Mommy's Diary
Month 18 - When is he going to wean? - First time to the swimming pool
July 6, 2000
Tiger now has grasped the concept of feelings. He can say "itchy", "hurt", "sleepy", "hungry" and "thirsty". And he does not hesitate to use those words. Yesterday he closed one of his books with one hand between pages, then he made a whiney sound and showed his hand to me, saying: "hand". I asked: "What's wrong with your hand?" He said "hurt". I almost burst to laughter. But I kissed his hand and he was satisfied with it and went on for other activities.July 17, 2000
Tiger had been nursing less and really sleeping though from 9 to 8. However, since three or four days ago he suddenly changed to nurse more frequently and longer. Sometimes its like he forgot that he had just nursed 10 minutes ago. And in the night if I try to break him off when he is asleep he would cry hard no matter what I do to comfort him. Once he cried so loud that mil came in asking (accusing) if there is anybody with Tiger. I am really exhausted because of this and plus I've been working late to help dh's project and getting up early driving to another city to go to work in the weekdays and to go to class on Saturdays. MIL's not putting up a happy fact to me doesn't help also despite my efforts to try to help out more in our new house. She disapproves my still nursing Tiger but thinks that I'm not doing a good job when Tiger cries if I dare to break him off from an endless nursing in the middle of the night.I started to think that maybe I should wean Tiger. I went to the baby center message board to ask this question and saw a thread right there with the exact story of mine. Now I feel much better. I think Tiger wants to hold on to me tight because I have been too busy and have not spend as much time as I should with him. I really shouldn't sacrifice my baby's need to satisfy other people's demands. I will now try to spend more time with Tiger and I know this phase will pass too.
July 18, 2000
I am so happy that Tiger and I had a good sleep last night. Tiger woke up twice to nurse but both times he just nursed and latched off and went back to sleep. When I was nervous about his not breaking off it was like he can feel my anxiety and thus snap on tighter and longer. Now I'm more relaxed and determined not to force him into anything, things improved immediately!I read that sometimes when a baby is about ready to become more independent to explore the new world around him he may experience some anxiety and want to seek assurance from mommy. Sometimes growing up is really hard and kind of scary. I have been thinking that the last few days may be a sign that Tiger is entering a new more independent stage. Yesterday I was doing the dishes after dinner. All other people have left the room. Usually Tiger would not let me finish the dishes and will drag me once and again to play with him or read to him. Well yesterday he surprised me. He sat there contently examining a pot of keys and keychains for at least half an hour. I couldn't see him from where I was but I could hear him talking to himself. He came to show me what he got and ask me what it is and then went back to play. This had never happened before. I'm so pleased.
When we finished bath before bed, Tiger hugged me and put his face so close to mine. I thought he was going to bite me so I turned my head away but he still put his mouth close to my face. It's so funny it's like holding a little puppy. At last he finally found my mouth and gave a kiss on the mouth. He was just trying to kiss me! I was so happy. Then he looked at me affectionately and carefully removed a hair from my forehead. I almost melted.
July 27, 2000
Tiger has grown so much! When he stood on top of his slide, he is really a big young boy! Now he always tries to say two-word sentences. He has been able to put two lego blocks together for some time, but yesterday he stacks eight lego blocks together. This is his first time of intentionally play with the blocks. Last Saturday Robin from the Family Health Foundation research program visited us. I mentioned to him that I was a little afraid that Tiger can only play as what we taught him, but could not invent new ways to play himself. Well while I was talking, Robin noticed Tiger was making his book box a chair and trying to sit on it. I laughed and admitted that he does invent ways to play. I remembered when we take a bath, Tiger likes to put a bear on the near edge of the bath tub and then sit besides the bear and he always knocks the bear off when he sits. I never taught him that. Sometimes you just have to have the eyes to discover.July 28, 2000
We took Tiger to the Oakland Family Aquarium today. This is the first time Tiger has seen a swimming pool. At first he was a little scared of all those water falls and spraying water pipes. He clanged on me tightly. Then I was able to get him step into the water. And the water was pretty cold since it was almost evening. Later Tiger was loosen up more. He sat on the edge of the swimming pool comfortably and enjoyed looking at other girls and boys playing at the pool. Occasionally, he would climb down into the pool but he would quickly climb up again. It seemed that the nice not too hot sunshine was better than the cold water to him. He did walked to the water as deep as to his up legs and walked around for a while before we leave for the day. And he actually walked under the spraying water for a minute or two although it seemed to me that he wasn't very happy about the water spilled into his eyes at all. Fan and I laughed so much. I know we will be coming back and the next time he will be playing like a fish.Aug 4, 2000
Tiger is really growing up. Yesterday evening, after his dinner I thought he would be screaming impatiently as usual for somebody to pick him up. Well to my surprise, he sat there and study how to plug and unplug the safty harness. He studied it for a long time. I got to finish my own supper, clean up everything and he was still sitting there. He was so patient and persistent. Tiger used to be very impatient. Sometimes I worried about nothing can keep him for more than five minutes. Nowadays he is more and more able to concentrate on a task and not easy to be frustrated.Another thing that surprises us is that he knows to play tricks with us. When he is full for his meal, if he says that he is full, his grandma sometimes will try to get him to eat more and won't free him from his highchair. I think that when he is full he should not be forced to eat so I always let him out. So it always end up with he screaming mommy to free him. Well somehow he figured out if he tells us that he wants to poopoo, then he will be out of highchair immediately. When he was young he had constipation problem. So his poopoo has always been a big issue in our family and he gets all kinds of attention when he poops. So now if Tiger wants to get out of highchair, he'll say "poopoo" and he even pretends that he is trying to poop. When he gets out however, he'll run away happily and forget about all the poopoo stuff. It is so funny. I wonder if Tiger is too young to learn to play tricks with us?