This morning I took Benjamin and Zoë to story time at the library. We were about five minutes late but it was supposed to run for about half an hour so I wasn't too worried...until it ended five minutes after we got there. Wait. What?!
Yes, we arrived in the middle of the one and only story and then we sang a few songs (accompanied by a CD), grabbed a sticker, and adios!
Story time can be a little hit-or-miss at our library. Sometimes it's wonderful and engaging other times...not. Today was definitely a not day.
We went home for lunch and then got ready to go to the doctor for well child check ups. Benjamin was terrified he'd have to get a shot, but he didn't. Zoë, however, did and it was the worst thing that has ever happened to her (and she's been telling us all about it every waking moment since they jabbed her with those needles; the girl can yell).
Benjamin is now a whopping 28 lb.! He's way on the chart, coming in at the 11th percentile ('atta boy, Benji). He's 90.1 cm (or 2 feet 11.47 inches) tall, which—yippee!—puts him at the 5th percentile for height. I think this is the first time he's ever been on the height chart at all (I thought he'd been growing) so we're all pleased as punch over here.
Zoë is growing so well that Benjamin probably needs to step up his game a bit.
She's already 12 lb. 4.5 oz. (67th percentile) and is 23.11 inches (70th percentile).
Having had a baby who struggled to put on every single ounce, I'm happy to have a nice plump baby again (she's about on par with Miriam at this age so she's not unusually chubby for a baby of mine; it just seems like she's huge because at two months Benjamin was barely breaking in his newborn outfits (Zoë gave those up weeks ago)).
"We like to see babies double their birth weight by four months," Dr. Jooste said, "But I wouldn't be surprised if Zoë more than doubles her weight by then. And that's fine. We love to see that in breastfed babies. And then she should triple her weight by twelve months. And then babies usually slow down their growth considerably, and that's what they're designed to do. They start growing tall and lean but stay around the same weight. That's perfectly normal."
Benjamin had to take a test on his depth perception. I'm not sure if he passed or failed or annoyed the nurse enough that he just gave up trying to figure out if Benjamin can, in fact, perceive depth. The nurse had two cards, one of which had an E on it. They both looked blank to the naked eye but with special glasses on the E popped out of the background. The nurse shuffled the two cards and held them up to Benjamin and asked him to point...
Benjamin pointed at a card.
"No, no," the nurse said. "You need to point..."
Benjamin pointed.
"No, no," the nurse said. "Wait until I show you the cards. Look at both cards first. Do you see the E?"
Benjamin nodded.
"Now point to the card with E on it."
Benjamin pointed.
"Good. Do you understand how this works now?"
"Yes."
"Let's do it again. Point..."
Benjamin pointed.
"Benjamin!" the nurse said. "Look at the cards first, don't just point to a random card. Look at the card to see where the E is and then point to the E. Understand? Okay... Now, point..."
Benjamin pointed.
"No. Okay. Let's see..."
Eventually the nurse figured out that if he held Benjamin's hands still until Benjamin had a good look at the cards that Benjamin could sometimes pick out that E. But sometimes he couldn't. So chances are he didn't quite understand the "game." Or maybe he simply doesn't have good depth perception (that seems to be a thing that runs in our family).
I tried to put Zoë down for a nap in the afternoon but she was not going to take one (that made the afternoon fun...or not). When the girls got home from school they wanted to go to the pool so as soon as Rachel finished her homework we packed up and went to the pool. Zoë fell asleep on the way over (thank goodness) and napped for about half an hour while everyone else swam. Then Zoë woke up and began to warn everyone at the pool about the perils of vaccinations so we decided to call it a night. Daddy texted to say that he had dinner all ready for us, anyway, so it was easy to convince the kids to get out of the pool.
Yes, we arrived in the middle of the one and only story and then we sang a few songs (accompanied by a CD), grabbed a sticker, and adios!
Story time can be a little hit-or-miss at our library. Sometimes it's wonderful and engaging other times...not. Today was definitely a not day.
We went home for lunch and then got ready to go to the doctor for well child check ups. Benjamin was terrified he'd have to get a shot, but he didn't. Zoë, however, did and it was the worst thing that has ever happened to her (and she's been telling us all about it every waking moment since they jabbed her with those needles; the girl can yell).
