The kids are wonderful. They play more actively together these days. They have simple conversations, and they generally seem to enjoy each other’s company. I melt when they hug and kiss each other.
Of course it’s not all smiles. Duncan has reached the stage of development where he not only cares that Margaret takes things away from him, he wants to take things away from her. We’ve had a few tug-of-wars.
For two weeks in May my parents were visiting and taking care of the kids while Hongmei was on vacation. I think both the kids and my parents had a good time. Duncan spent the entire time shadowing my father and my mother and Margaret read stories, did puzzles and built things.
Margaret is decidedly a little girl and not a baby anymore. We still haven’t made much progress on the potty front, but she is getting much better about telling me when she needs or wants other things. She’s decidedly in the “I do it myself” stage.
Margaret has been taking care of her baby lately. The doll she had bonded with is a soft cloth doll that Warren’s mother got her, and it goes practically everywhere, usually wrapped in a blanket and with a bottle of doll milk at the ready. Margaret’s interest in our collection of wooden blocks has also taken off, and she loves building elaborate houses and castles.
Duncan wowed the pediatrician with his diction at the 15 month checkup, but his third percentile height was a bit more worrying. We’re not sure what to do about his size other than to keep trying to get him to eat more.
One of the things the pediatrician said at the visit is that he’d be a lot more concerned about the size thing if Duncan weren’t doing so well in every other respect. Duncan uses many words, often uses two word phrases, and occasionally uses actual three word sentences. He’s pretty clear too. Currently he’ll use whichever language has the easier to pronounce word, but being bilingual does not seem to be slowing him down.
Duncan is also still well ahead in the gross motor skills department. His small size probably helps, but he recently surprised me by climbing the ladder on the big kid’s play structure at Lexington park. Given how far the rungs are from each other relative to his height it was pretty crazy. I have been describing his fine motor skills as diabolical, especially after the third of fourth capped bottle of liquid has be opened and poured out on the floor.
Then there was the visit with our RE. It was nice to give her pictures of the kids. What is less nice is that I have a hoop to jump through. I have to do the “clomid challenge” because I am over 40 now. I know it sounds like some advertising gimmick like ‘change your laundry detergent to clomid for one month and if your clothes aren’t even cleaner than with your old brand we’ll give you a full refund”. Alas, there will be no refund. Next time I get my period I need to go in for day 3 bloodwork, take the clomid from day three for a while, and then get more bloodwork done to see how my ancient ovaries responded to being stimulated. If the results look good I'll get to cycle, if not... well, let's not go there just yet. I also need a new sonohystogram. I’m not sure why they need to check out my uterus yet again. I doubt an uncomplicated pregnancy and vaginal birth did anything bad to it, but I guess it makes more sense to just require them of everyone given that one in three women have c-sections.
I’ll try and get a yarn update up soon. I should block and photograph my latest sweater first, though.
