Healthy and Flourishing

So says Dr. Van Wert, Calleigh's pediatrician. We went in this afternoon for Calleigh's 15-month appointment. Her measurements are as follows:

• Height - 32 1/4 inches (up from 75th to 90th percentile)
• Weight - 23 pounds (up from 25th to 50th percentile)
• Head - 18 3/4 inches (still a big old head in the 90th percentile)

One of my concerns, of course, has been that Calleigh eats so MUCH food. I asked Dr. Van Wert about it and she said that as long as Calleigh was eating healthy food (which she is), than I don't need to be too worried about it since she's average size. I said that Calleigh eats a lot of fruit and then she said that blueberries in particular are good for toddlers' brains. In that case, Calleigh should be a genius very soon. She actually loves raspberries just as much as blueberries now and has even gotten pretty good with saying the word "raspberry." In fact, I had given her some for breakfast (check that, she demanded some from my bowl of cereal) and when I gave her lunch, I didn't bring them out so she started saying "raspberries." It's going to stink when it gets to the winter and the pints of raspberries are going for $4.99/each. I'm not sure what we'll do.

Anyway, I've digressed from the subject at hand. The appointment went very well despite Calleigh's hysterics through out. Dr. Van Wert said from about 9 months until 3 you can expect the water works since they remember the shots. She was screaming even when Dr. Van Wert was just listening to her heart with her stethoscope. She did get two shots in the end, including the MMR, so she did have reason to scream then. But it was over quickly and she calmed right down. I was a little perturbed however when I left. The nurse always gives this little handout at the beginning which has some information pertaining to the child's age such as how much they should be sleeping, how much Tylenol to give them, etc. For some reason, she forgot to give me the summary and I had to get it from the receptionist when I left. And that's when I noticed these words under Feedings - - "Your baby should be off the bottle or breast." WHAT?? You mean to tell me I'm going to have to wait until the 18-month appointment to discuss that little tidbit? I have no idea what the meaning of that statement is. During the check-up, I had told Dr. Van Wert that I was still nursing 4 times a day and she was perfectly fine with that so who knows. But I was astounded.

One other cute little thing. When the nurse comes in to do the measurements, she asks a few questions about the toddler's development such as "Can put blocks one on top of the other." But this one gave me a chuckle - - "Can speak three words." I said, "Yeah, try like 60!" Actually, I'm guessing it's even more than 60.

In case you haven't seen Calleigh in awhile, here's a little video. She isn't doing anything special - just acting silly.

This morning I took Calleigh to the playground for a little fun. Typically we don't leave the house in the morning but we changed our schedule up a little today since her appointment was at 3:20 which is typically prime napping time. Calleigh's morning nap has gone the way of video tapes. It's not happening any more. I still put her in her crib but she just sits or lies there. I do think the break is good for her though because today when she didn't have this little break, she was in a poor mood at around 11:30. Because she doesn't do the morning nap, she's been going for the afternoon nap at around 1:15 - 1:30 and sleeping for 2.5 to sometimes 3 hours. So she's still sleeping about the same amount but all in one sitting, er, lying. Anywho, we were at the playground by 9:30 but it was already terribly hot even at that hour. The slides were just about too hot to go down although I did take her down one with scary results. It was a twisty slide and we got going too fast and almost flew out at the bottom and landed on our tushes. Fortunately I was able to stop in time but not without scraping my arm and Calleigh's arm along the side of the slide. She burst into tears for a short time and we do indeed have matching burn marks on our right arms. The highlight of our time there was definitely this very strange lady who came and sat down at the picnic tables right next to the playground and started screaming on her cell phone about some car accident that she had been. Apparently she had hit a pedestrian and she was yelling into the phone "I didn't mean to hit him" along with a whole bunch of other nonsense. You almost want to go and say something like "Ah, yeah, in case you didn't notice, this is a playground. Please take it elsewhere" but quite honestly, these days you can't be too careful.

Since I don't know if David wants me talking about him on this blog, I won't mention that he did get a job. Ha ha!

Well, that's about it for now. I just have to mention that the Poodles next door are driving me bonkers tonight. It sounds like they are pro-creating - - over and over again.