Big Boy

William had his six month check up last week and, as expected, he passed with flying colors. He is huge, and we love it, though I am concerned that Isaac's hand me downs are not going to see us through. He is already wearing pajamas that Isaac wore last winter. Today, he came home from daycare in some of Isaac's spare clothes. I guess that it was not obvious that they are actually for Isaac. Turns out that the pants fit him ok, except for being a bit long.

Here are the stats:

Weight: 21 lbs 4 oz (95th percentile)
Height: (92nd percentile)
Head: ??? Off the charts. Our pediatrician did not have a percentile to give us, she just showed us the nearly vertical line that is the growth curve for his head.

He is really big. Oddly, though, Aleks was even bigger as a baby. That is why I am not worried.

Unlike Isaac his pants actually stay on him-he is very thick around the middle. And this kid is soooo happy. When he was getting his belly checked, he kept laughing really loud because it was tickling. That laughter carried on through getting weighed. It ended abruptly with the shots, but he settled down pretty quick from those-just in time for Isaac to get his flu shot.

When Isaac got his flu shot he was not so amused. He did get a Snoopy bandaid and was showing it off to anyone who would look for the next two days until it fell off. I think that he decided the pain of the shot was worth the bandaid.

William has started solid foods and they are a huge hit. It took Isaac a month to decide that they were worth eating (and that only after we mixed in sweet potatoes). It took William about two bites to decide they were worth eating and then he was grabbing the spoon to put in his mouth and lunging at it. So far rice cereal, peas, carrot, squash and apple sauce have all been big hits. I feel like I could give him about anything and he would gobble it down. So, I plan to give him lots of green veggies. Perhaps he can develop a special love for them at a young age. That would be nice. Hopefully that love will translate over from purees to non-purees. One can hope...

Here is an update on the head reshaping process (please disregard all the clutter-my mom did teach me better). This is the shot of four weeks with the helmet. I think that it is making a difference.

Look familiar?

Aleks' mom just sent this along. Need I say more?

A side note: It is often mentioned that Isaac is a mini-Aleks. I think that Isaac really does not look a lot like toddler Aleks, but he sure looks like "big Aleks" (as Isaac likes to call him).

Helmet

William is sporting a new look now. We have had several questions about this and thought that we would just address some of those here in a FAQ section.

1. Is this helmet for protection?
Not primarily, though it sure has come in handy for that, given the violent tendencies of William's older brother. We just might keep it around for as long as possible.

2. Are you trying to restrict his amazingly fast head growth?
Not really, we love big heads. In fact when he was fitted for the helmet, his head had grow 7mm in two weeks-yes that is fast growth.

3. Isn't his head already big enough?
Can a head be too big? We don't think so. We love how the helmet makes it look even bigger!

4. Is this a bike helmet? (asked by a young girl at the playground recently)
While we do not doubt that William is on the cusp of learning to ride a bike (along with sitting up, crawling, eating solid food, and reading Shakespeare), this is not actually intended for bike riding. We might try that out sometime soon, though.

5. Why doesn't Isaac get one?
Isaac wonders this, too and has already put in a request for his own helmet. We are thinking about it and checking the insurance policy.

6. Is William preparing to be a hockey player?
He is thinking about it, though his mother is opposed (hockey is too violent and we don't want him to learn how to hit things with sticks. His older brother is working on mastering that skill right now.). He is a big Bruins fan and wanted to have a very special piece of paraphernalia.

7. What is the helmet for?
Turns out that he has a very flat head and this is to help it become nice and curvy. The doctors suspect that he had tight neck muscles coming out of the womb and did not move his head much as a little baby. Since he has to sleep on his back and has a rather large head, this led to some flattening out and widening around the edges. So, the helmet is purely cosmetic. I think that it is one of those things that we are doing so our teenage son does not hate us. Maybe this is why kids go through braces? (I wouldn't know, since my parents decided that they were done with paying for braces and going through the agony by the time I was old enough. Not a bad benefit of being the youngest.).

So here is a before-helmet shot of the head. We will post the progress on the curving out process (if I remember and it is really awesome-looking, which it had better be). The helmet basically forces all of his head growth to be in the back, rather than the sides. So, the faster he grows, the sooner the helmet goes bye-bye. Hurrah!

Wounds

This one was a doozy. Isaac was running fast, tripped and hit his head on a the leg of a metal chair. The bruise was huge (kind of like the cartoons where it pops out of the head). Now it has "dripped" down into his eyes so he is sporting some nice black eyes.

I don't think that we are going to be potty trained soon

Isaac got something at the store this last week that he was crazy excited about: Thomas the Tank Engine underwear. He held the package all through the store and on the ride home in the car. Once home we opened them up and I watched to see how this would go. Not so good...He put them on his head (did not get a picture of that one), then his hands, then my foot, then this:

Later that evening, with some help, we got them on correctly for a brief moment. He loved them and insisted on being stripped of all other clothing so as to fully enjoy them. Now we are working on explaining how these differ from diapers. Any tips?

Laughing boy!

William loves his big brother, as evidenced by this one.

The O is missing

This occurred the other night while I was at work teaching. So sad to have missed it. The missing 'O' (actually a zero) was in the car which I had taken to work.