18 month check up

Wow. Just wow...Tatum is a trooper. Really.

Her 18 month check up was today (yeah, I know, we're a few days over...but just a few!), and she did just GREAT!

First of all, it wasn't at the best time...11:15 AM for a little girl who is used to eating at that time and taking a nap immediately after doesn't bode well for a happy and peaceful doctors visit. But, being the planner I am, I entered the doctors office armed with Ritz crackers and a sippy cup, hoping beyond hope to ward off pending meltdowns with food.

(It worked, by the way.)

The first, 'Aw' moment of the visit I had was when I pulled into the parking lot, exited the car and proceeded to get her out of the car and into the stroller when I realized that she had fallen asleep en route. *sigh* Poor baby! Not only do I have to wake you and disturb your nap, but I have to do so to to take you into the doctors office, AND to have you get shots. Ug.

So into the doctors office we go, and I start pointing out the painted animals on the wall, only to realize that she CAN make the sound and arm movements of a monkey. We've been demonstrating this to her (I call her my little monkey all the time - wierd, you might say, but she's a climber...) and she does it. How utterly delightful! It was just precious! (If you're counting, 'Aw' moment number two).

Then my little girl exhibits her total girliness by throwing a semi-fit as she's getting weighed. Now, before you question my comment above, let me explain. She had her cracker, and her water, I simply had to put both down for her to get weighed, and you DO NOT take food AWAY from this child. That's a BIG NO NO in Tatum-land. Another no-no is taking OFF her shoes. Hence the exhibition of her girliness. She wanted those shoes ON HER FEET. Period.

So as for the getting weighed part...she weighed in at a whopping 25.5 pounds. Yes, you read that correctly. Somewhere in the writing down of the weight we lost a half pound, so the "official" weight is 25 pounds, but I saw the number on the scale and it was 25.5. Uh huh. No wonder my back aches some days, especially when BOTH Kellen and Tatum want me to carry them. Goodness!

So, as for stats:
Weight: 25(.5) pounds = 70%
Height: 32 1/2 " = 70-75%
Head cir: 47.5 cm = 75%

We had a few issues to discuss with the doctor, including her inability to properly digest fruits (specifically acidic fruits or anything acidic). Our conclusion = she just can't. Perhaps she'll grow out of it, he's fairly optimistic about that, but for the time being, she simply doesn't get them. So we're adding a multivitamin to her daily regime (hello Flinstones!) to be sure that she gets the vitamins and nutrients she isn't getting from that food group (specifically Vit C).

And then she got her shots, and she really did quite well with those. She tried to be a big girl, and let out one big wail after the first one, took the seond like a champ (heck, she was still in the middle of the first wail, so what could she do?), and then I gave her the paci, her lovey, and snuggled with her. And that was all it took for her to put her head on my shoulder, snuggle into my neck, settle herself down, then realize she had done something good and clap for herself. Another 'Aw' moment, and now I've lost count...

Matt and I seem to continually make comparisons between Kellen and Tatum at their different stages, and he and I both thought that Kellen was more advanced than Tatum at this age verbally. After the questions they asked to gauge her verbal development at this check-up, we've realized she's JUST FINE (can she say 6-8 words? uh huh!). So, after the appointment, I decided to come up with a list, as best I could, of the words that I've identified that Tatum has and can say, as of now. Here they are (not necessarily in the order in which they appeared in her vocabulary)

1. Mommy
2. Daddy
3. Maw Maw
4. Paw Paw
5. Bubby (I'm working SO HARD on getting her to say Kellen, but we said brother so much that this is what that word turned into - *sigh*)
6. Please
7. Outside
8. Night-Night
9. Dolphin
10. Thank you
11. Cheese
12. Fish
13. Eat
14. Shoes
15. Bath
16. Bye
17. Baby
18. Ball
19. Cracker
20. No
21. Mine
22. Door
23. Puppy
24. Apple
25. Banana
26. Sit down
27. Who's that?
28. Love you
29. More

I'm sure I've forgotten some, because I've just thought about this list for a short while this afternoon. And this doesn't count the number of signs that she does as well. So really, she's pretty verbal, and there's no telling how verbal she would be if we could get the paci out of her mouth more...*grin* But, we're not worried about that one, yet...with blessings from the doctor (and yes, it was a discussion item as well).

So I took her back to daycare and, you guessed it, she fell asleep in the car on the way back to school. 'Aw' I walked inside carrying her and went into her classroom where they had saved her lunch, and whispered to her about lunch...it took a minute, but she finally realized there was food ready for her and she woke up long enough to sign "eat" and walk to the table to be served, while saying, "night night" and looking at her nap stuff. 'Aw'

According to her chart, she ate "some" and then did take a little nap, so her day has been a little outta whack. But again, she's been quite the trooper!