day), and then I thought it was the ear infection (yup, ear infection #5 in 20 months), or the other set of molars coming in, but in the end, I decided it must be a combination of the three. And, because I was rewarding him by taking him to bed with me instead of settling him back in his crib (how can I not take that warm little body in bed with me when he's upset), he figured he had a good thing going.

But last night, I decided to deal with the mid-night waking by concocting my magic sleep potion: chicken meatball soup with pasta. Carmen from the butcher shop told me this is what she made for her kids once they started eating solids. It goes something like this:

- Boil a bit of pasta. I use the tiny ones, acini de pepe or stellini, just enough to fit the bottom of my cupped palm -- not too much because pasta expands a lot.
- Then I add my chopped vegetables: carrots, mushrooms, peas, celery, potato, zucchini -- whatever I have in the fridge.
- Then I add my meatballs. I now make a big batch of chicken meatballs, freeze them, then take out a half dozen or so for each soup serving.
- Add a little bit of herbs: basil, tarragon, parsley, whatever I have on hand.
- Then just before it's ready, I stir in a beaten egg.
- To serve, I grate some parmesan cheese and stir it in. That's it.

Dex loves this soup. It turns out a little differently each time. Last night's version was more risotto-y in consistency than soup, but that was just fine for Dex. He ate six meatballs plus the pasta and all the vegetables.

And for the first time in a week, he slept through the night again, a full 11 hours! Amazing.

Before I went to bed last night, I checked in on him. There was my beautiful little boy in a Jesus pose in his crib, perspiring a little as he digested his meal. Georgeous thing.

One step ahead

If one of the metrics of being a good mom is being one step ahead all the time, I'm afraid I'm going to get a less than stellar evaluation at the end of the year. There goes my bonus, I guess.

A friend just told me she is putting up her Christmas tree since Halloween is done. Another friend just got family photos for her annual Christmas misssive. In contrast, here I am still trying to figure out when I can print out some Halloween photos for the grandparents maintenance program. And downstairs, in my kid's book box is his Easter bunny book. On a positive note, I guess there is no need to put away the Christmas books that we've had all year in Dexter's room.

Holidays seem to come screaming around the corner startling me into action at the last minute. This year, I actually forgot it was Halloween until that morning and had to ask Jon to stop by the store to get some candy for the kids. The funny thing is, every time a holiday goes by and I scramble to prepare at the last minute, I swear to myself that I will be more prepared for the next one. Must decorate the house! Must bake holiday-appropriate cookies! Must send some cards! Must dress up Dex in cute bunny costume, spooky costume, Christmas shirt, etc! But no...Let's see, Dex is now nearly two and I have yet to live up to that. I like to attribute part of the cause to my little preemie. He showed up two months early and I haven't caught up since. But, even I know I can only cruise on that excuse for so long.

It's hard to believe that corporations used to actually pay me good money to organize things, plan things, budget for expenses. Unfortunately, I guess that job skill is not transferable to the domestic sphere. But then again, we usually get what we pay for!