18 months

a year and a half.

547 days.

i can't believe it's been that long since parker's been with us.

and i can't believe it's ONLY been that long since he's been with us.

he's growing (slowly) and learning new things every day

and teaching us many lessons along the way.

18 month STATS: 19lbs 13oz

which means he only gained 5 ounces in 3 months.

30.5 inches long.

which means he grew 1.5 inches in 3 months.

(on a side note. pj's getting his 3rd antibiotic. 

amoxicillin again. we found out he had an ear infection at this visit)

his doctor wasn't crazy about his weight gain to say the least.

we've discussed again what a horrible eater he is and he's going

to let me borrow a book he just read on picky eaters.

he usually suggests to other patients to cut back on the kid's milk intake

to get them to eat more food and don't fill up on milk

but he doesn't think pj is getting too much milk and actually suggested we give him more.

so we're cutting down to only one 4-6oz cup of juice/water a day

and everything else milk.

which he wants to be around 20oz a day and nothing for atleast an hr before meals.

he decided he was more concerned with the fact that he wasn't walking

than the lack of weight gain.

he possibly wants to get some blood draw for this but wouldn't even go into details

as to what he was looking for saying it could be a huge spectrum of things.

and he knows how i like to investigate and stress :)

as far as park's walking goes....

he is still not even attempting to take any steps

and can not even stand for longer than 1-2 seconds without holding onto something.

we both agreed is was time to do some looking into.

he noted how i've mentioned before that we think parker seems weak

but when i told him he has no balance and can't stand without holding on

it raised a red flag to him.

but he wouldn't elaborate as to what that means.

so he's referring us to a neurologist

that i'm supposed to call tomorrow and will hopefully schedule an apt soon.

he told us this doc could do absolutely nothing,

look at parker and tell us he's fine.

or go as far as to order bloodwork, physical therapy, a sedated MRI and so forth.

IF they order bloodwork, i have to let him know so he can add on

the bloodwork he wanted for his low weight gain

and kill two birds with one stone while my little man has the needle in his arm.

i threw out the word cerebral palsy and asked if that was a possibility.

he just sits and smiles at me.

i really do love his doc, and he knows me too well and is so laid back.

he wouldn't give me a straight yes or no answer.

but said that IF that was the case, it could give us a label which could possibly 

assist getting parker some therapy.

but there was no rush to diagnose that, because it's a condition from birth

and isn't something that could get progressively worse.

but i just had to say it and get it out there

and off my chest and see what he thought.

and as for the cute and adorable things the little man IS doing!

he's become seriously obsessed with our cell phones.

i know i mentioned this but

he wants to sit on my lap and swipe thru pics and videos all. day. long.

he smiles and laughs at himself.

he's cutting 6 teeth all at the same time.

within like a 2 wk span he cut all 4 molars which are just now poking thru the skin.

he's also getting his 3rd and 4th bottom teeth,

finally!

these are the first teeth that have really caused him any pain.

with all his other teeth he honestly just woke up and they were there.

but these have been a little more brutal.

nasty diapers (like that require a change of clothes and bath and a gagging daddy)

runny nose, slight cough

 whining, whining, and whining. 

as these new teeth have come in he's starting chewing on his feet and/or shoes.

seriously child?

in the car i can hear his top teeth squeaking on his tennis shoes.

he's also started crawling on his hands and feet.

his knees quickly got skinned up from crawling outside so he decided this was his solution.

he loves loves loves to carry little plastics animals/people around.

my mom has a TON of littlest pet shop (remember from the 90's) that were mine growing up

and now my sons new fav toy!

and he will pick an animal that day and carry it around alllll day.

to lunch, to nap, to bath, to bedtime. it's hilarious.

sometimes it's ernie or bert, or puppy, or skunk....

he kisses them and makes them kiss each other when i'm not looking.

he pretends to feed them his snacks and drinks.

he's also started hitting! yah!

and he already knows it's wrong but it's like a drug and he can't help it.

he'll hit me and just stare at my face to see how i'll react.

gotta love testing the limits.

and has gotten himself in 'time out' a couple times from this.

i'm not sure how he knows to stay and sit wherever i put him, but he does.

he hasn't started saying a whole lot of new words these last few months.

it gets very frustrating for us and for him

when we don't know what he wants even tho he definitely knows what he wants!

we do a lot of asking yes or no questions trying to figure it out.

which i'm not sure is the right thing to do because then we aren't making him talk.

or can you really make a kid talk? 

i swear the kid understands almost everything we say.

and even when i tell him, 'parker say dog'.

he knows he's supposed to repeat and say something but it comes out in another language.

he was saying wee wee wee the other day in the car.

d and i started laughing that he's just speaking in french. lol.

i've read a bunch that kids with delayed motor skills then have delayed speech because

they're working so hard on learning to walk for instance than on learning to talk.

i'll go with it for now.

i'll leave you with some pics of p's new roller coaster!

 a girl from work sold it to me for less than half price bc her daughter had out grown it.

 it's already been worth the money!

he absolutely loves it!

and maybe his mommy does alittle too,

i may or may not have ridden it a couple times myself.

sooo i'm anxious for his next doc visit.

but at the same time i'm really ok with it.

i'll do whatever it takes to help my guy succeed.

he needs legs braces, done.

he needs more PT, done.

he needs to go on an all-inclusive caribbean vacation, done.

i'll only love him more.

happy 1 year and a half bday sweet P!

carpe diem

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