The world of a 7-month-old

Playing with Kalina's doggie
during Kalina's naptime. Fun!

If you are ever blessed enough to spend much time with a baby, you will notice that the baby spends much of her time starting intently and open-mouthed at the world around her. Drooling a bit.

The better to shove everything she sees into her mouth, I suppose. After all, the world is pretty tasty to behold.

If you don't spend much time with babies, you may, in fact, think the baby rude for all her open-mouthed staring, or even dull, but I'll assure you this is certainly not the case. As a matter of fact, the conversation going on in the baby's head may sound something like this:

"Ooh! What's that over there? Moving and furry? A cat! Wow! Oh, and over here? Shiny and bright? A window! Shiny. Wait, what's that noise? A toddler? Hmm. But what's that? Oh, cool, a table. What's that on the table? A spoon! Ooh, I want that. I want to hold that. Oh, wait, that other thing looks even cooler. Maybe it even jingles. Lots of things jingle. But what's that over there? And now what is the toddler doing? To the cat? Now I have the giggles."

So, you can see, discovering the world a mile a minute is pretty serious business.

Hanging out with Uncle Tom.
Ready to get back to Mommy.

But then there are times, when you're a baby, that the world needs to be discovered one piece at a time. One piece of mulch at a time, as a matter of fact. This proves especially tricky when the baby is placed on the center of a picnic blanket, and the baby can't crawl yet. No worries: simply bunch of the blanket until voila! Mulch appears! Like the rest of the world, mulch is delicious. Much more delicious, even, than the brightly colored, safe toys scattered about the blanket by Mommy in hopes of distracting the baby from the mulch.

In case you can't tell, I'm describing sweet, little Elise, who is currently the frontrunner as the cutest baby in the world (her big sister held the title for an entire year, until she graduated into "cutest 1-year-old on Earth" status).

Once I did set Elise tummy-down in the grass momentarily. I think the idea that she had been placed directly into Heaven was still forming when I scooped her up again.

While a baby's world is entirely new--every last bit of it--babies also have a way of making the unfamiliar familiar by breaking each new encounter down into its base parts. They are:

1.) New object. Goes in mouth.
2.) New person. Where's Mommy?
3.) New place. Is there anything I can put in my mouth here?

Despite having gotten it down to a routine, Elise seems to love seeing new people and places (from a safe spot like Mommy's arms, of course). She'll happily sit in her stroller and watch kids playing at a park, however, and I know we're only months away from her running to join in and pull anyone's hair she can get her little hands on, whether the kids like it or not.


In the "Elise and doggie"
photo shoot, Elise had her
eyes closed in 3/6 pictures.
Cute!



The most fun, however, is handing Elise a new object to explore. Already adept at manipulating toys for ages 1+, this baby quickly, yet methodically, learns about each new toy (or non-toy) in her path, leaving them sopping wet. She does, however, readily return to old favorites, especially those that are the most fun to chew. And she blows raspberries at whatever she likes best.

And Elise never stops discovering her world. Three minutes after having fallen asleep in my arms before bedtime after a long (read: short-nap) day the baby is likely to be found investigating the noise her foot makes when bammed repeatedly against the wall during a diaper change.

Within seconds of waking, Elise is already smiling, at or gnawing on anyone or anything within sight/reach. She never stops. But then, we wouldn't want her to.

How to avert a temper tantrum

Poor Kalina. Lately, she can best be described as a steaming mass of torrential moods that froth and boil directly underneath her sugar-coated exterior. Occasionally the mood is hilarity. Other times, not so much. 

Off to go stomp in puddles
with new rainboots!



It used to be that if Kalina became upset, she'd wander about 10 feet off, turn her back to me and refuse to talk. Although inconvenient if we were on our way out the door to the grocery store or something, her disgruntled display was one I could readily accept. A few minutes and a little coaxing later, and we were all happily in the car and on our way out.

I was even beginning to think that the Terrible Two's might not hit at all. Naive, I know.



So it took me by surprise the other day just before naptime when Kalina collapsed into a floppy ball of toddler frustration, gushing tears and emotions simply because I'd hinted that if she wanted to take each of her 17 crib animals poop and potty, she might need to move a bit fast.

"Kalina will not move fast," she steadfastly told me, her eyes boring into mine to see what I'd do.

I've been trained, through the ghostwriting of my parenting book (my name's not on the cover, but I did all the writing), that I do not need to get upset at such declarations, I simply need to offer a choice in a casual tone of voice. This will avert a power struggle and we can both get on with our day more peaceably. It usually works great, so I replied:



"Here, Hon, I'll help." And I moved toward the rather sedentary pile of critters.

