Life with Jaxon: February 2010

Jaxon turned 18 months on February 11th. Jaxon is currently wearing 24 months/2T clothing and is very tall and thin. At his 18 month well-child check up he weighed almost 26 pounds and was about 32 inches long (just 4 inches shy of 3 feet tall!). He was 25-50th percentile in weight, 50-75th percentile in height, and 90th percentile in head circumference. He is meeting all growth milestones and exceeding some too. He has excellent fine motor skills and his vocabulary is well-developed (both spoken and signed). His pediatrician was very impressed with his communication skills. He was in great health or so I thought. He hadn't really been sick since the end of December so I thought we were moving out of the daycare germ infestation phase but one look in his ears squashed that hope. They were bright red and pussy as usual signaling to us that his ears never properly drain even between illnesses which isn't good. We were going to head back in a few weeks for an ear check but then about a week later he got very ill with a fever and a rash. We took him in and it turns out the rash was another form of eczema and the fever was probably his ears. She told us we should do food allergy testing as well as auto-immune deficient testing soon. We probably will need to go and see an ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor) to look into the possibility of tubes. Poor Jaxon has inherited his mother's sinus system. I had tubes twice before I was 3, my tonsils out after 13 cases of strep throat in one year, and numerous sinus infections as an adult that led some doctors to recommend surgery though I decided against it. Hopefully we can figure out alternatives to tubes that will work for him but in the end his hearing is most important to me. This week the fever went up to 102 degrees and he got very ill (cough, green snot, ear pulling, etc.) which led us to believe it turned into a bacterial infection and so we put him on antibiotics. It has been 24 hours now and he is already getting better. That is a good sign that we did the right thing and he need antibiotics to get better. It is nice to see him up and feeling back to normal today. He even went to the park with his grandparents (Steve, Shirley, AND Cindy).

Here are few more growth updates on Jaxon:
-he can eat with silverware correctly.
-he can take off his clothes and sometimes his diapers (which wasn't a good thing)
-he is mastering walking up stairs correctly. Coming down is another thing. :)
-he knows about 10-12 animal sounds and names.
-he is learning to count. We have heard him count to 3 so far with us.
-he is learning colors. We can tell him to get the blue ball and he will come back with that color ball. So far he knows blue, green, red, and purple.
-he knows many body parts and can name them and point to them on demand.
-he is polite saying and signing please and thank you.
-he is holding crayons and pens correctly in his hand to write. That is new!
-he can follow and give directions. He knows open/close, up/down, in/out. Most of them are said to Yoda who he also calls by name.
-he is a DANCER. All the time and he loves music. His newest thing is to try to break dance by kicking his legs up and landing on his back in an attempt to spin on it. So funny and so cute. Black Eyed Peas are still his favorite music no matter what else we try to introduce he always wants Pump It, Boom Boom Pow, or I Gotta Feeling playing (he asks for them by name--well I Gotta Feeling is called WooHoo by him but that is part of the song).
-He LOVES to be read to/look at books and is starting to point at words like I do when I read to him. His sequencing and book handling are all great. Cover to back. Pages turned in order. Pointing at words from left to right. Good signs!

There are so many more it would take forever to list. It is just such an amazing age. He is changing daily and gaining so much knowledge it astounds me. The human brain is just so fascinating to watch in action.

Now without further ado...Here are some recent pics of my big boy: