Owen's Dr's Appointment

Owen's 2 year well appointment was last week and let me tell you, it was nice to go to see a doctor with a WELL child. I was beginning to think that he was falling apart at the seams!

Our new doc is awsome! Our old ped retired so we had to find yet another doctor but we got very lucky. He loves Owen and is willing to learn about his condition.

2 Year stats:
Height: 30 inches tall(yes tall, I can say that if I want!)
Weight: 25 lbs
Head Circumference: 52.5 cm
And for comparison's sake...

17 month stats:
Height: 28 3/4 inches (that 3/4th is very important!)
Weight: 22.5 lbs
Head Cirumference: 52.5 cm

You know, what's funny is that I don't keep a baby book. I tried to but I'm not really the scrap booking sort. This blog has become the only record for recording Owen's milestones so when I had to look up his last measurements, I had to look up the correct post. I just thought that was kind of funny.
Poor Owen! The only memories of his childhood are a jar full of hair from his first cut and a poorly updated blog that is shared with the world. I'll start saving for therapy right now.

Anyways, so what his measurements show me is that his growth is slowing a bit and his weight is not. His doctor plotted him on the AH charts and he mentioned that his weight had spiked. On that note, Owen will be starting the Master Cleanse next week. Lemonade and Cayenne pepper ONLY! Hahah just kidding...maybe for mom though....

His head. It hasn't grown at all. Not one centimeter. I honestly don't know if that is good or bad. My immediate reaction was that it was good, but now I'm not so sure. Does his head have room for all those brains? It just went to show me how little I know about human anatomy and specifically as it pertains to Owen's condition.

You know, I honestly don't know why LP's with achondroplasia have bigger heads? I thought it was because of their small foramen magnum and the excess fluid that gets trapped. But Owen's foramen magnum is getting smaller but his head isn't getting bigger. I feel like a loser for not understanding this. But no one has ever outright explained it. Anyone? Tonya?

Anyway....here are the plots. Notice that despite the doctors assesment that his weight has spiked on the chart, he is actually plotting slightly below where he was on the height/weight chart.



Oh! PS - I missed the cut off for sending Owen's picture into Regis and Kelly! Thanks for all the input but Owen's cuteness will have to be contained to just our little blogging world for now! We will conquer the world next year!

Go ahead...ask!

The older Owen gets, the more noticable his stature becomes. I can tell that more frequently, people notice his size. Other parents of little people - you know what I'm talking about. There is a certain way that people look at him, point him out and whisper to their partners ("Look at that little guy!") that signifies curiosity as to why he is so small.

I am not however, objective to how Owen looks, so I am not sure what people see. Do they see the dwarfism or does he just look too young (small) to be walking and talking? All I know is that people seem to think that Owen is super cute (and they would be right)!

Despite the fact that people notice Owen, they will rarely ask. A converstion with someone will go a little something like this:

Scene
Enter Owen in to a store or restaurant. He walks beside his mother with a confident stride looking extrodinarily cute. Other customers begin to notice the little boy and stare at him with amused looks on their faces. Owen walks by a particular woman,gives her a grin and then runs back toward his mom.

Woman: He's adorable!
Mom: Thanks! We think so too.
Woman: How old is he?
Mom: He just turned 2.
Woman (with a bewildered look on her face): Oohhhh.....

90% of the time this is where the conversation ends. I can tell that people are confused but once again, they don't ask.
Not that I can blame them. I'm sure people think it is rude to ask and under different circumstances, maybe they would be right. I suppose I could start explaining Owen's dwarfism without prompting, but I'd feel a little strange launching into a explainaton of achondroplasia without the question from the other person.

So I'm here to say "ASK ME!!". I don't mind at all! I welcome the chance to talk about Owen's dwarism. Owen is my very favorite subject so you can never go wrong being curious about him (espicially if you throw a few "He's so cute!'s" in there).

So I said, 90% of the time people don't ask. What happens the other 10% of the time?When people DO actually ask, here's usually the routine.

Mom: He just turned 2.
Woman: Really? He's so little!
Mom: Yeah. He's a little person.
Woman (chuckles): He sure is...wait...you mean a "little person"?
Mom: Yup. He has a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia. It's the most common form. Do you ever watch Little People, Big World?
Woman: Yes! I love that show!
Mom: Owen has the same form of dwarfism as Zach and Amy.
Woman: How tall is he going to be?
Mom: We are not exactly sure but the average height of little people is around 4 feet. I'm assuming it will be somewhere around there.
Woman: Well he's adorable!

That's almost verbatum some of the conversations I've had. Painless! In fact, a while ago, Dan and I were in the Children's Museum in Flint. We had passed this woman and her family a few times and everytime we in close proximity to her, she went crazy over how cute Owen was. She finally came up to me and asked "Is he a midget?" You all know how much I hate that word. In this case however, it didn't bother me because she had asked out of curiousity. There was no hostility or repugnance (go thesaurus.com,go!) in her question. My point is, if the genuine interest shines through, you can ask me anything!

Owen and I had a playdate with a friend the other day and she was asking me questions about Owen. She stopped in the middle and said "Does it bother you that I'm asking?". I of course told her no and expressed how I wished more people would ask. Especially my friends. In fact thinking about it now, my next post will be the FAQ's of Dwafism. Maybe those afraid to ask can learn a little more.

So now, all that said, I can only speak for myself. I do not know if other LP's or parent's of little people feel the same way. Do you?

The Freight Train

Last Wednesday, Owen came down with the flu. It had been a virtual epidemic at his daycare, even causing them to shut down to stop it from spreading. Despite that, Owen got it.

