Mini Cooper

Cooper was really little when he was born, 6 lbs. 9 oz. I remember thinking that he had bird legs. Part of the reason that he seemed so small is that Peter weighed 8 lbs. 8oz. when he was born. A two pound difference is quite significant on a newborn. A few days after he was born I announced that we had our very own mini-Cooper. (Well, I think I came up with it. The mind is kind of blurry in those first few weeks. And months.) Then he started to get nice and round and outgrew his 0-3 month clothes and I thought, "He's not a mini-Cooper anymore."

Cooper, at about a week old, hanging out with Grandpa Marc.

I was wrong.

Cooper had his one year well-baby check-up last week. I commented to Bryan a few weeks ago that I was afraid Cooper wasn't growing. In truth he is growing, just not very much. He put on less than a pound in the last three months. I asked the doctor if I should be worried and he said no, most babies this age have a dip in their weight gain because of their new-found mobility and that we would reassess the situation at Cooper's 15-month check-up.

His reassurance didn't do much to calm me though. I'm not pacing the floors at night, but I have been using my powers of deduction to figure out why Cooper is so little. Here are a few of my theories:

• Cooper has never liked solid food and therefore is not a voracious eater. We have been very slow to introduce new things (because of the family history of food allergies) so he's still been eating baby food, which makes me feel like a lazy mom. I've been working to feed him more age-appropriate meals.
• He's just inherited my short genes, which means while Peter is swimming and playing basketball, Cooper will be wrestling and playing football. (Yeah, right.)
• He's doing me a favor and staying small until he can walk so I won't have to carry around a giant baby.

Yeah, that's all I've got. Here I go comparing the boys again, but I think the real reason Cooper's size worries me is that Peter was always huge, off the charts in height, weight, and head circumference. Cooper is 25th percentile for height and 15th percentile for weight. At 12-months-old Peter was solidly into 18 month sizes. Cooper is mostly wearing 12 month stuff, but can still squeeze into some of his 9 month shirts.

He's like his big brother when it comes to head circumference: 90th percentile. My boys have giant craniums, what can I say?