Setri at 17 months

2 days before Setri hits 18m. Tonight he was chasing Xiaoxiao around, and Xiaoxiao hid underneath the table. "Where's Xiaoxiao, Setri?", I asked. "Neath! Neath!" Setri said excitedly, pointing at Xiaoxiao. Don't know when he picked that one up, but I have noticed a spate of instances where Setri will grasp a conceptual word from something I've said and turn it over aloud a few times. 'Before' was one he picked up on this morning, and I struggled to find a good way to explain it!

Also just thought of something Setri does just recently, he describes heavy objects as being heavy. Or, rather, 'hev'

Last night Setri was having some pre-bed boob. Without a word he stopped feeding, sat up and then leaned over and started suckling on the protruding part of my rib cage. "Setri", I said, "There's no boob there". Setri gave the skin over my rib cage another exploratory suck. "Booob", he said earnestly. "No, Setri, Mummy only has two boobs. See? One [pointing to boobs]. Two". "Uh-wun. Dih-din (other one. different)", Setri insisted. I could swear now he was just having me on. "Setri, here's my 'other boob'", I said, giving one a jiggle. "Do you want the other one?". "Uh-wun boob". Setri pointed at the spot where my rib cage protruded. "Setri," I said exasperatedly. "How many boobs does Mummy have?". That characteristic mischievous grin twitched at the corners of Setri's mouth. "Ree!", he said delightedly.
And that's how I found out that 17-month-old Setri can count to three.

Less than a week off 18m, Setri has confirmed he is toilet trained for wees. What did it? We opened up the door to the 2nd toilet, which is hardly ever used, and it seems sheer novelty was enough to prompt him to ask to do a wee in it. 2 days later and he has only weed in his nappy at night. He has, however, only done one wee sitting down, he mostly insists on standing on the toilet seat. We put him in a nappy to take him to Indooroopilly shopping centre today and not long after we got there he announced 'leelee'. We made the long walk to the bathrooms, went to the parents room only to be beaten to the bathroom there by a woman who'd taken her 8-ish yo son in there so he could go to the toilet! So I had to take Setri to the ladies', where he duly did his wee, washed his hands, freaked out at the hand-dryers, and we patted him on the back for being so good. Certainly didn't expect him to tell us while we were out! Unfortunately poos are another story. He absolutely refuses to use the toilet or a potty :( [Update: 4 days later and Setri only just did his first wee in the toilet for Mum while Gam and I were at work... he has been going to the toilet in the morning while we are here, and in the afternoons and evening before bed, but until today mostly refusing to do it for Mum. Oh and tonight he pooed on the floor... Still quite a way to go, hmmm]

Another money story. Setri was playing with his dragon moneybox (he likes to practice putting coins through the slot), when he suddenly held up a $1 coin. "Out." he said, gesturing towards the front door. "Buy mai". "Setri, that's one dollar!" I told him. "Not enough to buy a pie!". Setri picked up a 50c piece and held it together with his dollar, grinning. "Mai! Beer!".

Another concept now being explored by Setri is 'gone'. The word is always accompanied by a spreading of hands. If something gets eaten and there is nothing left, it's 'gone': "Lollat (chocolate) gone!". If someone leaves our house, they are 'gone!'. The 'big hole' in the floor of a cupboard in the laundry that Setri was very fond of telling me about, is now a story that goes like this:

Setri: Mumma. Big hole gone!

Sarah: Really, Setri? What happened to it?

Setri: Grumpah. [Who filled it in on his last visit, much to Setri's disappointment]

Stayed with about 20 friends in a house at the Bunya Mountains over the weekend. Setri has never been around so many people for such a long time before. He loved playing with our friend Liz's 7yo son, 'Lee' (Liam), who was surprisingly engaging with Setri. You'd think 7 is a bit too old to want to waste time playing with a 17mo, but Liam was really good. Setri (not surprisingly) found the presence of large numbers of people a bit intimidating, and wound up tired and cranky because our noise (and being overstimulated) kept him up late, but it was good to see him interacting with some of our friends. He hardly talked all weekend, though, even to us... As if talking to us could somehow set a precedent and ensure he was forced to talk to other people! On the day we arrived and us and Liz, Nic and Liam were the only people there he talked a tiny bit, and Liz said "How do you understand what he's saying?!" It'd be pretty difficult for someone other than us to comprehend more than about 30% of Setri's speech. We explained that the first rule is to remember that he (lately) begins almost every word with an 'L'! He left us on two occasions, once to go outside with Liz and Nic, and another time to play outside with Lucy. He hardly ever sees Lucy (we don't see our friends very often, and Lucy and her partner slightly less than the others), but she seems to be one of those people who every kid takes a shine to. She is a speechie too, who works with kids with autism.

