On the Chart!

Karston went to the pediatrician this morning. We sailed through all of the developmental questions. For instance, can your child count to 10? and the answer is he counts to 100, and wants us to ask him simple addition and subtraction questions. Good hearing, good eyesight. He's 39 1/4 inches tall now, and he was 29.6 pounds on their scale. Average annual growth for this age range is 2 inches and 4 pounds; Karston grew 2 1/4 inches and gained 3.9 pounds last year. His height is around the 5th percentile, and for the first time in years, Karston's weight is on a percentile! He's back on the weight chart! His weight is on the 3% percentile line, but he's back on the chart! The last time his weight was on the chart, he was 6 months old; at 9 months old his weight fell off the charts. (At one year old, he was one standard deviation below the average weight for a breastfed boy, so his weight numbers weren't too terrible, just sluggish to match his (lack of) enthusiasm for eating.) After the positive notes, we did head to less pleasant territory: his immunizations for kindergarten. Karston got 5 shots. He wanted to watch, and the pediatric nurses generally give shots to supine children, so we compromised on a position where I lifted his head so he could watch and we held both of his hands. Karston was really good about it: he didn't complain about the three shots that generally don't bother kids, and he was happy about pretty band-aids. Such a good kid!