Tall Boys

Jed and Zane: Best Brother Buddies

I've always appreciated what a fantastic big brother Jed is to his little siblings. He truly cares about them. For Valentine's Day I asked him why he loved Zoe, and he said it was because she always comes to him for kisses and hugs to feel better whenever she gets hurt. And he's right. Anyone who has seen him tenderly hold her hand as they cross the street knows how much he cares about her. And he's the same way with little Zane. He's always on the lookout for opportunities to have "boy time" together on the floor. He brings Zane offerings of cars and legos all the day long, laughs when Zane pulls the legos apart, politely making the vrooming noises for him, since he can't do it himself yet.

There's another thing the boys have in common though: THEY ARE HUGE! They are growing far too quickly for their mother's comfort.

Last month, I measured Jed on his 5th birthday and he hadn't grown at all since last November. I predicted a growth spurt soon, however, when Jed ate about half a family sized giant pizza and started waking up at night (seems like that only happens when he's growing quickly. He has bad dreams, which is particularly heartbreaking when you find him jumped up on top of his toybox, clambering up the wall and screaming about spiders on the floor.) Last Sunday we noticed his church pants seemed a little short. Then this Sunday they seemed ridiculously short and I had to go pull a next size up pair out to wear. Yesterday he seemed bigger than ever, so I lined him up against the wall, and sure enough. He's huge. He's grown more than 2 inches in the last 5 weeks.

Below is the funny picture I got when I tried to take a photo of him next to his height. Did I mention we are in full goofball phase?

Meanwhile, this little guy is determined to keep up.

I kept sort of subconsciusly feeling frustrated at how hard it is to carry Zane around in his bucket seat. Other women seem to perkily stride by, bucket seat over their arm swinging gaily as they walked. So why, when I do pushups every other day, does my seat just always seem so heavy I can barely walk with it? Am I really so weak?  Well, turns out that the problem wasn't my biceps. We did a general weigh in over at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and he weighs just under 20 pounds. When his fat little feet started sticking out the bottom of the bucket seat, making it hard to get in the car, I cursed the seat until I realized maybe it was the kid. So Jed and I measured him last Tuesday. Then we went and plugged his height into the online growth calculator. Stupid calculator kept giving me weird results. So then I tried another. And another... And then I realized that yes, Zane is like in the 120th percentile for height. And he has outgrown his baby bucket seat.

 I just can't keep up with these big growing boys!