One Year Well Check

Yesterday afternoon I took Elliot to his pediatrician for his one year check up.  I had been looking forward to it because I have been really curious about how big he has gotten.  Back at the end of July I took him in for an ear infection and he was 19 lbs 15 oz at just over 11 months so I knew there was no way he would have tripled his birth weight at 12 months since he definitely has not gained 2.5 lbs in just a month.

Anyway, I picked him up from Andrea's and we headed to the doctor.  While I filled out some updated paperwork he busied himself playing in the waiting room:

Yes, I realize my kid is not wearing shoes. I guess I should look in to getting him a pair.

We got back to the exam room  and his nurse commented that she couldn't believe that he is already a year old. No kidding, lady!  She remembered him from his first couple weeks when we were bringing him in for the heel sticks every couple days due to his jaundice.  She commented on how tiny he was back then and honestly I can hardly remember how small he was. I'm so used to seeing him the size he is now.

First up was getting his temperature and pulse ox and amazingly he cooperated.  Then I stripped him down and we went and got his weight (little wiggle worm did not want to sit still on the scale) and then measured his length and head. His measurements were as follows:

20 lbs 1 oz - 29th percentile

29 inches tall - 18th percentile

18.25 inch head - 58th percentile

(For comparison, Andrew was 22 lbs 8 oz and 30.5 inches at one year, so compared to him Elliot is my peanut)

So in a month he only gained two ounces.  I'm trying not to stress out about it. I worry a little bit about not getting him enough calcium since I can't give him whole milk or yogurt or cheese (we go back to the allergist in a few weeks).  

Before we saw his doctor a different nurse came in to do a heel stick to get the blood needed to check his iron.  I was amazed at how well he handled it. He didn't make a peep the whole time that she was squeezing his leg to get the blood she needed. He only protested at the very end because he wanted his foot back.  I was proud of how well he handled it.  

When Dr. Graham came in I asked him if I should be concerned about the drop in his percentiles and he assured me that it's perfectly normal at this stage since the kids get more active and they tend be more distracted when it comes to eating.  When Elliot wants to eat he can pack it away - the kid loves meat.  He has also eaten 3/4 of my oatmeal on more than one occasion and stuffs blueberries in his mouth like there's no tomorrow.  So I know he's capable of eating the foods that I'm feeding him, he's just moody and picky half the time.

While we were sitting there talking Elliot was munching on Cheerios and I was giving him sips of soy milk (introduced for the first time on Monday).  He'll take the soy milk in a sippy, but won't take breastmilk from a sippy. That's fine since I want to get him on the sippy full time and my plan is to stop pumping at work soon.  Dr. Graham was very pleased with his progress and said he is perfect.  After he left the nurse came in to do the dirty work of the shots. He got three and he handled it like a rock star. He cried less than 10 seconds and was back to his happy self before we even walked out the exam room door.

All in all it was a great appointment.  Elliot looks perfect, he's growing fine, his ears look clear and he is my awesome little guy.  Next up is an appointment with the allergist in September and we'll go back to the pedi in November for his 15 month well check.  Maybe he'll have gained some ground on Andrew by that point.

Elliot is One!

Cue the tears...

I cannot believe my little squish is already one year old.  I mean, that can't be right. He just got here, didn't he??

To celebrate we had a little party at our house on Saturday.  Unfortunately it was hot as hell outside so we didn't get to spend too much time out in the yard (even thought we spent hours putting the swing set together):

It wasn't done yet - we still needed the roof on the fort and the walls and door on the bottom,  but that was as much as we got done in two days and it was usable.

The "theme" for the party was whales since I had that cute whale outfit for Elliot and the whale invitations.  I made his cake Friday night:

And some whale cookies:

I didn't go over the top with decorations or anything, but I had a few things out:

We did a simple menu of pulled pork (J smoked it overnight Friday night and it was delicious), coleslaw, pasta salad and fruit salad.  We had sodas, beer and capri-sun's for drinks and the cake and cookies for desserts.  After everyone ate we did the pinata:

The kids didn't really get the concept, but they enjoyed it.

Then it was time for cake:

He went to town with it.  In hindsight the blue might not have been the best idea, but he loved it.  He even shared with his aunt Nicole since the party was on her birthday:

We did presents after I hosed him down to clean him up.  He wasn't overly interested in opening anything, but he liked playing with the toys once they were unwrapped:

All in all it was a good party I think Elliot enjoyed it even though I know he won't remember it.

