Colin's Stats

Colin will be 18 months old tomorrow...can you believe it?! In some respects, time feels like it has gone by so fast with him, but in other ways, I can honestly say that I have enjoyed every minute with him, so I don't feel as though any time has been wasted.

Change has happened in so many ways from when Colin was born, but one change I am most proud of is learning how to throw certain things to the wind. I want Colin to be healthy and happy, but I have learned that numbers don't always count and matter. It does not matter what percentile he is in for height and weight, because he eats, he drinks and he is active. It does not matter what his test results show, because he is working hard and improving every day.

But, needless to say, I still love to see how Colin has changed from the beginning. We had Colin's 18 month checkup today and Colin was such a good little boy despite the fact he had to get two shots. When we got there, he just wanted to be free so we let him crawl around in the waiting room (I know, I know, please don't judge, but do you know what it's like to hold a baby who wants to throw himself from your arms and the chair?).

He was saying hi to all of the patients and throwing kisses to anyone who dared to look his way.

I am so disappointed with myself for forgetting to take a picture of him on the scale since we have pictures of almost every weigh in from the beginning! This one will have to do, even though Colin wanted nothing to do with my after dinner picture taking shennanigans.

The stats (all on the "typical child" growth charts):

- 22 lbs. 8 ounces: 10th percentile (at least it's improved from the 5th!)

- 30 inches long: 50th percentile

- head circumference of 46 1/2 inches (oops! centimeters!!): 50th percentile

Everything that was checked looked great and Dr. Uma was very happy to spend some time with Colin. She hasn't seen him since his 12 month visit! We are very lucky because we don't get to see her very often since (knock on wood) Colin has been very healthy in his 1st 18 months of life minus a few minor colds and an extremely short bout of croup.

More of Colin's "stats":

- Favorite thing - Mickey mouse: the show, the doll, the song, and snuggling WITH Mickey (please note, we did not stage this picture...we walked in to find this scene already in progress)

- favorite toy: anything that can roll like balls, trains, cars, trucks, etc. This DOES include things that can't roll, even though Colin thinks they can.

- Signs: more, hi, bye-bye, milk, grace (not sure if this is a sign, but colin will fold his hands when we say it's time to say grace), book, and occassionally shoes.

- Gross motor: just started commando crawling and pulling to kneeling

- Speech: ma, da, ooo, and aaaah sounds; receptive speech has drastically improved in the past few months

- fine motor: still working on pincer grip and strengthening the muscles of his hand

- he's a lover: loves to give hugs (and even pats you on the back when he is hugging you) and kisses (he will smooch up to anyone)

- Cognitive development: recognizes putting objects in the correct place ("in" buckets, cups, holes, etc) and the not correct place (like shoving as much as he can under the couch); starting to recognize different animals from one another, following directions, directed play, etc.

And most importantly, he loves his mommy and daddy. We are lucky to have such an amazing little boy, no matter what his numbers and stats tell us. The most important thing is that he works hard every day and he is improving!