4 year checkup

This morning we had the kids' 4 year well check.  All went well & they all did great.


We talked a lot about all their "past" issues.  Umbilical hernias, Hayden's sacral dimple, reactive airway disease, tonsils....and more or less came up with no real health concerns at his time.

Logan & Olivia's tonsils are definitely still large, but not changing.  And neither of them snore, so we'll just keep watching.  I do sometimes wish I could see what Logan's adenoids look like though, as he seems to be more "nasally" in speech & the least articulate.  We're gonna try some nasal spray steroids that are supposed to shrink them down, we'll see what that does.

Gonna keep Olivia off steroids this winter again & see how she does with her respiratory status.  She had such a good year last winter compared to the previous years.

The only thing that is on my agenda (& its been on my agenda for several weeks I just have not gotten it done for a million, trillion different reasons) is calling the school district to have them all evaluated by the early intervention people.  The school systems offer this for free & if they qualify for any services, that too is free.  Its something lots of preemies are involved in all along & I've taken the route of not calling unless a concern popped up.  And since they have always been on track developmentally, I've never called.  

I don't have any major huge concerns, but I've always heard "Lots of times preemies don't show any delays until you hit school age.  Then it becomes more apparent."  And with school-age being just around the corner I just want to make sure there isn't something we need to be working on to get them all off on the best possible foot.  

The reason it first came up is Olivia's shyness.  Its extreme.  To the extent that if she was going to Kindergarten next year, she'd probably fail on account of she wouldn't talk to the teacher & the teacher would think she was a mute who knew nothing.  I'm not exaggerating.  We had her parent-teacher conference at daycare/preschool this week & confirmed my decision to call.  She is "improving" there & talking some, but I was stunned & amazed when Mrs. Starr went through her evaluation with us the things that Olivia refuse to do, try, or show that she knew.  At home, for me she could do probably 99% of the things on their form, but she did probably less than 40% of it for her.  She is listening & retaining, she just can't figure out how to share it.
And since I'm doing it, I'll have them all evaluated.  Whats the harm?  They say by age 4, strangers should be able to understand 75% of their speech.  And I'm not sure the boys are that articulate.  Its hard knowing whats "normal."  Especially because Olivia {when she talks} is extremely precise & articulate, its hard to know if the boys' articulation is normal too, or delayed.

So since its free... {and my tax dollars pay for it}... we'll give it a whirl.  Maybe they will all qualify for free preschool next year?

They are managing to continue to grow like weeds:

Hayden
41.3 in tall (74%) & 44 lbs 6 oz (95%!!)!
Last year he was: 38 in (58%) & 36 lbs 9 oz (90%).

There is no denying he is a big dude.

Olivia
40.8 in tall (75%) & 37 lbs 3 oz (69%)
Last year she was: 37.5 in (56%) & 31 lbs (55%)

Logan
39.2 in tall (27%) & 34 lbs 3 oz (35%)
Last year he was: 36.25 in (17%) & 29 lbs 6 oz (26%)

They are all continuing to "catch up."

They have this little computer program thing, that you plug in the parent's adult height & it predicts the kids adult growth.  Then they are "supposed" to plot +/- 10% along that predicted growth curve to show they are growing right.  Logan falls below.  I'm not all about a computer tool predicting what someone "should be."  And the boys are clearly VERY different people.  But we discussed Logan's poor diet in relation to this.  He is just SOOO picky!  Besides keep trying to get him to try new things, there isn't much to do.  It's less about being a concern that he is "smaller" now but more of a concern that poor diet now (he is a carb maniac!! who eats no protein at.all!) sets him up for risk of obesity later.  He is continuing along his own growth curve just fine.

No shots for them this year, next year they will get all their Kindergarten shots.

We went out for Runza & ice cream afterwards!  

I can't believe they are almost 4!