At which point I expected to meet with a toddler zooming back and forth from her crib and the potty seat as her animals all prepared for naptime, but this was not to be the case. She instead took personal offense at my remark and spiraled the conversation (which was really not a conversation after all) downward as I began gathering up her "friends" to try to get on with the naptime routine.

 Seconds later, Kalina was lying flat on the floor screaming, I was speechless and Elise was happily giggling in the middle of my bed as she awaited her own nap. I'm really not sure how, but I managed to get us all back from the brink and the girls put down for their naps, during which at least the little one actually slept. Of the animals, only Lamby, I believe, ever went poop and potty.

Unsure about what, exactly, hit me, I resolved that this little scenario would not happen again. But it did, and then again, and pretty soon I was switching all of my previously successful (albeit wimpy due to Kalina's rather easy personality) parenting strategies and just trying to figure out something that would work.

Here's what I found:

 1.) The more obviously I push, the more she pushes back. Therefore, if I can offer Kalina the choice of "Either you can quit throwing Elise's toys or you can just go play in your room alone" in a firiendly, non-confrontational, conversational tone of voice, she's much more likely to play nicely. Easier said than done when you're annoyed, frustrated, mad, in a hurry, exhausted, or a combination of those three.

2.) Flattery will get you everywhere, even to the grocery store. "What a pretty song you're singing as we're getting our shoes on to go out!" and such.

3.) Kalina has a very different agenda for her day than I do. They frequently don't mesh, but a little give and take will work wonders. So yes, we can give 1 or 2 animals a doctor checkup before we both go empty the dishwasher, but the other 15 will live (probably) until the next opportunity.



4.) The less I can boss Kalina around, the better she'll listen and respond. So rather than direct Kalina like she's a personal servant, I need to find more subtle means to get her to do what I want. This is where my advertising career comes in handy every single day. It's less about "Pick up your toys," than it is about "Do you think we can get this entire rug completely cleaned off?" with a big smile on my face.

In other words, with lots of psychological manipulation, you can make sure you and the toddler have a pretty nice day. But hey, it's a job.

And it's an exhausting one. While Elise is still testing the limits of "when, exactly, will Mommy feed me at night?" (after 12:00 and again after 3:30, plus any other time that I'm too bleary-eyed when I look at the clock to make any sense of it), Kalina is testing me to see how loud, to the decibal, she can be in the house. It takes every ounce of my brainpower (which, admittedly, isn't much nowadays) to keep us all on an even keel so we don't all three spend the entire day in tears.

The number of times I've copped a jovial attitude when I've felt nothing of the sort, simply to keep Kalina from sinking into negativity, is uncountable. Beyond 11, even (the highest number Kalina accepts as true).

But it works. Kalina is slowly learning the rules of the house, usually at the pace of one manageable meltdown a day.

Fortunately, it's just a phase, right?

Elise's sleep journey: Part 3



I think this is my first-ever picture of a
sleeping baby. My general rule is that
you don't jeopardize what you work so
hard to achieve.

 Sometimes it seems to me that of all my friends, I'm the most neurotic about my kids' sleep--and yet my babies are among the very worst sleepers of the bunch (not so with my toddler!).

I've even had friends tell me they use me as an example to other friends to let them know "it could be worse--you could be Mary!" followed by a rendition of my latest horror story. I don't mind--if I could brighten someone's outlook with my sleep-deprived state of suffering, I'll be happy to.

I do find it ironic that I'm approached for advice on a regular basis, being "the one who knows about sleep," but yet have failed so miserably with my own very young children who, apparently, have pored over none of the sleep books that I have.

When I last wrote about Elise's sleep (in the post entitled Yummy, Delicious Sleep, which was actually the second part of Elise's sleep journey), she'd learned to suck her thumb as a method of self-soothing and was only waking up once or twice a night. As late as a week and a half ago, we'd both slept a glorious 5-hour stretch.

However, whether she's willing herself across portions of the rug to reach the really cool toy 6 inches away (she doesn't quite understand that she's not yet able to crawl, and won't let that stop her from achieving her goals) or screaming for the whole neighborhood to hear because I didn't quite get the bite of mushed mango into her mouth fast enough (I may have wanted to take a bite of my own dinner, for instance), Elise can be a persistent little bugger.

"But I liked seeing Mommy 5 times a night!" she began to insist. And to prove her point, she contracted a head cold so that I had no choice but to visit her.

