Are Dinosaurs Bear's 'Voogers'?

There are a few little happenings and developments with the cubs that don't really fit in with any other blog post subject ideas I've had recently so I thought I'd round them all up and stick them together here in an update post.  However, I started writing about Bear and it went on much longer than I anticipated and with my brother and his girlfriend coming to visit tomorrow on my usual blog writing day, I don't think I'll get chance to write any more even if I wanted to.  So, this is Bear's update and - unless anything so amazing happens that I can't bring myself not to blog about it immediately - the next blog post will be Tyger's update.

Bear

'Baby' Bear is certainly no longer a baby!  He can climb.  He can really climb.  Bear is more like a...goat.  You know, like in those viral photos of goats in trees and on the sheer side of a dam?  Or he's like a squirrel or a monkey or...well, a bear, I guess.  Black bears, in particular, are very good climbers I think.  Yup, Baby Bear is like a bear!

He scales chairs to get onto the dining table, he climbs from the sofa to a coffee table to a shelf of CDs and if a chair is left along one side of the dining room it affords him opportunity to climb onto the kitchen work surface via a serving hatch between the two rooms.  He has even managed to open and empty the biscuit tin on one such excursion.  It's not quite a paw in beehive for honey but he and actual bears obviously also share a sweet tooth (I'm pretty sure real bears eat honey and it's not completely made up by A.A. Milne...pretty sure).  So, going to the toilet, making a cup of tea, putting away washing, anything involving leaving the living room/dining room/hall area Bear has access to is...hazardous.

If falling from a great height due to his own error in judgement was Baby Bear's only threat it wouldn't be too bad.  I mean, it would still be both annoying and stomach churningly alarming for me but he'd be unlikely to actually do himself too bad an injury.  There is another threat, though.  A loud, unpredictable, often violent threat.  If Bear is a bear, Tyger is a tiger.  Wild, unpredictable, prone to displays of intimidation (he screams in poor Bear's face a lot) but will attack if necessary (you know, if you class 'necessary' as he gets annoyed...or excited...or tired...or angry...upset...hungry...bored...).

A couple of weeks ago Bear climbed onto one of the dining chairs and stood playing at the table.  For once, he didn't climb onto the dining table so I left him to it (watching as I made lunch).  Then there was a tiger attack.  Tyger ran up to Bear and pushed the chair away.  Bear managed to grab the table and was left clinging on to it with his top half as his leg kicked the air like a cliffhanger in a TV show.  One of those literal cliff hangers with someone actually hanging off the edge of a cliff.  Luckily, at my scream, Mum ran to the rescue and grabbed Bear from the metre or so drop (which doesn't sound like much...okay, it isn't much but it's still taller than poor Baby Bear).  And this is the problem with Bear's bear-like climbing.  It would perhaps be bearable (ha...see what I did there?) if it weren't for Tyger grabbing at Bear, pulling away whatever he's climbing on, shouting at him and generally distracting him.  This extra risk makes Bear's climbing much more nerve wracking.

Climbing is not Bear's only recent achievement.  He has also started communicating much more.  I don't mean talking.  Bear does not really recognise the necessity of speech.  He is often able to do things for himself - if it involves retrieving something from somewhere high up, for instance - or he has started pointing and shouting.  Not shouting words because, as I said, he doesn't really do the whole speaking thing much, but shouting...noises.  Bear likes vowel sounds so he can do 'aaahhh' and 'oh' and 'uh' and makes these noise to get attention.  When he actually tries to form words he tends not to bother with consonants.  'Hello' becomes 'ah-oh' and 'thank you' is 'ah-oo' (he likes 'uh oh' for obvious reasons).  But he can make himself understood surprisingly well with the pointing and random noise technique.  He can also bring things to you, shake his head for 'no' and flap his hands for 'yes'.  Considering the sort of information he's generally trying to get across is 'I want a breadstick' or pass me Fergus' or 'put this toy in this other toy' and not...quantum mechanics, he gets by pretty well.

The other exciting news with Bear - although, this may only be relatable if you have a couple of children who have/possibly have ASD and even then I'm not convinced other people would be excited by it - is he might have his first 'special interest'!

Tyger's obsession is vacuum cleaners and Henry Hoover more specifically.

Of course, they're lined up as well...

I wanted to show off and add a photo of the Henry Hoover cake I made for Tyger for his third birthday because he was insistent he wanted a Henry 'Vooger' (what he called hoovers - though, alas, he can actually say 'hoover' now so I think I'll use 'vooger' as a term for an obsession because I've always thought it's so cute) rather than anything else and despite never doing anything more complicated than butter cream icing before I was quite proud of my efforts.  However, after finding a picture of said cake I remembered it has Tyger's real name on (in place of 'Henry') and that would sort of defeat the whole point of using pseudonyms...

