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Hey, there! It’s been a while. How are you? And the kids? Anything new? You look great!

Yes, The Mommy has been Flaky Post-er Mommy for the past week or so. But if you read my post here you will understand a little bit more about my nature and why I sometimes don’t post every day. Or every other day. Or sometimes for a week! I like writing every day. Sometimes I just don’t get around to it. Maybe I’ll pick up some of those “round-to-it’s” at WalMart today. Yeah, yeah…stupid joke. I know. It’s the caffeine.

For the past week I have been indulging in a cup of coffee every morning. Prior to this, I had been decaffeinated for 5 years except for a brief stint just before New Year’s. It’s amazing what a little caffeine can do for months of sleep deprivation! I was doing okay without it but I just really enjoy a morning coffee buzz. I am aware that I am not fit for public when I am buzzing on caffeine (it doesn’t take much!) and plan my day accordingly. Although I’m sure there is an entertainment factor for those around me… The Tater Tot seems to like Twitchy Mommy just fine! She thinks I’m funny. Captive audience…what does she know?

Last week we went back to the Developmental Clinic at the hospital where Tater Tot was born for her one year check-up. They do things according to her “adjusted age” since she was born preemie. So they were evaluating her on fine and gross motor skills, eating, sleeping, and language skills. As I thought, she’s right where she should be. Actually, she’s ahead of where she should be in some areas. She walked circles around the place and could hardly condescend to sit down to do what the physical therapist wanted her to do for fine motor skills. It was pretty hilarious. She’s just so into walking right now that hardly anything else holds her interest!

It was also reassuring for me to hear that she may not talk as much because she is so intent on walking. AND that, when she starts talking more, she may regress with her walking skills. I am SO glad they told me that because Paranoid First-Time Mommy would have been looking up everything she could find on autism the moment those walking skills regressed. One of these days I’ll lighten up (she said hopefully!).

Of course they weighed and measured her, which is always fun now that she is a toddler. She doesn’t like to stand/sit/lay still for anything, not even a diaper change so good luck getting her to do that for statistics! They weighed her with a relatively full cloth diaper and her clothes on which prompted the neonatologist to comment, “She eats too much” in her heavy accent of unknown origin. She made this comment based on her height and head circumference being in the 50th percentile and her weight being in the 90th percentile. It’s a valid comment, I guess, if she had been weighed correctly but, as those of you who cloth diaper know, a relatively full cloth diaper adds a lot more weight than a full disposable. Think about getting a dish towel wet and putting it in your child’s diaper when he/she is weighed. So, the doc grilled me about what I feed her, which isn’t anything unusual, I don’t think. We talked about how much to feed her for a little bit and then dropped it because The Princess had reached the end of her attention span and her rope and was not going to allow us to continue.

All in all, a good visit and Tater Tot has no issues to speak of. The weight comment stuck in my craw a bit but I’m doing the best I can. What can I do? Cut back on Cheerios? Not feed her as many quesadillas? I’m trying to get her to eat more veggies but, as many of you know, getting a toddler to eat veggies is like herding cats sometimes. So I’m focusing more on getting her to eat a balanced diet. But, really, I know that she is doing fine. I don’t feed her crappy junk food. I don’t feed her all-organic, home made food either but I think I do better than average. I don’t believe that she’s at an unhealthy weight and she is a happy, active child. So I’m just going to do the best I can to get her to eat those veggies and not worry too much about it after that. What else can a Mommy do?