As I dutifully trekked into Elise's room to settle my poor, hoarse baby, my only consolation was that "it has to get better when she's over her cold." It didn't.

Soon, Elise lost any ability to settle herself at nighttime, and naps were beginning to be endangered as well. I stumbled through my days, refusing to succomb completely to my exhaustion other than using it as an excuse to let the house go a bit. I ventured to the online sleep forums and was greeted with the sunny advice to either:

1.) Just get someone to watch the kids while I catch up on sleep during the day. (Anyone want to come over every day for 8 hours and cook dinner and get groceries and clean the floors while engaging both kids in age-aapropriate activities?)
2.) Put the baby down for naps every 2.75 hours after waking. She's clearly overtired. (She clearly wasn't.)

I also evaluated my personal notes showed that Elise seemed to be getting frustrated at waking up so often, and wide awake when I ventured into her room. Could it be that she wasn't really a fan of these night wakings anymore either? Maybe she wanted a change as much as I did.

Friends, who kindly told me that I didn't look at all the worse for wear started to talk about their success with sleep training. I took the hint. It was time for a little more cry-it-out.

I did have my limits. I insisted on relatively frequent checks, and I would not let the baby cry endlessly. And so we began, with me putting the baby down for bed and then heading out for dinner and a pep talk with a friend. Before I left, I made Matt promise in blood that he would check/comfort Elise regularly and call with updates on her situation.

Partway through dinner, the phone rang. Elise had quieted for a while, but just started crying again. A few minutes later, another phone call: Elise was definitely asleep!

And she mostly stayed that way, except during two nicely-space feeding intervals and until 6-ish in the morning. I have never been so happy to endure two night feedings.

But how would the daytime sleep go? I braced myself, but crying never came (except 30 seconds of sympathy crying when I was dragging a crying toddler out of the baby's room at the start of naptime). Nor did she cry when I put her down for bed last night. Was the worst of it over?

And then 9:30 rolled around and Elise popped awake. Awake she stayed for the next 50 minutes, followed by just enough sleep for me to almost drift off, followed by a couple more minutes of crying that left Matt and I wondering whether she had rolled into a quite awkward position.

The next person to wake up was me, at 3:30. I couldn't resist: I sneaked into Elise's room to check on my littlest. Who of course woke up, but not before I could ascertain that she had flipped onto her tummy and her little legs were sticking out the side of the crib.

And that was the position I found the baby in again at 5:40, when I again fed her so that that whole family wouldn't be up for the day pre-dawn. The must be something I'm missing about how snugly crib rails are.

At 7:13, I again found my newly formed tummy sleeper awake, and we happily started our day.

Naps, by the way, have been shorter now that Elise's night sleep is more consolidated. I will miss them, but I think my babies are simply unable to regularly get more than 13-ish hours a day after a certain age. And believe me, I try.

I'm pretty sure it's only going to get better from here--but I'm equally sure there will be a few more bumps in the road. Stay tuned to hear the rest.


 The story of the photos: I'm not usually blessed with the need to wake Elise from a nap, but it does happen. On this particular day, I mentioned to Kalina that in a few minutes we'd need to wake Elise up so we could head out to _____ (I forget). She disappeared up the stairs as I readied 2-3 snacks for Kalina, water for both of us, a meal for Elise complete with bib and spoon, and a million other little things. I figured the girl was collecting her cats to bring along.

Kalina came back down a few minutes later to inform me that Elise was awake. "That's strange," I thought. "The baby monitor is quiet." I attributed it to toddler error. "Yes, Kalina." I said, probably patronizingly. "We're headed up to wake the baby pretty soon. Should we go now?"

"Yes!" said the girl with a knowing smile. She lead me proudly up the stairs. I knew something was wrong when we came to Elise's room, which had lamplight streaming out of the open doorway. As my baby usually (read: always) sleeps behind a closed door in near-complete dark, my heart almost left my body as I wondered what other surprises Kalina had in store for me.

I think I laughed when I was greeted only by my sleeping baby! Somehow Elise can sleep through a toddler intrustion, but not a middle-of-the-night Mommy check. There was only one thing to do: I rushed downstairs to grab my camera and happily snapped away.

Elise did wake up moments later, and only appeared slightly confused--albeit not squinty-eyed--at all the activity in her room.

Adventuring with Kalina

Kalina's first canoe ride!

One of the coolest things about early childhood is that kids run around unfettered by social pressures, customs and influences--except those that you teach them or allow, anyway. 

