#4

Sam had his 18 month well child checkup today. We scored the earliest morning appointment available when I booked it three months ago and so for once, we were seen right on time with no waiting. Hallelujah! Sam is now 2'10" and 30 lbs. 8 oz, putting him in the 95th percentile for both height and weight. He is a BIG kid...and active. He was very interested in all of Dr. C's tools, otoscope especially, and as she gave me the rundown of his stats he sat there using the otoscope as phone, trying to dial in an inspection of his own ears. It was pretty cute.

Not so cute are Sam's feet. Since birth he's had cracks along the bottom of his toes, where they join to the soles of his feet. His toenails tend to split vertically and then peel off, uncomfortable for a person who wears footie pjs most nights. I also think that his big toenails would be ingrown if I didn't keep up with them religiously. We've mentioned all this to Dr. C before but we adopted a wait and see approach, hoping that as he got bigger his foot issues would resolve themselves. I've slathered his feet with Vicks and monistat, both good for fungal infections but it appears that fungus is not the case here. So, as soon as the referral goes through, we are off to see a podiatrist.

Dr. C also confirmed our suspicions that Sam is mildly delayed in the area of expressive speech. He's always been ahead in the motor skills department so we weren't worried initally, thinking that he'd eventually catch up. But for a while now his main expressive sound has been "Kkkkk!" to indicate that he finds something interesting, displeasing, scary, funny, wants something, is hungry...really he uses it for just about everything. And we understand because we are his parents. However, he only uses about four words consistently: mama, dada, no and uh-oh. We've heard him say other things, most notably this summer when he pointed to a duck in a shop and clearly said "Duck!" but those random words seem to come and go. Dr. C and I both feel that he will catch up eventually but the earlier we can help him, the less frustration he'll have when language really matters, like preschool and kindergarten. Hopefully a small amount of speech therapy now will prevent bigger, more frustrating sessions later on.

After waiting patiently through all the poking and prodding, Sam unfortunately had to endure a booster shot. Sad boy! Unlike his baby visits, he definitely recognizes the use and function of a needle; he pulled away as soon as the very nice nurse brought it into view. She was quick but he still howled and unprepared mommy forgot to have a cookie on hand this time. He was convinced that the bandaid she put on his leg was the thing that had bitten him and kept peeling it off and waving it in the air and screaming. I finally had to just hold my hand over his leg and let him cry into my shoulder for a few minutes in order to prevent him from bleeding on his new pants. He was a joy tonight thanks to that shot. /sarcasm.

In other news, it looks like my clearances finally came through and I am going back to work next week! I'll be working Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights at the library. I had originally been looking to go back to work over the summer and when it didn't pan out, I actually felt kind of glad. I like being at home with Sam and even though our budget could always use the supplementation, I felt that the sacrifice was worth it to be a SAHM. The library called me in the fall with a job offer that was tempting but would have meant putting Sam in daycare. In addition to having daycare costs consume my entire paycheck, Jeff and I both made the decision that it was better for me to be at home. (No judgement on anyone else's choice; this is just what was right for us.) I turned the library down, a little sadly, knowing in my heart that it was my last chance to work there at a job I really loved. But it wasn't! A coworker of mine became unexpectedly pregnant just as another coworker landed a full time job with the state. Evening hours were open, I had experience, and so they called me again, willing to work with my schedule. The best part is that Jeff will have Sam those evenings. So I get to work a job I love, Sam gets some male bonding time AND our budget gets a boost. Pretty nice!