As I posted before, Waylon turned two on February 23rd. On February 21st it was Avalon's two month birthday, and on February 25th the whole family went to the pediatrician for the kids' respective well baby check ups. I thought it would be smart to go all together to get everything done. I was wrong. It was total mayhem and Aaron and I felt lucky to get out alive. Here are the pertinent stats:
Waylon--2 years old
height 37 inches (off the percentile charts, which means he's very tall for his age)
weight 30 lbs, 8 oz (80th percentile)
Avalon--2 months
height 22.5 inches (50th percentile)
weight 9 lbs, 10 oz (20th percentile)
Our little peanut (Avalon) is growing and is getting some meat on her bones, which brought a huge sigh of relief from mom and dad. The fun fact about Waylon's height is that supposedly you double boys' height at this age to determine their adult height, which means he will be 6'2".
Avalon at Two Months
OK, so I'm a month behind, but here are the major points. Avalon started socially smiling (as opposed to those oh-so-cute gassy smiles) at about 7 weeks. She has really cranked up the smile meter and absolutely melts our hearts with her toothless grins. She also started tummy time at two months, which she hate--much like Waylon. Also like her older brother, she ROLLED OVER the first few times we tried tummy time. Each time I rolled her back onto her belly. After a few times she gave up and just screamed while remaining belly-down. She has rolled twice since then, but has primarily focused on screaming and crying during tummy time. I must also admit that we are lucky to get one or two sessions in each day while we run errands and keep Waylon entertained. Her doctor recommends 4 or 5 sessions, proving once again that the second kid gets the shaft!
Avalon is sleeping great, and was going as much as 9 hours between feedings at night when we went to the pediatrician. The doctor said she needed to go at least 10 hours at night before I could limit her daytime feedings to every 4 hours. Between my best friend the pacifier, and some serious patting at night, our little girl made it! She now goes 10 hours at night and mommy gets an extra hour between feedings during the day--which means only 5 feedings per day. I am overjoyed!
Waylon at two-years-old
Where do I start? First of all, Waylon started speech therapy and occupational therapy ("OT") in the beginning of February. Speech is going great, and he is talking a mile a minute. The therapist quickly realized that with tubes in his ears his speech had improved dramatically from his original testing so she re-tested him. He was slightly delayed in his expressive speech, above age level in his receptive speech (understanding what we are saying), and at age level in his overall cognitive functioning. In addition to speech, Waylon also qualified for OT due to his lack of focus. Actually, the woman doing the evaluation was able to qualify him due to his unsafe eating habits, which were delayed, but she actually wanted him to get services because he was somewhat unfocused. The bottom line is that we may soon stop the speech therapy because he is doing great, but I want to continue with the OT. His OT therapist, Tony, believes that Waylon has mild body awareness issues, which cause him to constantly be on the move, searching for his boundaries, causing frenetic behavior. That brings us to Waylon's two-year-old behavior...
When kids are infants it seems like they change and grow so much every day you're afraid to blink. At Waylon's age they seem to change and morph all of the time, but often I want to close my eyes and hide under the bed during some of Waylon's "stages." He was being a total pill a few weeks before his birthday, and it continued until about 2 weeks ago. One day a light switch seemed to flip and he was a much more focused kid with far fewer tantrums. He actually played by himself with one toy for at least five minutes. I was in shock. His OT therapist, Tony, said that some kids with Waylon's body awareness issues will suddenly "get it" and become more focused over night. I was overjoyed! I was sure that we had successfully navigated Waylon's terrible twos, and were in for smooth sailing. I know, I am an idiot. This weekend Waylon was back to the crazy, crying, tantrums that we know and love. The problem is that I dont know if his crazy behavior is due to his body awareness problems or just because he's two. We are never sure when we get Waylon up in the morning or from his naps if we will get an angel or a little devil. The good news is that its never dull around here! The other news is that I've ordered two books on toddlers in hopes of understanding our little guy better--even if there is nothing I can do about his craziness.
Although I usually try to take the cutest pictures possible of Waylon, I realized that the top picture is the best depiction we have of him at this age. The picture of Avalon is not the best, but it was taken the closest to her two-month birthday.
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