Growing, Growing!

I don't enjoy going through the kids' clothes twice a year when the weather changes from summer to fall and then from winter to spring. The reason I don't enjoy it very much is because I feel sad when I am taking out their cute clothes that they won't wear again. It was a tad bit easier this time around because I now have some hope that maybe we'll have one more child, and some of these clothes will be used again. I don't know why I get so emotional over their clothing and shoes. I certainly am not that way about my stuff, lol! One thing that always helps though is that it is fun to have new clothing to put on them. When I started going through Ian's clothes recently, I discovered I hadn't bought ANY size 18 month pants for him. I had bought size 18 month shorts, and I guess I assumed he would be wearing 24m/2T this fall and winter. At first I had him wearing size 18m or 24m shirts with 12m pants, but most of those pants were a bit small on him. I discovered I only owned 3 pairs of size 18 month pants for him - one that went with a 4 piece suit I bought him for Easter in the spring, a pair of Steeler sweatpants that my sister gave me for my birthday in April, and a pair of jeans that were a hand-me-down from my other sister. Well thanks to Paul's mom sending us a box of clothing from Boscov's last week and also my purchases at the yard sale this past weekend, I am happy to say that Ian now has a nice selection of size 18 months. He's wearing a pair of brown courdoroy pants today that I got him at a yard sale.

Right now Ian is wearing size 4 diapers during the day and size 5 at night. Nadia is wearing size 8 or 9 shoes, and Ian is wearing size 6. I think I'll be buying Nadia's next pair of ballet shoes on eBay since I didn't find any at the yard sales. I had seen some at other yard sales a few months ago. Next time I see any small ballet shoes at a yard sale, I'll buy them just in case she sticks with ballet. Ian is wearing size 18m/24m/2T for shirts. Some of them fit him perfectly. In some cases I have to roll the sleeves a little. For pants he's wearing size 18m although there is one pair of 12m that still fits him perfectly. Ian is wearing size 2T/3T socks. Nadia is wearing size 3T for pants. They fit her perfectly now (which wasn't true in the spring or summer). She's wearing mostly 4T for dresses although some 3T dresses still are long enough. It's tough to buy tops for her. The sleeve length on size 3T tops is correct, but unless it's a tunic style top, they are often too short on her (gap between the shirt and her pants). So she's mostly wearing 4T tops, and I have to roll the sleeves a little.

Even though Ian has yet to take a bite of anything, he's still a growing boy! I've made an appointment for Ian to see Dr. Williams again on November 2nd. He said that if Ian is not longer fussing and crying when I'm feeding him, that we can start addressing chewing at that appointment. It would do my heart SO much good if Ian would take one bite of something (and swallow it) before his 2nd birthday. I don't care if it's a Cheerio or a banana or whatever. I just would love to have him eat something truly "solid" (not a puree). Maybe I need more patience because it's an unreasonable goal, but let me tell you I am going to work very hard over the next 5 weeks to get Ian stop crying and fussing when I'm feeding him because I really, really want Dr. Williams to address chewing on November 2nd.

Ian's vocabulary also is growing, growing, growing! A few days ago he pointed to a picture of Nadia and Gabby (rollerskating) on our refrigerator and said "Gabby" without any prompting. He did the same thing this morning while pointing to a picture of Grandpa. He called him "Hapa." I am not sure why he said "Ha" instead of "Gra" because he says "Grama" for Grandma, but still he tried a new word, and I knew what he meant! He says the word pretzel very clearly. The word he's saying the MOST these days is "aisle." He likes to sing that line of the VeggieTale theme song. He sings "up an dow" and then says a few syllables I can't comprehend and then says as clearly as can be "aisle" with great emphasis. He says it all in the correct beat of how the song goes.