More Isn't Always Better

Spencer had his 12 month check up today. I was surprised to learn that he is only 20 pounds 14 ounces. This puts him in the 10-25 percentile for his weight. I really thought we had cracked 22 pounds, primarily due to the fact that he eats so much. His height is in the 50-75 percentile, so I guess he is just growing taller. Things went great because he has been on cow's milk for almost a month and he has been off of bottles for about 3 weeks. He has been walking for awhile now, so there really wasn't much to discuss with the PA.

Vaccinations were next. The kind nurse said he gets seven vaccinations today. SEVEN - are you kidding me? Where the heck were they going to put those seven vaccinations? There were only 5 (yeah right, only 5) needles because two of the vaccinations were doubled into one shot.
No child likes getting shots; it isn't my favorite thing to do either, but come on, FIVE injections into his NOT so fat thighs. With each injection the horrible face and tears came. The time in between injections was just long enough that he thought it was over. WRONG. Needless to say after all injections, I have never seen Spencer look so angry as he did at that nurse. At least he wasn't mad at me.

Loot

Yesterday I went to a HUGE consignment sale in OKC. It is called Just Between Friends and it is held at the state fair grounds. For those of you that don't know about it, it is a fantastic consignment sale for kids stuff only and there were 1700 consignors. I am volunteering to help on Saturday, so I received a pass to shop yesterday before the doors open to the public.
WOW, I had so much fun. Here is a list of the loot that I got Spencer:

• Little Tikes Castle Slide
• Winter Coat ($7 - awwwwwsome)
• Winter Hat
• Fall Jacket
• Monkey Halloween Costume ($8)
• 7 pairs of Khaki pants and or jeans (nothing more than $4)
• 8 or so short and long sleeve shirts (nothing more than $4)
• 2 pairs of shoes (one pair is brand new)
• two toy trucks

It was great stuff and great prices. I will definitely be looking forward to the spring sale! Spencer is definately set for fall and winter.

The Vice Principal Called...

On Tuesday I received a call at work from Madison's Vice Principal. My first thought was uh oh, what has happened. She actually called to tell me that Madison received a perfect score on the writing portion of her state CRT exam that she took in March/April. I was completely surprised! The school was planning on recognizing the students on Friday morning (yesterday) during their morning assembly.

Madison had no idea about this. Justin wouldn't let me tell her. She was really confused about why I was taking her to school. She was even more confused when she saw Justin's truck at school also.

The principal went through the normal assembly routine and then he said he gave some background about the tests and said he wanted to recognize some students. Five hundred kids took the test last year and 5 - YES -only 5 students received a perfect score on a portion of their test. Madison was the only one to score perfect on the writing portion and our really good friends' son Quinn received a perfect score in Math. How totally awesome is this? We are soooooo very proud of both of them. They were the only two sixth graders who received perfect scores. The PTA rewarded the five kids with a $10 gift card to Walmart.

I Love Cake

We celebrated Spencer's birthday on Saturday and it was quite the bash. We are so lucky to have such great friends and co-workers.
My friend Leslie made Spencer's dinosaur cake, it was soooo cute. If you are in the OKC Metro and you need a cake, please let me pass her contact info to you. She does a fantastic job and the cake tastes wonderful!

Spencer decided that he was going to peak into some presents while everyone was busy. He more or less just wanted the tissue paper to play with.

I LOVE this hat and bib, but I knew there was no way he was going to wear them. The look on his face says it all. Needless to say, the hat and bib did not stay on, thus the subsequent cake and frosting went onto his clothing.

There is no way to explain in words how much Spencer liked the cake. Let's just say he inhaled every crumb of his cake. See the condensed video below of him eat cake at

http://picasaweb.google.com/mistymadisonjo/2009Aug?authkey=Gv1sRgCObMq6SFgr241QE&feat=email#5371502984380227410.

Click on the second picture. It takes about 3o seconds into it to really get to laughing.

