Everyday Things

I've been so busy lately writing about major milestones like walking, kindergarten preparation and Whitney's 5th birthday that I haven't spent much time on the important everyday things in Whitney's life. So here's an update on some more down to earth topics:

Eating: At this point Whitney self feeds herself 100% of the time. She still needs to have larger items cut up for her because she lacks the strength to bite and tear things like slice of pizza on her own. She willingly eats items she likes and still needs a lot of encouragement or bribes to eat things she doesn't like. Her food preferences have less to do with texture aversion than they used to. Whitney seems to prefer things with lots of flavor except many sweets. She'd rather have chips and crackers than most candy. I say most, because she does love Smarties and Sour Patch Kids candies. Her biggest struggles are still with fruits and vegetables.

Behavior: Whitney has been asserting herself more lately. Often when she doesn't get what she wants, she will throw a tantrum and hit herself with her open hand. Luckily a time out usually brings her out of it. Whitney has done a pretty good job of keeping her hands out of her mouth recently. However, she's replaced that habit with one that's almost as bad. She constantly has a lock of hair in her mouth. She doesn't usually chew on it. She just keeps it in there and sucks on it. Melanie is trying hard to keep Whitney's hair pulled back to remove the temptation, but if that doesn't work, Whit may get a stylish new short haircut.

Day to Day Health: Whitney continues to suffer through cold season. She's had her share of runny noses and sore throats this winter. She isn't able to fight illnesses off as quickly as little Liam is either. Part of this may be poor nutrition. We're trying to compensate with childrens vitamins, but Whitney can still take up to two weeks to get over a common cold.

At her five year checkup, Whit was back up to the 10th percentile for height. She's over three feet tall now, I believe. But she's still off the bottom of the weight chart. But overall the doctor said she seems healthy and continues to make progress on her own terms. We'll take that as a good sign.