Seriously, what we really do is pick him up and time how long it takes for his thighs to stop jiggling. It's less scientific and so I do reserve the right to be off by 2-3 ounces. What is clear is that 75% of his total body weight has concentrated between his hips and knees. I would say that he can almost stand up but I think it's more accurate to say that he CAN'T fall over.
This does mean that 15lbs is just around the corner and for anyone keeping track down under he's right around 6.6 kilos. He has started to out grow a few of his clothes and last night as I was cleaning some of them out I realized I had become more attached to his baby clothes than I thought I would.
For example the Darling Duck onsie is the smallest item that Liam ever owned. I became very attached to the Darling Duck over Liam's first few weeks but I always knew it would be one of the first to go because of it's size and because of Jamie's non-fascination with water fowl. She would admit that it was cute but it was no suprise to me when I found it had been selected for the first cut of retired onsies. Goodbye Darling Duck.
The next onsie that really hurt was Bird on Rhino on Elephant. I loved this one because of how ridiculous the idea was. Not just that the Rhino stands on an Elephant but that the gradual increase in size of the participants was completely ignored. This wasn't little, medium and big. It was like putting a cup cake on top of a bulldozer on top of a dump truck. Was the Rhino offended by being placed in the medium spot? Anyways, I remember once we were trying to cut Liam's fingernails because he had been scratching himself and he was wearing this onesie. He was thrashing around uncomfortably and when we cut one nail too close it clipped him and he shed his first little drop of blood on this onesie. The stain from the little drop of blood is still there next to the Rhino's butt and I always think about that when I see this onesie. Goodbye Bird on Rhino on Elephant.
Of all the retied onesies those two hurt me the most. It really made me sad to think I wouldn't ever dress him again in the Duck and then say, "Good morning Darling Duck!" But despite how much I loved those the next one is going to hurt me even more. Betweeen month 1 and 3 the Big Animals onesie, which features big Lions, Monkeys, Giraffes and Elephants with brown trim, became my favorite onesie. I love the colors and the oversized smiling animals. As I was sorting through the clothes last night I realized that it was too small and that there were too many more onesies in the 3-6 month range that he needed to start wearing. Instead of retiring it last night I decided that Liam had to wear Big Animals one more time and I set it aside for him. This morning I put it on him for the last time. Big Animals will be retired tonight when Liam gets changed for bed.
The next onesie that I'm going to have trouble letting go of is Little Peanut. Baby blue trim with a little blue elephant who looks strikingly similar to a young Dumbo. Little Peanut goes great with Liam's blue pants and because it is a long sleeze he has had it on often lately as the weather has gotten colder. Little Peanut has some time left but sorting through all these clothes, and emotions, last night I couldn't help but think how we would possibly replace it.
As I start seeing things that Liam will never be able to wear again and they catch me by suprise and it truly is shocking. The only comfort I could find last night was in my back-up plan to use these onesies again sometime in the future. We obviously don't plan to keep having kids forever just so I can dress them in mini clothing but at least today I'm OK knowing that I'll get to use these at least one more time. What happens when I have to REALLY retired Darling Duck for the last time someday, I don't know. I'll probably have to learn how to quilt so that I can save them somehow.
