Growth of All Kinds

Whitney the Valentine "Hug a Bug"

I've got a few more odds and ends I wanted to comment on this week.  First of all in Whitney's 4th birthday post I forgot to mention her actual height and weight.  She is now 39 inches tall and weighs 24 and a half pounds.  As I mentioned, this puts her right at average for height and off the bottom of the charts for weight.

Melanie and I have noticed that Whitney is beginning to pick up weight more quickly though.  Whit was closer to 21 pounds in last summer.  Many -1p36 parents have mentioned that around four or five years of age the issue of weight changes from too little, to not letting the child put on too much all at once.  I think we're starting to see this with Whitney.  She is becoming much more daring about the food she tries.  The other night I was having a green salad and Whitney actually asked for some of my lettuce and ate it too!  I was shocked because most greens have a texture that she absolutely hates.  Melanie and I have also discovered that Whitney will also eat most anything so long as it's covered in sour cream.  Whitney even asks to have sour cream by itself.  We certainly don't let her just consume mass quantities of it, but even a little sour cream will go a long way toward putting some weight on her.

Whitney has been seeing a new speech therapist the last few months.  It's funny how she responds differently to different therapists, but things have been going better with speech than ever before.  She still faces a long road before actual words come out, but Whitney vocalizes a lot more on demand.  She also vocalizes during playtime and with her brother a lot.  She's working on quite a few more consonant sounds such as "lalala" and "bababa" and "yayaya."  I also think it helps to have someone like her little brother to talk to.  And I'm pretty sure Liam speaks the same language.  He's doing those same sounds, as well as "dadada" which I'm particularly proud of. :-)

We had a massive snowstorm the day before Valentines but that didn't stop Whitney from going out in her new walker to deliver Valentine cards to all of her friends in the neighborhood.  Her new walker's larger tires did quite well in the snow.  Whit had quite a bit of fun stomping in the snow and slush.  We'll have to go out there with her again soon, because she didn't really want to come in when all the cards were delivered.

Whitney has also been surprising me with her comprehension of the world around her.  One example is The Little Mermaid.  Whit had seen the movie only once before our trip to Disneyland.  And I mentioned how she got to sit with The Little Mermaid and have her picture taken on our trip.  Well, Whit understood very well who she was posing with.  And since we've been home, she's decided that this is now her favorite movie.  When she signs fish we know that she's not asking for Finding Nemo, she wants to see her new friend The Little Mermaid.