Daddy's tacos and Pat's Pizza

Daddy's chicken tacos and Pat's Pizza were the food hits of this week; also, applesauce, raisin bran cereal, "fruit" snacks (some have more fruit than others), ice cream and Aunt Jo's beef vegetable (from her garden) soup. Also, we are buying Pediasure in bulk these days as all the boys (but especially Owen) need it daily. We had a follow-up pediatrician visit, this time no shots or blood drawn (yeah!); everything is looking good so far - no major health issues. All of the boys are a bit anemic, one of them has a treatable "bacteria" that causes the runs and upset tummy, and multiple parties are debating what, if any, special diet Owen should be on (he may be Vitamin D deficient, among other things) - in the meantime we're just trying to get as much good food as we can into all three boys to help them grow! They are tiny! In part due to genetics, but a lack of good, plentiful food over time no doubt contributed as well. If they show up on U.S. growth charts at all it's in the 1-2 percentile. On the Indian growth charts they are normal to small. Here are their current stats:

Sam - 37.7 inches tall, 27.4 pounds
Charlie - 36.8 inches tall, 24.8 pounds
Owen - 30.9 inches tall, we don't know his weight for sure since we haven't been able to weigh him without a cast, we estimate 16 -19 pounds

The older boys, who are four, are wearing sizes 18 month-2T pants and 2T-3T shirts.
Owen, who is 2, wears 9 month-2T clothes, depending on the brand; we haven't really been able to dress him normally though, because of the spica cast, which the orthapedic said will come off next Thursday (it's healing very well and fast)!

Eric rigged up a way for Owen to eat at his high chair again (a Macgiver set-up of textbooks, towels and string); we use a Gore-Tex jacket to protect the cast from spills and he mostly self feeds and smears food like a typical 2 year old. The older boys are still learning to use utensils - mealtimes are always interesting - they are fascinated with napkins and prefer mixing all food groups, beverages, condiments, etc. together.

Some new words/phrases of the week for the older boys (Owen is starting to mimic a lot but no clear words yet, at least none in English):
thank you, more please, come here, Henry, Pretty Kitty, banana, chicken, juice, good boy, teddy bear, truck, go for a walk/ride, sit down, take off... pants/shirt/socks/"boots" (sneakers), no, sorry, me, me, me (same word in Marathi!). I'm sure there are more but my brain is checking out now - sleep has been a challenge - both older boys are still waking 1-3 times during the night, Owen only needs checking in once a night (to turn him/cast), but naturally it rarely coincides with the others waking! So, sweet dreams -

FYI - Charlie has green stripes, Sam's are orange