Growing Like A Weed!

Today we had Caleb's 15 month well visit, and I can't believe how fast he's growing. Andrew and I were thinking that he'd really shot up in the past week or so, but I was shocked when I heard that he had grown 3 whole inches since his last appointment 3 months ago. His weight gain has definitely slowed down despite the fact that he is a human garbage disposal. While we were in PA for the wedding last week he ate 3 full breakfasts one day! I was a little surprised to see that he's only gain about a pound and a half since his 1 year well visit. When you pick him up he feels like a load! Every other baby I hold seems so much lighter. Andrew and I really think this is related to the fact that C is a solid mass of muscle so holding him takes some strength when he wiggles!

Here's Caleb exploring the exam room while we waited for the doctor.


Finally the nurse came in to measure and weigh Caleb, and he freaked out when she brought the tape measure up to his head and continued screaming while on the scale. Here are the stats from this appointment:

24 lbs (even) - 50th percentile
33.5" - above 95th percentile (doctor says he's the height of the average 2 year old)

So, what else is Caleb up to these days? Well, he's a talking machine. I swear every day he starts saying a new word. I can't even remember all the words he says now, but here are a few of his favorites: duck, bird, fish, meow, up, down, on, snack, eat, more, nana (meaning banana or any fruit really), ball, goal (when he kicks or throws the ball into his soccer goal), truck, wall, guitar (we have two Wii guitars, ok, so it doesn't really sound like guitar but we know what he means!), all done, watch, Grover, Pop Pop, Memaw. That's about all I can think of now. He's also making word associations and responding to things we say. This weekend we asked him if he wanted breakfast and he turned, ran to the kitchen and said, "Eat! Eat!"

As usually, he's sleeping like a champ. He's been doing 11-12 hours overnight and then taking up to 5 hours of naps during the day. I asked the doc about this because I was starting to get concerned, but he says it is normal, and in fact really good for him. Another word association for Caleb comes when we say, "nap" or "sleep" and he responds with "night-night!" as he runs to the stairs. It boggles my mind how excited he gets for sleep when he's really tired.

He's also kissing everything. It is just the cutest thing when he gives our cat kisses and when he gives my cell phone a kiss every night when we're on the phone with Memaw.

So after Caleb's early morning doctor's appointment and 3 hour recovery nap, we had some lunch and I decided to take him to the Bass Pro Shop for their free pictures with Santa. They have a really neat "Winter Wonderland" including all kinds of free activities for kids. Most are for kids older than Caleb, but we still had a great time. Here is Caleb checking out the trees in the wonderland.

And here he is checking out the fish after our visit to the wonderland.


We definitely had a great time at the Bass Pro Shop, and I definitely think that we'll be going again. Caleb loved watching the fish and seeing all of the stuffed, preserved animals. And the best part...it's free!

As for the Santa photo, I'm hoping to either scan or download a digital file of the photo, and I'll be sure to upload it when I do so stay tuned for that in the next day or so. Anyone want to guess whether Caleb will be smiling or screaming in the pic?