Mommy's Diary

Month 13 - Tiger's one year old! - Playing in turns - Walking backwards - One year check up - Weaning

February 5, 2000
Tiger is one year old today! In the morning we went to Toysus to buy some gifts for Tiger. Tiger was so happy, running from one aile to another, picking up stuff ... It's like he entered a treasure island. I still remember the time when all he does at this toy store was sleeping. He got a push toy from his brother, a walking and talking Elmo from grandma and a truck from mom and daddy. For his birthday party, we invited three couples of friends. All of them brought their kid, one 8 year old, one 6 month old, and one still in mommy's tummy. Tiger had a great time. He also got more gifts from these Uncles and Aunties, toys, clothes, and blooms. We bought an ice cream birthday cake for Tiger since he can't eat regular cake because of his allergy to wheat. He loved the chocolate ice cream part, although he only had about 1 hundredth of the entire cake. It was funny to watch him eating it while making faces becase it was so cold, yet he still wanted more.

Tiger has been really happy these days. He laughs and smiles all the time. In the morning, he smiles before he even fully wake up. And he would murmur lots of words in his half sleep, "mama", "baba", "bop", "apple", "Elmo", "Bujibuji Bujibuji" ...

It seems to me as if Tiger has grown up suddenly in these few days. He knows so much. He understands instructions and explanations. He shares his toys with others. He knows to negotiate and plea. He can put things back together. He reads his book by himself. He finds facination from all things around him, a chair, a cloth, a wheel, or a window. It is really fun to look at him being so busy playing independently. Tiger is not a baby anymore, he is a big boy now.

February 8, 2000

As of today, Tiger is 22lb 4oz (50%) and 31 inches (75%). I don't think the length is the right one because he wiggled so much and he was only 27 inch (15%) three month ago but I'm very pleased about his growth. He didn't have the MMR shot because he is allergic to egg the dr wants to wait for 3 to 6 months. However, the dr had him take a blood lead test that needs to draw blood from his arms. He was so mad that he cried until he vomited and they still couldn't get any blood out from him. We need to go in in two weeks to redraw the blood again. I felt so bad for little Tiger. If I knew this is going to happen I would have never rented an old house that have lead paint outside. It's almost impossible for Tiger to get any lead from the house because the amount is so little but we just want to be sure.

February 10, 2000

This morning two psychologists from the Family Health Foundation program came to visit Tiger. The FHF program is a research program that tracks children's development. It is not to my surprise that they praized Tiger's motor skill because I know all along that he is advanced. However, I was a little surprised when Marilyn told me that Tiger is doing extremely well in language development. I was told that when babies are exposed to two languages (English and Chinese in our case) they tend to be a little slower than their peers. Well, it is not Tiger's case. He is actually ahead of other babies in the same age, according to these experts. He probably has benefited from the one to one attention. Of course I have no doubtfrom the beginning that he is a smart boy and he can do anything well. Marilyn did suggested to us that the relatively weak aspect of Tiger is his fine motor skill although it is still in line with where children of his age should be. She suggested that we can buy some crayons for Tiger to start learning drawing. It is true that Tiger has been busy runing around. Maybe now it's time for him to sit down and do something more delicate.

February 15, 2000
Caren from the Parent as Teachers School also tested Tiger and was impressed with his language ability. He now says so many things. He says many Chinese words like QiQiu (bloon), QiuQiu (ball), GeGe (brother), and more. Also, he seems to have self-expended the meanings of some of his earlier words. For example, although he still calls "Elmo" whenever he sees Elmo in a book, TV or his stuffed toy, he also use this word when he want to say "play". Last night before he went to sleep, he played with the activity board hanging on his crib. He would do something, then sit back, look at me and say "Elmo", indicating that it's my turn to play, then he'll play again, and then wait for my turn. It sure feels good that he is now actually playing with you. He knows to take turn.

Caren also asked me if Tiger can walk backwards. I didn't notice that. But after she left, I saw that he IS doing that! He now also likes to play balls. We baught a set of crayons for Tiger. But so far all he does with them is to put them into his mouth. Guess we just have to wait.

