Growing on up

By Published On: December 17th, 2015

Akira had his four-month checkup yesterday. Four months! Is it […]

Akira had his four-month checkup yesterday. Four months! Is it just me or does it seem like I blinked, and he went from newborn to full-on baby boy? He’s so full of smiles, and I really feel like he’s getting used to (and loving) life outside the womb. I was excited about this appointment because the last time his pediatrician had seen him was when he was 5 days old! She was out of town for his one- and two-month appointments, so we saw her nurse practitioner instead. Needless to say, she was sweetly surprised by how big he had gotten and how much he had changed.
After taking his vitals, Akira was weighed and measured. With each passing day, he just felt like he was growing. That’s an obvious statement, but it was like Jesse and I could actually see him getting bigger before our very eyes. Turns out, he’s huge! He is exactly 27 inches long and weighs 15 pounds 5.6 ounces. Twenty-seven inches just looks long so it’s hard to believe that he actually is that length. It puts him at the 98th percentile for height, but interestingly, he’s only in the 50th percentile for weight! That surprised me only because 15 pounds seems rather large. Maybe it’s because Anaïs was so much lighter at four months. Of course, it’s probably a good idea not to get too caught up in averages and percentiles, especially because so much of that is genetics. But it’s still fun to compare his stats to other kids his age.
FullSizeRender (1)Another thing that’s so awesome to see is his personality come out more and more. The other day, Anaïs was running circles around him singing “B-I-N-G-O” while he was lying on a mat in their room. And he was just laughing. It was a hearty belly laugh that I hadn’t heard before, and it warmed my heart to hear that Anaïs was the one to bring it out of him. It was one of his first real laughs! Naturally, Anaïs wanted to keep making him laugh and she’s now making it her life’s mission to do so at every chance she gets. The two of them feed off of each other, and it’s an amazing thing to witness and document.
Of course, Jesse and I will experience his milestones with him, and we’ll develop mother-son and father-son relationships with him, too. But there’s something about the connection between our two kids that, in some ways, feels deeper or maybe stronger. Seeing them together definitely gives me a bigger appreciation for my own siblings. I’m the eldest of four with two sisters and a brother. And we’re all spread out around the world, but there’s still a closeness that we all share, which I love so much. As I look at Anaïs and Akira, I see that they’re both still so small, but they will grow up alongside one another. They’ll have secrets and plans that only they’ll be privy to, and that’s both heartbreaking and heartwarming for me to accept. They’ll have moments of frustration with each other, but, more often than not, I feel like they’ll really be best friends. And that makes me so proud that they’ve got each other for life.