Tall and Lean

Declan had his follow up appointment today see if he had gained any weight in the last month.....meh. He was 20lbs 6.6oz. He is now 21lbs 2oz. Not much of an improvement. But, the doc was just glad to see that he had gained, and assured me that perhaps he's just built to be small. He was in the 10th to 25th percentile as a baby, so maybe he'll always be on the small side.

On the other hand, he grew a 1/4 of an inch in the last month. He's in the 50th to 75th percentile for height. This boy's tall! Well, at least compared to his weight.

In other news, Declan is a signing fool! Ok, he knows 5 signs, but still! He knows "all done" (it was the first one he learned.....because it's the easiest to teach!), "more" (which he also "says", it sounds like "Moah?", with the question aspect heavily accented....I have it on video, you'll see.), "please", "food" and "water". I think he sometimes mixes "food" and "water", but he generally knows which one he wants. It's so cool to be able to communicate with him! We have a couple signing videos, too, that we watch. I hope he becomes fluent one day, it would be awesome if he were bi-lingual! :)

Speaking of speaking, (har har) he's kinda talking a little. He says "ah da" when he's signing "all done". He says "da-dee" pretty clearly, but were not sure he's got the association. He also says "bwee" (which I think is "please"), "muh" ("milk" or "mom"......I'm hoping for "mom"), "ti-tee" ("kitty").....and that's all I can think of for now. He babbles a lot......a lot a lot a lot! I love it, makes me smile to hear him "talk", he likes to give monologues to the monkey on the mirror in the car, probably because he's a captive audience. :) Oh yeah, and he says "NO" reeeeeeeeally well!!

He's still a pretty happy baby, but I think he's starting to fine tune his tantrum. If I take something away that he really wants to have, he'll "cry" and start rolling on the floor. I like to stare at him as if he's gone mad. I'm hoping he gets embarrassed and stops. I don't think it's working. We're also having to start disciplining him, too. I'm not the biggest spanking fan, but with guidance from our Pastor Randy, and his uh-may-zing parenting class, I now know how to use it in an effective and loving way. It's still not my number one option, but I know it's sometimes the best way to get the point across. Right now, we basically just "spank" his hand when he touches something he shouldn't, or goes where he shouldn't. It's hard to spank his bottom with that nice cushy diaper there. :) We also know we need to set up the house better, so we don't set him up to access places he shouldn't, or reach things we don't want him to touch.

Oh yeah, our tall boy can now open doors. Well, ones with lever handles at least. And he gets into the cabinets in the kitchen. Awesome. We let him get into the Tupperware one, but the others are off limits. He doesn't always get that. I can understand why....he's only one. So we've bought the baby proofing stuff. We probably should have gotten it several months ago, but whatever. The important thing is that we have it now right? :)

Hey, look! I updated!! :) Pictures in the next post...which I will go to now. :)