2-year Check-up

Finally, as promised and long overdue, here are the stats from Ethan's 2-year wellness check back in April along with an overall update on our little guy. As expected, he is doing well and as a bonus was already caught up on immunizations, ie NO SHOTS!

Weight: 24lbs. 8oz. 11th percentile
Height: 34 1/4" 47th percentile

What Ethan knows:
COLORS - knows white, black, brown, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, pink and purple. (At least we know he's not color blind!)
WORDS - vocabulary is well over 300 words, but I lost track months ago.
NUMBERS - counts to about 15 without help and is getting better at the concept of quantity and correctly counting a certain number of items. Can also identify all single-digit numbers (i.e. 0-9).
LETTERS - correctly identifies all of the letters in the alphabet, knows what sounds they make and is learning the alphabet song.
SHAPES - knows circles, triangles, squares and stars.
VEHICLES - correctly identifies fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, school buses, mail trucks, VW Bugs, dune buggies (not that we see any of those, but he has a matchbox car dune buggy), jeeps, vans, utility trucks, monster trucks, PT Cruisers, garbage trucks, "digger" trucks (from the construction of the fire station across the street), mommy's truck (our SUV), daddy's car (our little Honda), grampa's red truck, gramma's white car, T's car and all blue pick-up trucks are a "blue Silverado".
ALSO... still knows all the body parts (and has added fingers, chin, elbow and bum to the list), animal sounds and which is his left/right hand.

What Ethan likes:
FOOD - Pasta, pizza, chicken, hot dogs (no bun), goldfish crackers, tortilla chips, fruit snacks, peas, carrots, cucumber slices, pickles, waffles, mandarin oranges, grapes, peaches, pears, apples, pineapple (this is a new favorite), string cheese, homemade mac & cheese (asked for seconds last time), "Grover cookies" (ie cereal bars), cereal, strawberries, bananas, milk and juice.
TOYS - Currently, he is obsessed with Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars. He pulls them out and then lines them up across the windowsill, coffee table, end table, etc. He also loves his ride-on dump truck, Handy Manny tools, blocks, puzzles and just about anything else with wheels!
MOVIES/SHOWS - Handy Manny, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Thomas the Train, Cars, Peter Pan, Rescuers Down Under and Letter Factory (new learning DVD from uncle Ryan, aunt Amy and fam).
GAMES - He loves to wrestle! Watch out if you get down on the floor, especially if you lay down, he takes that as his cue to come climb on you! He also likes to play chase me/hide-n-seek and "tickle torture"!! :) And now, with the nicer, warmer weather he loves to be outside.

What the Doc said:
Dr. Hemsley was seriously impressed with how well Ethan is growing and learning. He said he had excellent verbal and social skills and that he behaved much better than most 2 year-olds. While he was checking him over on the table he kept asking Ethan to do various things and then afterward told me that he doesn't usually expect that out of his age group. After the main exam, Dr. Hemsley and I were talking and he mentioned again how good Ethan's language skills are, so I let him know that Ethan is counting and then that he also knows his colors. I had noticed on the back of the PDQII form I had to fill out (a form that helps the doctors determine how a child is developing - just yes or no questions and you stop after 3 "no's") that it asked you to have your child identify colored boxes. Well, I had already gotten 3 "no's" on the form before we got to that question, but filled it out anyway because I knew Ethan could answer it. This was Dr. Hemsley's exact response: "He knows his colors?!" I was a little taken aback by his shock. So to test it, Dr. Hemsley picked up a banana that Ethan had pulled out the diaper bag and asked him what color it was. Oh crap, I thought. Yellow just happened to be the last color Ethan had learned and he still wasn't very good with that. Right on cue, though, Ethan proudly stated, "yellow!" and went back to what he was doing. The doctor stopped him again and asked him what color the table was. "Blue!" Ethan said correctly and I breathed a sigh of relief and silently thanked Ethan for not making his mommy a liar! Thoroughly impressed, Dr. Hemsley said, "what is he, a girl?!" Apparently it is a lot more common for girls to learn and develop so quickly, but he said Ethan was beyond even most 2 year-old girls. Then he noticed that I hadn't filled out the Autism sheet they give you (which I hadn't noticed on the clipboard at first). He took one look at it and said, "don't bother." During all of this, Ethan was playing with some toys in the room which included a wooden alphabet puzzle with all the pieces already spilled out. Ethan picked one up and brought it to me, saying, "T, mommy." And he was absolutely right, he had brought me the letter "T"! The icing on the cake to this visit (besides no shots) was when Dr. Hemsley said it was obvious Ethan was well-loved and thriving and that normally he'll see a child again at 3 or 4 years (sometimes both) to check-up on them and then again at 5 years for their next set of immunizations. For Ethan, though, he said he didn't need to see him again until that pre-Kindergarten appointment.... he would like to see him, but won't need to unless we ever have cause for concern with his development. AWESOME!! We always knew Ethan was a smart kid, but it was sure nice for the doctor to confirm it! And now, if you've made it this far, thank you for tolerating some bragging about my favorite little guy. I try not to do it too often, but I really wanted to share this and to get it journaled.