Totally normal

I took Henry to the doctor's office this morning for a weight check. He's gained two pounds in the past six months and is also two inches taller. The gain still wasn't enough to raise him above the five percent mark on the growth chart but he's continuing to grow so the doctor wasn't overly concerned. She again mentioned that we should let Hen eat pretty much whatever he wants. (We do.) And have snacks available at all times. (They are.) Since the doc had a few extra minutes we got to chat about a couple of other concerns:

1. Bed time. Bed time is not easy at our house. This isn't to say we don't have the occasional night of good luck, we do. But generally speaking, Henry does not ever want to go to bed. And he's become exceedingly crafty in finding ways to stay up. Cries of "I'm hungry," or "I gotta go pee, mama," or "I need milk," are guaranteed to get him out of his room. Doc P. assures me this is normal.

2. Bloody noses. Huck has a lot of these. And it isn't pretty. Usually they occur after he's gone to sleep. He wakes up with the bloody nose and then cries. Loudly. Of course, by the time we get in his room, he's already been busy trying to divert the blood running down his face so he looks like a victim of some heinous crime - blood all over his face, in his hair, on his hands, etc. Egads. While I have caught Bean with his finger in his nose, his picking probably isn't the cause of the bleeding. More than likely, he's just a kid prone to nosebleeds. Doc P. assures me this is normal.

3. Nearly always answering "yes" or "no": I'd say that 95% of the time when you ask Henry a question, he answers "yes" or "no" regardless of whether or not the question was a yes or no question. She surmised that Bean is often so wrapped up in whatever else he is doing or thinking that he answers yes or no because he understands the questions construct and wants to comply but can't be bothered to actually listen and answer. Great. He's two and already blowing me off. Doc P. assures me this is normal.

4. Night terrors: Those 3a.m. wake ups Hen has are most likely due to night terrors. Kids have them all the time. As our doc is one of those attachment parenting hippie docs, she's into co-sleeping and encourages us to continue to allow Henry into our bed when, in the middle of the night, he's woken up by a bad dream. She views this phase as another attachment phase. I expect Henry to go to sleep in his room (most nights) but I have no problems with him coming to us in the middle of the night if he's scared. A typical night means we put Henry to bed around 8p.m. and he'll finally fall asleep around 9:15p.m. Doc P. assures me this is normal.

When all is said and done, our Bean is totally and wonderfully normal.