Benjamin is now a whopping 28 lb.! He's way on the chart, coming in at the 11th percentile ('atta boy, Benji). He's 90.1 cm (or 2 feet 11.47 inches) tall, which—yippee!—puts him at the 5th percentile for height. I think this is the first time he's ever been on the height chart at all (I thought he'd been growing) so we're all pleased as punch over here.
Zoë is growing so well that Benjamin probably needs to step up his game a bit.
She's already 12 lb. 4.5 oz. (67th percentile) and is 23.11 inches (70th percentile).
Having had a baby who struggled to put on every single ounce, I'm happy to have a nice plump baby again (she's about on par with Miriam at this age so she's not unusually chubby for a baby of mine; it just seems like she's huge because at two months Benjamin was barely breaking in his newborn outfits (Zoë gave those up weeks ago)).
"We like to see babies double their birth weight by four months," Dr. Jooste said, "But I wouldn't be surprised if Zoë more than doubles her weight by then. And that's fine. We love to see that in breastfed babies. And then she should triple her weight by twelve months. And then babies usually slow down their growth considerably, and that's what they're designed to do. They start growing tall and lean but stay around the same weight. That's perfectly normal."
Benjamin had to take a test on his depth perception. I'm not sure if he passed or failed or annoyed the nurse enough that he just gave up trying to figure out if Benjamin can, in fact, perceive depth. The nurse had two cards, one of which had an E on it. They both looked blank to the naked eye but with special glasses on the E popped out of the background. The nurse shuffled the two cards and held them up to Benjamin and asked him to point...
Benjamin pointed at a card.
"No, no," the nurse said. "You need to point..."
Benjamin pointed.
"No, no," the nurse said. "Wait until I show you the cards. Look at both cards first. Do you see the E?"
Benjamin nodded.
"Now point to the card with E on it."
Benjamin pointed.
"Good. Do you understand how this works now?"
"Yes."
"Let's do it again. Point..."
Benjamin pointed.
"Benjamin!" the nurse said. "Look at the cards first, don't just point to a random card. Look at the card to see where the E is and then point to the E. Understand? Okay... Now, point..."
Benjamin pointed.
"No. Okay. Let's see..."
Eventually the nurse figured out that if he held Benjamin's hands still until Benjamin had a good look at the cards that Benjamin could sometimes pick out that E. But sometimes he couldn't. So chances are he didn't quite understand the "game." Or maybe he simply doesn't have good depth perception (that seems to be a thing that runs in our family).
I tried to put Zoë down for a nap in the afternoon but she was not going to take one (that made the afternoon fun...or not). When the girls got home from school they wanted to go to the pool so as soon as Rachel finished her homework we packed up and went to the pool. Zoë fell asleep on the way over (thank goodness) and napped for about half an hour while everyone else swam. Then Zoë woke up and began to warn everyone at the pool about the perils of vaccinations so we decided to call it a night. Daddy texted to say that he had dinner all ready for us, anyway, so it was easy to convince the kids to get out of the pool.
You always make me giggle, even when you had not the best day!
ReplyDeleteI don't understand that depth perception test.
ReplyDeleteYou do write in a humorous way! Enjoyed the post. Sorry Zoë complained about her shots. Poor thing. :)
Oh, no! Susanne! You would have failed the depth perception test as well. :D
DeleteI'm not sure how to explain it better. They were trying to see if he could see the E popping out of the card but since he's three they couldn't just take his word for it; he had to demonstrate that he could see it. So, wearing the special glasses, he was supposed to point to the card with E on it every time he was presented with the cards (the other card was just blank). Benjamin was just pointing every time the nurse said point without really looking at the cards. Once he even pointed to both cards. The poor boy had no idea what was going on.
To me (without the special glasses) the cards both looked the same every time.
Haha...yeah, I love how he just pointed every time as soon as the nurse said "point." Funny little guy!
DeleteYeah, Malcolm would have failed that test. Anytime he's asked questions by strangers he just ignores them. Or says no.
ReplyDelete