Katherine 3 - Parents 1

Today Katherine had her 12 month check up with Dr H. After our first visit with Dr H we wondered if there was ever going to be a time where Dr H said something like "You're right..." to us. We seemed to always hear, "let her (blah blah blah)". Today, Dr H drew the line on Katherine. A small victory for the parental units of 3408 Serendipity.

Her stats
Weight: 19lbs 14.5oz ~ 30th percentile
Length: 28.25 inches ~ 25th percentile
Head Circumference: 44cm ~ 20th percentile

These are all about the same percentiles as the last check up. She'd gained about 3lbs and a couple of inches since our last visit. Dr H said she's doing great. The noggin is still small but there's lots of brain power in there. At least that's what we're telling ourselves. :)

Katherine had three shots and her finger stuck today. She had some blood drawn to check her hemoglobin levels - which came back great. Her shots were for Prevnar, MMR #1, Vari Vax #1, IPV#3 and DTap #4. (You'd have to see the little sheets to know what most of them are for... )

We talked to Dr H about a few things: Katherine's eating habits, paci, sippy cup, sleeping and flipping the bird (aka pointing).


Eating Habits
Katherine has started to manipulate me at meal times. In the last few weeks we go through 3-4 things before we finally have something that she *might* put in the pie hole. Yesterday I'd had enough and at lunch. I'd lovingly prepared grilled cheese and had some yogurt for her to eat. The yogurt went down fine. It was berry and rarely do we have a problem with that. The grilled cheese on the other hand - she tossed off the high chair and onto the floor - or better swiped her arm across the tray back and forth in a tantrum. I say - NO MA'AM!!! Clearly she wasn't hungry enough. I took the food away and let her out of the high chair. This isn't a buffet. She waited till dinner for her next meal. Don't call child services just yet. Dr H said I did exactly the right thing. *Proud Moment* He said it's at this age that Katherine will start to develop her eating habits and we could be creating a picky eater if we give her 3-4 choices at meal times or keep going through a list till we get to something she'll eat. (BTW - Dr H isn't a fan of Goldfish we learned... As he said if you were offered goldfish or some little snack that's filled with yummy goodness would you not forgo the green beans?) I'll admit I've gotten to that breaking point thinking... well, at least she's eating *something*, even if it is Goldfish. (In our house Goldfish are really organic cheddar bunnies.) Ok. So going forward, one choice. If she won't eat it - take her out of the highchair and be done. No making multiple meals for the picky one. (We can't have TWO picky eaters in this house... One is enough and I own that throne.) Oh, and she's supposed to have 3 meals. No snacks. "snacks are contributing to the obesity in children..." I think I literally saw the soap box come out for the little rant from Dr H.

Paci
Dr H said we should have this gone by 18 months. Here's where I'm a tad mean. It's gone. Now. I'm terrified of having to break it later and it seems WAY easier to break now than it will be later.

Bottle vs Sippy Cup
Apparently the bottle should start to go away now. Who knew? I knew we should be working on crossing over to the sippy cup, but I didn't know we should ditch the bottle completely. Katherine only needs 16-18oz of milk/formula a day and the sippy is the preferred method of delivery. This one we'll need to work on... I think it's a task to begin next week starting with removing the two bottles she currently gets at daycare. She'll get a sippy cup filled with her milk for the day. I'm saying this now but I might break by next week. We'll see. I'm going to give it a go.

Sleeping
No shock here... He's proud of her sleeping habits. Gold star.

The "bird"
He said this actually demonstrates pretty impressive dexterity. Lucky us. He said most kids can't do it because it takes a sort of control that at 12 months babies/toddlers usually don't have. And this is what we excel at? Parents of the year. Again I tell you - I PROMISE this isn't a "sign" we use in our house. In any event he said to ignore it. Don't laugh, don't gasp, don't acknowledge that it's any different than using the pointer finger. If we do it will only encourage her to do it more. Argh.

Overall - great appointment. I heart Dr H. And today he told me "you're doing exactly the right thing" which made me heart him even more. So yes, I did leave the Drs office a little proud today that finally I left with a small victory over my 1 year old. As a parent, I have to take them where I can get them.

Make a Smilebox photobook