**FIXME new news
And with the old news cleared out, here's a more recent update.
He's still wonderful, but you probably guessed I thought that.
The sleep thing had settled in to a pretty live-able with pattern: about 90% of the time he'd nap for 90min/2h in the afternoon, and go to bed with little fuss at 7.30pm, chunter happily for an hour or so, then sleep through to 6ish, with perhaps an occasional short wail at 4am.
So obviously, before we could get used to not having to get up with him in the night (and thus not wake up on reflex at 4am), we changed his sleeping arrangements. We moved him out of a cot to a big bed in a different room, ready for the arrival of his little sibling.
Short-term it was hell: we were right back to the beginning of the year and desperate sleep deprivation. But patience, persistence and the addition of extra books to the bedtime routine seem to have helped. Last week or so he's been settling down fine around 8ish and sleeping tucked up in bed, under the duvet (he looks absurdly cute like that), until 5.30/6ish, which is tolerable.
He's really giving his language a workout: we stopped logging "longest sentence to date" when he said "people on bus get down this way" - he's done more complex since. He has no problem making his feelings known, most of the time, and is getting more generally garrulous - though not always entirely intelligible. A bit like that wittery bloke in the corner of the pub who can order another pint with clarity but whose ramblings are impossible to decipher unless you have your ear in.
A couple of months ago we had some researchers (from Simon Baron-Cohen's group in Cambridge) over to do some experiments on him. It was fun and interesting (they were testing ways of picking up autism spectrum disorders at a much earlier stage than usual using a questionnaire - with follow-up detailed assessments to validate the questionnaire). **FIXME had a good time, and was apparently just ahead of average for language but way ahead for general cognitive stuff like problem-solving. One of the researchers mentioned that children tend to either sit still and talk a lot, or get their hands on the world. As a solid empiricist at heart I'm glad **FIXME's a chip off the Aristotelian block. It was great as an experience - and not just because having people tell me my son is bright is always welcome. They sent a follow-up letter and included a brightly-coloured certificate with a big yellow smiley face on it saying **FIXME had helped with some important research and had therefore been VERY HELPFUL TO SCIENCE. Which he loved (he likes Mr Happy).
His tantrums are gaining in strength and duration, but at least are diminishing in parental incomprehensibility, thanks to the language. (Although it is suddenly very frustrating when he doesn't say what the matter is - we find ourselves saying, "What's the matter? Use words!".) It's nearly always that he wants to play on the computer and we don't want him to.
It's harder to distract him from such conflicts, but it's sometimes possible if you can find something sufficiently interesting. We had a huge win on that track a couple of days ago. He's still keen on diggers, and the next door neighbour (who's a bit handy) had borrowed a small one to dig footings for an extension. That proved the Best Distraction Ever from the siren lure of screen-based entertainment. And handily the next door neighbour packed up about ten minutes before supper was ready so **FIXME lost interest at just the right time. Result!
He likes motor vehicles generally: one of his favourite activities is to "watch cars" (which can be from a window), but preferably "sit bench watch cars". This entails going across the road to the Green, sitting on a bench, and basically letting him watch the cars go by, with occasional counting or commentary on the colours. For hours and hours. (An actual clock hour is not impossible - if you're organised you remember to take a book and something warm to wear for both.)
Numbers are a huge fascination recently. He can pretty much count from 1 to mid-teens, depending on concentration. And he can recognise single-digit numbers with better than 50% accuracy. 5 and 8 - his favourites, the little Discordian - are entirely reliable. And he can enumerate things - four cars, two apples, etc - for small numbers. (His besetting trouble with that one is starting to count from places other than 1.) When he first started saying numbers in order, he would omit 7 entirely, every time. But he seems to have grown out of that aversion now, though he's still not keen on it.
He still likes baths and is getting more and more confident in swimming pools (a direct result, I suspect, of increased familiarity).
Singing is another big hit/development in the last little while. He's always been a bit sing-song/hummy, but he'll sing along with you now, and even be in tune most of the time. "Happy Birthday" is one he'll start off himself, as is "Twinkle twinkle", but he'll sing along to almost anything. He's also started requesting music - at home or in the car - which is nice.
Can't remember whether I mentioned him getting in to a bad nursery phase, not wanting to go ("No nursery! No nursery!") and being very clingy and unhappy while there. It only lasted a couple of weeks (and felt like longer) but just as we were starting to seriously consider looking at other places (there was a lot of disruption there and the things that attracted us to it initially have almost all gone now, apart from convenience of location - plus the fact that he's used to it), he started to object less, and now seems to love it again. Which is very good indeed. Even better is when I go to pick him up, and he sees me, breaks in to a beaming smile, and comes running up to me for a hug shouting "Daddy!".
A slightly disturbing development is a passion for saying "My daddy my daddy my daddy, go 'way, go 'way, go 'way!" He doesn't seem to mean me to leave, but it's not terribly nice. I wonder if it's a song or rhyme from nursery he's mangling. Recently he's started adding "Come back!" to the end, which I much prefer.
He does have a bit of a bad habit of hitting people (mostly parents) for fun, which we're keen to get him out of. The empathy thing seems to be working though - he does seem to understand when you explain you're hurt, and it's really cute when he spontaneously offers a hug to you. The other day, **FIXME and his mum were both in tears with him failing to go down for his nap, and he presented her with Ba-ba, his favourite toy, to help console her. It actually made her cry more but in a different way.
Plenty more I could go on about but it's well past my bedtime. Quite possibly the last **FIXME-only update! Things may change in the next month ...
