If you have ever thought I was a nerd...

This post should clear it up for all of you who are on the fence about my nerd level.

We have a spot on our wall by our stairs that we have been marking how tall the kids are from the time they could stand still and straight. The area is a narrow bit between a door frame and the corner. Not only are we running out of room to mark new heights, but the markings are fading from cleansings, rubbings, extraneous marks, etc. Bearing this in mind, I decided to record the heights of our kids so this bit of history wouldn't be lost.

Last night I did this. I sat there with a clipboard and a measuring tape, recording columns of numerical information. Then I sat there, thinking, "Paper is so easily misplaced and/or destroyed, I should put this into the computer."

I got out my laptop, clicked on the start button and a little green icon flirted with me. "Here I am! Excel spreadsheets! What amazing things could you do with me?"

Before I knew it, I was entering all the information for each of my kids, even digging through their birth certificates so I could add their lengths at birth. (No, I don't have that info memorized.) I experimented with different chart styles before I settled on a basic line graph, showing their growth over time. I wanted to be able to compare them at the same ages so I messed around with different colored dots, signifying years, but it just wasn't easy on the eyes. I finally realized I needed another graph. The original would show their growth as a line, showing how they've grown over time. The second one would need to focus solely on what height they were at specific ages making it possible to compare different kids. After a length of time I am ashamed to own up to, I ended up with what you see below. Now this isn't the pretty one because the nice one didn't transfer well. I had to save the chart, shrink it and then fix the yucky parts that didn't shrink right. (Like the inch measurements, oh well.) But this one is good enough for you to get the gist. Now at a glace you can see how my kids "stand up" to each other.

Dodge = blue; Scoochy = green; Princess Cutie Pops = purple; Tank = brown

Interesting things to note:

• For some reason we didn't measure Dodge or Tank when they were two.
• Princess Cutie Pops is a giant! Well, not really, but she is noticeably taller than anyone else has been at each age except birth.
• Scoochy seems to be the runt of the bunch. We'll see how that progresses.