12 Month Stats

We took Liam to the doctor yesterday for his 12-month checkup. He came in at 23 lbs 9 oz (50-75%) and 30 ½” (75-90%). He actually dropped a line on the weight – at 9 months he weighed 22 lbs 10 oz, which was 75-90%. So in 3 months he has only gained 1 pound. Nobody is worried right now though – it’s not like he is starving! I think it’s probably because since he started walking at 10 months, he has just been a lot more active in the past 2 months. The doctor just wants us to make sure he’s getting a certain amount of milk or formula (which is apparently her standard recommendation when a child drops a line in weight at one year). It has been neat comparing Liam’s growth to Zachary’s first-year growth (even though I probably shouldn’t do that – it’s hard not to!). Liam started off smaller – about 5 oz lighter and ¼” shorter (granted, Liam was delivered 4 days early and Zachary came 9 days late, so Zachary “baked” for about 2 weeks more than Liam did). As they got older, at each checkup, Liam was slightly heavier (no more than a few ounces though) and up to an inch longer at times. It made me start to think that at some point he might become the big little brother. Now at one year, Liam is about 13 oz lighter than Zachary was, but is just over ½” longer. So at this point, it’s anybody’s guess. But all in all, it was a good checkup – the pediatrician called him a “Rock Star”.

When we left the doctor, we put Liam in Zachary’s “big” car seat – facing forward. I think he liked it because he was talking and smiling. And later when we went out for dinner, we put Zachary into his new booster seat. He seemed really excited about it – especially the hidden cup holders on each side. And the best part is that we don’t have to lug that stupid baby carrier in & out of daycare anymore! We loved the fact that Liam fit into it for a year so we didn’t have to buy another big car seat (Zachary had outgrown his baby seat by 6 or 7 months – we had gotten a new one for Liam that was much deeper, so he stayed in it longer). But the bigger he got, the harder it became for us to carry him in it (which we didn’t really do, other than to daycare, since one of us usually drops off and the other one picks up). So that is nice to not have to deal with that anymore (even though it’s somewhat bittersweet because it means he’s not a little guy anymore). And he does seem to like milk – we gave him some with dinner last night. So that is encouraging (because goodness knows if we can stop buying formula our wallet will thank us!).

I’ll try to get at least one birthday picture posted soon.