It's good to be small

We had a busy day of doctor's appointments. Grace went to the dentist for the first time this morning and for her 18-month check-up with the pediatrician this afternoon. In between, she napped!

I found a new pediatric dentist who just started his practice in our area. It was pretty interesting how he examined Grace. The dentist and I sat in two chairs knee-to knee with Grace sitting on my lap facing me. Then I leaned her back so she was resting on his lap and he could look into her mouth and "count her teeth" (he uses all these kid-friendly terms for the examination and dental tools) and give her a fluoride treatment. Considering some strange man had his hands in her mouth, she did pretty well. He told me that she has all her teeth except for her 2-year molars which can come in at any time now. I also learned that her mouth is crowded and it it likely that when her permanent teeth come in they will also be crowded. It sounds like braces are in our future! The dentist also warned me about dental trauma at this age. He said he sees a lot of toddlers who have fallen and had injuries to their teeth. When Grace does things like this I can understand why!
At the doctor's office, Grace weighed in at just over 23 pounds (2 pounds more than in September) and she was 32 1/2 inches tall (an increase of 1 1/2 inches since September). That translates to being in the 31st percentile for weight and the 70th percentile for height. Grace is taller and lighter than other kids her age. She is up-to-date on all her vaccinations and she even got a flu shot.

She cracks me up, too. While we were waiting in the examination room she noticed that the seat of doctor's stool spun in a circle. So she put different objects on it to see what would happen. Her sippy cup, some books, tissues, and my car keys all went for a ride!