Right on Track

Max is 16 1/2 months old (13 1/2 corrected) and is doing great! It seems we've finally kicked the Zantac habit -- Max has been Zantac free for about a month and seems to be doing well without it. Max had his developmental clinic and baby IQ test a couple of weeks ago. He's 16 months old now (13 adjusted), so this was his 12-month clinic. Everything went well and the doctors said he looks great and is right on track. They had the psych test first (thankfully) -- basically, the pediatric psychiatrist played with him for about a half an hour to check his cognitive, fine motor, and gross motor skills. She did things like have him turn pages in a book, put toy blocks in a cup and take them back out, find a block that was hidden under one of several cups, put a peg in a hole, bounce and throw a ball, crawl, walk, etc. They wanted to know how many words he knew, if he pointed things out in books, etc. He did almost everything -- there were a couple activities that he didn't do, because he was more interested in throwing the toys on the table to see what noise they made (his new favorite game) than doing what he was supposed to be doing with them (even though I know he can). So, on paper, he scored on the slightly low end of normal for his adjusted age, but the doctor said that that was only because of the couple things that he wouldn't do right then -- she thought he was right on track and didn't have any concerns.

The developmental appointment was the shortest yet -- they asked a bunch of questions, played with him a bit, watched him walk, and gave him a brief physical. He weighed 22 1/2 pounds, but was still measuring at 29 inches high. They didn't have any concerns and said that he doesn't have to come back for six months. If he checks out fine at his next appointment (they mostly want to assess his language skills), then he'll graduate from the program! Max was a very good boy, even though we were there for a long time.

Word got out that we were in the building, because two of Max's former doctors and the head social worker stopped by to say hi and visit with Max. After the appointments, we stopped by the NICU to visit some of Max's former nurses. Everyone was happy to see him and amazed at how big he was. They had some photos of Max up in one of the display cases -- one of him on the day he "graduated" from the NICU and some from his previous visits to the NICU. Even I forget how small he used to be!

He had his well-baby check the following day -- he weighed in at 22 1/2 pounds and 31 inches tall. Since they measured him at 29 inches at the developmental, somebody's measurements are obviously off! He usually measures short at the developmental appointments and tall at the pediatrician's office, so I'll split the difference and say he's about 30 inches tall. ;) His lungs are all clear and his ears were normal, so he successfully recovered from the bug he had a few weeks ago. Since he handled the virus so well, the pediatrician thinks his lungs are fine and that we can pretty much consider him a normal little boy from here on out. We did find out that our pediatrician (who I really like) finally took a job up at the hospital, so he'll be leaving the practice. The good news is that the person who is coming in to replace him, while young (not too far out of med school), has done a lot of work with preemies and special needs kids. So, we'll try her out and see how we get along with her. Max got his MMR as well -- he gave a couple good howls and shed a couple of tears, but was pretty much OK as soon as I picked him up.

Max is walking all over the place and getting steadier on his feet every day. He's trying to go faster and faster, which is funny to watch (and makes for a fair number of wipe outs). His favorite thing to do right now is to go "walking" on the sidewalk in front of our house (he thinks the grass is kind of strange). Dad and Grandma took him on his first trip to the shoe store and bought him some big boy shoes. Apparently he thought the hard-soled shoes were strange to walk in and was lifting up his feet really high when trying to walk. We're working on some baby sign language, which has been fun. Max learned "more" pretty quickly and has already adapted it in ways I didn't expect -- he'll ask for "more" of a certain game or "more" of a certain toy, in addition to asking for more food. It's nice to teach him ways to communicate other than whining -- now when he tries to mooch whatever food Mom or Dad is eating, he can do so politely! We're working on "milk," "all done," "up," and "down," but so far "all done" is the only one that he seems to be starting to understand.

Max is still quite the chow hound -- we've been working through the remaining stash of baby food in the freezer, but I haven't been making any more, since he's doing so well with table food. His latest favorites are raisins and frozen blueberries and he's even been enjoying some raw tomatoes (he wasn't as enthusiastic about the cucumbers). He still LOVES grilled cheese sandwiches, so we've been trying out different ingredients in those (whole wheat bread, pumpernickel, swiss cheese, cheddar cheese, apples, tomatoes, etc.). I've been trying to not fall into a rut of feeding him the same stuff over and over and trying out new things, but sometimes it is hard to be creative! We probably need to start introducing utensils in earnest, but right now he's still more interested in throwing them on the floor.

A few new photos have been posted on Flickr, although Max is still too quick to let me get many good shots. He suspects the camera might be the most fun toy of all, if only Mom would let him get his hands on it!