Summer's Over

Wow, September already.  This morning I saw kids waiting for the school bus.  This summer flew on by!  I really hope the nasty humid and hot weather is gone for good though. I'm so ready for cooler weather!

Let's see...any updates.  Carey had his 15-month well appointment last Friday.  Here are his stats:

Weight:  20 lbs, 10.5 oz (under 6.7%)
Height:  30 inches (14.6%)
Head Circumference:  47 cm (47.4%)

I thought he would weigh a little more than that but the dr said that when they get to a certain age, they stop gaining pounds rapidly.  According to his chart, he is doing just fine.  Every time I go in for a well check-up for Carey, my family always asks...how much percentage are his measurements?  They just don't do that for preemies cuz it's going to be tiny tiny.  This is the first time I looked it up and yep, tiny, except for his head.  My baby has a big head, big hands and feet.  And he's pretty tall!

My boy eats a TON and drinks a TON of milk.  They say you should limit the amount of whole milk to only 16-24 oz a day to prevent iron deficiency.  We've been doing that but lately, Carey wants more milk at night time.  He'll scream when he finds out there's no more milk in his bottle and I have to scramble quickly to get him more or else he'll never stop screaming.  I know I have to transition him to a cup instead of a bottle but it sucks when my mom refuses to do that cuz it's easier for her to give him the bottle.  *sigh*  I'll have to transition him myself when I'm home for a week at the end of the month. 

I searched on google and you never read that their kids love milk too much.  Only that kids refuse to drink milk.  I was one of those kids.  I hated milk but I got my calcium via yogurt and cheese, which I loved.  My sister hated all dairy and she's shorter than me. Haha.  But the only people I know who loved milk are my cousin, Snot, who is very tall; and Meanie, who's also very tall.  I keep on hearing stories from Meanie that his father had to buy a bunch of milk several times a week cuz he would suck it all down.  I think that's what Carey's starting to do.  I buy the 3-pack organic whole milk from Costco and that should last me for a week but sometimes it doesn't and I have to run to the grocery store to get a gallon of organic whole milk.  Gack.  At least it's cheaper than formula!

Carey's got a lot of teeth.  Almost a full mouth.  His molars have come in and the ones in between are coming in now.  It's like they all popped up all at one time.  And I can't pry open his mouth like a circus lion to monitor these things.  I found out when Carey got his vaccines on Friday - measles, chicken pox, flu and Hep A (just in case because we are going to Cancun in November) - when he was screaming his little lungs out, I peered into his mouth and saw all these teeth coming out!  That boy inhales his food.  I don't know if he chews or not but it's gone in seconds, esp if he really likes it. 

It's funny cuz I was reading an old post of mine during my pregnancy about how whenever I ate food, baby would jump around all over in my uterus as if he were excited.  And if I forget to eat or if I was too lazy to get food, I would get a kick from the uterus telling me that I need to feed him.  And I said that my kid would prolly be a foodie.  Boy, was I right or what?

His palate is more like an adult's.  He can eat scallions, onions, garlic and ginger with no problems at all.  He loves Asian food, Taiwanese and Vietnamese, and he also likes the American stuff.  He had Costco pizza for the first time over the weekend and he looked so happy.  I think his favorite foods are watermelon (such a happy happy face when he's eating it) and oranges.  It's funny cuz I was snarfing those 2 things like candy while I was preggers.  He prolly likes pomelo, too, but we haven't given him any.  I was eating pomelos for dinner when I was preggers.  Grapefruit if I couldn't find any.  I craved for it.  Heheh.

But overall, Carey is doing well.  The dr wants him to speak more and know more words. He has said some words but he hasn't said them again.  He's already said "Bad" (lol), "Red", "Green" (at Meanie's prompting), "Milk", "Mama", "Meh".  He says "Meh" alot and it seems like he says it towards me.  I wonder if he knows that "Meh" means Mom in Vietnamese.  I dunno if he's saying that for me or if he's just babbling.  We tell him to say "Mama" but "Meh" comes out instead most of the times.  The dr also wants me to let him feed himself.  *cringe*  Guess I'll be doing a lot of cleaning during my vacation.  It doesn't help that Carey refuses to sit at his high chair, too. So it's kinda hard to let him feed himself with a utensil!

He is officially walking!  He's very steady on his feet and can officially walk from person to person.  But now that he's kinda mastered walking, my daredevil son has been trying to walk up and down the stairs, only to fail. : (  My poor baby! He seems to have inherited his mother's and father's clumsiness and has constant booboo's and bruises.  In fact, he had cut his foot on something several weeks ago and we had no idea what it was.  It got infected and it swelled up and got red.  I even had to call the doctor's office to see what we could do for it and they said warm compresses and Neosporin.  The infection eventually broke and now it's healing up nicely.  But I don't think he was bothered by any of it. He has a high pain threshold!

Now that it's officially cooler in the mornings and nights, I like to put BabyLegs legwarmers on him. 

These are so covenient! I just slip these on, instead of pants, and he's good to go.  They also protect his knees and legs when he's crawling on hard wood floor.  And if his feet are a little chilly, I pull them over the heels of his feet, too.  And yeah, adults can wear them on your arms, too!  They have very cute designs and patterns.

These Cocolo bears are Carey's most prized possession. Actually, the bears aren't the prized possssions but the blankies they are holding are Carey's most prized possession.  He received one of these bears last year from a friend of ours.  He used to love the bear but now it's hanging out in his playroom somewhere.  But the blankie has become his "nigh-nigh", his lovey, his security blanket.  He's totally like Linus from Peanuts.   It didn't cross my mind to get several duplicates until he started getting a rash on his face from the blankie.  He would drag his blankie everywhere, mop the floors with it, etc, so god knows what sorts of nasties are on his lovey.  It took some work tracking these doods down but thankfully Snot found them on Ebay.  I promptly paid for 2 of these doods and now I have 3 loveys for Carey so I can swap them out for washes.  I've heard stories where extra loveys have backfired because the kids know the difference but luckily for me, Carey still loves them all!

This is the Cloud B Lavender Lab pillow.  I know young kids shouldn't be sleeping with pillows but Carey's been a pillow sleeper ever since he started co-sleeping with us.  Even those rare times when he slept in his crib, he always used his bumpers as a pillow, not as a bumper.  But Carey loves this.  Not only cuz it's in puppy form, but that it's soft and cuddly and he does use it as a pillow! It's so adorable when I check on his while he's sleeping and he's hugging his pillow and using it.  : )

Carey is a puppy fiend.  All his stuffies, pillows, etc are all puppies or dogs.  You know if something has Carey's seal of approval when he nuzzles them nose to nose. It's sooo soo cute.  These 2 are the only exceptions that he loves that aren't puppies:

His baby seal and shark Lubies.  He likes to chomp on noses, too.  Stuffy's noses, not human noses.  Phew!

Here are his puppy friends:

(From top to bottom:  Spunky - Gund blanket; Carter Baby Puppy Lovey; North American Bear Co. Pastel Pancake Puppy with Blanket)

Everything else that he dislikes is beaten up and then thrown out of his view.  Hee hee.