peanut had his 18-month checkup on tuesday. here are a few stats from his visit...height is 33 3/4 inches (he's in the 86th percentile); weight is 24lbs 8oz (30th percentile); head circumference is 19 1/4 inches. as you can see, peanut is tall and thin with a giant head. seriously, both our boys have giant heads! nana always says they have a "duke" head b/c clearly they got their large heads from pete! everything else checked out fine for peanut including his ears where he had tubes put in earlier this year.
the only concern the doctor has is the fact that peanut is really not talking yet. she said he should be saying about 5-10 words by now and he really only says two. she was also a little concerned b/c the hearing test he had a couple months after his tubes was inconclusive. the audiologist could not get a good reading on his hearing...whether it was normal or there was any loss. so the doctor has recommended we have his hearing tested again and have a speech evaluation done. it could be that she's being overly cautious, but i don't think that's a bad thing. she wasn't comfortable with waiting too long to see if he starts talking. and honestly, i'm not either!
for those who don't know, peanut had chronic ear infections starting about a year ago which prompted the tubes in his ears. we basically were in the doctor's office every week with his ears and he was on some form of antibiotic for about 3-4 months straight. it was very exhausting and worrisome when this was going on. and to add, with chronic ear infections you run the risk of hearing loss. fortunately, once the tubes were put in, he has had no more ear infections. that was a blessing!
of course, i knew this was going to come up when i took peanut to the doctor b/c i knew he should be talking more by now so i wasn't really surprised. but even still, it has bothered me ever since we saw the doctor. i have been praying every day that peanut's hearing is fine and that he's just taking his time with talking. i've had many friends tell me their second child took longer to talk b/c the older one kind of dominated the conversation and attention all the time so hopefully that's just the case with peanut. doodlebug certainly can be a motormouth!
we will go ahead with the tests just to put our mind at ease that everything is fine...particularly with his hearing. i'm curious to see what they do in the speech evaluation. i wonder how they evaluate that in an 18-month-old. i mean, we are always trying to get him to say simple words and we get nothing. so that should be interesting.
another milestone for peanut is coming up next week. after much consideration, we've decided to enroll peanut in a parents' morning out program at the same school doodlebug attends. he will go 2 days a week for 3 hours a day. we both really think he needs this for several reasons. he is very attached to me - very clingy - and does not do well when i leave him at the church nursery or even when i leave home without him. also, peanut does not spend much time with other children his age and i really think he needs more exposure to that. he needs the social interaction. and we're hoping maybe this will help with the talking, as well.
i think the experience will be good for peanut and once he falls into the routine i think he'll like it. it will probably be hard the first day, even the first week, having to watch him get taken out of my car and carried away to his class, but i know he'll be in good hands and will have fun. i'll have to work up to leaving him on his first day, tuesday, b/c going to "school" is another step further away from babyhood...and i still feel like he's a baby even though he's really a toddler now! i guess i have to accept that he's growing up!
so that's the news on our little peanut. i'm sure i'll have more to update later...
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