Tucker update - 15 months
I hope everyone is enjoying summer. We just returned from a week in NC visiting with my family. Tucker had lots of fun with his cousins and friends there. We even had a fun adventure when I took him to get his haircut at a “kid’s salon” my cousin told me about. He was able to sit in a car instead of a chair, while watching an Elmo video. The stylist cut his hair, and then she “styled” it using some palmade made especially for children (I am not even kidding – there really are hair products for toddlers!). I know I am biased, but I thought he looked quite handsome afterwards.
Tucker began walking (and running, jumping and climbing) around 13 months, and he’s enjoying his new freedom, especially playing outside. By the end of a full day at school, he is covered in dirt from head to toe (think Pigpen from the Peanuts cartoon). And, he still loves playing with anything with wheels – trucks, trains, cars, etc – and all kinds of balls, especially if they bounce when he throws them on the hardwood floors. He is becoming such a BOY. Jason and I have already accepted the fact that our furniture will be taking the brunt of his energy. Our couch has already been drooled on, spilled on, puked on, jumped on, etc. and there is probably much more to come.
He is also adding to his vocabulary. For a few weeks, he called both Jason and me “daddy”. When I picked him up from school in the afternoons, he would run up to me with his arms raised, and say “Daddy!”. The teachers thought it was hysterical. He now calls me “mama” – and he has even combined the two for “mamadaddy” when he really wants to get our attention. He can also identify and say “baby” and “puppy” and “duck”. Sometimes he will say parts of words, e.g, “ish” for fish, “fa-fa” for fan, “mi-mi” for milk. He does understand a lot more words than he can actually say at this point. For example, when I ask him to hold my hand, he will comply. Or, if I ask him to eat his all his veggies, he will shake his head no.
Other than a few vegetables, he continues to be a good eater – too good. His daycare director left me a note in his bag one day saying I needed to pack more lunch for him, because he was eating all of his food, then begging for food from other kids. Apparently, he really wasn’t getting enough to eat. When we were visiting with a friend of mine recently, he was playing quietly on the kitchen floor when he found a bug, picked it up and inspected it, and then popped it into his mouth. I ran over to him, stuck my finger in his mouth to retrieve it, and pulled out what looked like a cricket leg. Then, gulp!…and the rest of the bug was gone! (Oh well, those things are considered to be a delicacy in some parts of the world.) He has also eaten pea gravel from the playground at school, dirt from one of my houseplants, crumbs of stale bread and hard macaroni noodles on the floor under his highchair, and various types of paper including newspaper, part of a magazine page, and pieces of a babywipe. I’m sure if any of those things had been a carrot or green bean, he wouldn’t have touched them!!
Despite eating so well, he has actually lost some weight now that he is so active. At his recent 15 month appointment, he weighed 22 lbs and 8 ozs (25th percentile), which is down from about 24 lbs at his heaviest. He is 29.5 inches long, which puts him in the 15th percentile for height. He is still small for his age, but he is healthy and developing normally. He is still seeing an allergist occasionally, just to check on his wheezing issues. We haven’t had any problems lately (knock on wood), but he is still taking 3 preventative medicines a day.
That’s the update for now. Keep us updated on you!
Deanna