One piece at a time was NOT enough for the poor boy, he wanted it all. He went to grab a new piece and the whole piece of cake came, so he just shoved it into his mouth. He couldn't chew or swallow.

After the whole ordeal of eating the cake, we had to try and clean up. We took Spencer straight outside and took his shorts and shirt off. There were tons of little crumbs that fell to the ground from his clothes and of course, he tried to eat them. Justin took his highchair outside and used the hose to get it clean.

He opened presents in a diaper since his clothes were filthy. He really liked the tissue paper and wrapping paper and didn't really want to sit still to see what was inside the bags. He did in fact LOVE the box that the toy was in. He didn't care what was inside, he just knew that he had a box he could climb on.

After a very long afternoon, it was time for a good nap.

I gave him a bath to clean off the excessive amount of food that was still stuck to his body.

He was cleaned up and ready to play again. He slowly discovered his new books and toys one at a time.

It was a long day for everyone, but it was fun.

Three Became Four

I am sitting here at my laptop during my lunch hour reflecting on the past year. Last year at this time I was in the hospital in labor with Spencer. My pregnancy was so bad and stressful it was surreal that it was going to end on a happy note with the birth of our baby boy. That baby boy arrived at 2:45pm and was healthy and alert, smaller than expected, but healthy. He spent the next two days with no name. We didn't have a name for him and didn't even have a short list. We listed all the possible names on the wipe board in the hospital room. It quickly became a tally board as friends, doctors and nurses put a mark next to their favorite name.

The hospital staff REALLY doesn't like it when you don't have a name and the administrative assistant who is in charge of filing the paperwork to document their birth and to obtain their social security card really gets nervous when you don't have a name picked out, especially on the day of check out.

Spencer was never a name we had thought of. Our friend Clay came up with the name and it seemed to fit. He has went by a lot of other names over the past year: Snert, Little Man, bubby, buddy, Spence and Justin's favorite, boy.

We each have our own little nickname and special place in our hearts for him. For so long it was just the three of us and now I can't imagine life without him. Each day I drive home in horrible traffic knowing that at the end of the road is his little feet running to see me.

Catch Me if You Can

Spencer took his first steps a month ago. He has toddled around with one or two steps for the past couple of weeks. Last week it was 4-5 steps at a time and then the light switch came on. He was off. He walks mostly everywhere now and only crawls when he wants to get somewhere really fast. This is two videos that Justin captured in a matter of minutes, while I have been trying to get a video for about three days. Go figure.

Discovering the laundry room.

Coming out of the laundry room.

Secrets of the Y Chromosome

As most of you know I have worked with DNA for the past nine years. I see all kinds of things that can be detected using DNA. I think I am going to do a research study on the Y chromosome and its secrets. Yes it has secrets.

The first secret is that all boys are born with a hollow leg. This hollow leg is for hoarding food. They can eat you out of house and home. Justin is ready to buy a padlock for the refrigerator. Spencer who still only weighs 20 pounds wet, can eat and eat and eat and EAT. We honestly don't know where he puts it (the hollow leg of course). For instance he decided he wants to be in college, why might you ask, his lunch on Sunday consisted of a entire grilled cheese sandwich and 1/2 hot dog. Most starving young college students would be full after that meal. Spencer was not. Boys do not have "full meters." They are hungry all the time.

The second secret isn't much of a secret to boys, but rather disturbing to girls. For boys, the whole world is a urinal. Enough said.

The third secret is electronics. Boys are drawn to them. They have buttons and gadgets; things light up and make noises. Sadly, the fascination with electronics never ends.

I am positive there are more yet to be discovered secrets of boys that have yet to be written on this blog. Some I can already think of, but will not share those details with the world. I will just shake my head and think, "Madison wasn't like this."

Spencer LOVES spaghetti and macaroni and cheese. He DOES NOT know how to eat piece by piece, he eats by the handful.

ENJOY your laughter for the day!