Yesterday for his actual birthday we went out to breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  Elliot had an appetizer of Cheerios while we waited for food:

We all ate breakfast and then the boys enjoyed rocking in the chairs outside the restaurant:

We went home so Elliot could take a nap and while he was down we worked on finishing up the swing set:

Elliot woke up so I took him out so he could play while we finished up. He quickly went to work giving me a heart attack:

Every time I put him back on the ground he went right back to climbing to the top.  He rolled down by himself a couple times and cracked up every time. This kid is going to be the death of me.

Finally, I almost forgot to get his 12 month picture and had to try to get it before bed. These things are seriously almost impossible to take:

So there you have it. My squishy little baby is technically no longer a baby.  Hold me...

Andrew's New School

The time has come for Andrew to start at his new school.   After stressing out and being afraid that we wouldn't get him in, he has now started at Children's Discovery Center (our first choice of places to send him).  For the past week I have been talking it up to him and trying to get him excited about going somewhere new. After spending three years with Andrea it's going to be a really big change for him.

Yesterday morning he woke up extra early (6:15) because he wet the bed (J forgot to take him to the bathroom before bed).  That meant he ate breakfast extra early and we were ready to go by 7:15.  On the way there we passed one of the elementary schools in in the district (not the one he'll be going to) and he asked why he can't go to that school. I told him that school is for bigger kids and he'll get to go to one in a year or two.  Once we got to his school I attempted to take a first day picture of him.  My little ham gave me this:

I had to get someone to let us in since I didn't have a door code yet.  We got inside and Heidi took us back to Andrew's class (Pre-school A).  Chelsie, one of the teachers for Pre-school B showed us his cubby and he hung up his backpack and tucked his nap mat in there.  Andrew was being a little shy and clingy at first, which had me nervous.  Chelsie told him he could pick anything off the shelf and take it to one of the tables to play with it.  He was still hanging back, so she asked if he wanted to play with some legos. He smiled and said "Yes" so she grabbed them off the shelf and put them on the table for him.  He went to work so I gave him one more hug and kiss and headed back out to the lobby to finish registering.

We got everything taken care of including registering my fingerprint on the scanner so I can get him checked in and out every day - J will have to do his the first time he does a drop-off or pickup.  Once all that was done I headed out the door and went to work.  I admit that as I walked to my car I teared up a little bit.

Since their hours are better than Andrea's (open until 6:15 instead of only 5:30) I was able to go to my Body Pump class and still go pick him up.  I got there and headed back to his class.  He was with a half dozen other kids playing with some blocks at a table when I walked in. As soon as he saw me his face lit up and he ran over to me.  I asked him if he had fun and he said "Yes". Heidi was in there and I asked how he did. She said he had a good day. When parents started showing up for pick ups he got a little overwhelmed so she took him back to a quieter area with her. She said there were a few tears, but he was fine once things settled down.  I got him checked out and we headed home.

We talked in the car as I was driving home. I asked him what he ate for lunch and he told me chicken and green beans. When I asked if he ate the green beans he said "Yes!".  If he did that is a minor miracle because getting him to eat vegetables at home is a constant battle. Hopefully seeing a bunch of other kids eating the same thing is going to inspire him to be more adventurous with his food choices.  I asked him if he had fun and he said that he did.

This morning we got him up for breakfast and to get ready for school.  He was saying that he would go to school tomorrow and I was prepared for a meltdown when we had to leave, but he walked down to the car willingly (with a pit stop to look at leaves):

We walked in, I checked him in, and we walked back to his class. He pulled back on my hand and said he didn't want to go in there.

Uh oh.

I told him we needed to go in to hang up his back pack so he followed me in.  Two little boys were playing with legos at the one table and I asked if he wanted to play with them. He didn't and he was being clingy. I showed him the puzzle that was sitting on the table and he instantly got interested.

I gave him a quick hug and kiss and told him that I would be there a little earlier today to pick him up.  As I walked out the door I looked back to see him and Chelsie working on the puzzle.  I still didn't get to talk to his actual teacher, but I am planning on sticking around this afternoon until I can talk to one of them.

All in all I think it's been a good start. I think he's really going to get a lot out of it and I can't wait until he starts making some little friends.  My little boy is growing up...

Splash Day!

Yesterday the waterfront park by us hosted a special event - Splash Back to School.  J had seen a link for the previous one posted on facebook last week and sent it to me. When I saw that they were doing another one I sent it to Andrea to see if she would be interested in taking the boys to it with me.  I feel like I miss out on doing so many of the fun events because they typically take place during the day and that's when I'm at work.  So I decided that I would work from home and just take a long lunch so we could go to it.

