A Good Visit with Dr. Bianchi

Sleep Beauty had a good Sunday afternoon with his grandparents when he got up from his nap. By this point, they just had a couple hours to spend before we arrived for dinner. Henry showed us how he can blow the whistle at the end of several of Grandma and Grandpa's key chains. It was impressive. Apparently, Grandpa taught him that a couple weekends ago. Henry said the word "key." I think that he said the word "bat" when running around with his toy bat. There were some other words, but I can't remember them right now. His vocal mimicking skills are excellent. We headed home around 9PM or so. Around 9:30PM, it was clear that Henry was tired again. He was cranky, less coordinated, and just showing all the signs of being a tired tot. He fought us so hard on going to sleep. It took us probably an hour to settle him down. Sigh.

A side note on Henry's mimicking skills. I think that I forgot to mention on previous blog entries that about two weeks ago, I was in the living room with Henry and Bits. Bits did something obnoxious. I can't remember what it was. But I ended up saying, "Bits, you dumb cat." I suspect that she tried to claw me or something. Henry decided to copy me by saying "Dum Boo." Boo is his name for Bitsy the Cat. I was floored. I was surprised that he could employ synonyms. In this case, "Boo" was used as a substitute for "cat." Wow. No question here that Henry is paying attention to what we say.

On Monday, Henry managed to climb up the two steps from the living room to the front door landing without touching the ground with his hands. What can I say? Our boy is very impressive. Grammy visited in the afternoon. In the evening, we had a sit down dinner and then gave Henry a bath. Henry is rather obstinate at times. He wants to stand up in the bath tub even though Jeff and I have told him that he isn’t allowed to do that. Imagine that. A child who thinks that he knows better than his parents…and at such a young age. He had a hard time relaxing at bed time. He was thrashing about, so Jeff rocked him to sleep in the rocking chair. He slept in the crib most of the night.

Today, we had an appointment at Dr. Bianchi’s office (pediatrician). Henry was 23 lbs., which put him in the 20th percentile for his actual age. He was 31.5 inches tall, which is the 42nd percentile for his actual age. And, his head circumference was 45.6 cms, which is the 9th percentile (again for his actual age). His head is tracking along the right trajectory. Where does this put him for his adjusted age? Based on the babycenter.com search engine, for a child who is 14 months adjusted (Henry's 13.5 months adjusted), those measurements place him at…

Length = between percentile 50 and 75
Weight = between percentile 25 and 50
Head Circumference = between percentile 10 and 25

Dr. Bianchi thought that Henry was looking good. He wouldn’t have believed that Henry was a 25-weeker if he didn't have his file. Henry showed Dr. Bianchi were his tummy and head were, how he could blow kisses, and stomp his feet. We thought that Henry was going to get his measles shot today. I paid for it in August, which is when they ordered it, but Merck hasn’t delivered it yet. So, he got his Dtp shot instead. He didn’t cry during the shot, which was amazing. That needle looked like it hurt. Dr. Bianchi is hoping that the measles shot will arrive by the end of October, so we've schedule an appointment (nurse's visit) for then.

After the appointment, Henry went to visit Grammy at her house. Grandpa and Grammy returned Henry home in the evening. Henry apparently had taken a long nap at their place. Surprising because he'd already taken a 2 hr 45 minute nap earlier in the day. He was pretty active when he got home. He put the largest of a set of rings on a peg. That’s a new skill. I helped him at first, but he got the ring on himself at the end. He handed me some golf books. I suggested that he take a book to Daddy , and he did. We gave him a bath and put bubbles in the tub. That encouraged him to sit down, as he still likes to stand in the tub. He and Jeff are sleeping now.