5-Year Checkup

Well, our big girl has been 5 for over a month, but the doctor we like her to see in our group is always backed up, so she had her checkup this past Wednesday.  She did amazingly well - no crying - and cooperated very well!  She started to get silly during the vision exam when they wanted her to cover one eye, and we had a hard time getting her to show us which ear heard the sounds during the hearing test, but otherwise she was perfect.  She is 45-3/4" tall (which is good to know for rides during our trip to DISNEY WORLD next month!), in the 94th percentile, and tips the scales at 44 pounds (73rd percentile).  Her BMI, which is still sad to me that they have to calculate that for kids now, is 14.8, in the 38th percentile.  So, as she's been her whole life, she continues to be tall and thin...and I continue to be jealous!  She passed her vision screen and 3D vision screen, and could hear the sounds on the hearing test, though we couldn't get her to show us which side they were on.  The doctor's exam was good, and she even asked him to look in her ears a second time!  The only tears came during shot time (she had to get 3 for kindergarten)...not for the shots, but when the nurses brought out the band-aids.  This girl does not like band-aids!  So they threw them away and she was fine.  We took too long to get to her gymnastics class, so she and I stopped for Frostys at Wendys as a little treat afterward.  Do not fret - she'll get to go to a make-up gymnastics class this Saturday morning.

Dr. Bowman was very impressed with her development and with what she's doing in preschool.  He said it shows that she's mastered the preschool curriculum because they are challenging her with kindergarten-type assignments and sending her to kindergarten class to visit.  She still struggles in some areas, and we are helping her with those at home, school, and at occupational therapy.  He thought that our current therapy schedule both in and out of school sounded good, and that in 2-3 years, she may graduate from OT and may need to switch to pragmatic speech (i.e. how to communicate, versus how to physically make sounds) and/or social skills groups (think Brick from "The Middle").  That goes right along with what we were thinking for the future.  He said we can stop giving her the iron supplement (which I had quit giving after she was sick at the end of October anyway because it tastes awful and we both needed a break after 3 years), and the magnesium supplement might be good to continue, but would be optional.  We really can't tell any correlation between those and her sleep, which they were originally started for.  He said to keep giving her the multivitamin with iron and to encourage iron-rich foods.  Good thing she likes red meat, because liver and spinach aren't happening here!  Her sleep is still a tough time for us, but he said if the melatonin spray is helping, and if we don't mind giving it to her when she wakes up in the middle of the night, that is actually not too bad.  Melantonin is a lot safer for kids than any other kind of sleep-inducing medications, so we feel comfortable giving her that and dealing with the wake-ups.

So, that's our big girl in a nutshell.  We are so very proud of her and cannot believe how far she has come in her short life.  We could not be more excited about her future.  She is really a wonderful big girl, and we love her so much!

November!

Little-known fact:  November is my favorite month of the year.  The weather is finally tolerable, the leaves are changing in our area, and there's Thanksgiving - a fun but low-stress holiday with delicious food.  What could be better?!?  Our November started out not-so-fun with a fever and cold working its way through our house, but it quickly improved.  Erin had a belated trick-or-treat on the 2nd since she was sick on Halloween.  Bob had an exciting first week of the month, when he took a trip to Hong Kong for work!  He reported that the flights were long but better than expected, the area was very modern and easy to navigate, and he enjoyed his stay.  You can see pictures from his trip HERE.  We girls had a fairly quiet week with our illnesses while he was gone.

We had family/Christmas/Erin 5-year pictures done on the 11th, which is noteworthy in the fact that NOBODY CRIED!  This is the first time we have had total cooperation and no tears during a photo session.  The girls and I enjoyed our outing to Southpoint Mall for the pictures, and got lunch there too.  We felt like hot stuff.  We girls met our friends Nina and Lily at Pullen Park on the 16th for a really fun day there!



We had a babysitter come that night while Bob and I went to a Wolfpack basketball game. While our basketball team does not expect to win any championships this year, at least they should win some conference games...unlike our football team this year.  Bob went to a Carolina Hurricanes game with Tom on the 18th and had a great time.  Speaking of Tom, we've had several playdates with Jimmy and Danny last month and are really enjoying getting to know them better!



On the 22nd, we met Erin's class at Go Bananaz, an inflatable play place in Raleigh.  Even though only one other student showed up and the place was a little sketchy, we enjoyed trying something new.  They let us in for free after a miscommunication regarding what time they opened, so that was nice.  Erin had a dress rehearsal on the 23rd for her dance number coming up this Saturday, and her class looked great!  We can't wait for the show!  We celebrated neighbor Nick's 6th birthday at their house on the 24th, which was lots of fun.  I got to go to Anna's preschool Thanksgiving feast on the 26th, which was so cute and lots of fun.



We trekked to Concord for the first of three trips in four weeks on the 27th and had a great Thanksgiving with my family!





We also checked out Discovery Place Kids in Huntersville, which the girls really enjoyed.





That about wraps up our month!  We had our last day with Cole the Monday before Thanksgiving.  Dale's and Maria's schedules won't overlap as much in the spring, so they don't think they will need as much childcare.  We will miss our time with him, and we still plan to play with him as much as possible!



I've started "tutoring" 2 of the neighbor kids during Anna's naptime, which has been nice for me to try something new and help them out at the same time.  I think it's going well.

So, we are entering the crazy, extra-short, Advent season.  I'm trying very hard to get my act together...almost all of our gifts are bought, the tree is up and partially lit, other inside decorations are up (we are having our house exterior trim painted this week, so we can't do outside decorations yet), and Christmas cards are ready to be addressed.  This is about as good as I have ever done, so hopefully I can keep my momentum going!  We are all very excited about Christmas, and there is no shortage of gift ideas coming from these ladies!  We wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday season!