A Diary

Language Skills, Monkey Business and Why Luke doesn’t have any Siblings

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:27:09 -0700

It’s quite amazing to observe how Luke’s been soaking up words and developing his language skills. His vocabulary is exploding! I guess in this stage he’s focused on learning to pronouce nouns while he’s able to recognize expressions, commands, etc. Apart from mama and dada, he’s able to say anything from ball, bread, milk, boat, bear, duck, dog, cat, flower, moon, cheese, get it, etc. That’s the good news; the bad news: approx. 60% of his vocabulary is Taiwanese. So I’m learning as much as he does to stay on top of what’s going on. It’s funny how the nuances in understanding and meaning make a difference though. Examples: A bubble is a ball (and isn’t it, kinda?), but so is a circle. A bird is a duck (can you blame him?). Every drinkable liquid is milk. Makes you realize how abstract and quirky some language concepts are.

Luke has officially entered into toddlerhood, which means he’s testing our patience on a permanent basis (I wonder where he got this from?). And usually he wins. No positive reinforcement or threats seem to make a difference, maybe with exceptions, of time outs, which are somewhat annoying for all parties involved. That’s until Susan brought home a little cute stuffed monkey from a business trip. If you squeeze it, it makes a screaming monkey sound. This thing scares the living crap out of Luke! Just the word “monkey” makes him all queazy and uncomfortable and he starts to grimace. When I pick up the monkey, it puts the fear of God in him and he is close to tears. As soon as it makes a sound and screams, he completely loses it! This has shifted the power balance in the family and put me back in charge - I love it! When the monkey is hanging somewhere (its arms form a loop) and Luke’s in the same room, he keeps pointing at it and needs assurance that it’s okay to coexist with it (it’s like the Grudge is in the room). And yet he’s fascinated by the monkey and sometimes tries to touch or hug it while laughing nervously before fear takes over. Anyways, for now we can suppress obnoxious behavior with monkey threats. I need to make sure he keeps looking at me as the “God of the monkey”, the only being who can control and handle the scary monkey...

His recent spout of misbehaviors (spitting out food, throwing milk bottles, being impatient and irritable, etc.) not only robs us of our last nerves, it also makes me repeat the exclamation “... and that’s why you don’t have any siblings!” So now you know. He had his chance to have a brother or sister, but now... NOT!

Standing Up

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:24:06 -0700

Yes, little Luke is working on his next milestone: Standing! If I prop him up carefully, he’s able to support his weight and “stands” (more or less). He’s still a little shaky and sometimes does a little bit of a bouncy dance, but basically he’s standing. And he does seem to enjoy it. Not sure how to motivate him to actually takes steps now, but we’ll figure it out. He pretty much skipped crawling altogether. Instead of crawling he lies on his tummy and just flaps his legs. I think at this point he’s more likely to swim than to crawl...

Sitting Up

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:06:13 -0700

Here goes the next milestone: Luke has managed to sit up independently on the historic date of 9/9/09! He’s still a little shaky and may keel over at any moment, but he’s getting there. So technically he’s already got 50% of the skills required to work in an office...

Da Da Da

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:00:49 -0700

Well, it’s official: Luke has managed to say “dada”. He’s done single “das” before, but as of August 10, he’s consistent and repeatable, so I guess that fully qualifies him as being able to say “dada”. Very cool! Check out the YouTube video below.
I hope he figures out soon what that actually means as he’s still in the imitation stage.

Me, Single Dad

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:47:22 -0700

Don’t be alarmed, Susan is well and alive. However, she left me recently to go on a business trip to Orlando from Monday through Thursday. So, I was single parent for a few days. As you can imagine, I went into this experience with mixed emotions. After some thought around how to organize my new schedule, the project manager in me took over and I developed a highly efficient daily process that looked something like this:

‣ Between 4 and 5 AM: Let Shmoo wake me up for a quick feeding 5 ounce feeding from an already prepared bottle.
‣ 5:45 AM: Get up, do my abbreviated morning routine. Change Shmoo, grab prefilled bottles and a change of clothes for the day.
‣ 6:45 AM sharp: Leave the house for Fountain Valley
‣ 7:00 AM: Drop off Shmoo and supplies at the Changs
‣ 7:20 AM: Arrive at work, 25 mins ahead of my regular schedule.
‣ 5:30 PM: Leave work for Fountain Valley, fight traffic.
‣ 6:15ish PM: Pick up Shmoo and dirty bottles, clothes, get download on feeding and sleeping times.
‣ 6:45 PM: Arrive home, play for a few mins, feed him vitamins; bathe the bear if needed, change him.
‣ 7:25 PM: Quick feeding (topping him off) and put him down for the night.
‣ 7:45 PM: Wash bottles, thaw milk for he next day. Shower.
‣ 9:00 PM: Relax
‣ 10:00 PM: Bed time

Suffice it to say, I had it down to a science and the bear was fine with this as well. Sure, I’m glad Susan is back, but I can say I did it. Yes, I can!