"Looks Good"

We had a visit with Henry's pediatric neurologist, Dr. Fike, today. Henry was put on the big boy scale and weighed 27 lbs. His height was 34". His head circumference was 46.8 cm.

She said that he "looks good." She measures his development by actual age. She said that he looked like he was on target for all of his skills, perhaps a bit ahead on verbal skills. He can be considered "caught up." We explained our concerns about how he holds his right arm into his body when he runs most of the time. She had him run up and down the hall. The good news is that she saw no traces of difference in his legs. He may be holding his arm that way for balance. But he certainly has full mobility and use of the right arm and hands, so it is just something to keep an eye on, but nothing to worry about per se.

Dr. Fike wants to see him one more time for follow-up in one year. If we want, we can have an MRI done to see if there was any residual damage from the prematurity (such as the cerebellum bleed). Or we can wait. If he has problems, then do the MRI at that time. As a neurologist, she said that she is always interested in seeing pictures of the brain, but that in Henry's case, she didn't think it would change any course of action that we'd take with him at this point b/c he isn't showing any problems. It might give us some peace of mind if it were to show up clean. But he'd have to be given anesthesia. Weighing the costs and benefits, we are leaning toward not getting an MRI done at this time. While we'd certainly like additional peace of mind as parents, we think that it isn't worth the risks of being put under. I'm certainly not phobic when it comes to such things for myself, but Henry's already defied a billion different odds for one life time. We just don't see any point in adding to his plate of risks.

We showed off Henry's political knowledge skills. Dr. Fike thought that was pretty funny. She thinks that we should make a video of him and post it on youtube (see if he gets invited to the White House!).

In the evening, Grammy and Poppy invited Jeff, me, and two of my colleagues and their spouses (Steve, Jamie, Kevin, and Julia) to the Magellan Dinner, a fundraising dinner for our college. Uncle Brian took care of Henry while we were out. Brian said that Henry was easy to take care of. He was fairly "subdued." They watched Sponge Bob, provided that Henry said "please," read books, and ate dinner. Henry fell asleep in a chair about 45 minutes before we got back to Grammy and Poppy's house. Aunt Erin arrived shortly after we did. We chatted for a couple minutes. Henry slept through all of our chatter. He was awake in the car and wanted to watch a little Robbin Hood before going to bed. But he went down without too much struggle.

Today's phrase:
315. "This way" (giving Jeff directions on how to get to Grammy and Poppy's house)