A Mommy Story

Today was Cordelia’s 18 month well-child check-up, and it was an adventure. Things were fine at first – I filled out some new paperwork while Cordy stomped around on the wood floor of the waiting room. Our house is mostly carpeted, so she doesn’t get the chance to practice her early Irish dance moves often. Then, while waiting, she enjoyed running up to the 7 year old boy on the other side of the waiting room and trying to engage him. He, trying to be cool, ignored her to the best of his ability.

We were called back, and as we walked through the maze of examining rooms, a look of faint recognition came over Cordy’s face. As we walked into the room, the nurse adjusted the paper on the table. That rustling paper sound was the trigger that brought back all of Cordy’s repressed doctor’s visit memories in a flood. Her face scrunched up, and she started crying. She would not stop until after we left the doctor’s office.

When the actual doctor came in, she cried harder if he even looked at her. If he reached out to touch her, she wailed loud enough to scare every kid in the waiting room. Her face was the darkest shade of red I’ve ever seen on a person. We’re talking tomato red. Firetruck red. Flames of hell red. Fury of toddler red. Her body was also covered in red splotches from being so worked up. She now has red dots all over her face where she broke capillaries under the skin from crying so hard.

So, aside from that drama, she’s healthy. She has some common dry patches on her legs that we should continue treating with thick creams. We need to give her more milk and less juice. She also had two shots, which required three people to hold her down.

And for the stats: at 18 months, she is 32.75 inches tall, which is the 90th percentile for her age. She weighs 28 pounds, 12 ounces, which puts her in the 95th percentile for weight. And her head is 20 inches in circumference, which remains off the charts, somewhere around 120%.

Doctor’s take on things: she’s a big child. She has always been big, and the fact that she isn’t dropping in percentiles means she will likely be a large adult. He’s guessing she’s going to be a tall girl. We’ll know more at her 2 year check-up, but if she continues growing at this rate, there may be a career for her in the WNBA.

Oh, and we’re still unsure if the gigantic head means that she has lots of brains or just a thick skull. If she takes any more headers into sharp or hard objects, my vote is going to be on thick skull.