We had a long week of illness in this house again. I think that one of the yuckiest parts of moving so frequently in the military is the adjustment to new climates. Every time we move, it seems that we spend the first year going from illness to the next. Washington is wet and cold, Arizona was hot and dry, Georgia was hot and humid, and Virginia changed with each season. I'm not sure if it's the weather or just being in a new area, but it feels like we are more susceptible to whatever viruses are hanging around. Last week some of the kids had colds and this week it was the dreaded sore throat & fever with a little vomiting thrown in for good measure.The kids are feeling better this morning and I randomly popped Leila onto the bathroom scale while I was brushing her hair. She weighs 28 lbs right now. 28 lbs! She was only a hair over 30 lbs before she got sick but there was something so shocking about seeing her weight dip back down into the twenties. She will be 5 next month. She is so tiny!
Although Leila & Sarah were born at 39+ weeks and each weighed over 7 lbs, they quickly dropped from being average size to being... little. When our (pretty hands-off, osteopath) doctor saw them when they were a year old, she was concerned that they only weighed 16 lbs each. I hadn't been concerned about their size until then because they were having plenty of wet and poopy diapers and were developing normally and meeting milestones. But the doctor wanted to have some metabolic testing done, just in case. The blood work came back normal and now we just laugh about the girls being "late bloomers."One of the funniest things about this is that Jason and I are both on the tall side. He's 6' 3" and I'm 5'10". The thought of having two daughters that are so tiny makes us all giggle. Our other kids are all of average weight and height, starting out on the bigger side and then averaging out as toddlers. Leila and Sarah are only 39 inches tall at nearly 5 years old, which puts them in the 3rd percentile for height. And their weight (at 30 lbs) is not even on the chart. Matthew even asked if the girls might be little people (dwarfism) which is most certainly not the case. They are just little.
I don't usually think about the girls' size unless they're playing next to another child their age or I'm buying their clothes. I bought clothes a few seasons ahead at a consignment sale a few years ago and they still haven't grown into them yet. They are wearing size 3T clothes, which is the same size that Nathan and Ryan are wearing. (And, for the record, Nathan and Ryan weigh more than the girls now.)
I have no idea why my girls are so tiny, but I just love it. There is something so sweet about being petite! (I would not know about that personally, as I am a giraffe.) Hey, someone has to be in the lowest percentiles, right? Added bonus: these girls take forever to outgrow clothes and shoes!
Does anyone else have a child at the bottom of the growth chart?