Counting to 2: Setri has become very fond of counting to 2. He now frequently says 'looo' instead of 'dooo', which is a step backward (part of a pattern of replacing almost all his initial 'd' sounds with 'l'), but on the positive side, he can read the symbol, and pick up two objects and inform us that he has 'loooo' things in his hands, or tell us if he sees two of something (e.g. birds, bins). He also likes to inform me that I have 'looo' boobs... He doesn't seem to have a concept of zero yet, but does seem to have quickly grasped that if he gives one of his 'looo' objects to me, he is left with 'lun', and thoughtfully says this aloud while making a '1' sign.

Another concept recently being explored by Setri is money. It's been a month or two since he progressed from raiding my wallet to fling the cards all over the floor to heading straight for the notes compartment and demanding 'Muh-muh (money). More!'. He now gets money out and holds it out while saying 'buy'. Usually he says he is going to give the money to a 'lady', but he held it out to a 'man' on the TV the other day. He knows that he can't buy things from Gam and I! When asked what he is going to buy, he usually replies 'Buy mai' (pie), or 'mimi' (pizza). I let him get his little paws on some coins for the first time the other day, my Dad is visiting and gave Setri $1 . Setri trotted to the door while holding out the coin and saying 'buy'. When informed that $1 was not sufficient to purchase the pie he wanted to buy, Dad asked him what he would buy instead. Setri broke into one of his mischievous grins. "Beer!" he crowed. First time Dad has been subjected to one of Setri's beer jokes- he looked quite taken aback!

Mum travelled to NSW late last week to visit my brother and his wife, and my dad. Setri didn't appear particularly distressed by her leaving- he asked for her every evening so he could say goodnight, and asked for her every morning so he could clamber onto her bed and shout 'Hey!' and be Grandma's naughty boy. He would instinctively ask for her when he had something to share- a flower to smell or a food to taste. But he seemed to accept it when I reminded him that Grandma had gone on an aeroplane to visit Grandpa and she would be back in 3 days.

On the day she was due to arrive home he was so agitated after his afternoon nap that I eventually called to find out where she and Dad were on their car journey from Kempsey to Brisbane. Setri had been running to the door every time he heard a car, saying "Uh-wun car, Mam-ma!". When she did get back, he was overjoyed. When it came time for him to go to bed, however, he kept hopping out of bed and running away to go and find her, clearly worried she would leave. He sat on her lap until he was almost nodding off, and when put to bed he escaped again, only returning to bed when Mum came in with him (by that point she was ready for bed too). He wailed and tried to follow her when she finally extricated herself from his clutches, finally giving in to sleep when I reminded him that the sun had gone down and it was dark outside. Night-time, therefore time to sleep (his favourite new concept).

Setri has been exploring the concept of day and night time a bit more lately. Instead of just the idea that the sun goes down and goes to sleep, he's been announcing every evening (rather repetitively, actually) "Lun. Down. Dark. Night. Leep". Occasionally he seems to get a bit confused, and when he wants his day nap he will point outside and tell me it's dark! Incidentally, although it would appear he is stringing 5 words together there, I wouldn't call that one a sentence, as it's not at all fluid. He does appear to have kicked up his 2 and 3-word sentences a notch or two lately, adding more and more to his repertoire. The only new one I can think of right now is that he no longer needs prompting to say 'no thank you' instead of simply 'no'.

