Thursday, January 29, 2009

Way too long!

The title is referring to the amount of time that has passed since my last post. I'm trying to keep up the blog, because I really want to remember the day-to-day stuff with Bear, but we just keep getting busier and busier. Bear is getting a little better on the teething aspect--doesn't cry quite so much anymore, but still whines and holds onto my pant leg quite a bit. Keeping him busy seems to help him forget that he's in pain (or that he wants to BE a pain!). I would have thought running him around all the time would make me so worn out, but it's actually kind of exhilarating to have a daily plan. He definitely is down to one nap a day and it's not very long (1.5-2 hours), so I have to make sure he gets worn out enough to actually take it! Today we are headed to lunch with some friends, so hopefully that will do the trick.

Bear has started something new--hugging! It's very, very cute. He throws his arms around my neck and says "Mmmmmmm" or "Ohhhhhhhhh". I love these hugs, even when he's got banana all mushed in his fingers that he's so lovingly running through my hair. He even hugs the dogs. He'll hug on command, as well, so he obviously understands what I'm asking him to do.

Speaking of his level of understanding, he is aware of lots more words than I realized. Either that, or his list of words that he understands is growing very rapidly. It's obvious that he understands bath, bye-bye (he waves now, too!), bottle (even though the doctor told us yesterday that we need to work on getting him off the bottle), baby, puppy, kitty cat, Momma, Daddy, Buddy (one of the dogs), bite (I ask him if he'd like a bite of what I'm eating and 9 times out of 10, he does.) and cracker. I'm sure there are more, but those are the words that come to mind immediately.

He had his one year check up yesterday and we found that he's not gaining weight as rapidly anymore. The doctor tells us that this is pretty typical for an active baby and he thinks Bear will grow up being tall and thin (yay!). Of course, I'd love him just the same if the doctor told us that he'd grow up short and round, but it'll just be so much easier on him not to have to worry with his weight when he's in the 5th grade (like his Momma did). I know that what he looks like now may not have anything to do with what he'll look like later, too. For example, I was TINY until I hit puberty, so nothing that my parents or my doctors thought about how I was going to look as an adult was true at all. I am pretty much the opposite of tiny now! Not skinny at all and not short by any measure. Oh well. None of that really matters in the long run, I know, but it'd still be nice not to have to worry about it.

He's still in the high percentile for his height: 32 inches, which is in the 97th percentile! He only gained about a pound since his 9 month check up, so he now weighs 23.4 lbs, which is in the 55th percentile. His head circumference (if that even matters, but they tell us about it every time!) is 47.5 cm, which is the 80th %.

I think I've said it before, but I really like Bear's doctor! He answers all our questions so that the answer is really up to us, but he makes certain recommendations. For example, my mother in law clued me in to a recent recommendation by the American Academy of Pediatrics to give kids that are prone to high cholesterol and obesity 2% milk rather than whole milk. I asked the doctor about that, and he said that while we certainly could switch to 2%, he'd still recommend whole. He asked about Bear's diet and we tried to figure out if he gets much fat from other sources. He explained (we already knew this) that fat is necessary for brain development and if he's not getting it from anywhere but the milk, then it'd probably be better to stick with whole. Also, he reassured me that we'd check his weight again at his 15 month check up and if we think he's gaining too quickly, we can switch him to 2%. Max and I are going to stick with whole milk for now, but I just really like how the doctor didn't make it a black and white situation. All kids are not the same: some would do better on 2% and some would do better on whole.

Here are some cute pictures, before I run out of time. Bear's watching a Baby Einstein DVD, so I only have so much time before he's back to pulling on my leg and wanting to be held.

This is one of the best one-year pictures I took of him. I just can't get over how much of a KID he looks like, rather than a baby. I suppose it had to happen...


This one is an attempt at a one-year pic, but I got instead one of his recent strange faces. He's been making this face quite a bit lately, and it's usually accompanied by a "Jjjjjjjttttttt" sound. I have no idea what he's trying to say. Probably just practicing.


Here's the famous hug. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I bought him a doll. His best friend, Kaitlyn, has dolls that Bear enjoys playing with, so I bought him his own. He's saying "Ohhhhhhhhh" while he gives the baby a big "Bear" hug!

1 comment:

abbysmom said...

I love it!!!! How fun!! It is all so interesting to see who they turn into.


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