The Bailey Brag

River has eaten the exact same thing for breakfast every morning for no less than 18 months. He eats the least of all the boys but he eats well, just not very much whereas the other two nearly shovel their food in. Although I know what River wants to eat for breakfast, he still makes a point to tell me every single morning what he wants. It goes a little something like this (and probably exactly)… “Mom. I want a green fruit bar, yogurt and orange juice.” He calls cereal bars ‘fruit bars’ and of course this is an all natural alternative rather than some on the market full of high fructose corn syrup with no traces of actual fruit and by green he means the wrapper which is specific to the apple cinnamon flavor. Anyhoo… this morning while I was waking them for bible school they were laying in bed waking up and puting in their breakfast orders. River ordered his usual and Wheat said “Geez, River, are you on a low carbonated diet?” LOL Poor kids….so many words to learn and then they have to learn how and when is the right way to use them all! (Some of us never learn this)

Speaking of River’s diet, I recently took him to the pediatrician for his well check-up which was a combined 2, 3 & 4 year check-up since he hasn’t been to the doctor in ages. All of my boys were way past due for well visits but I see no need in taking a well child to the doctor, ever. However, DCS (Department of Children Services) is forcing us to turn over our lives for completing our foster parent requirements and one is having a full physical & well check-up for each member of the family and a three page form filled out by the doctor to prove it. This goes for all pets, too. I am praying the 11 reptiles will get to forego this. So at River’s visit after weighing (37 lbs) and measuring his height ( “), etc., the doctor came in and reported that River is in “stellar” shape and went on to say he is in the 95th percentile for height (we knew this would be high…he has always towered over all the other tikes his age) and then went on the say he is in the 75th percentile for weight. “What? Back up…75%? He is a toothpick! He weighs nothing! I worry about him having parasites all the time! He has NO butt! It is a negative butt! It dips IN instead of protruding OUT! All his pants fall off of him! What?” A little background: I have worried about River’s weight since they yanked him out of my uterus. He was the smallest of all three boys weighing in at 7 lb 2 oz but very long and skinny….no cheek fat on any of his cheeks. He then lost weight in the hospital, normal, and was a bit jaundice and laid in a mini tanning bed for a couple days after he was born. When we brought him home he screamed for 6 months, nearly non-stop, and put on hardly any weight. He was very long, yes, but wasn’t filling out at all and was colicky at the same time so everyone thought he was starving to death and wanted me to stop nursing. I admit that I do not believe he was getting enough fat from my breast milk. I struggled with milk production with him badly and was nursing him around the clock. I finally at 6 months old weaned him completely and fed him formula and he finally began to fatten up a bit only until he turned 1 and began walking and then running and lost every bit of that fat. Ever since, he’s been our little toothpick. So to hear the doctor say he is 75th in weight I knew there had to be a mistake. The doc began to explain to me that for his age he is the perfect weight but he is also abnormally tall and when you stretch out that normal weight a child can appear extremely skinny. He went on to tell me that the reason he appears so skinny is because he has a very low BMI (Body Mass Index). The kid has an extremely high metabolism and we eat very healthy meals with little fat but I did put him back on whole milk about six months ago. I believe Jason and I both have high metabolisms, that for which we are very fortunate, and Jason’s is much higher than mine still now that I have had three babes. The man eats his weight every day and never gains an ounce. His physique is incredible for a 36 year old and he hasn’t lifted a weight since I met him 12 years ago (and even then I think he was just tryin’ to impress me). So River gets his good genes from Jason. The doctor says on a scale of 1%-100%, River has a 7% BMI. Pretty low but he says it is still ok unless it drops to zero before our next well check-up. If that happens, we’ll bust out the protein shakes I assume. Meanwhile, I’ll invest in rope for his pants because I don’t see this changing anytime soon.