15 Month Check-Up

      Payton Joy turned 15 months old on Christmas Day. This morning she had a follow up for her bronchitis last week, and since her lungs sounded clear and she was fever free, the doctor agreed it would be best to go ahead and do her 15 month check-up and shots while we were there instead of coming back and risking even more exposure to the sickness in the doctor's office during flu season. She weighed in at 22 lbs 12 oz (50th percentile) which was down for her. She weighed 24 lbs 4 oz (75th percentile) in early December. With her being sick so much and becoming increasingly active, the weight loss was not surprising. She was 31 inches long (50th percentile). After talking about her development, Dr Melton said she was right on track with her gross and fine motor skills and her receptive and oral language skills were advanced. Looks like I'm going to have 2 "chatty Cathys" in my house! The bets new of all is her head did not grow at all between her 12 month and 15 month visit. Even with the lack of a gain, her head size was still off the chart in terms of size. Dr Melton said at this point size the growth has slowed that he doesn't see anything to be concerned with and that if she agains shows minimal growth at 18 months that she will be completely in the clear. I was terrified of being referred to a neurologist and finding out what might be causing her rapid head growth, and having this constant fear at the back of my mind since the problem first arose at her 9 month visit has worn on me more than I realized. I definitely feel like a weight has been lifted. In Dr Melton's words, "she just has a big head." 

      After her check up, I took her and Rylee Love to Chikfila. The girls love it there, and unless we are sick and contagious, we go there after every doctor visit. The girls chow down and then we play, play, play! Everywhere we go people comment on how pretty Payton is. I think it's the constant smile on her face that brings them in. It makes me smile. She is a pretty, pretty girl just like her big sister. Rylee Love always says "Payt-y and I are the cutest!" I have to agree,

       Payton Joy is officially walking! She didn't just take off one day like Rylee did. She started taking a few steps here and there in November, then in early December she got where she could walk a few steps in a row, and gradually it has gotten to the point where now she is nearly exclusively walking. She still falls sometimes, especially if she tries to run, but she is pretty much a pro at this point. For some reason (I think she was trying to make a point that she was growing up and break my heart), as she began walking, she also began self-weaning. She went from consistently nursing twice a day to once a day and even skipping some days, then last week when she got bronchitis, she just quit nursing altogether. I miss the snuggles I got when she would nurse and miss our bonding time, but I am glad she weaned herself and we never had a big deal about it. But I have noticed since she quit nursing she has been 100x's more addicted to her paci. She has to have one in her mouth and 1 in each hand (3 pacis total) to fall asleep.  And she has even gotten to where she likes to have one in her mouth while she is playing. I have a feeling weaning her from the paci will not be nearly as easy.

     Payton wears size 18-24 Months clothes, size 4 or 5 shoes, and size 4 diapers. She has 12 teeth and she knows how to use them! She loves to eat. She sleeps from about 7 pm -6 am when we have school and on weekends she plays catch up and sleeps until around 8. Now that we're on break, she's been getting up around 7. She usually takes 1 nap per day for around 2-3 hours, but if we have been very busy or she's not feeling well, she may take 2. She talks A LOT. I am blown away by her speech at only 15 months. She speaks in sentences. (I want ____. What's that? It's the ____.) She has even said "I love you." a few times.S he labels absolutely everything. Some of the words she says most frequently are mama, daddy (she says it like da-DEE), pa-pa (pacifier), wa-wa (water or milk), mimmie (minnie), sissy or Ry-la, med-med (medicine), ball, cheese (when she sees a camera or a phone), and two of my favorites are whoa!  and uh-oh.