Wesley turned fifteen months old last week. I took him to the doctor yesterday for his checkup, and he was pretty unhappy to be there. Between the nurse and the doctor, Wes was measured for length four times because he kept twisting and trying to roll over. Then it took about five minutes to weigh him. Once he’s on the scale he has to hold still until the scale settles on an official weight. He kept reaching for the nurse, reaching for me, trying to leap off, trying to escape any way he could. Finally a second nurse came over and distracted him by telling him how cute he is. Then the scale slowed enough that the nurse took a close guess before taking Wes off. To top it all off, the poor guy came away with four shots, two in each leg.

On to the stats. The computer was down, so the doctor couldn’t pull up the Down syndrome growth chart. Instead he went away and came back with a book that has a chart in it that he used to generally figure out where Wes is.

Weight: 16 lbs 10 oz
Height: 26 3/4 inches (this started at 21 inches and went as high as 28…hence why they had to measure him four times)
Head circumference: 42 cm (16 1/2 inches)

This puts him in the 10-15% for weight and 5% for height. On the charts for normal kids he doesn’t even show up. At his 12-month checkup he was 15.95 lbs and 27.5 inches long. I’m not sure what happened to his length; did he shrink? I guess it wasn’t very accurate last month. I have to think that after four measurements his most recent length is probably more accurate.

At every checkup the doctor gives me a paper that says “What is Going on at (age).” I know Wes is doing great, but whenever I get these papers I read them and always go, “Wow! Kids can do that at this age???” It amazes me. Like, “Children at this age usually can walk well, walk backwards, and crawl up stairs.” We’ve got one of the three; he loves those stairs. Also, “They will scribble spontaneously, recognize themselves in the mirror, and find an object placed out of sight.” I’m not sure he does any of those things yet; possibly he might look for something out of sight. Then there’s, “By now your baby should have been weaned from a bottle to a cup.” We are far from that. The kid still drinks formula as his mainstay, but he’s eating more big-boy foods, like PB&J sandwiches. He’ll eat about a fourth of a sandwich if I tear it into small pieces for him to pick up. I also feed him a lot of prunes and yogurt and oat bran to help with constipation. And he likes graham crackers for snacks. Beyond that, though…life’s a little limited when you still have no teeth. If he is still toothless at 18 months he’ll get some X rays.

Last week I made chocolate chip pancakes. I made them for me, but Wes was eying them, so I popped him in the booster seat and gave him some. The result?

One of Wesley’s favorite pass times is playing with his burp cloths. I don’t know why they fascinate him so, but sometimes he can be playing with one quietly for a long time. He also likes the dishwasher. I have to be sure to push the dishes inside so he’s not pulling out plates and knives. And the other day I found him bent over with his mouth on the surface, sucking up the water that had accumulated there. No idea how clean/not clean that water was, so I pulled him back, but he kept going for it. So now I have to make sure the dishwasher surface is dry before he plays near it.