The Petite Thing & The Bigger Bird

I have had two Fridays off so far this year, and we’ve spent both of them in the doctor’s office.  Last week’s visit was planned – Clara’s 4 year and Avery’s 15 month well-child visits.  Today’s visit was a sick visit – Avery has the hand, foot, and mouth virus without the hand and foot symptoms (yet).  Poor thing.  Not much we can do for her except give her Advil and keep giving her as many fluids as she’ll take to avoid dehydration.  She has been running a fever and has blisters in her throat, which is how they identified the type of virus.

Clara was first up at the well-child visit.  The doctor started out by saying, “She’s a petite little thing isn’t she?”  We both chuckled and said, “Yes, she is.”  Good news is that she’s still on the chart (barely), and her growth has been steadily tracking along in the 5^th percentile.  Her weight is exactly proportional to her height, which landed perfectly on the line of the BMI chart. 

When the doctor moved on to Avery his first comment was, “Now this one is a bigger bird!”  This made me laugh out loud as we all agreed.  Avery’s growth has definitely tapered off and she’s dropped from the 50^th percentile at 1 year appointment to the 40^th percentile for her weight.  She’s still an eating machine, but she must be working it all off!

Here are the girl's stats:

Clara - 4 years
Weight:  30 lbs. 6 oz. (5th percentile)
Height:    3ft. 1in. (5th percentile)

Avery - 15 months
Weight:  22 lbs. 15 oz. (40th percentile)
Height:   29 3/4 in.  (20th percentile)

Clara made us so proud.  She was very calm and sat very still while the doctor listened to her heart, checked her ears, glands, and mouth.  A couple of times like when the doctor made bird noises when looking in her ear, she was alarmed and just looked at us with these huge eyes, but she stayed very quiet and still.  She was very happy that she didn't have to get any shots.  She played her big sister role well by telling Avery, "Avery, now this is going to hurt, but you have to be brave."

At today's visit, Clara was pretending she was the doctor, and she told me Avery had "Chicken Ice."  I asked what happens when you have "Chicken Ice," and Clara replied, "It makes you go 'BAGOCK!'"

On another note, I have no idea when Clara is going to move up to a booster seat in the car.  The current regulations are 4 years, 40 pounds, and 40 inches.  We're along way from the weight requirement!