Too much pink!

We visited the developmental psychologist at Children's Hospital this week. It was Charlie's last appointment in their study of "extremely low birth weight babies" - at 18 months adjusted, he is now "graduated" from the study, which is too bad for us, since he is still showing significant delays and now we'll have to PAY for all of our visits there. Anyway, one of the things we need to work on is relevant play - basically, having Charlie play with toys that mirror his own life. His farm and fire truck are great, but unless he's going to be seeing real-life cows and horses and noisy red trucks on a daily basis, they can't help him learn more about his own daily routine. He should have toys that help him recognize his daily activities, the parts of his body, etc.

Enter Charlie's new baby doll. I just returned from Target and am trying to control my (probably unreasonable) irritation at the fact that they don't have a single doll or doll accessory in a color other than pink or lavender. I like pink as much as the next person, and I have plenty of pink clothes. And I don't care that the doll is female - a) it's not anatomically correct or anything, and b) I want him to be friends with boys AND girls. He can play daddy to a girl baby all he wants. But is it too much to ask that the baby could wear something other than a pink outfit? And don't get me started on the accessories. Charlie now has a pink flowered diaper bag, a pink cell phone, pink and purple keys, a pink baby stroller, a pink baby bottle... I guess I could have shopped around a little to try to find one more appropriate, but since I didn't want to spend my Saturday doll shopping, I gave in. He won't care, so I'm not going to care anymore either. But if you know where I can find some doll clothes in a color other than pink, let me know! Meanwhile, I'm just going to think about all of the funny photos we will have for a rehearsal dinner slide show some day!

The developmental appointment was fine - we don't have the evaluation yet so we're not sure exactly where he is measuring, but he couldn't or wouldn't do several of the activities they placed in front of him. But he continues to improve, and that's what really matters. If they felt he was plateauing, they would be far more concerned. As long as he continues to learn and advance, they'll just keep things as they are, and provide suggestions about things we should work on with him.

I have a hard time with the fact that there isn't any clear course of action, and that sometimes the different therapists have conflicting opinions about what is important. This week, we saw the physical therapist on Tues night, the speech therapist on Thurs night, and the developmental clinic Friday morning. There were things that the PT said we should work on that the dev clinic said we didn't need to focus on, and vice versa. I guess our role as parents is to trust our instincts and weed through all of the advice and suggestions to focus on what we think makes the most sense.

We took Charlie to his first JW Tumbles kids' gym class this morning. He did well at first - we signed him up for a younger group so he wouldn't be left behind, but to be honest it was hard to see him next to kids that are 6 months younger than he is and running circles around him. But I think it will be good for him to see what other kids are doing - hopefully it will encourage him to try more and do more. He did great at first, but after they put out the swings, things went bad. He had his turn, but wasn't ready to move on, and started screaming when we took him out. Then he continued to be fussy for the next 20 minutes. It was a little embarrassing, since none of the other kids cried at all - but I think he was sensitive to all that activity and was probably a little overwhelmed. Hopefully next week's class will be better. We also need to figure out how to work with his new attitude. When he's mad, he definitely shows it, and it's too early for the terrible 2s! He's becoming very familiar with Time Out these days!