The life and times of Oscar Marcos Perez-Cytron. Born Thanksgiving Day 11/22/01.   Archives << current   If you want to add something to Oscar's baby-blog, send an email to megan@alpha60.com and we can set it up so you can post...

oscar's life   Thursday, October 02, 2003 7:22 PM posted by Oscar   It's been so long... Where to start... Actually that's easy, because Oscar used his potty to the fullest extent possible this morning. We had a party. We danced a special dance. Oscar picked up his potty and dumped it in the "big potty." He flushed and waved and said "bye-bye" poopoo. Since we got back from Colorado (another post, I promise), Christian and I have made our world all about the potty. We talk about it constantly--about how great it is, about how all of our favorite people go to the potty. Elmo calls to ask if Oscar needs to go to the potty. We read books about Grover and Ernie using the potty. We read Everyone Poops--the only book I've found that actually shows poop in the potty. Oscar gets it. He's been saying "uh-oh peepee" when he goes in his "big-boy pants." The only unfortunate thing is that he says "potty" exactly the same way he says "Papi," so there is a lot of confusion on our parts about what he's talking about half of the time... There are so many other changes that Oscar is going through. He is quickly loosing his "babyness" and becoming a "boy." Some recent developments: Grammar/syntax Oscar is starting to use sentences. Saying "aqui esta ardilla" or "I love you" or "night, night mama." Gender roles and differences I noticed the other day that he wouldn't let me put a woman into his Little People toy firetruck. I kept replacing the boy with the baseball cap with the schoolmarmish woman with a yellow bun, but he wasn't having it. I don't know where he would have picked that up--maybe the Elmo's World that has a male firefighter. He also seems very interested in the ways that he and I are different and sometimes becomes fixated on it! Affection He has become so affectionate, giving us hugs and kisses and saying "I love you." He kisses and hugs trees, dogs, a St. Francis statue, ceramic cats, pictures of the Buddha. He makes all of his stuffed animals kiss each other before he goes to bed at night. Creature of habit With all of the travel that we have been doing, it has become clear that Oscar is a real creature of habit. He doesn't do very well when he is out of his element--he seems stressed out, cranky, frenetic and tired most of the time. When we got home from Colorado, he was so happy come back. We sat out on the stoop watching the cars and people go by and I could tell being in this crazy place makes him feel at home. Expressing what he wants to do He asks to be taken outside now by grabbing his stroller and pushing it around. When it's time for Sesame Street, he starts asking for Elmo. And most of all, he talks about food (yum, yum) a lot. He's always looking for something better or more interesting to eat. He refuses to eat something different from us. He gets excited about tofu ("yum, yum tofu!"), noodles, avocado, galletas, raisins, dumplings, bananas, melon, mangos, carrots, etc. And he already knows the difference between good and bad pizza, a very important life skill. Social confusion Christian took Oscar to his first Early Childhood Music class at the Sitar Center in Adams Morgan. It's really the first structured activity that he has done. I don't think he quite got it...apparently he was a bit of a wild child, generally causing a ruckus and trying to run out of the room. I'm going with him next week, we'll see how he does... He is doing much better on a one on one basis, saying "thank you" and "bye-bye" to people and even occasionally sharing with other kids his age.