We were going to bring Kaylynn to school in the morning and pick her up for her doctor appointment, but we decided to keep her at home instead. The timing of lunch and appointment just weren't going to work out, and we thought it would be fun to hang out with her. It was!
She had breakfast and wanted to color. Since we don't have a little table/chair set for her yet - somewhere comfortable for her to sit & color - the best place for her to do it is in her booster seat, so she stayed there after breakfast and colored to her heart's delight. She colored kitties, Julian traced her hand & she colored that, she colored on her actual hand and made pretty finger nails... She helped Julian put laundry in the washer and made sure to feed her baby and give her lots of hugs.
Lunch was relatively early and, as usual, she ate really well. We headed out to her doctor appointment around 12:15 and were early. It was at Children's clinic so they had lots of stuff for her to play with. She had a great time in the little plastic house. We were sure to bring Llama with us, because Llama sets such a good example for behavior. We had to wait a long time in the room for various parts of the appointment, so she spent a lot of time with Julian looking out the window, showing Llama the birdies and sky, scooting around on the wheeled chair, and hopping around on the different colors on the floor. When Dr. Goepferd came in, she was very cooperative, letting the doc listen to her heart and lungs, look in her ears, mouth and eyes, palpate her tummy - all the doctor things.
Here are Kaylynn's stats. She is 33 inches tall, which is the 16th percentile. The doctor said that's genetics - she's just a small kid. She weighs 25.2 lbs, which is the 26th percentile. Anything over 16% is good. Her head circumference is in the 32nd percentile. Her next checkup is at 3 years unless she gets sick. She was behind on 2 shots: DTaP and Hep A and she got a flu shot. She needs one more Hep A booster and she's up to date.
When it was time for her shots, which went in her legs, the nurse had her on the table with her legs dangling over, and Julian held her hands and leaned over & talked to her. The nurse was very quick about it all. By the time Kaylynn started to cry, it was over and she stopped crying pretty quickly and checked out her "stickers" (band aids). Then it was time for the blood draw. I went to do administrative work, so I wasn't there, but here's how Julian reported it. They rolled up Kaylynn's sleeve, cleaned her with an alcohol wipe (and Kaylynn was fine). Then the nurse put the little needle (Kaylynn watched) and Kaylynn looked at Julian with a look that said, "can you believe she just did that to me?!" She started to cry and then the needle was out, it was done, and she stopped crying.
In terms of her development, her vision and hearing seem to be OK for her age, but her speech is delayed. The doctor put her at about 15 months in terms of speech development, which is almost a full year behind. They contacted the Robbinsdale school district for us. The schools will come to your house, evaluate the child and create a program to help catch them up. We'll be working with Melissa and Kaylynn to do all the things she needs to do to catch up - she'll be just fine.
We've instituted a 'no whining' policy. She's got enough words to be able to tell us what she needs, so she doesn't need to whine. When she does, we simply say "use your words, tell us what you need" or "please don't whine" and then when she does use her words, we respond to her. So, basically, we're not letting her get what she wants by just whining. The doctor suggested this should help her talk more, too.
After the doctor appointment she took a nap for about 1 1/2 hours while Julian and I hooked up with her mom to get the paperwork squared away so we can keep her in daycare. We also made arrangements for Melissa, who lives close now, to have Kaylynn on weekends.
Savta took good care of her. When we walked in she gave us a big smile and "HI" and big hugs all around. She had some dinner and my mom & I had to leave for a meeting I had at - yes - the synagogue.
After dinner, Julian was checking Murphy's skin out with a flashlight (she's been scratching a lot lately - no fleas, tho) and Kaylynn loved the flashlight. Julian turned off the living room lights, Kaylynn sat in her Shrek chair and shined the light all over the place, entertaining herself. He said she did that for about 5 minutes - the longest she's done any one thing other than color.
The doctor gave us a couple books, and Kaylynn crawled on Julian's lap to have them read to her. One is a simple book with pictures and words to build her vocabulary. The other is "ring around the rosie."
Then it was bath time. Julian played "head-shoulders-knees-and-toes" with her as she washed herself. He played games with the wash cloth to get her hair wet and to rinse off the soap. It worked really well and she had a great bath experience. She has letters that stick to the side of the tub, so they went through those and played with the water squirty toys. Then it was time to get out. Julian reached for the towel & when he turned around, there were 4 very well-formed poos floating in the water. He couldn't believe his good fortune! He's trying to figure out why he gets the pees & poos at bath time - must be luck! He fished them out (thank goodness for disposable gloves being handy) and rinsed her again and dried her off. They put on PJs, had milk in the sippy cup, read a little more, sang. She was snuggly and chatty with him and then went to bed around 8:20.
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