Oh my, how we've grown!

Just back from Cooper's 2 year old wellness check (OK, OK, we're a little late getting that done since he is already 2.5 yrs old) and he did great!  29.5 lbs puts him at 50th percentile for weight, and 35 3/4 inches puts him at 50th percentile for height.  No surprise there considering his parents are of average weight and probably below average height.

Cooper's pediatrician is awesome. We love her. We've been with their office since Cooper was born and they have been a great source of support for us for both Cooper's rocky start and my challenge with cancer.  Since I still have a suppressed immune system they automatically bring us back to a room when we arrive so that I'm not being exposed to a variety of sick kids in the waiting room.  Last year when H1N1 was ripping through the country they were among the first and only doctors' offices in our area to get the vaccine and even though they got very little of it, they put me and Cooper at the top of their list to get it because I was in treatment and extremely vulnerable and I couldn't go to any of the county clinics and be exposed to the hundreds of people that would be there. In fact, Dr.M called me the day they got their staff's supply of the vaccine and told me to come in so they could give me HER dose. That's right - she gave up her H1N1 vaccine dose so that I could get it because she knew I had been struggling to find it and was having to spend most of my time in the house avoiding contact with others for fear of catching H1N1.  We LOVE her and we know God put her in our lives to get us through these challenging couple of years. We are so blessed and grateful.  So, if you are a local and in need of an amazing pediatrician call me and I'll give you their details.

As far as development goes, Cooper is right on track with his motor, sensory and communication skills. This morning when he woke up I said "Daddy is coming home tonight." and he replied "from work the airplane." I was quite impressed. We don't talk about it a lot. When Bob is away and Cooper asks for Daddy I tell him that Daddy is at work.  When we are outside and an airplane flies overhead he points up and says "airplane! Daddy!" which always amazes me.  So cute.

Cooper fell asleep on my lap during his physical exam. Dr.M and I had a great chuckle as she poked and prodded, looked in his ears, etc, and he barely moved.  Of course he woke when she had to get a look at his throat and then shortly after he received two immunizations - the flu shot and the Hep A shot.  We were only planning to do one vaccine (flu) but after discussing it I agreed to have the second added. Two per visit is the max I will allow because although I'm pro-vaccination I want to avoid overloading his system with too much at once.  Cooper is behind on his shots in that he is late getting MMR and Chicken Pox and that is intentional actually because they are live vaccines.  With my compromised immune system the pediatrician and my oncologist said it is best to limit my exposure to illnesses and to live vaccines if I'm in really close contact (child or spouse) as a precaution.  They said it's OK now even though my WBC count is still below normal (hovering between 3-4 with normal being 4-11) so in a month Cooper will get the MMR vaccine.  We'll wait at least a month (maybe longer) for the Chicken Pox vaccine which I'm not yet convinced is necessary.  Coop cried for 5 seconds from the shots then as soon as the Sponge Bob band aid went on he started smiling and talking about it as if nothing had happened. That's my boy! He's tough like his mom :)

Cooper has been doing really well at day care/preschool. He loves playing with other kids and is learning so much there - saying new words nearly every day.  I really am trying to be careful what I say around him because he's begun to repeat quite a bit and I have a bit of a potty mouth so I need to watch it.

Speaking of potty....we have not yet begun any potty training. His teacher told me a couple weeks back that Cooper asked to go to the potty so she brought him into the bathroom and gave him a chance to sit on the potty and he said "nah!" and walked away laughing.  So we went out and got the potty seat that goes on the toilet and a step stool and put it in the downstairs bathroom so it'll be there when he decides he wants to try it. We're doing nothing else to encourage it though because we want it to be on his terms so that it's a success and we don't want to have to go through it more than once (sleep training and bottle elimination attempts up at like 4 attempts now is enough of that craziness). 

And....speaking of bottles...*sigh*. Guilty - Cooper still drinks milk (and juice and water) from a baby bottle at night. We have tried eliminating night feedings before with reasonable success only to regress when he was sick a while back and we never took it away after that.  It's a bit of a long story relating to the fact that he REFUSES to drink milk from anything other than a bottle and we're concerned that his picky eating during the day means that without milk he'd get virtually no fat in his diet and also end up asleep on an empty stomach (meaning waking up frequently begging for milk and/or food). Daycare is working on trying to get him to drink some milk from a cup at lunch time and snack time but it's been slow going.  Based on my discussion with Dr.M I've decided we'll just take the bottles away at night during Christmas vacation and not look back (Lord help us!).  Hopefully that will force him to eat more during the day and give in and drink milk from a sippy or normal cup.  I'll be praying on that every day between now and when we embark on that to request the Lord's help and grace since we've been challenged enough, don't you think? ;)