May
May started off with a three day visit from Grammie, Pop-pop and Ashlyn. We took them to the Franklin Park Zoo where we found the bird exhibit, your new favorite place, then went to Emack and Bolio’s for ice cream. We went on a ferry ride from Charlestown and took a long walk through Faneuil Hall and the North End. We also had dinner at the Elephant Walk in Cambridge where we ordered you chicken curry, but you only wanted to eat Pop-pop’s Cambodian noodle soup. You had a bad cold throughout their visit and at your 15 month check-up, Dr. Shang found that you had walking pneumonia and prescribed another round of amoxicillin. The good news was that we got to skip your shots and blood draw and had an extra two weeks to get your iron levels up. At your 15 month appointment, you weighed 24 lbs 15 oz and measured 31.75 inches, putting you in the 56th percentile for weight and 69th percentile for height. This was a flip flop of your previous percentiles and Dr. Shang seemed concerned that your weight percentile had dropped, although I’m not really worried given how many times you were sick and not eating between your 12 month and 15 month appointments. When we did finally get your iron levels retested, Dr. Shang pronounced you healthy and said we could stop the iron supplements (which were so awful, I probably only gave you the equivalent of three weeks’ worth of doses instead of 3.5 months). We went to see the Big Apple Circus in Boston and had front row seats. Daddy was supposed to go with us but had to travel at the last minute, so Ra came instead. You LOVED it, especially the jugglers (big surprise) and the fleet of white horses that ran around the ring. You only had one moment where you got upset, when a clown knocked the head off a stuffed animal, and you let out a whimper of concern until we distracted you with something else. On Mother’s Day, you went for a walk down to the bakery with Daddy to get me breakfast and picked out your own card at CVS. The front of the card had a dog on it and I am pretty sure this means I am going to lose the battle on us getting a dog as Dad is already on your side. Later in the month when you were back to healthy again, we had lunch at Cosette’s house, a partner I used to work with, and you played with her son Sam and ate – you guessed it – soup for lunch. The next day, we had a play date at Avery’s house, where you and Avery rode in and pushed their two big plastic cars up and down the hallway, drank bubble tea and played with all of Avery’s toys. You got your first haircut at the Charlestown barber shop and look so grown up now that the baby mullet is gone. You were happy to sit for a long time and watch sports until it was your turn, and then Daddy had to sit with you because you weren’t a fan of the actual haircut. The next weekend, I went to Bridget’s bachelorette party and you and Dad had a boy’s day, going to the aquarium and out to lunch with Kyle. We also spent a day up in NH with Amanda. We ate lunch in the grass (you only wanted the chips and my diet coke), visited horses Owen and Silver, went on a short walk, dipped your toes in the river and ate ice cream (you ate your orange sherbet, my strawberry shake and Amanda’s ice cream). You sat on Owen and he took a few steps with you on his back, which made you smile and laugh. You also loved throwing the stick for Max, Amanda’s dog, and cried when we had to go back home. We went to the Lexington Farmers’ Market with Belle and Avery and Belle introduced us to my new favorite place, Wilson Farms. Over Memorial Day, we went to Castle Island where we played on the playground and watched the planes fly in and out over the water. We spent some time at Galilee, where you were dying to go in the ocean despite it being FREEZING, and ate dinner at George’s – one of your best behaved dinner’s in recent history. We spent a chilly Sunday morning at the beach with Lily, Jess, A. Sha, U. Richie, Ra and Papa and on Monday, had Kelsey, Sean and Sara over for lunch and a trip to the park.
You got two new teeth – the fourth on the bottom came in on 5/3 and the fourth on the top came in on 5/6 – and I’m glad to be done with one more phase of teething. Your language has really exploded in the past month and it’s hard to keep track of all your new words. Toward the end of the month, you really started repeating everything we say too. Some of your more notable new words are “purple,” “Olivia” (which you say in a sing-songy voice like the theme song to the show), “caterpillar” and “butterfly” from your Very Hungry Caterpillar book, cars and trucks are “zoom zoom,” and your binky is “ba.” You’ve started to put two words together, the first ones being “hi dada” when you see me talking on my phone. You started calling me “baba” but eventually switched over to “mama” and added cow to your arsenal of animal sounds, first with a “boooo” and then with an “mmmmm.” You’ve started saying “Ahhh-oooooo” in a howl of frustration instead of crying when you don’t get what you want. (I haven’t decided whether this is better or worse than fake crying.) You’ve started stacking blocks and when we say “go get your shoes,” you bring us shoes, although usually not yours. If I say the first line of one of your books, you pick it off the shelf and bring it to me to read. You nod yes and no, although I’m not sure you really know what they mean yet, and give high fives. You know where your feet, belly and eyes are and can say the word “eyes” too. You’ve started to do a funny little side step thing and you want to be outside on the back deck every chance you get (although that usually means you’re trying to throw a ball over the side). Dogs, birds and balls continue to be favorites, although I’d add trucks and cars to the list too as a close fourth. You still love balloons and we pretty much have to have one in the house at all times. This month, you’ve become really shy, especially in music class. You used to run around the room and get instruments from the bin, but now you stay glued to my lap and seem intimidated by the other kids. When someone says hi to you in the grocery store, you bury your head in my leg. I’m hoping it’s just a phase and not that I’ve passed my shyness onto you! You have a routine in the morning when we go downstairs where you stand at the top of the steps, close the gate, wave bye-bye to me, then open the gate and start to come down the stairs. You still need my help, but you’re starting to get more and more steady and I’m sure you’ll be going up and down the stairs on your own in no time. Such a big boy.