Anyway, I wrote about how Tyger's obsession with vacuum cleaners began here in my 'What's Your Favourite Animal?' post.  Basically, he started out terrified of them and gradually became enthralled.  The reason I mention this is because something very similar seems to be happening with Bear.  The Wolf's lovely parents bought Tyger a pack of plastic dinosaurs that make a noise when you squeeze them when they visited recently.  The noise they make is pretty scary and loud and to start with Bear was terrified (possibly not helped by Tyger trying to shove all four dinosaurs in Bear's face whilst setting them all off making noise at the same time).  He stamped his feet and shook his head any time they were near and if someone (i.e. Tyger) sneaked up too close with one Bear threw it away and cried.

But he was still fascinated.  He kept pointing at the dinosaurs and even though he was still scared when anyone squeezed one, once the sound had stopped he'd grin.  And he started to get closer to them...  It wasn't as gradual as Tyger's conversion to hoovers but then I guess they're not as big or noisy.  I got Bear a dinosaur book and he loves pointing to the pictures and making roaring sounds.  He's not as taken with the soft dinosaur I bought him, which makes an even more terrifying sound when it's squeezed, but then he seems to think any fraternising with cuddly toys other than Fergus is some sort of betrayal.  No other soft toys are allowed.  In general, dinosaurs seem to be of great interest right now.

I wonder...will dinosaurs be Bear's voogers?

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London, Baby!

Toddlers are pretty repetitive, obsessive creatures.  Aspies are pretty repetitive, obsessive creatures.  Tyger - being both a toddler and (probably) an Aspie - is a very repetitive, obsessive creature.

The Wolf works in London.  My Dad works in London.  My brother and his girlfriend live in London.  One of my sisters recently had a school trip to London.  Tyger hears a lot about London and, in turn, we hear a lot about London from him.  A lot, a lot.  Like, seriously, a lot.

Tyger:  My go a Wondon?

Me:  Not today.

Tyger:  Why?  My go a Wondon.  My go a Wondon.  My go a Wondon.

This was a pretty common conversation for a few weeks (common meaning at least five or six times a day and often more like five or six times in as many minutes) so the Wolf booked a day off work for us to head into London since there was no way we were going in at the weekend.

Planning a day out with a toddler and baby is stressful.  Especially if you're me and hate both planning and travel.  Questions like 'should we take the buggy?' become achingly important and require full discussion of the pros and cons:

Pros
Place for both boys to nap if needs be
Easier on our arms and backs than carrying/using the carrier the whole time
Keeps Tyger contained if required

Cons
Taking a buggy on the London underground
Taking a buggy on the London underground
Taking a buggy on the London underground

In the end, despite the very compelling arguments against (seriously, a buggy on the underground!), we decided to take the buggy.

We made a plan: get a lift to the train station, get the train to Waterloo, walk across some bridge to somewhere else, get a tube to another place, go to the Natural History Museum to let Tyger see the dinosaur section, get lunch, get more tubes from more places, go to Hamley's and then more tubes back to Waterloo and the train home again.  Yeah, I don't know London very well and I'm rubbish with place names (or any names, come to that).

Tyger hadn't been on a train before (or, at least, not within his memory) so it was one big adventure for him.  He loved the idea of the train before we got there and mostly did seem to like the first train journey, even if he was extremely concerned the train would 'squish' him as we got on and even if he insisted on sitting on the Wolf's lap for the whole journey instead of his own seat.  Baby Bear - surprisingly and thankfully - slept for the whole first leg of the trip.

It was a lovely, bright day.  Unfortunately, it was also incredibly windy and I'm sure Tyger's memory of London must be as some sort of face-scouring hurricane of a city.  The entire time we were outside he had tears rolling down his face from the wind and when we crossed a bridge he was quite concerned about being blown away.

His first reaction to the underground was to voice his consternation about the possibility of the train crashing into his chocolate chip cookie.  Don't worry, though: the tube stayed on its tracks and the cookie was safe (phew).  Being on the tube was largely stressful for him (the noise, the darkness, the movement - all a little overwhelming and scary) but to hear hi, talk about it now you'd think he spent the entire time laughing and singing and generally marveling at the wonder of it all.  Children have selective memories.

We made it to the Natural History Museum and either the fact we had two young children with us meant we didn't seem to pose a threat or the museum staff didn't fancy the chances of sticking their hand in a poopy nappy or sicky top because we were waved through the bag search point without so much as a cursory glance over (despite having several bags with us).  When we got into the main hall, Tyger's reaction to the diplodocus (which will soon be controversially swapped for a blue whale) made the entire day worthwhile as he let out an awed and whispered, 'Wow.'

Then, on to the dinosaur section.  We knew this would be hit or miss but Tyger seemed eager...to start with.  There's a staircase leading up to an overhead walkway (with dinosaurs on either side) and Tyger was desperate to get up the stairs but we had to wait for the lift (okay maybe there were a couple more downsides to bringing the buggy than having to take it on the tube) as he repeatedly tried to drag me up the stairs.

Tyger did not like the walkway.

