For Gavin, today's bad news was that he had to visit the peditrician's office for his two-year check-up. The good news is that he doesn't need to go back now for an entire year! His new set of stats:

• 33 ¾ inches tall (29th percentile)
  
• 29 pounds, 6 ounces (69th percentile)
• head circumference not measured (but we can only assume he's still close to the 100th percentile!)

He's grown one inch and gained five pounds since his last check-up six months ago. I was surprised by his low height percentile considering he's always been above the 50th and both Jeff and I are above average now, but we were both little shorties through childhood so that may be Gavin's fate as well! Gavin is completely healthy and normal, and despite having several colds this fall that resulted in just a single doctor visit, he said Gavin is doing remarkably well. What more could we ask for?

Gavin was a happy boy in the waiting room watching all the fish swim around in the tank, but started whimpering when a girl's name was called. I don't think he realized exactly where he was until that moment! He started crying again when his name was called and didn't stop until the nurse left us a while later. Gavin's first stop on the way to the exam room was the scale. He stood on the big boy scale for the first time and also stood against the wall while his height was measured. During all previous check-ups, he sat in the baby scale and was measured while laying down on the exam table.

In the exam room, Daddy distracted Gavin with movies of himself on the iPod while Mommy answered the nurse's questions. Then, the nurse pricked his finger and drew some blood for a cholesterol test and the silence in the room was broken again.

The doctor arrived a few minutes later for his full examination. He isn't concerned about Gavin's speech delay since he clearly understands almost everything we tell him. He expects Gavin to start using many words in the next six months when kids typically have a language explosion.

After a Hepatitis A immunization and a couple of flu shots, we stopped in Target on the way home and treated Gavin to the car of his choice in the Matchbox car aisle - his favorite aisle in any store! He chose Ramone to add to his Cars collection.

And because I didn't take any photos of today's events but can't post a blog entry without one, here are a couple of snapshots of Gavin helping me make dinner a few nights ago.

I certainly couldn't make dinner without my spices stacked, after all!