15 Month Appointment

Just a quick status update. Winston is healthy and BIG...90% percentile in height, weight and head circumference. At least he is proportional! It would be terrible if he had this huge head and a little body or vice versa. He's on track developmentally and proudly shared his favorite word with his doctor: "purple."

First ER Visit

Winston met yet another milestone this past weekend...his first trip to the emergency room.

The scene of the crime: a restaurant/bar where we were gathered to watch the USC/Notre Dame game. Winston was horsing around...nothing out of the ordinary, but he hit his head (we think on a table) and cut his head above his eye, right on his eyebrow line.

We stopped the bleeding (and decided to call it a night), put a bandaid on his head, and put him to bed. I woke up around 4 to check on him and found the bandaid torn off and enough blood on the sheets to make me very nervous.

Dave was kind enough to humor me with an early morning ER visit. After properly cleaning up the wound, the doctor advised that given the location and the placement of the cut, his coloring, etc, there wasn't any reason to stitch it up, and better to let it heal by itself.

Winnie was a trouper throughout the entire experience...no tears at the hospital, about 2 seconds of crying post-cut (the child has a very high pain tolerance), and he's even kept the last few bandaids on his head.

Lesson's learned: clean the wound properly before assessing ER-worthiness of the cut; and get a babysitter for the next game.

Bubs in emergency room

September and October

Winston enjoyed a visit from his Tutu and Grandpa Sullivan at the end of September - I think his grandparents enjoyed it too. We spent 4 days in Key Largo and enjoyed the beautiful "fall" weather that is Miami. Snorkeling, plenty of pool time, and even a treacherous kayaking trip.

Winston, Grandpa and Tutu

Two photos of Winston sitting in Grandpa Kuhl's chair...and channeling Grandpa in his blue fishing hat.

Winston's favorite activity at the condo was clearing out and then sitting inside the entertainment center cupboards. Endless entertainment for all of us.

This past weekend is thankfully over--4 inches of rain, and all three of us battling the flu. We've decided the only thing worse than watching your little one suffer through illness is being sick and trying to take care of a 15 month old who is fully recovered and ready to go. Definitely glad to have the sick days behind us!

Winston recently moved to the toddler classroom at school. He is one of six children, all of whom are a few months older than him. That is good - he was starting to become a bit of a bully, pushing around the little kids and literally walking right over them (especially the ones that aren't yet crawling). While he is not quite at the same level in terms of his walking/climbing/tactile skills as his new classmates, he seems to be thriving with the older kids in terms of communication and comprehension.

The new classroom is infinitely more interesting than the baby room. There are puppets (which totally delight the kids), legos, lots of farm animal toys, book and reading stations, art stations...very exciting.

He is adding new words to his vocabulary every day. Lion (although it sounds like mian); "moo" for cow; purple (pronounced pupple); bear; shoe; vroom vroom for car. He loves books - in fact, at least a few times a day he will pick out a book from the stacks around the house and bring it to Dave or me for reading. A child after his mother's heart. His room is littered with books...and while it drives me crazy when there are toys everywhere, I somehow find great comfort in seeing 10 books scattered around the room. I'm working to encourage him to tell me stories based on the pictures, but he's not quite at that phase yet.

36

Dave turned 36 last month...even though he laments he's on the downward slide toward 40, we had fun celebrating with friends at the Bombay Dar Bar in Miami. Here are a few pictures from the evening. Dave had the camera so no pictures of the birthday boy, but hopefully Wendy has a few she will share!

Winston and one of his favorite ladies, Alexandra (she has amazing strength...he is almost 2/3rds of her weight)

Winston was in heaven eating the PopsyCakes (cupcakes on a stick)