I haven't spoken about sleep for a while. We had a bad run a couple of months ago when Setri was teething. He'd go to bed between 8-8.30pm, wake at 4am and not settle down until about 6am, then wake for the day at 7am, which was pretty hellish. Since then, though, he has been sleeping through the night without waking from around 8pm until 6am, when he wakes for a feed, which is bliss: our first wholly uninterrupted sleeps in months and months and months. He still only naps for between 45-75min in one stretch in the early afternoon, and is obviously just one of those kids who doesn't need much sleep. I used to wonder if we were doing something wrong, but I figure in hindsight that Setri never went by the book on anything else, so why would he when it comes to sleep? It's unfortunate for Gam and I, but hopefully Setri will be one of those naturally energetic people who don't need a full 8 hours like me. Since Setri arrived, normal life has consisted of us being sleep deprived, exhausted by running around after a mysteriously energetic baby who seems to need less sleep than we do, then stretching our very limited time together in the evenings a bit longer than we should, while not being able to make much productive use of it because we are too exhausted!
Another one of Setri's colour jokes. Tonight he pointed at my pubic hair and said 'Lair. brown'. Then an evil grin spread across his little face. "Green!" he shouted, giggling at his own joke. He then proceeded to tell me with equal glee that the hair on my head was gray.
Setri went to his first birthday party on the weekend- other than his, that is. The little girl's name was Jasmine, an immensely cute, friendly little girl whose mother Mum has come to know through the baby/toddler sessions at either Annerley or Fairfield library. The party was held at Harmony Gardens, a park on the Dutton Park side of the Eleanor Schonell bridge. Setri, predictably, took off running towards the park, shouting 'Mark! Mark!' and spent almost the entire time playing with the small selection of equipment that can be made to go round. He did enjoy Gam pushing him very high on the swing, and the majority of his time not spent on the play equipment was spent chasing any of the large number of bush turkeys who happened to get close. Barely interacted with any of the other children, except a 4yo boy not belonging to the party who was playing in the park. There was a 15mo girl there, also a very cute little thing, friendly and secure. Cognitively there did not seem to be much difference between her and 12mo Jasmine. She didn't seem to talk at all, and when I was handed a cup of apple juice to offer while I was minding her, I had to ask her twice if she wanted some. It was as if she wasn't used to being spoken to directly, at least not spoken to in a normal fashion. She looked surprised but cottoned on very quickly to what I was saying. A world away from Setri at the same age, she was walking but she was really 100% a baby. I suppose she was perfectly normal. There's a big variation at that age, and kids often aren't as responsive to other adults as they are to their caregivers. Little Jasmine was evidently well on her way to talking though, I could pick up quite a few things in her babble that sounded like words in the context of what was going on around her.
Setri often seems to want to impress or gain the approval of older children, and does a bizarre little dance with a big smile on his face as a way of expressing this. Of course it never works- he may as well not exist in their eyes, but it's very cute! He also copies older children. We once met a 3yo boy in the park who goes to the same Playgroup as Setri. The little boy was showing off tricks learned at his gym class, including a handstand with his legs propping him against the wall. Setri immediately (alarmingly) tried to copy, and has since performed the trick at home on days where he has seen this same little boy.
He's completely different with younger children. Younger children he is more likely to give kisses or cuddles to, or in some cases poke them lightly with a single finger like they are some kind of specimen, and loudly announce what colours they are wearing.
Speaking of colours, I have been working on getting him to identify hair colours. He usually defaults to 'brown', but can also identify grey hair. Sometimes even I have a hard time telling if someone's hair is brown or black! Red hair is an interesting one. Rarely is it so red that it would be as readily identified as, say, a red flower. And it's quite rare, so he rarely gets that one right when I ask. He seems to understand 'blonde' but has never got it right in a pop quiz... Though it's a tricky one too. When does 'blonde' turn into a light brown, exactly? Unless someone has Nordic, white-blonde hair it can be tough to say for sure whether it ought to be called brown or blonde. Thankfully most people have brown hair! I haven't exactly worked on 'bald' yet either, as I can see that backfiring into some kind of social faux pas one day. No need to hurry that day!
Setri now points out when the sun is going down in the evening. When it's low in the sky he says 'Lun. Down. Leep', signing 'sleep' before making his distressed 'aaah' noise and accompanying dismayed facial expression.
About 3 months ago, Mum borrowed a book from the library for Setri. It was called 'Noodles has a bedtime', Noodles being an anthropomorphic panda. Even though it involved Setri's most hated subject (sleep), he loved the book. Mum returned it to the library when the loan fell due, and ever since then Setri has repeatedly requested 'Book. Noonoo'. Seriously, it's 2 months on and he's still asking for Noonoo, and looking quite sad when we explain that Noodles has gone to the library. Mum has been looking for the book every week but it's obviously been borrowed out again.

It was a couple of months ago that Setri first started using the word 'big' to describe things, but today is the first time he has used it in the context I expected that he would find it most handy in. See, Setri has long expressed a preference for receiving the larger portion of anything he is being offered. If we break off a piece of something to feed him, his typical response is to point at the larger piece that it was taken from and say, expectantly "thank you". Almost without exception he is told he can only have the small piece. About half the time this will precipitate a little whinge. This morning Setri saw some dark chocolate I'd chopped into pieces on a chopping board the night before and thought he'd get in first and specify which bit he wanted. "Lollat. Big." he ordered! Secretly I wanted to reward his efforts with the big piece (a whole square), but given that it was breakfast time and he is a notoriously poor eater of breakfast I thought I'd better only give him a tiny piece. [He's since done this again, except he this time specified "Lollat. Big bit"!!]

