Here are some updates on Nathan.
1. My son is potty trained now. I started to train him about a month ago. It wasn’t easy to train him from beginning but he eventually got it.
At first, I had him on Huggies pull ups. However, since the feeling of the pull ups is more like diapers, he ends up peeing/pooing in it. So I stopped having him wear the Huggies pull ups during the day. I bought him cotton underwear. Once he wore the cotton underwear, he knows not to pee/poop in it.
Training him during the day was fine except for nighttime. He wore the Huggies pull ups or his unused diapers that we still have for nighttime and even for his nap. At nighttime, he peed probably a few times in bed. Good thing I put a sheet protector under his bed sheet so he doesn’t end up wetting his entire bed including this mattress. But after a few nights more, I had him wear cotton underwear. Nowadays, he sleeps in bed without peeing.
For the first few nights he wore his cotton underwear, I woke up when I hear him waking up so I can immediately take him to the bathroom before he pees on his cotton underwear. Nowadays, he can actually hold his pee until I take him out of his crib. Also, we started to allow him to sleep in our bed again since he has been pretty good about not peeing on himself. I put a sheet protector under our bed sheet on our king size bed just in case. 🙂
Earlier during his potty training, we had him wear Huggies pull ups or diapers while we are out grocery shopping, going to SF or to the mall. Now, my son wears cotton underwear everyday and every time we go out.
He isn’t 3 yrs old yet and I am glad he is potty trained.
2. He knows how to count from 1 – 20. At times he forgets 14, 15, 16 and 17, but he is getting pretty good at remembering his numbers.
3. He has been seeing a new speech teacher named Lida. After his first speech teacher (Cathy Janis) retired, my son was temporarily seeing Michelle until the Infant Program hired another speech therapist who would replace Cathy. Michelle was good at what she does but I felt that she was too aggressive to him. At times when Nathan gets distracted, she demands that he sits his butt back down on his chair.
I am glad Lida isn’t as aggressive. If Nathan gets distracted, she always found ways to get his attention back without having to discipline him. What I also like about Lida is that she comes over to my house for my son’s speech therapy unlike with Cathy and Michelle. With Cathy and Michelle, I had to drive to the Infant program facility in Napa.
Nathan is still seeing Debbie, the teacher assistant (I think her title changed but I forgot what it was). Debbie isn’t a speech therapist. She is more of the observant type. She observes Nathan’s physical and motor skills and see his development that way. But she does communicate with Nathan through play like Lida and have him say certain words properly.
So far with Lida, she had Nathan do some mouth exercises like move his tongue from top to bottom, side to side and in a circle. Right now, Nathan rarely uses his tongue to pronounce certain words properly. So this tongue exercise will help him. For his next exercise, Lida helped him try to say the letter ‘s’. She brought out some toys that start with ‘s’ like swing, slide, stop sign, etc.
When Nathan turns 3 yrs old this October, he is eligible to attend the Napa preschool program specializing with language development and other special needs. Best part of this program is that it is free and he will be in same classroom with other kids who also has delayed language development. The preschool will be twice a week in Napa. I do hope to enroll him into this preschool.
4. Terrible 2s/3s! Need I say more??? My son is a screamer. If he doesn’t get his way, he will scream. Along with his screaming, he gets teary-eyed and his saliva trickles down his mouth. I noticed that he would throw a punch at Nelson. But not to me. He knows very well mommy will get mad if he punches me. 🙂
Terrible 2s/3s stage is pretty much more about them…. mine mine and mine… me me and me. Can’t wait when he grows out of this stage!
5. He is growing up so fast. Some of his pants size 18 – 24 months still fits around the waist but he looks like Steve Urkel from the bottom. When I took out some of his clothes that no longer fit him, I started to reminisce the time when he was smaller. Now he grew few more inches and weighs over 30 lbs now.