It's quite dark and crowded.  Because it's crowded, it's noisy and slow moving.  I suspect it was somewhat of a sensory overload and Tyger had a bit of a meltdown.  I was carrying him so he could see over the railing and he started shouting that he wanted to get down and even grabbed the railing and tried to pull himself over it at one point.  He cried and attempted to push the people in front of us forward, shouting, 'Go away!'  Luckily, the general noise and crowd meant I don't think anyone even noticed the poor, distraught toddler and he started to calm down as we got to a more open area.  He was able to enjoy the remaining dinosaurs and very much enjoyed the dinosaur gift shop but the ordeal must have taken it out of him because he was happy to sit in the buggy - glassy eyed - whilst we left the museum and searched for somewhere to eat.

We should have - perhaps - eaten lunch in the museum because apparently all the cafes and restaurants around that area are trendy types with cramped, tiny tables/no highchairs/no changing facilities (the one place that looked promising had an out of order toilet - not ideal when you have a toddler with you who hasn't peed in several hours).  So, we walked for a Goram long time (I had the dead weight that is Baby Bear strapped to me so my perception may have been skewed a little.  We eventually found a nice little Italian place clearly not well-equipped for children but keen to accommodate us, quiet, not cramped and - most importantly - serving food we'd all eat.  Tyger had to eat his (full-sized) pizza with an adult's fork and we had to hold his huge glass of apple juice for him every time he wanted a drink just so he could reach the straw but the staff and food were nice and I got to sit down without a big fat baby on me out of the icy wind.  So, all was good.  Baby Bear was even kind enough to perfectly time his only poop of the day to coincide with the end of the meal!

Next stop was Hamley's and I was...let's say unimpressed.  I won't go into detail because I have already made my feelings on gender stereotyping pretty clear in my last blog post Yes, I Bought my Son a Dress.  The ground floor was fine.  It had various cuddly toys and puppets stacked up all over but there was also one pink glittery floor trying to choke the life out of you the moment you stepped out the lift with the overpowering smell of sickly-sweet...perfume?  I don't know really.  I'm not sure what in a toy shop needs to smell like that.  Only female employees seemed to work on this floor and it contained dolls, princess dresses, jewelry, and...you get the picture.  The floor below equally assaulted the senses but instead of the sense being smell, it was hearing.  This floor contained a lot of blue and grey and had mostly male staff members shouting and guffawing as they battled each other with remote control toys.  There were lots of vehicles and I'm not sure what else because we were starting to worry about hitting rush hour by then so hurriedly grabbed the toys Tyger seemed most enamoured with (a cuddly Peppa Pig and a pack of Matchbox cars) and made our escape (after paying, I should probably point out).  All I'll say is: seriously, there are no girl's toys and boy's toys.  There are just fracking toys.

All in all, the day was more of a success than we could have hoped for.  Tyger certainly came away with a positive view of London and of course there's the added benefit that it's stopped him going on and on about going there.

...No, of course it hasn't.  He now just goes on and on about the fact he wants to go back.  Ugh.

Potty Training the Tyger

We are on morning two of potty training the Tyger.  We are also on pair 11 of underpants and three teeny, tiny spots of wee in the potty (but, hey it's better than nothing).

You know what's fun about potty training a toddler you suspect has Asperger's?  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  It sucks big time.

He's actually doing better than I'd thought he would.  The number of pairs of pants is about what I thought (my sister with Asperger's went through 10 pairs a day for a while and my mum - who thought she was a dab hand at this potty training business having already trained me and my brother - was shocked but her surprise has led to me being prepared).

Talking of pants, you know what pisses me off?  Stupid gender stereotyping.  When it came to buying pants for the Tyger, I wanted to get him ones he'd be excited about and what film does he love right now?  Much like many kids his age he adores Disney's Frozen.  But he's a boy so of course you don't get any underwear for him with Elsa on the front or Anna...not even Kristoff or that annoying snowman.  So, we got some Peppa Pig ones because the Tyger likes watching Peppa Pig whilst I make lunch every day.  The pants don't actually have Peppa on, though, because you know she's a girl and she's pink!  That's dangerously close to being girly.  So, they have her brother George and his dinosaur toy on them, instead.  George is still pink but at least he's a boy and has a dinosaur (a nice acceptably masculine toy) so it's okay.  Now, as it happens, the Tyger does like George and his dinosaur (dinosaur, rarr) but it still seems a shame that boys aren't allowed the main character of a kid's show on their pants if they like.

So, where was I before I got sidetracked into a rant about gender stereotypes?  Ah yes: potty training sucks.  I am already dreading having to potty train Baby Bear (though, I expect he'll be easier than the Tyger who has been...shall we say 'a challenge' from pretty much the get go).

I should actually go and try to coax the Tyger onto the potty - even though he'll sit on it for about five seconds without doing a wee, get off and then probably do a wee somewhere else - because it's been a while and I don't want him to wet his pants (today Mickey Mouse since George and some truck ones were all used yesterday).  Wish me luck.