Nat's Stats

It's hard to believe she is two months old already. Having been through all of this with Adam, I have an appreciation for how quickly infancy passes, but it's still hard to believe that kids can grow up so fast.

Natasha had her two month well-baby visit today. She is quite well indeed. She now weighs 10 pounds and 7 ounces, putting her in the 44% with a length of 21.65 inches for 25%. I just checked Adam's stats and he weighed over 13 pounds at this age. But he was a formula baby and Nat is breastfed, so her shooting up from the 22% to the 44% is an accomplishment I am quite proud of. Plus, I don't mind her being smaller than Adam. My arms got tired with him!

The poor little girl got all 4 shots, but she had some Tylenol and some mother's milk and is resting now in her hammock.

Here she is a few days ago in the camper. She was happy as a clam because I just took off her clothes and her diaper and she was planning a major explosion before I got her new diaper on. Cheeky little monkey!

Very Kiwi!

We just returned from our big summer camping and fishing trip. Adam managed to return without chipmunk-related injury. They are his new greatest fear in life, usurping even the old Chinese lady and thunder as the most scary things on earth.

A Conversation with a Toddler

Adam: "Wiggles?"
Me: "You want to watch The Wiggles?"
Adam: "OK!"

I grab the remote, turn on the TV and Sesame Street happened to be on. Adam apparently caught a glimpse of it before I could get The Wiggles on.

"Elmo!"
"But we're watching Wiggles, OK?"
"No, Elmo!"
"Do you want Wiggles or Elmo?"
"Boobah?!?"

Damn Dirty Hippies

So DH and I had lunch today at our favorite Indian restaurant. We took Natasha in the car seat because it's just easier than taking her out and waking her up and then trying to find a way to not spill food on her while holding her. We were seated next to the hippy couple. The woman had dread locks and wore a tank top that looked like it had been made out of an old curtain and wore no bra. I don't recall the man too much other than his shaggy hair and his shirt that showed he obviously struggled to cross the "corporate casual" look with the "I'm subverting the dominant paradigm....and you can tell by the clothes that I wear. Also, kill your television" look.

When I looked at her I feared I might be judged for having Natasha in the car seat, or the "baby bucket" as AP nazis refer to them. But she was content and cute in it. Then, dare I say, I was correct. I overheard her mumbling to her lunch date the words "never.....car seat....sling....blah, blah". I filled in the rest to make it "I would NEVER leave my kid in a car seat. I would only wear them in slings."

Judging by how well her body parts were in their correct place, the lack of spitup on her clothing, the absence of children with her, and her strong opinion on parenting, I presume she didn't have any kids of her own. And as DH says, if she doesn't shower, she never will. The bright side is that they gave us lots of fodder for our lunchtime conversation.

I want to add a few more rules to my How-to-Be-Cool-AP list:

1) Have a natural home birth (bonus points if you save the placenta!)

2) No solid foods until your child is 3 or 4...YEARS

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Every mom should have a daughter. Natasha is intoxicatingly delicate and sweet. And remarkably easy. Everyone told me how much easier having a girl would be and I didn’t believe it until she arrived. Here’s the thing, though. Even though Adam required a lot as a newborn, I always theorized that you get out what you put in. So giving a lot to Adam meant that he was going to be a super hyper genius happy child and grow into a super hyper happy successful content secure (insert all positive adjectives here) adult. So I feel really freaked out when I don’t have to put as much effort into Natasha. Since I don’t swaddle her and hold her and bounce and “shhhh” in a dark room by myself with white noise for 24 hrs a day, maybe she’ll just be average. Then I stop and think…maybe she’ll just make up for the lack of parenting effort when she is a teenager.

Another thing different about girls is the amount of pink involved in dressing your child. I had long lamented over the dearth of boy clothes to choose from, but at least there is some variety in color choices. I remember looking at newborn girl clothes wondering what in the world I could bring myself to put on Natasha given my aversion to the color of Pepto Bismol. And hair! What would I do with her hair?!? Mine is always in a pony tail and I use that term loosely. Half of it is usually hanging out and I can’t get rid of those blasted comb lines. I am hair challenged, despite having more than my fair share of it.

Maybe it’s the hormones, but I find myself renewing my love affair with the color pink. I had always thought most newborn girls look rather anemic in the color pink, but Natasha looks quite vibrant in it. So I find myself gravitating to pink, ruffley clothing. Not that I have other options, mind you. And hair isn’t too much an issue since Natasha’s is less than an inch long.

We’ll see how girly she ends up being. She is quite petite and I think she always will be, but she’s also pretty tough having survived her 50% chance of not making it into this world, overcoming a single umbilical artery and thriving perfectly. Oh, and taking a few blows to the head courtesy of her clumsy older brother who hasn’t fully grasped the concept of gravity yet. No matter, he’ll always be there to look out for her when she’s older as he is quite the loving older brother already.

We’re hoping he is big enough to help keep those teenage years of hers from getting too challenging; it’s going to be his job to keep all the riff-raff away.

Kiwi!

As reported in the previous entry, "kiwi" means "scary". It's a good thing not everyone speaks Adamese. We were on our daily walk today when the old, old, old Chinese lady that lives two houses down approached us. She hadn't bothered to take the single roller out of her hair (in the bangs), but that didn't detract from the rest of the hair, the texture of which resembles the tassles of frayed wheat. Her eyebrows are conspiciously painted on, and based on the color (dark blue), thickness, and mis-shapeness, I'm guessing she needs a new prescription for her eyeglasses. Still, she's a nice lady. I don't understand a majority of what she says, but I enjoy her presence. Adam, on the other hand declared "kiwi!", "kiwi!", "kiwi" as she was walking toward us. He then ducked down behind me and sat on the ground mumbling "kiwi" while hanging onto my legs as I talked to her.

I gotta get this kid out more.