February 21, 2000
Poor Tiger! We went back to the hospital again today for Tiger's blood test. He had become famous from last time. Everybody knows that there was a baby who were so mad and so strong that they couldn't draw any blood out from his chubby arms. Well, they tried again. Tiger was so smart, he remembers. He tried to run away from the lab several times even before we started. And he began to cry and fight fiercely the minute they take up his sleeve. He fighted so hard as if he was fighting for his life. Sure enough, they were not successful at all. I watch the man stick the needle in poor Tiger's arm and twisted it around trying to find his vein, my heart almost broke. We decided that we are not going to do it. The lead amount in our rented house is so small and it is on the outside of the house where Tiger has never been close. Why should we force Tiger to go through this ordeal? They then decided to take Tiger back to the doctor and her nurse. The nurse is much more experienced. She find a vein in Tiger's right foot without much trouble. It was pretty hard to make Tiger to be still though. The little man fighted from the begining to the end. Another nurse commented: "If he grows any stronger, we will be in trouble." What's more, the blood flow stopped before they get enough blood. So they had to do a finger prick also. I hold Tiger for a long time after this. And he recovers so fast from it. Even before Fan and I got through with this, Tiger's already pointing to other interesting things and smiling with tears hanging on his eyelid.

Every night we say night-night to his stuffed animals before we go to bed. These few nights I found that Tiger wouldn't leave until I let him take one of his animals to go with him. It is so interesting. Another interesting that made me laugh happened at his bath. He pointed to the shampoos and other stuff that was hanging on the shouwer head. I said no. Tiger then took his bath toy turtle and gave it to me. Then he pointed up again. I realize that he was trying to exchange the turtle for the shampoo bottle. I smiled but said no. Guess what he did next? He took out the plastic plug of the bath tub, which he think to be most valuable (he likes to take it out and play with it but I don't allow him to do it until we are almost finished bath), offered that to me for exchange. I almost busted into laughing. What a smart boy! I guess trade is buried in human nature. You don't really need to teach them. They know it from birth. How interesting!

February 23, 2000
On a second thought, I must have taught Tiger about offering something for exchange. When he takes something that I don't want him to have, I usually give him something else. And he'll evaluate and compare before he decides to give it up or not. Half of the time, my trick doesn't work. But at least he has become a good "trader". :)

Last night Tiger slept beautifully. Now I have stopped pumping in the daytime and switched Tiger to soy milk entirely. He loves it so we didn't have much problem in switching at all. We didn't have to do as Tiger's doctor suggested, mix soy milk with breastmilk, then reduce breastmilk gradually. We had about a week when Tiger would have breastmilk sometimes and soy milk other times and Tiger did great. Interestingly, once when I was home Tiger wanted to nurse in the daytime. He hadn't been wanting to nurse in the daytime for at least several months now. And this time he was actually trying to lift my clothes. I almost decided to go ahead and nurse him since his action was so sweet. But in the end I decided not to because I was afraid he would form a habit of doing so. I gave him some apple instead and he was happy. I then let him have his lunch. Yesterday evening, Tiger drank a big cup of soy milk before going to bed. Usually we would nurse until he almost fall to sleep but this time he didn't nurse long before he was full. He still wanted to suck but didn't know what to do. He grabbed his favorit blanket and sucked on it for a second and then threw it away. He then jump up again and started playing and reading. I told him that it's time for sleep and turned off the light. For about twenty minutes, Tiger tossed and turned, stood and sat, rolled from one end of crib to the other end, kissed me and licked me on my face, but in the end he fell to sleep. I feel so proud of him and myself. I think our transition of weaning from breastmilk will be smooth. Tiger is really a good baby.

March 1, 2000
Tiger is doing great! Now he goes to sleep without nursing almost everyday. After a bath and a book and playing for a while plus nusing, he is usually still awake but ready to go to sleep. I would lay him to his bed and tell him: "Don't get up, mommy's going to turn off the light." And he will be lying there. Then he would talk in the dark for about 10 minutes before he would just go to sleep. I absolutely love to lie besides him and listen to all his jebbering. I am so happy for him and so proud of him.

Tiger also likes to communicate and interact more than before. It's like he is always asking you to do something. He would point to the basement stair, and say "En!", that means he wants you to take him down stairs. He would give you the remote control, and say "En!", means that he wants you to play a vedio for him. He would give you two pieces of toys, and say "En!", means he wants you to assemble them for him. He would point to the activity board and say "En!" means that it's you turn to play. He likes to give one person something and then take it from her and then give it to another person and then take it from him. He sometimes feeds me when I try to feed him. He says a lot of words. After each meal, he'll say "baobao", means "pick me up". He has quite a large vocabulary that includes apple, duck, car, doll, bear, drum, dog, hug, etc. in different languages.