Charlie had his one year well visit today and he was actually well for this one! As a reward, he got another vaccine and some blood drawn (I think he'll do his best to have a fever again for his next well visit). He's such a brave little guy -- he didn't even cry when they pricked his finger, but he did wail for a short time when the nurse gave him the shot; mostly I think his feelings were hurt that the nice lady who was just smiling at him, jabbed him in the leg.
As we all know, Charlie is a big boy. He weighs 25 lbs, 13.5 oz. (90th percentile), he's 31.5 inches long (85th percentile), and his head is in the 96th percentile. At one, Ellie weighed 25 pounds and was 31.25 inches -- pretty close! And Miss Ellie is now 39.5 inches tall and weighs 34.2 pounds. The nurse didn't calculate Ellie's percentages, but according to the internet, Ellie is in the 92nd percentile on weight and off the charts on height.
Both kids are in such fun phases right now. Ellie has really gotten into role playing and pretending -- I just love listening to her talking to (or for) her stuffed animals and toys. She has tea parties with them, feeds them, puts them down for nap, changes their diapers, tells them to share with each other, etc. And she's gotten SO much better about sharing with Charlie. She certainly still has her moments, but in general, she's really sweet to him and genuinely enjoys playing with him. She's still a bit of a tomboy and loves being outside, rough housing, etc., but she's also very into princesses these days. She often tells me that she's "Princess Ellie" and she's insisted on wearing the same "princess skirt" for three days in a row. Although I never seem to find time to work with Ellie on her letters, numbers, etc., she knows most of her letters and can spell her name, she can count to 20 (as long as you're not fussy about 14-17), recognizes many numbers, knows her colors and lots of shapes, including a rhombus -- I had to use google to figure out what rhombus is! She's still super expressive and makes me laugh out loud at least once a day with something she says or does.
Charlie also makes me laugh daily because he has such a good sense of humor -- he loves playing peek-a-boo (he's great at covering his own eyes), making (or really, viewing) funny faces, screeching back and forth with Ellie, and blowing enthusiastic raspberries. And I just don't think I will ever get enough of his squeals of glee that follow his discovery of something he's not supposed to get into, and precede his double-time crawling. It just cracks me up. He isn't walking on his own, but he's getting very close -- he can walk with very little help and he's experimenting with standing on his own. The biggest challenge with Charlie right now is that he does not sit still...ever! Just changing his diaper is absolutely exhausting. I have to change him on the floor now (otherwise he'll flip off the changing table), often with one leg thrown over his chest to keep him on his back. I left him with a 12 year old last week and forgot to warn her not to change his diaper. I came home to find her standing in the middle of his room, holding him by the armpits (he had nothing on from the waist down), with a look of absolute panic on her face. She said, "it-it-it was going so well, but HE WON'T STOP MOVING" at which point I noticed that they were both absolutely covered in poo, as was the changing table. Poor girl! She had gone through 4 diapers and almost an entire pack of wipes, just trying to get a diaper back on the little (actually, ridiculously big and equally strong) wiggle-worm. In addition to not wanting to sit still to have a diaper changed, Charlie also doesn't want to sit still to nurse very often. I'm still doing my best to nurse him several times of day, but he much prefers a sippy cup of milk on the run. He also wants to feed himself, which is wonderful, but he doesn't like many finger foods other than eggs (his fav!), cheerios, cheese, chicken, watermelon, peanut butter and bread, and banana. I'm desperate for him to like pasta because it's one of our staples, but so far, I haven't had much luck. In the meantime, he still gets at least one "baby food" meal a day. So just when I was to the point of making only one dinner per night (at least 5-6 nights/week), I'm back to making at least two breakfasts, lunches, and dinners per day. Oh well. Hopefully Charlie will start eating more "adult" food soon!
I just can't get over how blessed I am to be these kids' mama! They're so sweet, and funny, and generally wonderful. Every minute that I get to spend with them (even the minutes that make me crazy) is such a gift. As kids headed off to school on Monday, I started panicking thinking about the fact that I only have three more years before Ellie will be out of the house most of the day. Almost half of my "full-time" time with her has passed already. Sniff, sniff. Anyway, it's made me even more grateful for every day I have with them...and for my incredible husband who makes this time possible! Oh how I love my little family!
2 comments:
What an awesome post about such an awesome family:) You do have fantastic kids and they are lucky to have such wonderful parents!
It's truly wonderful to see how much your kids love each other and you. So many tremendous things that they have already learned - the important stuff like families are a haven of love and security. You are doing a fantastic job!
Post a Comment