Been there, Done that (and he's only 9 months old!)

Well it's been a pretty rough week for us. Kieran has had an ear infection and was pretty unhappy. Luckily we already had our checkup scheduled with the pediatrician. I suspected something was wrong because he was unusually fussy but he had no other symptoms so I'm glad the dr caught the infection. Otherwise he seems to be doing well. The pediatrician was nice enough I suppose and I was very happy to hear that Kieran is growing very well.

When he saw the dr for his checkup while we were in Vietnam in early August, we were able to get his height and weight so we can at least see how much he's grown since then. Prior to Kieran's official physical in Vietnam, the only weight info we had was what Santosh got when the spa manager and bartender at the Sandy Beach Hotel helped him weigh Kieran on the chef's vegetable scale so I knew how to figure out the dogase for his medicine.

I was a little disappointed with our new pediatrician's opinions on vaccines ("Load him up with all of them and let's redo everything he already had just to be safe.") Yeah - that was not exactly comforting to me since vaccines are not risk free. For now, we will have to evaluate which vaccines he needs and take it from there. I understand where he's coming from but the risks of Kieran contracting many of these diseases can be one in a million. The chances of a side effect or (dare we say) autism are better than one in 100. Easy decision for us - hold off on vaccines for now - especially since Kieran is not in day care.

Sadly, Kieran's ability and motivation to wave has come and gone. It's a serious case of Been There, Done That (BTDT.) I guess he didn't enjoy it as much as we had hoped. Of course waving is Durban's signature trick. He knows how much we love it so he does it constantly to get a treat from us. (A few times he has actually waved to us while we were encouraging Kieran.) So when we encourage Kieran to wave good bye, Durban steals the show by waving his paw up and down.

Kieran has now moved on to clapping and he never really stops. He will crawl a bit, stop, sit, turn around and clap for himself and then keep crawling. It's as if he is encouraging and applauding himself. Maybe it's a suggestion that we are not excited enough. The other day he was crying AND clapping at the same time. No smile of course - just clapping. Kieran takes no requests. He smiles when he wants and very few things beyond my mother's silly songs and my fake sneezes can cause a smile.

We're finally getting into a routine and Durban is getting daily walks again. Kieran is liking his new stroller but sits forward and has such a tight grip on the handles that he isn't really relaxed at all. So much for him falling asleep in there.

We're loving our music classes and Kieran is doing extremely well. . . I think he's literally licked more instruments than any other child in class. So I guess there have been no signs of a musical prodigy. . . . . . .yet.