He's still wonderful, but you probably guessed I thought that.
The sleep thing had settled in to a pretty live-able with pattern: about 90% of the time he'd nap for 90min/2h in the afternoon, and go to bed with little fuss at 7.30pm, chunter happily for an hour or so, then sleep through to 6ish, with perhaps an occasional short wail at 4am.
So obviously, before we could get used to not having to get up with him in the night (and thus not wake up on reflex at 4am), we changed his sleeping arrangements. We moved him out of a cot to a big bed in a different room, ready for the arrival of his little sibling.
Short-term it was hell: we were right back to the beginning of the year and desperate sleep deprivation. But patience, persistence and the addition of extra books to the bedtime routine seem to have helped. Last week or so he's been settling down fine around 8ish and sleeping tucked up in bed, under the duvet (he looks absurdly cute like that), until 5.30/6ish, which is tolerable.
He's really giving his language a workout: we stopped logging "longest sentence to date" when he said "people on bus get down this way" - he's done more complex since. He has no problem making his feelings known, most of the time, and is getting more generally garrulous - though not always entirely intelligible. A bit like that wittery bloke in the corner of the pub who can order another pint with clarity but whose ramblings are impossible to decipher unless you have your ear in.
A couple of months ago we had some researchers (from Simon Baron-Cohen's group in Cambridge) over to do some experiments on him. It was fun and interesting (they were testing ways of picking up autism spectrum disorders at a much earlier stage than usual using a questionnaire - with follow-up detailed assessments to validate the questionnaire). **FIXME had a good time, and was apparently just ahead of average for language but way ahead for general cognitive stuff like problem-solving. One of the researchers mentioned that children tend to either sit still and talk a lot, or get their hands on the world. As a solid empiricist at heart I'm glad **FIXME's a chip off the Aristotelian block. It was great as an experience - and not just because having people tell me my son is bright is always welcome. They sent a follow-up letter and included a brightly-coloured certificate with a big yellow smiley face on it saying **FIXME had helped with some important research and had therefore been VERY HELPFUL TO SCIENCE. Which he loved (he likes Mr Happy).
His tantrums are gaining in strength and duration, but at least are diminishing in parental incomprehensibility, thanks to the language. (Although it is suddenly very frustrating when he doesn't say what the matter is - we find ourselves saying, "What's the matter? Use words!".) It's nearly always that he wants to play on the computer and we don't want him to.
It's harder to distract him from such conflicts, but it's sometimes possible if you can find something sufficiently interesting. We had a huge win on that track a couple of days ago. He's still keen on diggers, and the next door neighbour (who's a bit handy) had borrowed a small one to dig footings for an extension. That proved the Best Distraction Ever from the siren lure of screen-based entertainment. And handily the next door neighbour packed up about ten minutes before supper was ready so **FIXME lost interest at just the right time. Result!
He likes motor vehicles generally: one of his favourite activities is to "watch cars" (which can be from a window), but preferably "sit bench watch cars". This entails going across the road to the Green, sitting on a bench, and basically letting him watch the cars go by, with occasional counting or commentary on the colours. For hours and hours. (An actual clock hour is not impossible - if you're organised you remember to take a book and something warm to wear for both.)
Numbers are a huge fascination recently. He can pretty much count from 1 to mid-teens, depending on concentration. And he can recognise single-digit numbers with better than 50% accuracy. 5 and 8 - his favourites, the little Discordian - are entirely reliable. And he can enumerate things - four cars, two apples, etc - for small numbers. (His besetting trouble with that one is starting to count from places other than 1.) When he first started saying numbers in order, he would omit 7 entirely, every time. But he seems to have grown out of that aversion now, though he's still not keen on it.
He still likes baths and is getting more and more confident in swimming pools (a direct result, I suspect, of increased familiarity).
Singing is another big hit/development in the last little while. He's always been a bit sing-song/hummy, but he'll sing along with you now, and even be in tune most of the time. "Happy Birthday" is one he'll start off himself, as is "Twinkle twinkle", but he'll sing along to almost anything. He's also started requesting music - at home or in the car - which is nice.
Can't remember whether I mentioned him getting in to a bad nursery phase, not wanting to go ("No nursery! No nursery!") and being very clingy and unhappy while there. It only lasted a couple of weeks (and felt like longer) but just as we were starting to seriously consider looking at other places (there was a lot of disruption there and the things that attracted us to it initially have almost all gone now, apart from convenience of location - plus the fact that he's used to it), he started to object less, and now seems to love it again. Which is very good indeed. Even better is when I go to pick him up, and he sees me, breaks in to a beaming smile, and comes running up to me for a hug shouting "Daddy!".
A slightly disturbing development is a passion for saying "My daddy my daddy my daddy, go 'way, go 'way, go 'way!" He doesn't seem to mean me to leave, but it's not terribly nice. I wonder if it's a song or rhyme from nursery he's mangling. Recently he's started adding "Come back!" to the end, which I much prefer.
He does have a bit of a bad habit of hitting people (mostly parents) for fun, which we're keen to get him out of. The empathy thing seems to be working though - he does seem to understand when you explain you're hurt, and it's really cute when he spontaneously offers a hug to you. The other day, **FIXME and his mum were both in tears with him failing to go down for his nap, and he presented her with Ba-ba, his favourite toy, to help console her. It actually made her cry more but in a different way.
Plenty more I could go on about but it's well past my bedtime. Quite possibly the last **FIXME-only update! Things may change in the next month ...