Yesterday I dropped the boys off at Andrea's in the morning with their swim suits and told her to let me know when Elliot was up from his morning nap and I'd head over to pick them all up.  The event was from 10-2 so I figured even if he took a long nap we'd still make it to some of it.  At 10:45 I got the text that he was awake so I packed up some towels, grabbed the camera and headed over.  When we got there the parking lot was pretty full (that's what happens when something is free!) but we found a spot and headed over to the park.

When we got over to the lawn we saw that they had about a dozen huge inflatable water slides set up.  Some were pretty big and I was worried that Andrew would be too intimidated to go on them. We went to one of the smaller ones first.  He was a little apprehensive when waiting in line:

I was pleasantly surprised when he climbed all the way up by himself:

And headed down on his own:

He seemed to like it so we headed over to the next one that had a jump castle attached to the slide. He got up in there after waiting in line and kind of just stood there for a while:

Eventually he went up the ladder to the slide and went down:

We decided to explore and see what other slides were there.  We went to this bigger one and I was excited when he again did it all by himself:

When he got done there we saw that they were spraying water from a fire hose on a crane. I'm an idiot and didn't have a swimsuit on,  but Andrea did so she walked out into the water with Andrew:

Once he understood that he was supposed to be running around in it he started having a blat:

Elliot just had to sit and take it all in:

I tried to keep him from getting run over by all of the rambunctious kids.  He didn't get trampled so I guess I did ok.

They turned the water off after a little while - I guess so they wouldn't flood the lawn - so we headed to another slide.  Waiting in line took a little while, but Andrew loved the slide:

I was texting J some pictures while we were there. He asked if Andrew had done the big 27 foot slide:

He hadn't yet and I was thinking he wouldn't want to, but when I asked if he wanted to go on that one he shouted "Yes!".  So we went and waited in that line. I had to keep reminding him to move forward because the bigger kids in line behind him kept trying to cut in front of him. While we were waiting Elliot started to fuss so I had to break it to Andrew that this would be the last slide.  Finally it was his turn and he started the climb to the top. I got out the camera and headed to the end so I could get some pictures. That's when I noticed that he was still sitting at the top of the ladder. I was afraid that meant I was going to have to climb up there to get him, but then someone said "He's going!".  So I ran to the end to get some pictures:

Right when he got off the slide they fired up the fire hose again so I let him run over to play for just a few more minutes before it was time to head out. I think running around in that water was his favorite thing of the day:

Andrea rounded him up and we headed for the parking lot. Andrew was bummed that we had to leave, but Elliot was on the verge of losing it and it was 12:30 so it was time for lunch.  I dropped them all back off at Andrea's and headed back home to get back to work.  I had to work a little later to make up for the long lunch, but it was so worth it to get to see the look of joy on Andrew's face.  I hate that I miss out on so much by being a working mom, but I'm grateful that I work for an understanding boss who lets me work flexible hours when need be so I can do some of the fun stuff.

All in all it was a fun little afternoon and I look forward to the next fun little event. I guess I need to keep my eyes peeled to see what else is coming up in the future.

Shark Week Fun

Shark week is always one of my favorite weeks. I have a strange fascination with sharks. I mean, they scare the bejeezus out of me and I'd probably have a heart attack if I encountered one in nature,  but one of the things on my bucket list is to go down in a shark cage and to see a great white in person.  Not sure either of those will ever happen, but I'd love to do them.

Anyway, since it's shark week the aquarium had some special things set up and we decided to head down and see what was going on.


Outside one of the exhibits was a table set up with some plush shark puppets and shark teeth. Andrew of course loved the stuffed shark:

Then we headed over to the one play area.  Elliot wasn't all that impressed with the shark week extravaganza:

We went in to look at the great ocean tank and got a great shot of Andrew with the turtle:

Elliot liked watching the fish:

While J had to take Elliot down in the elevator Andrew and I went down the stairs by the ocean tank and played around:

It was raining pretty hard outside so we went over to the play area in the Madagascar exhibit so Elliot could get out of the stroller and play around:

Since it was still monsooning outside we went back upstairs and let Andrew get his face painted. I was shocked that he sit still for it:

He was so excited about his shamu.  Finally the rain started to slow down so we made a run for it so we could go get some dinner.  We had kind of forgotten about the fact that when it rains really hard a lot of downtown gets flooded:

It made for an interesting drive trying to get home. Especially since half the roads were either flooded or blocked off because of flooding.  Thankfully we were in my Sequoia and it's pretty high up. We saw quite a few cars stalling out in the deep water.  Downtown + heavy rain + high tide = a freaking mess!

Anyway, we made it home and both boys seemed to have a good time so I consider it a successful outing. Yay Shark Week!