Time is Flying

Eleanor turned nine months old last Monday (the 19th.) I was going to write a little update on her then, but decided to wait until after her well-child check-up this morning.

First of all, time moves much faster when you have two kids. I thought it sped up when I had Noah, now I'm pretty sure we're on warped speed. My baby is nine months old! Can you believe it? Technically, in less than three months I'll have a one year old. I don't know whether to cry about how quickly she's growing up or cheer that we've almost made it through this first year. On her birthday I have a feeling I'll be doing a bit of both. =)

We visited her pediatrician today. Dr. Warmoth is fantastic. If you live in the Grand Haven/Spring Lake/even Muskegon area, I would highly suggest him. He is patient, knowedgeable, and really interacts with the kids, which I feel is a pretty important quality to have if you're going to be a pediatrician. Anyways, it was not the best of visits and it started while we were in the waiting room.

I had brought along a blanket to set out on the floor and put her on it with some toys. The girl is active. She doesn't just sit. If you're trying to just hold her on your lap - it's not going to happen. She twists and turns and flings her upper body back to look at you. She grabs for your hair, jewelry, ears, etc. If you turn in her direction, you'll find her face centimeters from yours before she tries to cover your nose with her mouth. We try to constantly have something in her hands so she's not destructive.

So she is sitting on her blanket playing with her toys when along comes a little boy who is probably about two years old. He stops and crouches down to look at her and babble. His mom comes behind him, grabs him up and tries to politely tell him not to play with the sick baby: "See the poor baby. She's sick. Look how sick she looks honey. You don't want to touch her."

My baby is not sick. She's here for a well-child visit. She has no runny nose, she's not coughing or sneezing. She is also sitting in the healthy child area and not the sectioned off sick kid area. I don't tell her this because (a) I'll probably never see her again so does it really matter? and (b) I don't know her or her boy and don't want him touching Ellie anyways. Maybe he's sick!

I continue watching Ellie play as the little boy comes from another direction and tries to hug her. His mom again snatches him away (which I am relieved by because that means I don't have to pull Ellie away while trying to explain that he really shouldn't hug babies he's never met) and explains again not to touch the sick baby.

At this point I tell her that she is not sick, she's here for her 9 month check-up. Thankfully, they are called in for their appointment before she can respond. Saved by the nurse. Although now I am wondering if I have a sickly looking daughter.

We're called back and the nurse takes Ellie's measurements. Her head is in the seventy-fifth percentile (she and Noah are big head babies - I know this personally because I pushed them out.) She weighs 17 pounds 1 ounce and has dropped from 50th to 16th percentile. She is 27 1/4 inches, putting her from 75th to 35th percentile. Later, Dr. Warmoth tells me this is not uncommon as the first 24 months are spent kind of all over the place for some kids on the growth charts.

When Dr. Warmoth came in we talked about how she is doing developmentally. I had questions because by this age Noah was crawling, pulling himself up on furniture, and walking around furniture. Ellie is not doing any of the above. I don't want to compare them though because I know every kid is different. She does, however, sit unassisted for really long periods of time (which she has been doing since 5 months) and yesterday she started going from the sitting position to laying on her stomach and she decided to become an inchworm overnight. This morning I sat her down on the floor, she pulled herself over until she got on her stomach and then took off across the room like a caterpillar. Not quite crawling, but pretty darn close. The baby gates are going to be coming out soon enough. Dr. Warmoth said that he's seeing more and more kids not pulling up onto furniture until 10 or 11 months and expects her within the next 6 weeks to have mastered that.

Here's the bummer part of the visit: she has her fourth ear infection in four months. We've had one a month since October. They're always double ear infections, too. So now we have a referral for the Ear Nose Throat Specialist to talk about tubes. Yippee.

Other than all that stuff that I'm so sorry to have just bored you with, here are the things we love about Eleanor:

*She is a chatterbox. She does Mama and Dada and recognizes me and Tim while saying it. She's not just babbling. She also does Baba for bottle and Nana for Noah, although that's a new one she's still working on. She is constantly talking or screeching to the people and toys around her.

*She is still a bit of a diva, but either she's getting better or we're just getting used to it. She's demanding.

*She has Tim completely wrapped around her finger.

*As I said before, she is active. Until this inchworm thing, she would lay on her belly and then spin herself in circles with her arms. She looked like a bottle in the Spin-the-Bottle game. She also loves her Johnny-jump-up or whatever the modern name for it is. Her feet look like a ballerina's when she jumps because they go out to the sides when she pushes off and then as she comes down, she lands with them perfectly turned out and heels together, knees bent. Then she pushes off again and again and again.

*She is just an absolute joy to our family. She is a challenge as we learn her personality, which has been so different from Noah's yet at the end of the day we're so thankful for her. She belly laughs like Noah does and speaking of him, she cannot get enough of her big brother.

*We get many comments on her eyes and the shape of them. I had noticed they were different when she was a newborn and a nurse had commented once on her "beautiful eyes. They're so unique." Well, who knows what to expect when you hear the word "unique"? Anyways, I listen to people comment on how they don't look like mine (or Tim's if he's around, and then they look at me for an explanation of why that might be. I don't know but I can tell you that Tim IS the dad!) Our friend, Kerin, was over last weekend and finally placed a shape on them - teardrops. I don't know what side of the family they come from, but we think they're beautiful.

So that's our Ellie. Yesterday I cranked up the heat for a couple hours and put them in their bathing suits and we had our own "beach party" in the kitchen with a picnic for lunch. It was a good way to beat the cabin fever for a little bit. That's why she's wearing a bikini in the above picture even though it's the end of January. Also - you can see at the top of her head a little bit her very first ponytail. I am trying to post more pictures from our fun, but blogger is being difficult so they'll have to wait for another time. And yes, Deidra, I must have a thing for chubby baby bellies in bikinis because I did get Wyn her's and now Ellie's. Next up is Sophie!