Kalin has another tooth!! My dad was the one who found it. It wasn't where I was expecting one. It is an upper right molar - maybe. I'm not 100% sure that it's a molar and he doesn't let me get my finger in his mouth very often to explore so I'll have to wait a bit to find out which tooth it is. So that makes tooth #8 and I'm expecting a couple more to show up sometime soon.Kalin had his 15-18 Month check-up on Thursday. I had originally thought that they called it just a 15-month check-up but apparently it covers 15-18 months so we were still within the range. He is 32 inches (78th percentile) and 25 lbs. ( 63rd percentile). I'm not completely sure how accurate the weight is though. Our doctor's office hasn't gotten their new digital scales yet so they're still using the ones with the slider (I'm sure there's a technical term for them) and Kalin was not happy about being put on it so he was crying and moving and reaching for me so I think the nurse got an estimate and just went with that. It's only a few ounces more than 3 months ago but he has been eating less and they say that this is when the weight gain really slows so who knows, it could be accurate.
Sadly, I think Kalin is starting to recognize the doctor's office. A few seconds after we walked into the examination room he started looking around and getting fussy, like he knew the horrible things that go on in there. He did get 3 shots and handled it just about as well as we had expected. He did keep trying to take the band-aids off afterwards until we put his shorts back on him. The nurse said that it happens alot because the child thinks it's the band-aid that it causing the pain. Thankfully there hasn't been any reactions to the shots. And we were told that we don't have to go in again until after Kalin's second birthday!! Of course then I remembered we'll probably have to go in October to get his flu shot. But still, that's 7 months without a check-up appointment!! I guess I'll have to measure him and weigh him myself now.
Overall he appears to be doing quite well. The doctor once again mentioned that he has a nice, big head and also commented on his strength. Kalin was not happy about the doctor coming close with the stethoscope and kept pushing his hands away. The doctor also called him a brute. Kasey and I had a good laugh over that.The only question I had at this check-up was to make sure that his verbal skills are where they should be. I wasn't really worried but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Now, I know that you're not supposed compare babies too much and especially between genders. But when my niece, who is a month younger than Kalin already has, like, 20 words in her vocabulary that she pronounces quite clearly and can already say people's names while Kalin still doesn't call us "mama" and "dada" frequently and his 5-10 words aren't understood by anybody other than his parents - it made me wonder if he should be farther along. The doctor was very helpful and reassured us that as long as he's understanding what we're saying and has a few words that he uses for things then he's doing just fine at this age. 5-10 words is normal at this age and boys are usually about 3 months behind girls in verbal expression. He also told us 
that as far as pronunciation and understandability goes the norm is for 50% of what a 2-year old says should be understood by a stranger, 75% for a 3-year old and by 4 years a stranger should have very little trouble deciphering what is being said. This put my mind at ease. Kalin is slowly but surely figuring out how to say things and he most definitely understands what we say. I still have many days though when I wish he knew how to say more. It would cut down on a lot of frustration. Many times he'll just look at us and start signing "please" and we have no clue what it is that he wants. Then he gets frustrated that we don't know what he wants. Sometimes he'll be able to point in the vicinity of the desired object and we try and figure it out from there. But I would love for him to say, "Excuse me Mama, may I please have some Cheerios?". Ah well, that day shall come. As with all developmental things, this too cannot be rushed. I'll just keep naming and labeling everything for him, talking to him and reading to him. Little by little, object by object, we'll figure out how to communicate better with each other.
that as far as pronunciation and understandability goes the norm is for 50% of what a 2-year old says should be understood by a stranger, 75% for a 3-year old and by 4 years a stranger should have very little trouble deciphering what is being said. This put my mind at ease. Kalin is slowly but surely figuring out how to say things and he most definitely understands what we say. I still have many days though when I wish he knew how to say more. It would cut down on a lot of frustration. Many times he'll just look at us and start signing "please" and we have no clue what it is that he wants. Then he gets frustrated that we don't know what he wants. Sometimes he'll be able to point in the vicinity of the desired object and we try and figure it out from there. But I would love for him to say, "Excuse me Mama, may I please have some Cheerios?". Ah well, that day shall come. As with all developmental things, this too cannot be rushed. I'll just keep naming and labeling everything for him, talking to him and reading to him. Little by little, object by object, we'll figure out how to communicate better with each other.
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