What a Week

Wow, what a great week it's been! And it's not quite Friday yet.

Monday, Karston and I played outside because it was a gorgeous 75 degrees. (Yeah, in January!) We looked at the silly daffodils growing. Mostly Karston played with his sidewalk chalk. He now knows that he can use chalk to leave marks on the cement driveway; last month, he didn't know what we were doing.

Tuesday morning, you guessed it, a few daffodils in bloom! I have never seen my daffodils bloom in January before! Not only that, I've never seen my daffodils bloom before my crocuses and my forsythia.

Wednesday I teach an evening class, so I didn't get enough time with Karston. I didn't eat dinner either; Wednesdays are just that kind of day between working and teaching. Daddy reported that Karston taught himself tinker toys Wednesday evening, and that he spent 45 minutes quietly figuring them out. Karston was fascinated that the middle hole on the rounds is big enough for the spokes to pass easily, but that the spokes seat well in the other holes. Given that the tinker toys say For Ages 3 and Above, I thought those tinker toys were yet another item (sigh) to try to cram in our minuscule attic to get out of the way until he's 3. (For a large house, there's remarkably little storage space, especially of the out-of-the-way variety.) However, he learned about precise alignment with Legos, so I guess tinker toys aren't that far beyond Legos for assembly.

This morning, I looked out the window, we had an inch of snow on the ground, and it was really coming down! This is the first snow that stuck to the ground in Karston's life! (He wasn't impressed.) The traffic cameras convinced me, and many of my co-workers, to stay home in the morning. (I spent the afternoon on an easy car repair. Cold weather doesn't bring out the best in cars, especially diesels that haven't had any maintenance in a while.) So of course that means I had the classic scene of daffodils in snow in my front yard! Pretty, but between the snow/sleet/rain and the wind, I came back inside. The thermometer kissed 32 degrees around lunchtime, and dropped again. However, the ground was still warm from Monday and the warm days leading up to it, so most of the snow melted before dark. The other item of note this afternoon was that tooth #15, the upper left canine, peeked out. This tooth doesn't seem to bother Karston. I'm not even sure that the drool output is higher.

So we've had warmth and flowers this week, but also cold and snow. Karston developed some skills with chalk and tinker toys that we enjoyed watching, and he popped a new tooth so uneventfully that it didn't bother his playing and learning.

I wonder what new fun we'll see tomorrow?

Toddler

See My Legos?

This evening, Karston went into the sunroom to bring some of his Legos into the living room so he could show us that he knows how to put them together now. He had trouble with the exact rectilinear alignment before, but he wanted to show us that he's so much more co-ordinated than that now. You know, less than a month later. I'm really starting to understand why so many labels say "for people age 2 and older" because Karston is rapidly leaving behind the baby stage where he needed our help with everything to the person stage where he learns for himself. He feeds himself (not well, and it's quite messy), he runs everywhere, and he learns toys like Legos. He's growing up!

Toddler

Pediatrician: Eighteen Months

We went to the pediatrician this morning, and Karston is 30" tall, 18.25" head circumference, and 18 pounds 11.8 ounces. (He didn't eat much this weekend! He's usually in the 19 pound range. We're embarrassed. But I'm sure he'll crack 20 pounds before he goes to college.) His height is hovering around 5th percentile, head just above 10th percentile, and his weight just isn't anywhere close to the lines. Or, to put it another way, his weight is average for an 8-month-old, his head is average for a 12-month-old, and his height is average for a 13-month-old. He's not tall, but he's still slender for his height.

My friend Jeni told us to prepare for the question, How many words does he say, so we were ready with a whole list. The doctor was impressed with All Done!, which is pretty useful. After the physical exam, the doctor told Karston that he was all done, and Karston gleefully shouted it back at him a couple times, showing off his best two-word phrase just after we were quizzed on it. The next question was, Does he understand more words than he says? That's for sure, but we had to give examples, so we explained that he runs to the bathroom when he hears "Oh, towel boy" from Daddy. I thought the pediatrician might hurt himself laughing, saying "I've got to write that one down." I think that was a story that he believed only because you can't make up stories that kind of strange.

Daddy asked what we could do to help Karston gain weight, but the answer was, "Honestly, he'd need different parents for that; all I care is that he's healthy at this weight, and his weight curve follows the chart." So his weight's not on the chart, but has a passing resemblance, so that's fine. But hey, he's only had two fevers so he's very healthy, and he has a megawatt smile!

Toddler