Fox update
Feb. 8th, 2018 05:50 pmIt turns out there is a thing called adenovirus, which produces pneumo-conjunctival fever, i.e. one illness which causes all the symptoms of both flu and pinkeye. So that's what has been going on in our house for the last three weeks. I had wondered if it was just that the adult immune systems had crashed, as I was warned would happen, in the presence of virulent new bugs from the baby, but no, we had one awful illness instead of two simultaneous medium ones. Ruth and Fox are mostly better, though with some fatigue and occasional coughing still, and I retain an overdramatic and aggravating cough. (Anecdotal evidence suggests to me that what is going around this flu season is adenovirus instead of flu at all, which is why nobody's flu shots are helping.)
At 15.5 months, Fox undoubtedly has a height and a weight, but the fifteen-month appointment got rescheduled to later, so I don't know what either of those are. I don't think they can be two and a half feet tall yet? Probably still under twenty-five pounds? The twenty-five-pound bags of cat litter still feel as though they weigh more, but the bags also aren't helping to hold themselves up, so.
Physicality: As I suspected, we have a climber. They love climbing onto the surface of the desk from either the seat of the desk chair or the seat of the rocking chair, and they will cheerfully take books off the desk's top shelf to look at and then sit cross-legged and page through them for huge swathes of time. I try to stay close when they're climbing, but I was heartened today because they got up there, realized they didn't have their bottle, asked me for it, and when I went to get it decided they wanted to get down-- but, and this is the impressive thing, they turned around to get down and then waited for me to come and spot them before starting the climb.
They're so good at the desk and at chairs that I keep expecting them to try something with stairs other than turning around and doing them ladder-fashion, but not yet. Even if there's only one step, they painstakingly get down on their hands and knees six inches in front of it, rotate, painstakingly move down it, and then get up again six inches away. When there is one step and it's three inches high, this is kind of hilarious to watch, but hey, whatever they're comfortable with.
They can now turn book pages-- the actual paper kind-- without disaster, although if they want to flip one page back and forth a lot, as sometimes happens, they need assistance to keep it from crumpling. They can stack blocks three high, or add blocks to an adult's stack, and they seem to have the idea that the larger size of block should go on the bottom. They can drink from a sippy cup without getting water too thoroughly all over the place. They have opened a door once so far, but not again; they have taken off their own pants once so far, but they were very baggy pants, and I think it was semi-accidental. They can do zippers down but not up. They extend the correct arms and legs for getting dressed, and have put on their coat by themself twice now.
A hobby of theirs when we want to change their diaper (which they HAAAAAATTTEEEE) is to sprint frantically around the crib we use as a changing table, ricocheting off all the sides, which makes them very hard to catch. They know the word 'pee' and will say it when they have, but they have not yet come to the point of finding diaper changes desirable. No awareness of other waste. They also like flipping over onto their front when we're trying to change a diaper, winding up in a sort of headstand. I have seen them do actual headstands on more than one occasion, though they fall over after about half a second. There is a local circus school that starts classes at eighteen months, and frankly I am counting the days.
They have like seven or eight teeth now? It's really hard to count without being bitten. Top front two, bottom front two, a chunk of the back bottom molars on each side. They can basically chew, but we're still watching the size of food pieces because we're not quite sure they can chew every substance. They like most food these days, and have Very Strong Opinions as to the ranking of which Chinese restaurants around here have the best ma po tofu. We're still doing a lot of purees and things like yogurt mixed with Cheerios (ma po tofu is basically a puree in structure, except for the whole chilis, which they can and do pick out of the food themself). They're starting to have opinions about food temperature-- today I made them a bottle using milk out of the fridge and was informed it was too cold; they kept handing it back to me until I added some hot water.
Verbal/Social: Ruth and I and![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nineweaving sat down last week and made a list of words we are really pretty sure they use. It can be hard to tell because sometimes they repeat things after people, and some parts of their pronunciation are blurry enough that one isn't sure what they were aiming for. The list of things we are pretty sure of came to ~seventy words, most of them one-syllable. For Fox right now, second syllables appear to be mostly for emphasis, and are pronounced as though they were separate words. The most common two-syllable word is "Yo. Gurt." They have one two-word sentence, "I down", and one three-word, "Go [get me] more cracker". For Fox 'cracker' is still one-point-five syllables, something like 'craaaohhh', accompanied with the sign for it in case we aren't sure-- which is useful, because it is hard to tell from 'Cheerio'. Fox's most common sign is 'more'.
