Three Year Old Check-Up

Tate is 3 years 1 month and 8 days old today!!  

What a great day to have his 3 year old check-up!!

Clearly not impressed with the impending appointment!

Having a lot of fun on the paper...since infancy he's loved the rustle of that stuff!

So, according to his fabulous pediatrician he's looking and doing great.  He weighs 31.4 pounds (42nd percentile) and is 38 1/4 inches tall (61st percentile)  I was surprised by his height;  I anticipated him being taller as I'm always told how tall he is!  He had his blood pressure taken for the first time...not a whimper!  Oh and they calculated his BMI...it is 15.2.

His teeth look great she said (but of course), tummy, bum and its accoutrements look superb, heart sounds healthy, feet were fine (have no clue what she was looking for there, and I forgot to ask) and his tubes are on their way out.  The right one is in the canal and the left one is almost out of his ear;  I could actually see it with my naked eye when she pulled the lobe down a bit...I was itching to get a pair of tweezers and pull it out!

She answered all my questions from the proper dosage of ibuprofen and acetaminophen, to his recurrent cough (post nasal drip...my thought as well) to his sleeping habits.  I told her he normally sleeps 9 1/2 to 10 hours overnight with a 1 to 1 1/2 hour nap.  She said ideally he'd sleep 12 hours overnight with a 2 hour nap.  That's 14 hours of sleep.  I don't have 14 hours to offer him.  As he seems to be doing ok with what he's getting and no matter what I do he sleeps 10 hours unless I put him down after 830p which garners me a 5-515am wake up I'm going to have to stick with this.  She found it very interesting that he will eat whatever foods I send him to daycare and not touch them at all at home.  She was impressed that he'll eat peas, asparagus, green beans, broccoli, you name it...all from my kitchen.  At daycare.

And then as we were going over developmental milestones she said this...

"He should be able to count to 10 and know the alphabet song.  He shouldn't be able to recognize the letters or know the sounds they make.  That'll come between the ages of 3 and 4."

I stood there stunned and almost speechless.  Tate has been able to point out every single letter since last December, so about 29 months of age.  He knows the sound every single letter makes and has since the same time.  Why?

Because his daycare teacher is so amazing.  Those kids started learning their letters in her class the day they entered the 2 year old classroom.  They did one letter a week.  Tate LOVED learning the alphabet.  Loved it.  He sang the ABC song they learned with all the time..."Connie cow, Connie cow...C says (however you make the sound of 'C') was his favorite.  One letter a week, the school provided the parents with the CD of the song, and we listened all the time.  Ms. Laura did tell me several times "Tate loves the alphabets"  (I loved how she says that)  "He just loves it."  And he did and still does.  He loves me to write down the names of all his Thomas trains and anything else he can think of.

I do realize however that early reading can be a sign of autism, but thankfully in our case it's clearly from instruction not intuitive knowledge, nor can Tate read.   

He's on track with speech, physical milestones (jumping with both feet seems to be a new skill!), ability to talk in 5-6 word sentences.  I'm not to expect full conversations where he'll tell a story if I ask him something like, how was his day, until next year.  

So, sweet Tate got a clean bill of health.  And his second Hepatitis A shot.  He did really well.  He was already upset before the nurse came in with the shot because I wouldn't let him play on my phone, so he was already teary.  I gave him his hippo and one of his LeapFrog handheld games so he was only hiccuping by the time she gave him the injection.  He looked down horrified, screeched for about 5 good seconds and calmed down with lots of Mommy hugs and kisses and was just fine 5 seconds later.

I got him loaded up in the car amongst some whining (he was so tired by this point;  our appointment was at 10:50am and we left around 12:20pm...after swimming and the stress of the appointment he more than needed a nap).  I fed a bit of milk, Happy Tots pouch and yogurt and we pulled out of the parking lot by 12:30.  He was asleep by 12:45!  Though he did inform me he didn't need a nap nap.  

Those sweet little eyes didn't pop open until 2:05!

We spent the rest of the afternoon at home getting our a/c fixed and wandered next door to hang out with our neighbors L and C and their sweet 8 year old daughter.  Tate loves any older kid and will do whatever they do.  So sweet to watch.  As it was 107 degrees out I was more than happy to spend the afternoon in their home watching the kiddos do puzzles, jump on the bed and just hang out.

Three years old.  Simply amazing.  I can't imagine I have enough love left for the next 93 years I love him so much already.  And sometimes when I listen to him talk or watch him figure something out or interact with other people I'm simply in awe of how far he's come in three years.  My little boy.  This child I so desperately craved and wished for.  It seems like he's been in my life for forever.  Yet these 3 years have sped by.  Just sped by.  I would gladly live each and every one of these 3 years 1 month and 8 days over again to be able to spend more time with my sweet Tate.