So Owen was the Exorcist baby for a few days but seemed on the mend by the time his birthday came around on Friday. No big deal. His birthday was very low key - only 'Ama and Papa, Mom, Dad and Owen. We had pizza and cupcakes. We sang "Happy Birthday". Owen got a playdough kit and a train table from us and a shiny new Radio Flyer from his grandparents. We played with his new toys for a little and then my parents went home.

Then all hell broke loose.

DISCLAIMER: Read no further if stories of puking, dirty toilet deeds (done dirt cheap) and general bodily disgusting-ness is not your bag. You can just skip to the pictures. For those with a stronger stomach....

I started vomiting at around 9:00pm. Now, let's be honest here. I think most people have at some point overindulged in the good drink. We can all relate to the morning- after revenge your body takes on you. But you puke, you have a plate of Moons Over Mihammy and a gallon of coffee at Denny's and - Viola! All better. This was not the same scenario.

I wanted someone to put me out of my misery. Throwing up gave me no relief. I spent a good 6 to 12 hours wondering if I would ever feel good again. To make matters worse...my husband started his own vomit regimine about 3 hours after mine. Oh yeah - we have one bathroom!

We both somehow make it through the night. Owen wakes up the next morning - earlier than usual of course - and comes into bed with us. We stupidly give him the milk he asks for and whaddya know? H promptly throws it up in our bed. So now Dan and I, already nauseaded, have to clean up Owen's mess.

I go out into the kitchen to get towels and almost step in a big congealed pile of something on our floor. Our cat had thrown up. WHAT?! You've got to be kidding me?!

I go to call my mother to tell her about our awful night and she had already texted me "Uh oh. Papa's been puking all night." Now, I'm really starting to feel like I'm in a damn Stephen King novel. It's like the Superflu has hit and the end of the world is coming. I try desperately to figure out if I dreamt about a cornfields in Nebraska.

Luckily, the worst of the flu passed quickly for Dan and I. It lingered with Owen a bit but he's almost back to his cheerful self. I won't even go into the diapers that 1 week of the flu has given him. Unfortuately for Owen, his big day was overshadowed by the drama. Had we all been well, he would have had himself a nice little birthday.

The calm before the storm.

Owen's new thing - Playdough

A new bike!!! I can even touch!

Uuhhh...I'm 2. All I get is a measly cupcake?

Train table!!! Just what I wanted!

Hell yeah!

Papa knows what he's doing.

ChooChoo!

This is sweet.

Uuhh...guys? How the heck am I supposed to reach the middle of this table?

The Big Day

Owen is 2 today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy S#*@!! My son's a genius!

****BRAGGING ALERT*****
Serious boasting about my childs extrordinary skills will follow!

Sooo....
Owen is my first child. I've never really been overly concerned with figuring out what milestones he's supposed to hit at what age. I'm not sure if it's because of the dwarfism or if it's something I would have been relaxed about anyway. However, it has been brought to my attention that Owen may be super-duper-mega-genius!!! His Physical Therapists, Day Care provider and well...grandma(she doesn't count though because she's way biased!), have all noted that he is advanced in some skill. You be the judge.

Owen will be 2 in one week. Here's a short list of his skills(no pun intended!):
1. He can identify almost all of the letters of the alphabet and can make the sound for them. He will randomly pick out letters on grocery bags, the back of people's jackets & advertisements and make the sound.
2. Owen can identify red, blue, green and yellow.
3. He will hold up the appropriate # of fingers for 1, 2 and 5.
4. He knows hot and cold. He will blow on hot food and give a "brrrr!" in the cold Michigan weather.
5. He has about 30 signs and uses them!
6. He knows how to work my digital camera. He likes to watch the video clips and knows how to switch to the mode that only shows videos. I don't even know how to do that.
7. Owen can follow two step commands like "Put that away and give mommy a kiss."
8. He wants to and knows how to take his clothes off. I say "wants to and knows how" because he can't actually take them all off because of physical limitations!
9. Owen can fully operate a DVD player. Can load it, press play and even scroll the menu to get to the selection he wants.
10. Had extrodinary problem solving skills. He will stack toys on top of each other to climb on to a sofa. If he wants to turn something he has in his hand around, Owen puts it in his mouth to hold it and then grabs it so that it's in the position he wants. Example: He'll grabbing a drumstick by the wrong end (an actual drumstick, not the ice cream cone!) and put it in his mouth to turn it around.
11. He can identify head, toes, eyes, ears, mouth, nose, tummy.
12. He can identify simple objects in pictures: animals, cars, sun, moon, etc.
13. He can do the motions for a ton of action songs like, The Wheels on the Bus, Hot Potato, 5 Little Monkeys.
14. His diapers alway smell like a fresh summer rain.....

Errr...OK, I'm heading into a little ridiculousness and #14 is DEFINITELY NOT TRUE!. Help! Mom! Am I forgetting anything? Grandma's have a knack for identifying brilliant behavior in their grandchildren.
He can do all the stuff that a 2 year old is supposed to do. The language is a little behind. He has nowhere near 200 words. Closer to 20 if that (not counting signs)! He can't jump yet but bends and pops up. He'll get some air one of these days.

OK, had enough bragging about Owen. Too bad! One more point to make. He is spectacularly cute!!!
I'm trying to figure out which picture to send into Regis and Kelly's Beautiful Baby Contest. Help a sister out. Which is the cutest? Or maybe none of them? Have I failed to capture Owen's true adorableness? Ahhhh! Help!

In the spririt of bragging shamelessly about your children - I want to know how brilliant your kids are. Blog about it or comment on what they can do!