Kellan latest

These days I take Kellan to bed about 8:30 and lie down with him, rub his back, try and help him settle on the futon in the tatami room. About 9:00 Jan comes in with Jolon and I'll leave. Jan then sings a song and lately has been leaving the room even before Kellan is asleep. Jolon is fine on his own, but Kellan is still resisting Jan leaving before he's completely out. He often will say he's scared of ghosts, or just generally cry because he wants Jan to stay. But the past few nights, Jan has had a bit more success leaving them on their own. Kellan will often wake up in the middle of the night and one of us will will have to pat him back down.

For the past month or so, Kellan has been wearing diapers only at night. As long as we remember to take him to the toilet, he'll go, and more and more he'll tell us if he needs to go, especially if he has to poo. In the mornings as soon as he gets up, one of us will take him to the toilet and sometimes his diaper is completely dry. He'll pee a lot and then do a poo first thing, and it is so nice not having to change those smelly diapers every morning....especially with my ultra sensitive pregnant nose.

He is really speaking so much more, using new words, making complete sentences, and perfectly copying things that one of us has just said. For example, I was playing with Jolon, handing him something he didn't want over and over, while he kept saying, "I don't want that one." I did it to Kellan and he said the same thing, "I don't want that one." Funny to hear him make a complete sentence and say it so clearly. I guess we are constantly asking him, "Why?" when he does things, so he is constantly saying, "Why?" back to us in the cutest little voice when we ask him to do something.
This morning he actually said, "because I don't like it," when I asked him why he wasn't eating his cherries at breakfast.

He can really throw a tantrum and is so determined about certain things. It's hard not to give in to him because he definitely has the willpower to outlast us. For instance, he insists on taking off his pajamas before breakfast and getting dressed, which we don't like because he spills everything on himself and then a whole outfit has to go straight in the washing machine. This is one battle we've decided not to fight. Instead we keep talking up how to eat slowly and properly without dropping his food. No luck there and we're not expecting improvement anytime soon as we look at Jolon who is still an extremely messy eater. Kellan loves to choose his shoes and if he chooses a pair that he can't wear to school, such as his crocs or a pair with laces, we all cringe, because convincing him to wear another pair is exhausting. Lots of tears and pleading; it's tough. The worst tantrum he's ever had was a few weeks ago. It was an all out battle of wills between him and Jan, and although we wondered at the time if this wasn't the very beginning of the terrible twos, turns out nothing has compared to this one and in fact I think he's gotten a bit better. It started when Jan picked him up to put him in the bath tub and he apparently wasn't ready to get in the water yet. He wailed and wailed about it till finally Jan quickly washed him and set him back over the edge of the big tub onto the tiles. Jan then stepped out picked up a towel and told Kellan that the bath was finally over and to get out. Kellan, still furious, then refused to step off the tiles onto the rug and get dried off. He decided he wanted Jan to pick him up. Jan, who had just put up with a screaming child for 10 minutes in the bath, told him that he had to get out by himself. "NO, Daddy hold you." (hold me). Jan left him crying and walked away, leaving Kellan in the bathroom alone. High-pitched screaming for 5 minutes. Jan goes back and tells Kellan just to step onto the rug and he'll pick him up. Kellan refuses to move, insists he wants Jan to go in and get him. Jan leaves again. returns and the same conversation happens. I go in and Kellan tries to get me to pick him up, but determined not to give in to him, I explain again that if he'll just step out, just one step out, we'll hold him and dry him off. Keeps crying and refuses to budge. After about 20 minutes of this, Jan and I both go in and try and convince him to come out. He's exhausted at this point and finally barely gives in by putting his hands on the rug but keeping his feet on the tiles. We urge him to keep coming, and finally in defeat, he slowly steps out. Poor thing, it was awful, but it really felt like for us to give in would have sent the wrong message, because he initially threw such a fit for a ridiculous reason.

Anyway, as I said, he is better, and I'm sure his ability to communicate more is one of the reasons. Jan's motto when he starts to whine and cry about something, is to sternly say, "Kellan, don't cry," and this works pretty well these days.

Kellan still doesn't like fruit very much but loves corn and steamed broccoli with ponzu. We squeeze orange or grapefruit juice almost every morning because he won't eat the pieces, but even getting him to drink the fresh squeezed juice is a chore. He must be going through a growth spurt at the moment because he has definitely eaten considerably more than Jolon (and myself) this week. And he's heavy! My little doll bird is getting taller too, losing a little of his baby fat, although I think he still looks like such a baby in his face.