Pediatrician visit!

I've been looking forward to Kalina's 9-month visit ever since I found out she wouldn't be getting any shots. How nice: a chance to show off my baby to an entire doctor's office and chat with a trained professional about how sweet she is! Sign me up.

Kalina celebrated the occasion by sleeping in until 6:00 and then taking the longest morning nap she's had for a good 2 weeks, with the result that I had to wake her for the appointment. Ergh. I considered canceling, but instead settled on risking the receptionist's psycho wrath by timing our entrance to the exact minute of the appointment.

On the way, I forgot which insurance company we're with, and couldn't find an insurance card with Kalina's name on it. Ergh. I remembered still too vividly my nonsensical insurance conversation with the receptionist last time and broke out into a cold sweat. But being a mommy makes you brave, so we ventured into the office anyway.

Imagine my joy when I found the receptionist missing and a nice one replacing her, who cooed over how cute Kalina is and then fed the office fish in front of her so she could watch! Insurance was a non-issue, as was the fact that we cruised in with 30 seconds left until our appointment.

This was the first time I was organized enough to let Kalina wear her cloth diapers to the appointment. She modeled them expertly, and we received raves. The nurse exclaimed for about five minutes about how cute they were, and the doctor said she thinks cloth is nicer on babies little bottoms. I decided I was glad we didn't cancel.

Kalina amused herself this time by crawling around on the crinkly papered tabletop ("Mom, look! It crinkles every time I move!") and then methodically pulling back and forth from a crouched to a standing position on the seatback of a chair.

On to the important stuff: Kalina remains petite, weighing 16 pounds, 9 ounces, which puts her in approximately the 10th percentile. She's 27 inches long, in the 25th percentile. Small, yes, but right on track. The doctor asked several developmental questions (she didn't have to ask whether Kalina was pulling up as the baby was more than happy to demonstrate), and noted that despite the fact that Kalina has stranger anxiety, she has a nice social smile.

She assured me that Kalina would be moving around a lot more in the next few months and would be keeping me on my toes (the woman obviously doesn't know my child). I didn't tell her that by then I'll likely be fully qualified to write a book on the topic.

We discussed solid foods and the fact that Kalina probably shouldn't have nuts of any kind until she's at least 18 months. She said the baby's ears look excellent, and guessed we'd never had an ear infection (we hadn't). Then she worriedly noted my baby only says two syllables and isn't waving on command--apparently, though, these deficiencies (???) are negated by Kalina's nice social smile (some doctors really annoy me). And that was pretty much it.

Our next appointment will be something of a nightmare as Kalina will get the painful MMR and have a blood draw to check for anemia. Please no one tell her.

And to round off the day nicely, Kalina learned to clap her hands during lunch, proving she's not autistic.