I am Dad, Ruth's parents are Buh and Zee for Bubbe and Zeyde, Ruth does not have an associated word (somewhat odd, we do tell them that Ruth is Mom), and, as we had suspected they eventually would, they came up with their own call-name for Rax. Both the R and the x are not easy for them at the moment, so they have settled on something they can easily pronounce and associate with Rax. Rax almost always turns up bearing bubble tea, and Fox loves to play with the straws and cups after we've finished drinking it, so Rax is now their Boba. 'Boba', as in the tea itself, was actually among their first twenty or so words, which amuses me. They also know the word tea, and know that it is the same thing in boxes, teabags, and cups, which impresses me because I really didn't think we drink all that much tea. And they know it's hot when in a cup and that they can carry it around if it's in a box.
If we tell them no about something, they will reach for it again just to make sure we mean it, and then if they keep getting no politely stop. If they think they might not be allowed to do something-- or know they aren't-- they keep up a cheerful string of 'no no no no no' as they approach it, which is great, because it means that if you leave the room for a minute you can easily tell whether they're getting into something they shouldn't. Sometimes if they think we might be saying no because something is hot, they'll say 'hot' instead of 'no', and they're right about what's hot about half the time. They don't yet understand qualified nos; if I tell them they can play with something but not to put it in their mouth, for instance, they'll just put it down.
They continue to love all people and interacting with all people, and to project omnibenevolence and a general cheery interest. They're a little cranky in the morning, because they wake really wanting a bottle, and if we're too slow to get it for them they literally stomp off quietly saying 'Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa', which is the single cutest expression of frustration I have ever seen. They now hand toys and objects to other people, inviting us to play, and they hand us books they want read to them. Today, for the first time, they insisted that I give their doll (an androgynous one in a bunny suit I call Mx. Bunny) part of their bottle, and they also brought me several stuffed animals in order for me to make the sound the animal makes. (This is an area in which the proliferation of stuffed species is not helpful, because damn if I can even come close to imitating a blue whale, and they have a stuffed one, and we have Youtube, and they know what it should sound like and they would like me to.)
We don't give them very much screentime, but they like to watch videos of cows mooing, or sometimes videos about cars and trucks. They also seem to like symphony orchestras, in moderation, especially if it's loud flashy music where the players are filmed really dynamically. And when we put on music they will sometimes dance, although I have been unable to figure out any commonality whatsoever to what music they seem to like.
In conclusion, Fox is a lovely kid who is doing great in every way, and I only wish we all hadn't spent the last three weeks sick.
At 15.5 months, Fox undoubtedly has a height and a weight, but the fifteen-month appointment got rescheduled to later, so I don't know what either of those are. I don't think they can be two and a half feet tall yet? Probably still under twenty-five pounds? The twenty-five-pound bags of cat litter still feel as though they weigh more, but the bags also aren't helping to hold themselves up, so.
Physicality: As I suspected, we have a climber. They love climbing onto the surface of the desk from either the seat of the desk chair or the seat of the rocking chair, and they will cheerfully take books off the desk's top shelf to look at and then sit cross-legged and page through them for huge swathes of time. I try to stay close when they're climbing, but I was heartened today because they got up there, realized they didn't have their bottle, asked me for it, and when I went to get it decided they wanted to get down-- but, and this is the impressive thing, they turned around to get down and then waited for me to come and spot them before starting the climb.
They're so good at the desk and at chairs that I keep expecting them to try something with stairs other than turning around and doing them ladder-fashion, but not yet. Even if there's only one step, they painstakingly get down on their hands and knees six inches in front of it, rotate, painstakingly move down it, and then get up again six inches away. When there is one step and it's three inches high, this is kind of hilarious to watch, but hey, whatever they're comfortable with.
They can now turn book pages-- the actual paper kind-- without disaster, although if they want to flip one page back and forth a lot, as sometimes happens, they need assistance to keep it from crumpling. They can stack blocks three high, or add blocks to an adult's stack, and they seem to have the idea that the larger size of block should go on the bottom. They can drink from a sippy cup without getting water too thoroughly all over the place. They have opened a door once so far, but not again; they have taken off their own pants once so far, but they were very baggy pants, and I think it was semi-accidental. They can do zippers down but not up. They extend the correct arms and legs for getting dressed, and have put on their coat by themself twice now.
