Archive for the ‘Baby’ Category

Recent Pictures and recent news

Some of these are from Beijing, some from Pizza Buffet, and some since then.

The recent news is that we have Tristan’s passport now. I also got an email from the embassy telling me that Yivan’s application for Permanent Residence has been approved, meaning we’re confirmed to be coming to Canada this July.

There is one more step for Tristan, that is getting a visa in his passport from our local police station. That should be relatively painless, it’s never taken more than a week to get a visa sorted out here (they’re quite efficient in this police office once you actually get all the forms handed in).

We’ll buy our plane tickets once we get Yivan’s passport back, because I forgot to write down her passport number. It looks like we will be flying Shanghai to Vancouver because it ends up being quite a bit cheaper.

Some things Tristan has learned recently

I haven’t updated recently. We’re back from Beijing, we have been for like two weeks. Tristan’s passport should arrive in 2-3 weeks from now. Still waiting on Yivan’s update, but that’s still a month away from the projected time.

Now, onto the purpose of this post..

Tristan is a smart baby, but I think every parent says that of their own child. He has reached the age now (he’s over 9 months) where he can recognize specific words and, in some cases, perform actions in response.

The first thing he learned was shaking his head, and was a few months ago. Yivan and her father both started shaking their head saying “nonononononono” which sounded more like “nawnawnawnawnawnawnaw”, just a Chinese nonsense sound. The baby eventually started to mimic the head shake, and now will shake his head if you simply make the nononono sound. It turned out to be really good, though, because he figured out that shaking his head also happens to mean the same as the word “no”, and he will often shake his head in response to things he doesn’t want to do, like “give daddy a kiss”.

He knows the Chinese phrase for give me a kiss, but he pretends he doesn’t know it. I am still working on teaching him the English (we do so by saying the one he knows, then saying the same thing in the other language) but it’s hard to know if he gets it and is just playing, or if he hasn’t learned it yet. His usual response to give me a kiss is running away with a smile and sometimes a giggle, but in the early mornings he is really affectionate and usually gives as many kisses as you want. Tristan’s kiss, however, is just him putting his open mouth on your face. His mouth is also full of saliva because of the teething. It’s kind of gross.

He learned “clap your hands” in Chinese in about two days. He’d already been doing the motions on his own, but to learn the words and the action associated took only two days. The day he came home and Yivan demonstrated his new trick (he was at his grandparents’ when he’d perfected it) I immediately started on the English clap your hands, which he had mastered by the same night. The following morning we tested his memory and he could still do it.

Tristan also knows his favorite stuffed doll’s name. We can ask “Where’s Jack?” and he will look for it. He doesn’t know he should point yet, but he’ll look at Jack until we praise him. Tomorrow we’ll introduce him to a new one, probably named Sam.

Finally, in the last few days he’s begun expressing wants in a more direct way. When he is being held he will point to something and make a baby sound, usually “dah”. You take him to whatever he wants and then he’ll smile and play with it until he’s bored. Then he looks around the room until something else catches his eye and it starts over again.

He’s also been displaying a fairly good memory. A week ago he was playing with a flowerpot and it fell, the flowers fell into his face and scared him. Now he holds his head back and is very gentle with them, rather than his usual behavior of pull/smack/drop. We also have a game, it’s a daddy and baby game, where I hold his hands and he leans his body back and dangle him off the couch. He knows it’s only a game to play with me, and he knows not to drop back until I’m holding both of his hands.

I have some new pictures which I’ll post here and on Facebook when I get a few hours to relax one day.

Tomorrow we go to Beijing

Tomorrow is our trip to Beijing before our final trip through Beijing back to Canada. We are going tomorrow to apply for Tristan’s Canadian Citizenship card and his Passport. It is fun and exciting times, hopefully we’ll have some pictures to post in a few days.

New pictures

Baby’s kind of stroller, kind of bike, kind of car..

Also a few other random pictures.

New Baby Pictures – Been a While

Here they are, no words today:

Mobility, also his hands are very interesting

In the past two weeks Tristan has made great progress in a number of areas. He can now sit perfectly straight, he can almost crawl (he is at more of a shuffle stage) and he can stand with the help of a prop, mommy, or daddy. He also understands the movement needed in order to walk, and he can be seen trying to walk when we hold his hands and help him up. Still no teeth, but with the amount of biting he’s been doing the teeth can’t be far off.

I took some pictures about two weeks ago which I forgot to put on my computer, and then some more this morning. I couldn’t safely get a picture of him standing because I need to have both hands available to catch him when he ultimately falls, and Yivan was in the shower.

I don’t have a picture of it yet, but he often becomes mesmerized by his own hand. He will just stop doing everything, watch his hand, rotate it back and forth watching it for several seconds, completely forgetting anyone else is around him. He does this all the time, but especially when he’s lying in bed. Unfortunately whenever the camera comes out he is more focused on that than his hands, so it’s hard to snap a picture.

New Christmas pictures!

Hooray!

The first three are from our dinner last night, Yivan’s favorite fast food place. Tristan really really wanted the hamburger, so we gave him the box to play with – which he also tried to eat.

The rest are this morning.

Merry Christmas, Tristan!

Took some pictures of Tristan in a Christmas hat and with little Santa stuffed toys. I’ve been incredibly busy this term with all of my classes, but it’s finally winding down now.

Tristan the Bear

We took Tristan out for a walk today and took some pictures at the school campus as well as on the street. It was a nice sunny day in Linfen with a bright blue sky, really really nice day. Warm for a November afternoon, it was quite comfortable. We went to my favorite Sichuan restaurant for lunch and let the people there meet the baby. I’ve been eating there for the entire two years I’ve been here, and they’ve been looking forward to meeting the baby. All in all it was a good day.

Tiger coat

We got Tristan some warm winter stuff, including two winter coats which will cover his entire body. One tiger and one bear, they are great. Here are pictures of me before a haircut and shave so I look pretty messy.

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