Parker Short? Says Who?

It was our regular trip to the hospital yesterday with Parker to get his injection of PEG-ADA. Parker used to see the staff immunologist every Friday as a part of clinic, but since he has been doing so well, Parker only has clinic once a month. I am not sure how that is going to change as he creeps closer to the time we go to Italy. But I guess we will find that out in the next couple of months. Parker will have completed the mandatory six months of PEG-ADA on November 2nd.

Although we may not see the doctors every Friday, Parker still does have his weight taken. Every two or three weeks that pass Parker also has his length taken. We are happy to say that Parker is now 9.310 kg or 20 lbs 7.7 ounces. These numbers continue to correlate to the linear regression that I had plotted and displayed a couple of weeks ago. Parker is gaining weight at approximately 20 grams per day. His weight places him just under the 70th percentile for children his age. Recall that Parker was born at the 25th percentile, and dropped to below the 3rd percentile when he entered isolation. So having Parker weigh more that 70% of the babies his age is quite impressive.

Now for his length. The problem with ADA deficient infants is that the metabolites also cause some skeletal damage and for that reason children who are ADA deficient are generally shorter than the average person. Remember, these toxins are not only in the blood but are present in all of his organs. That said, we have definitely witnessed Parker growing in length. His sleepers are getting short and he is on the verge of needing his Exersaucer raised to accommodate his growing in length. Parker had his length taken yesterday and it revealed 71.5 cm. Now, there is definitely some error on that since the apparatus is a little crude but I am sure it is not far off in either direction. Where does 71.5 cm place Parker when compared to other infants his own age? Parker is just about the 68th percentile in his height. Quite impressive to say the least. Now, he does have some tall genes on his side. My wife's father and his brothers and sisters range in height from six foot three to six foot seven. My father and his brother are both over six foot three themselves. So, I think I may have a son who should at least be of average height one day.

I had mentioned that there is a few fundraisers approaching. The first of these is occurring tomorrow at "Yummy Pleasures" in Newcastle, Ontario just east of Oshawa. The fundraiser is titled "Art with Chocolate" and runs from 11am to 3pm. If you are thinking of going we look forward to seeing you there. We will be attending the later half of the event.

Parker has been working extremely hard on his ABC mat in his room. We make sure that he gets at least 90 minutes of time on the mat each day in the form of tummy time or sitting time. We do our best to get Parker to get into a crawling position so that he at least knows what it feels like. We give him lots of praise whenever he does. He has even begun to rock back and forth in that position. He has also learned that rolling can get you from point A to point B. It is is usually not a continuous roll but more of a roll stop, reevaluate point B to my current location and continue on my way. The problem is that he has begun to roll off of his ABC mat and on to the floor. We do not worry to much about it as his room is vacuumed everyday and there is a Heppa filter in his room so the carpet should be extremely clean. That said, he still spends 99.5% of his time on his mat.

Some of you have already noticed that I finally changed the poll question on the right side bar. It was quite obvious that most of you (75%) think that Parker gets his good looks from his dad! The new poll wants to know how frequently you populate this site. So, please vote today.