Latest on Kellan

May 10, (1 year and 4 months)
Last weekend I was putting Jolon down for his nap, and then trying to get Kellan to sleep, meanwhile Jolon was calling for me. So, even though Kellan was really upset, I just had to put him in his cot to attend to Jolon. As I was lying with Jolon telling him a story, Kellan suddenly stopped crying and fell promptly asleep. This gave me the idea to try this at night. For the past week Jan has been putting him in his cot about 7:30, kissing him and walking out. And Kellan will usually cry for about 5 minutes and then go right to sleep. It’s amazing. He’ll often wake up a couple of hours later and I’ll then nurse him and put him in bed by himself. I’m still nursing him in the night, but that’s usually just once or twice. I’m thinking about stopping but can’t decide.

Eating: not a great eater really. Loves rice balls and fish and broccoli and miso soup, but not much else. He really doesn’t like any fruit, not even strawberries or bananas.

Still runs a low grade fever (99.8 or so) when he’s teething.

He LOVES his toothbrush and any time any of us are brushing our teeth, he must go get his. This is in contrast to Jolon who always hated it. He also doesn’t mind sitting on the little toilets at school which Jolon never wanted to do. Kellan did an interesting thing at school this week. I sat him on the omaru (toilet) at school and he looked up at me and I made the “shiiiiii, shiiiiiiii” noise which is supposed to encourage them to go, he looked up at me, I looked down at the toilet as if to say, now it’s time to go, and he went. It really seemed like he was listening to me and understood what he was supposed to be trying to do. I don’t think Jolon could ever sit still at school long enough to really give himself a chance to pee at this age. Not that I expect to start peeing when I put him on the toilet, but I just got the sense that Kellan was more in touch with what was supposed to be happening.

Speaking: he still says ball anytime he sees anything round: a cherry tomato, a rice ball, a baseball, an orange, etc.

He says “wan wan” for dogs (which is the Japanese baby word for dog) as well as birds and cats. Although sometimes he’ll meow when he sees a cat.

Yesterday I said it was time to change his diaper and when I turned around he’d brought me his diaper!

He LOVES the streetcar and when we’re out walking he waves and says “bye bye” to it as it passes. If you listen closely and if the windows are open here at home you can hear it go by and sometimes when Kellan says “bye bye” it’s usually because he’s just heard a streetcar. He will also say “bye bye” now if one of us just says the word “streetcar.” It’s so cute.

He knows how to point to his nose and his ear when we ask him where they are. I really haven’t tried to teach him any other body parts yet, but I plan to this weekend as he’s obviously picking things up so quickly and is ready to speak.

He said flower last week when he saw one.

I cried last week when I bought Kellan his last pack of diapers…...probably his last pack, unless I break down and go for one more. He’s walking so well now that it’s time to move up to “diaper pants.”

Biggest incident in Kellan’s life recently: the fall from the bicycle. He’s fine now but he had a scraped face and a black eye for a week.