Yesterday, Avery had her 18-month doctor’s appointment. Here are her latest stats:

Weight – 23 pounds, 3 ounces (25th percentile)
Length – 30.25 inches (25th percentile)
Head circumference – unknown inches (5th percentile)

Again, the doctor said that even though she’s small, she’s growing proportionally in all areas.

When the weather changes, we’ve noticed that Avery gets a runny nose and a little cough. We were afraid this meant that she has seasonal allergies like Daddy. But thank goodness the doctor didn’t think that. He suggested that the weather affects her, but since the symptoms last only a few days instead of weeks, it’s probably nothing to worry about. So we’ll continue treating the symptoms with Benedryl once a day as needed.

We also talked about what she should be learning and if we should consider preschool in a year or two. She is ahead on some areas and on target in others. The doctor said we should focus on building her vocabulary, which is what we’ve been doing. And her vocabulary has been growing each week!

As for preschool, he told us that its purposes are to learn how to obey teachers, to learn about the structure of school and to socialize with other children. She can learn most of this each week in Sunday School at church. As long as she’s learning her ABCs and reaching other academic milestones, we won’t need to worry about preschool until she’s 4 and getting ready for kindergarten. We were glad to hear that. It’s good to know that we’re doing all of the right things in the way of helping her learn and grow. And we know that Avery’s grandmas, who both are former teachers, also will help us teach her while they watch her during the day!

Her next doctor’s appointment will be in March, after she turns 2.

18-month doctor’s appointment