More from Theo's Third Birthday

Six days straight at home with sick kids means I could barely string two coherent sentences together, much less get a blog post up. Michal gave you the highlights from Theo's birthday. Here's a little more detail, including his third year stats from the doctor.

 
Theo took some giraffe photos for comparison. You can see the best shots in the gallery Michal posted, but for comparison check out a smattering here from his first year photos. I don't have any of the shots from 2 or 2.5 years in that batch, so it's a big jump from 18 months to 3 years. But still fun to see.

For the first time, Theo got to use the big kid measurements at the doctor's office. Before it's always been the infant apparatus to measure both height and weight. Instead, this time he stood on the actual scale (fully clothed no less!) and against the height chart attached to the wall. He wanted no part of either thing, until we had Vivian do both of them first. Then he was all for it.

He weighed in at 33 lbs 2 oz, which puts him in the 66th percentile for the CDC and 65th percentile in the WHO charts. That's a pretty big jump for our string bean, up from the 45/59 percentiles at his last check-up at two years old. Of course, he had his clothes and shoes on for that measurement, so that probably gave him a bit of cushioning.

He is 39 inches tall - still tall, but not quite at the top of the curve anymore. That number puts him in the 83rd and 78th percentiles (CDC and WHO). They did make him remove his shoes for the height measurement, so it seems like a solid number. He's definitely grown, over the summer in particular, as he has outgrown most of his long pants and long sleeved shirts. To put it in comparison, he's grown 2 inches in the last year.

As noted in the previous post, this check-up wasn't exactly a well child visit. Theo was definitely still feverish on Wednesday, but since he wasn't getting worse there wasn't a lot of cause for concern. By Thursday afternoon and night he was definitely deteriorating, so we went back early Friday morning and got a nice battery of tests: urine sample, oxygen readings, chest x-rays, and a flu test. Antibiotics rock because he is totally back on track now after missing an entire week of both preschools.

As for other birthday celebrations, besides the snack at preschool on Friday and the party on Saturday, he got tons of presents and flew through opening them Sunday morning. That was a big change from Saturday, when he took his time with each revelation. Saturday's presents lasted the remainder of the day as he played with one before even thinking about opening another. On Sunday he tore through all of them in roughly an hour, maybe less.

Here are the highlights from both galleries. You can see all of mine here.

Theo decorating the cupcakes for the party with airplane toppers. He did a fabulous job, and did every single one all by himself.

Theo's thrilled that one of the paper airplanes made at the party has landed on the bottom of the steps.

Flying two planes at once.

Not my baby, but I'd take him. This is Gus, all bald and chubby and cheerful.

Aster, Theo, & Vivian enjoying lunch at the kids' table.

The first present Theo opened was an airplane set. You can see all the other (still wrapped) gifts pushed aside to make room for the runway.

Birthday loot. As if the previous round of presents wasn't enough.

This book had to be read immediately.

Another book for immediate consumption.

A new jez gets a smile.

New play-doh must be played with immediately.

Vivian spent most of the present-opening period eating cupcakes at the table by herself. She had a pile of presents all her own but didn't open a single one until Theo had finished, when he started "helping" her. She was much more interested in what Theo had already discovered in his packages.

A new airplane and hangar also captured his attention.

Polish DVDs

Polish activity books with a train caught his attention, too.

Still eating over there...

New trains galore made for a very happy boy.

Vivian finally gets around to her goodies. Brown Bear is a perpetual favorite.

A blurry shot of Theo waiting for the light rail. He wasn't enthused about leaving the house (and all the new presents) but we told him we could do whatever he wanted. He chose a trip downtown on the light rail train.

Eating a hot dog on the waterfront. By this time he was running out of energy, and spiking a low-grade fever, which we would confirm once we got home.

Feeding a lone pigeon some leftovers.

The end of a fabulous day: here is a shot of Seattle's new Ferris wheel on the waterfront at sunset.