bubbles, belly buttons, and 17th percentiles

pace had his 18-month check up yesterday:

weight: 21.8 pounds (17th percentile)

height: 32.25" (40th percentile)

so in the six months since his last check up, he grew 3 inches and gained 2 pounds.  we're pretty sure the zeleny metabolism gene jumped from my mom to pace (unfortunately skipping the middleman: me).  pace started whimpering in the parking lot when we pulled up to the building.  he hates the movement of elevators, and since he was already crying, we decided to take the stairs.  he didn't like that too much, either.  he hadn't been to the pediatrician since his 12 month check up six months ago--did he remember this building and stairwell?!  or do dr's offices just all have the same feel and smell?  he hates doctors, whether they are for me or him.  i try and schedule my ob appointments during his nap time so i can just have a friend come over and hang out while he's sleeping, but the few times i've had to bring him to my appointments, it's all drama.   

he calmed down in the waiting room when he saw the fish tank, and was entertained by them while i was filling out his paperwork.  but when the nurse came and called our his name, the waterworks started all over again!  he hated laying on the exam table so i could undress him, he didn't like having his head measured or laying on the wooden board they use to measure length.  he was somewhat ok standing on the scale for his weight, but he was still whimpering.  poor kiddo!  he kept signing "all done", and i kept telling him, "sorry--we aren't done yet--we're just starting!"  once the nurse left and we could look out the window at the meadow, birds, horses, etc., he was ok.  he started drawing on paper and got off my lap to look around.  but the second the doorknob turned and dr. mumford stepped in, pace went into immediate fight-or-flight mode (the flight part)!  immediately crying, he ran and tried to squeeze himself in between the chair and the wall to get away from the dr.  he finally came to me and sat on my lap, but he cried the entire exam.  dr. mumford was nice enough to complete the exam with pace laying on my lap so we didn't have to lay him back on the scary exam table.  he did wave bye-bye to dr. mumford (still crying), which was an improvement, i guess.  he was so worked up over the nurse and dr. that i don't think pace even paid attention to the one shot he needed--the needle was definitely not the worst part of the visit!

at eighteen months, pace is such a timid, reserved, sensitive little boy, but he can also be social, playful, and somewhat flirtatious, depending on his environment, who is around him, and who he is with in that environment.  he's always been much more confident and comfortable when david or i are around, even as an infant.  we've recently started getting sitters--i think we've had a sitter two or three times--and he never cries when we leave, as long as it's a one-on-one play situation with the sitter, and she's coming over to our house, into his environment, and he's the one showing her his toys.  a friend of mine picked him up once to watch while i went to a dr's appointment, and he screamed bloody murder as she was carrying him down the walk, away from me, and buckle him up in the car seat in her car (even though this is a good friend of mine who he knows and we've played at her house on numerous occasions).  he still loves all things soft and fluffy.  in the mornings when i get him up he'll often point at each of his stuffed animals, hug them, give them a kiss, and then hand them to me to also hug and kiss.

pace is very intelligent--those big eyes of his don't miss a thing, and he very quickly figures out how things work, or what they are.  he also gets frustrated and impatient very easily, if those things don't work how he thinks they ought to, or go as as quickly as he'd like them to.  his vocabulary is very fun--both verbal and non-verbal.  verbally, he has skipped single-syllable words and has decided to focus on double-syllable words: isher (mixer--the kitchen aid mixer), dender (blender), dooder (juicer, scooter/motorcycle, david's toy helicopter, depending on the context), behbow (elbow), lyah-lyah (flower--i have no idea how this one developed; he used to say "bower" for flower), bubbo (bubbles), bippo (hippo--stuffed animal), duhduh (water), boooo (balloon).  he calls david dada, and calls me mamo (i have no idea where the "o" came from; we've always referred to me as mama--but it's so adorable, i love it!).  beebee (binky and baby, depending on the context), eeeeeese (cheese--he squeals this word), gock (clock), guh (bug), and of course his standard bao (ball) and buh (bird--although yesterday he clearly said the full word, bird).  he is also very adept at waving his pointer finger back and forth and saying, "no, no, no!"  

non-verbally, he understands everything we say to him--commands, double request commands, if we tell him to go find something in another room, he'll come back with it, go upstairs, brush teeth, time for bed, etc.  he loves, loves, loves his abc's.  he consistently tells us the sound that 15 or so of the letters make when we point to them, and he'll voluntarily say the sounds if he sees the letter somewhere.  he knows and points to all his basic body parts: head, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, cheek, neck, shoulders, belly, belly button, arms, elbow, wrist, hand, fingers, legs, knees, ankle, toes.  he also knows all these words written out--if you write it, he'll "read" it and point to the body part.

