My First Churro

 

 

One of Mike's high priorities was allowing Dek to have his first Churro experience at Disney (nevermind that they are widely available at a Costco near you). Its the quintessential amusement park snack.

Suffice to say it, Derek highly enjoyed this sugary,donuty confection. A bit too much, towards the end, he wouldn't let go of it.

Bamboo is Interesting

Here we are at one of our first outings in Orlando to a Museum/Garden. The boys (Dek, Mike and Kyle) seem to be fascinated by this tall growing grass.

 

Sleeping Beauties

Zonked out from Disney. The Favila boys take a nap at Christine and Kyle's place. Seems the only I can snap a good photo is when Dek sleeps. Otherwise, he is trying to wrestle the camera/phone from me.

Building Time

Here is Dek (15 months) at the National Building Museum. He took an interest in knocking things down. Perhaps hoping for an architect would be a bit pushy at this point in time. I just found these photos since they were buried after the Great Norovirus campaign of 2012. For those who missed it, Derek literally got norovirus three times back to back. We, idiotically, kept taking him out and about even though he hadn't healed and germs were still floating about. All in all, he lost a few pounds (which he gained back) and didn't poo solid for almost a month.

 

 

If Only I Were a Panda

Dek boy (16 months) with Mike in NC at the Duke Botanical Garden. Still getting caught up on photos here and will be a few more weeks to get fully up to date. He seems to particularly enjoy Bamboo groves, perhaps its his Asian roots (yuk yuk) getting to him.

We have found that gardens are great places to take Dek so that he has lots of room to run around and explore. As he's become sturdier over the last few months, its easier to let him run free. Issue is when we're in areas when he'll be mowed down by cars or can get away so quickly and is half-way up a set of stairs before we can catch up. He is still only selectively listening to directions. I feel like I'm constantly hovering. Except when I'm not and in those 2 seconds he'll fall down and scrape himself pretty badly. Sigh. Life with toddler.

Welcoming Spring

Still getting caught up here in photos. Lost the camera for awhile and just slowly organizing things now. Here is Dek last month (16 months) enjoying the very Early Cherry Blossoms we enjoyed this year. We dragged Dek back to the city after work and circled for almost an hour looking for parking. So worth it though.

 

 

 

Infant Potty Trained Dek

Pooing, 15 months

Some babies walk early, talk early, or wow their parents with other acrobatic feats. Not our kiddo, this is the only thing I will *insist* bragging about that is atypical of a Western baby: Dek started pooing on a toilet between 8 to 10 months! Its unheard of here as the diaper industry tries to keep children in diapers until age 4 and convince parents this is a "normal" phenomenon. Judgey much. Yes, but trust me by the time I'm 3 I don't want to be sitting in my own excrement. If he cans sign to nurse and eat, why not poo?  Plus my mom told me I was potty trained by age 1, it didn't seem like an impossible task.

By 15 months, we could catch about 9 out of 10 poos by watchin ghim grunt and asking if he wants to potty. Not to say there aren't accidents and not to claim this is full potty training. This has helped enormously after he switched to full solid foods after his first b  He sits and reads there, pees when you sit him there in the morning, and will shake his head if he's mid poo and no ready to finish.

I will credit a few people (not me)

1) Nanny - who faithfully took him to the potty 4x daily starting at 8 months (!) since he refused to lay still for diaper changes.

2) Mike - who doesn't love to copy Dad? Mike faithfully does potty time with him, so he likes to see it as dad time. By default, Mike also became the butt washer and poop handler in this process. Love that man to bits.

So here is the secret sauce/technique...Know the poo face. As soon as we saw what Mike affectionally called the "Bruce Lee grunt" - we'd run and take Dek and sit on the potty. Most of the time we'd catch him before he had pooped so we'd let him poo in the potty and praise him. This helped him understand that the toilet had a function.

• You must be consistent. I mean the nanny religiously took him to the potty 4 times a day and had him sit there for 10-15 minutes at a time. Sometimes it would work, somethings it wouldn't.  On days that we'd skip, b/c we were out and about - it would impact his willingness to use
• Make a sound for voiding. I used my mom's tried and true method of Shhhhh! to encourage him to go.
• There will be accidents. That's unavoidable.

We haven't been strict enforcers always since we know he is young, so he'll revert to his diaper pooing ways. Sometimes we're in the car, sometimes we're out and about and there isn't a good potty option, so its not perfect. We're not ready to fully potty train but glad he has a head start and understands.

Ok *bragging done*. Thank you for indulging me.