Setri has started to sing tunes, not just tunefully, but using different notes. The other day he made a little rhythmic ditty out of the word tickle. Or, rather 'liddle', which was really interesting. He can't sing any songs, although he sometimes says the words at the same time, but he can sing a syllable (usually 'la') using 3 different notes a whole tone apart. It's really cute :) He is also frequently requesting that I 'help' him play the piano by grasping his wrists and helping him pick out the notes to a song with his stiffened thumb or forefinger. He also likes to 'help' me the same way when I'm playing something for him. I don't play much at all though, he usually prefers to play by himself, and I've always got something else that needs doing and never find the time to practice during the precious 2 hours we get to ourselves after Setri goes to bed. Something else I have noticed is that I can play 'Wheels on the bus' on the piano for him, without singing, and he will perform a different set of actions every verse, like he has a script in his head for how it should go. I find that really interesting. Speaking of WOB, however, Gam and I have had to stop playing him YouTube videos of different versions of it, as his extreme enjoyment of it seemed to have teetered over into pathological obsession territory. He was demanding WOB videos first thing in the morning and first thing after we would arrive home in the evening, as well as throughout the day if we were home. We weren't giving in to most of these demands, generally restricting viewing to the evening, but when he started throwing tantrums when we would get up from the computer after playing 10 or more WOB videos in a row we knew it was time to put a stop to it!

Our neighbours told us a week ago that they are expecting a baby, due date on Setri's 2nd birthday. Early days yet, only 11-12 weeks at the time of writing, but I am really excited for them. They are genuinely lovely people... It always makes me happy to hear that good people are expecting a child. A bonus is that the baby's age means it will be like having a sibling for Setri!

I allowed Setri to raid my wallet yesterday (in return for not raiding some forbidden object). "Muh-muh", he said, going straight for the note compartment. "More". "You want more money?" I asked him. "Yeah", he replied. The note compartment was empty. I fetched a five dollar note that was sitting on the kitchen bench. "You see this Setri?", I asked. You can have it if you tell me what that number is in the corner", I said, pointing to the five. "Lye", he replied almost immediately, stating his word for 'five'. It's obviously not the first time he's read a number correctly but wow... For a little boy who doesn't have the attention span to put up with any of our efforts to actually teach him any of this stuff, he absorbs stuff so well from his everyday interactions and play. He just continues to amaze me.


It seems Setri's communication has developed to the point where he can give quite a detailed account of his day. Take the following exchange I had with him just now after arriving home from work. Setri has just awoken from a nap:

Sarah: What did you do today Setri?

Setri: Leep. (Makes sign for sleep).

Sarah: Oh. Yes you did, I suppose. What else did you do today?

Setri: Baa-baa.

Sarah: Did you sing Baa-Baa Black Sheep?

Setri: Yeah.

Sarah: And what did you get up to before your nap?

Setri: Out.

Sarah: Where did you go?

Setri: Mark.

Sarah: That's great! What did you do at the park?

Setri: (no response- didn't seem to be able to find the words).

I asked my mum about Setri's responses, and it turned out they had indeed gone to the park, sung Baa-baa Black Sheep prior to nap time, and of course he had just had a sleep, as he stated. I'm not just really impressed with his ability to answer open-ended questions like this accurately, I am really happy that he seems to be developing this ability prior to going into childcare. I am not really comfortable putting him in if he has no ability to tell us about his experiences there.


Setri tells a number of jokes like this

Sarah: *puts on a bright orange skirt* "I'm just putting on my skirt, then we can go outside"

Setri: *pointing* Ler. Oran.

Sarah: Yes, very good, it's orange!

Setri: *cheeky grin* Gay!

For some reason, saying something is grey when it's clearly not is a very funny joke.


Conversation with 17mo Setri while breastfeeding

Sarah: I love you, Setri

Setri: Mumma

Sarah: You love mummy?

Setri: Yeah. Daddy. Mam-ma (grandma), buddy (everybody).

Sarah: You love everybody.

Setri: Yeah. Boob.

Sarah: You love boob. That's nice.

Setri: *indecipherable* Rahbra

Sarah: What's that? What else do you love?

Setri: Rahbra.

Sarah: Huh?

Setri: *blows massive raspberry on boob*


Setri decided at dinner that he wasn't hungry, and refused almost everything offered to him. Then, when I sat down to eat some leftover pizza I'd heated, he sat on my lap and lo and behold he was hungry. I removed the cheese and he ate about one third of what I'd prepared for myself. I had a bit of a grumble to Gam, who was sitting next to me, about the disappearance of my dinner. "And I'm really hungry", I complained. Next thing I knew, Setri's little arm stretched out and thrust his piece of pizza at my face. "Mumma", he said earnestly, not just offering me a bite but handing it over completely. Beautiful little boy. I felt so bad for complaining, especially for complaining like he wasn't right there sitting on my lap.