This afternoon we had Miss G’s 18 month wellness check up.  Although I love knowing that she’s growing, gaining weight, and reaching her milestones as expected, I absolutely dread the vaccination part.  I’ve always disliked it (especially in Kuwait at those terrifying government clinics), but now that she’s older, it’s worse. Afterwards, she looks up at me with these big tear-filled eyes with a ‘Mama, you knew that was going to happen’ expression.  Break my mama heart.  The good news is that this time around it was only one shot compared to the four she had to get at twelve months.  And getting to choose an animal sticker and play with toys afterwards seemed to pretty much make up for the poke.

The other good news is that our nurse was really happy with all of her measurements, skills, and progress. This months measurements may be a little off because it was the first time she was weighed with clothes and shoes on, and it was the first time she was standing when her height was measured, but close enough.  Here are her 18 month stats:

• Weight – 25 pounds (up from 21 pounds at her 12 month visit, jumping her up from the 50th percentile to the 65th)
• Height – 80 centimetres (up from 76 centimetres at her 12 month visit, moving her way down from the 95th percentile to the 45th!)
• Head Circumference – 48 centimetres (up a half centimetre from her 12 month visit, moving her just a tiny bit from the 90th percentile down to the 87th)

When we originally pulled up to the clinic, my unsuspecting little lady saw the playground at the school across the street and started bouncing with excitement.  Of course, little did she know, we weren’t there to play.  I told her that we were going to visit the nurses, and afterwards, we’d go to a park.  So that’s exactly what we did.

It was freezing cold and we were the only ones there, but she was pleased none the less.

We played, ran, slid, and hid and then headed home to have dinner and a warm bath!