we have a little puzzle game he's starting to do, as well.  one side of the puzzle is a picture, and the other side of the puzzle is the word.  we've started laying them all out in a big pile, and we'll pick up the picture and ask him what it is.  he'll either do his little sign for it, or point to it (shoes, hand, eye, etc), and then we'll ask him to find the word that matches the picture from the pile.  he does it every time!  we've gotten through about half of the puzzle pieces in this box.  it's pretty fun to watch him--he usually sits on my lap, but when i ask him to find the word, he'll get up, walk over to the pile, and look at all the words until he's found what he wants--you can watch his little gears turning, and he is even starting to sound out the letter he knows the word starts with, and trying to find the word that starts with that letter.  then he'll very proudly come back and sit on my lap and clap as we put the pieces together.  he also knows square, circle, rectangle, triangle, and heart--if i draw all the shapes on a piece of paper he points to each one i name. oh--and pace draws and eats left-handed, but throws right-handed...

pace is a little helper.  i've said this before, but he loves, loves, loves helping more than playing!  he'll help me unload the dishwasher, change laundry loads, set the table for dinner (i'll tell him to get his plate, fork, and bib from his drawer), help cook anything i am cooking, pull weeds, etc.  if i tell him i have to go to the bathroom, he runs into the bathroom, sets the toilet lid up, lets me sit down, and then pulls down the toilet paper for me.  i'm hoping letting him do this (and telling him every time i go that this is where big kids go potty) will lead to a very quick and positive potty-training experience!

pace is turning into a daddy's boy--the first thing he asks for in the morning is his "dada", lights up when i tell him we're going to go see dada at work, and loves it when david is able to come home for a lunch break.  he loves being outside, loves going for walks in his stroller, and loves going to the park (although once we get there he's more content to sit and watch the other kids play than swing or go down a slide himself!).  he's also very musical--the second he hears music, he'll start dancing, and he helps conduct the music at church.  he loves looking at hymnbooks, sings along with his jibberish, and has lately started requesting songs (i'll ask him what he wants to sing, and he'll say "upababa" for twinkle twinkle--he remembers the 'up above the world so high' line--or "whoawhoawhoa" for row, row, row your boat, or "gagagaga: for child of god).    

he is a great eater, although his little waif-child weight doesn't reflect that!  he isn't picky at all, eats four meals a day, and is pretty content to eat what i place in front of him--from fruits and veggies to chicken curry and rice to salmon and lentils.  there are days where he'd rather have pancakes for breakfast than eggs, but everyone does, right?!  example menu from yesterday: breakfast: probably 1/2 cup total of oatmeal with greek yogurt and jam, fruit smoothie with protein powder.  snack: half slice of cranberry banana bread, and a whole orange.  lunch: probably 1/4 cup of steak with pasta salad--including roasted broccoli, cauliflower, fresh tomatoes, and cannelinni beans (leftovers from dinner the night before), a whole slice of sourdough bread with apricot jam, half mozzarella cheesestick.  we did a costco run and he LOVES free samples, so he had a bunch of samples there, then when we got home had another little snack of crackers, a kiwi, dried blueberries and cranberries, a handful of lucky charms (he picks out the marshmallows--who taught him that?!).  dinner: probably 1/2 cup total of salmon and spinach and cheese strata.  and he's drinking milk and water all day long.  oh, and he's mastered the art of blowing bubbles into his drink through a straw.  teeth: four bottom front teeth, all four back molars, top incisors still working their way down.

he is still a morning person, waking up between 630-7, naps 9-ish to 11-ish, 2-ish to 4-ish, and in bed between 7-730.  he's starting to phase out one nap a day, and it's always random--sometimes it'll be the morning nap, sometimes the afternoon nap, and sometimes he'll go down later and combine the two into one big nap.  sometimes i'll hear him jabbering and singing to himself when he wakes up, but most of the time he'll quietly sit in his crib and play with his stuffed animals, perfectly content to just hang out there until i come and get him.  i took away his binky last week, thinking it'd be an easier fight now than later, but of the five days he went without a binky, i think he had a combined total of four hours of naptime sleep (binky is only used for naptime and bedtime).  when i'd put him down for his morning nap, he'd sit in his crib for literally an hour jabbering to himself, singing, shouting--but not sleeping.  afternoon naps were the same--he'd sing/jabber for about an hour and then maybe fall asleep for about 45 minutes.  bedtime--jabber/shout for an hour before finally nodding off.  so i decided to give him the binkies back, and he's gone right back to normal sleep schedule.  he knew when he was done nursing, so hopefully he'll do the same with the binky. 

phew!  i think we're all caught up with our little pace-boy!  here he is, blowing bubbles after dinner last night (and sporting a great farmer's tan!), and the last few photos are him pointing to his belly button when i asked him where it was.