A hobby of theirs when we want to change their diaper (which they HAAAAAATTTEEEE) is to sprint frantically around the crib we use as a changing table, ricocheting off all the sides, which makes them very hard to catch. They know the word 'pee' and will say it when they have, but they have not yet come to the point of finding diaper changes desirable. No awareness of other waste. They also like flipping over onto their front when we're trying to change a diaper, winding up in a sort of headstand. I have seen them do actual headstands on more than one occasion, though they fall over after about half a second. There is a local circus school that starts classes at eighteen months, and frankly I am counting the days.
They have like seven or eight teeth now? It's really hard to count without being bitten. Top front two, bottom front two, a chunk of the back bottom molars on each side. They can basically chew, but we're still watching the size of food pieces because we're not quite sure they can chew every substance. They like most food these days, and have Very Strong Opinions as to the ranking of which Chinese restaurants around here have the best ma po tofu. We're still doing a lot of purees and things like yogurt mixed with Cheerios (ma po tofu is basically a puree in structure, except for the whole chilis, which they can and do pick out of the food themself). They're starting to have opinions about food temperature-- today I made them a bottle using milk out of the fridge and was informed it was too cold; they kept handing it back to me until I added some hot water.
Verbal/Social: Ruth and I and
nineweaving sat down last week and made a list of words we are really pretty sure they use. It can be hard to tell because sometimes they repeat things after people, and some parts of their pronunciation are blurry enough that one isn't sure what they were aiming for. The list of things we are pretty sure of came to ~seventy words, most of them one-syllable. For Fox right now, second syllables appear to be mostly for emphasis, and are pronounced as though they were separate words. The most common two-syllable word is "Yo. Gurt." They have one two-word sentence, "I down", and one three-word, "Go [get me] more cracker". For Fox 'cracker' is still one-point-five syllables, something like 'craaaohhh', accompanied with the sign for it in case we aren't sure-- which is useful, because it is hard to tell from 'Cheerio'. Fox's most common sign is 'more'. I am Dad, Ruth's parents are Buh and Zee for Bubbe and Zeyde, Ruth does not have an associated word (somewhat odd, we do tell them that Ruth is Mom), and, as we had suspected they eventually would, they came up with their own call-name for Rax. Both the R and the x are not easy for them at the moment, so they have settled on something they can easily pronounce and associate with Rax. Rax almost always turns up bearing bubble tea, and Fox loves to play with the straws and cups after we've finished drinking it, so Rax is now their Boba. 'Boba', as in the tea itself, was actually among their first twenty or so words, which amuses me. They also know the word tea, and know that it is the same thing in boxes, teabags, and cups, which impresses me because I really didn't think we drink all that much tea. And they know it's hot when in a cup and that they can carry it around if it's in a box.
If we tell them no about something, they will reach for it again just to make sure we mean it, and then if they keep getting no politely stop. If they think they might not be allowed to do something-- or know they aren't-- they keep up a cheerful string of 'no no no no no' as they approach it, which is great, because it means that if you leave the room for a minute you can easily tell whether they're getting into something they shouldn't. Sometimes if they think we might be saying no because something is hot, they'll say 'hot' instead of 'no', and they're right about what's hot about half the time. They don't yet understand qualified nos; if I tell them they can play with something but not to put it in their mouth, for instance, they'll just put it down.
They continue to love all people and interacting with all people, and to project omnibenevolence and a general cheery interest. They're a little cranky in the morning, because they wake really wanting a bottle, and if we're too slow to get it for them they literally stomp off quietly saying 'Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa', which is the single cutest expression of frustration I have ever seen. They now hand toys and objects to other people, inviting us to play, and they hand us books they want read to them. Today, for the first time, they insisted that I give their doll (an androgynous one in a bunny suit I call Mx. Bunny) part of their bottle, and they also brought me several stuffed animals in order for me to make the sound the animal makes. (This is an area in which the proliferation of stuffed species is not helpful, because damn if I can even come close to imitating a blue whale, and they have a stuffed one, and we have Youtube, and they know what it should sound like and they would like me to.)
We don't give them very much screentime, but they like to watch videos of cows mooing, or sometimes videos about cars and trucks. They also seem to like symphony orchestras, in moderation, especially if it's loud flashy music where the players are filmed really dynamically. And when we put on music they will sometimes dance, although I have been unable to figure out any commonality whatsoever to what music they seem to like.
In conclusion, Fox is a lovely kid who is doing great in every way, and I only wish we all hadn't spent the last three weeks sick.