 To me, this means that I can let Kalina develop confidently into herself--whoever she's going to be--for a few years without anyone trying to change her. And because I'm there for almost every one of her waking minutes, I also get to watch as my little flower blossoms.

Of course, you never really know what type of kid you have until your baby becomes a toddler and it becomes clearer every day that no, you won't be able to convince her that playing in a sandbox with even 1 other child or even an ant is fun, but that you also won't have to worry about her skateboarding off of a diving board.



Canoeing is serious business.



And yet, we still somehow thought Kalina would enjoy canoeing, an activity we'd been talking up since last year.

Having been watching the weather for several weeks now for a good opportunity, this past Sunday afternoon turned out to be the perfect one. Days earlier, we'd asked Kalina if she'd like to ride in the canoe.

"No, there will be spiders," she replied. And sometimes there are--the canoe lives in our backyard, which is the known range of lots of arachnids. Probably thousands, maybe millions. Kalina knows this full well.

"What if Daddy gets all the spiders out?" Daddy asked.

"No, there will still be spiders," insisted Kalina, apparently lacking confidence in her daddy's abilities to rid the world of the fell creatures.

Kalina kept at least 1 hand on her hat
at all times so it wouldn't blow away.

"What if Daddy absolutely positively promises that there will not be a single spider? Then would you like to go out in the canoe?"

"Yes!" the girl exclaimed, taking him at his word.
And so after naps on the perfectly still, 70-degree afternoon, we packed up a boatload of stuff and headed to the EPA lake, bringing Grandpa along, too (actually, he brought himself along since we can only fit 2 adults and 2 kids in my car).

Elise and I sat under a shady tree and played with the pretty grass while Kalina got suited up in her pint-sized life vest and forgot about her "friends" (Big Duck, Little Duck and Frog) long enough for me to hide them away in the stroller so Daddy wouldn't have to fish them out of the lake at any point during the afternoon.

I took a million pictures. There's almost nothing cuter than a toddler in a life vest getting ready to hop into a canoe. And besides, isn't it my job to be Kalina's own personal photographer and videographer? The girl seemed pretty excited--although more in the serious "now, I'm going canoeing" sense than in the "I'm thrilled to be here!" sense.
And then it was time to push off. Elise and I were watching from a bit of a distance, as I didn't want to off-road downhill toward the lake too far with our stroller, on which neither of the brakes works. That didn't stop me from snapping more pictures. Grandpa got in first, and then Kalina was lifted into the canoe by her Daddy. Then Matt pushed off and hopped in himself, sitting on his own seat and securing Kalina on a little stool he'd put right in front of him.

I took more pictures, and finally they were off!

Grandpa caught a fish, thus saving
the day for Kalina.

I wasn't privy to much of the conversation in the boat. What I did see: Matt paddling around, Grandpa fishing (and catching two fish!) and Kalina being prodded to turn toward me for pictures whenever I held the camera up. What I did not see: Kalina smiling, Kalina happily pointing, or Kalina clamoring to help paddle. I got some video, and pushed Elise along the path circling the lake as we followed the action (or lack thereof).

All too soon, I started to catch sounds of the all-too-familiar, "We'll be done soon. Just a few more minutes," as Daddy tried to turn an 8-minute canoe ride into a 12-minute canoe ride.

Elise in the big girl stroller seat!
It was fun getting to hang out
with my littlest!

And then my toddler was offloaded onto the shore. Did she have fun? No. Would she like to go again? No. A short time later, the girls and I were on our way home for supper, baths and bedtime while the guys stayed out and fished longer.

In the car, I asked Kalina whether she liked canoeing. "Some parts were good and some parts were bad," she replied. The girl has a wisdom all her own. She liked the fish, I found out, but not the way the canoe "tips back and forth." And she's willing to go out in a more steady boat sometime in the future.

We're pretty sure there will, in fact, be more adventures with Kalina in store for us. However, never without a sun hat, plenty of snacks, a stuffed friend or two, and the promise of coming home to a nice, comfy house.

Our cloth book

As I've looked back at old posts (and yes, I do that a lot, both for entertainment value and research), I've come to realize that as much as I like to pretend this blog is about and for the kiddos, it's just as much about and for me. I don't really mean for it to be that way, but I suppose sometimes I need an outlet as much as the girls need every detail of their lives documented and photographed (which is to say, not in the way we need air, but more than we need sequined cell phone cases).

And it's in that spirit that I'm posting pictures of the cloth book I made for Kalina and Elise. I realize this post is probably more interesting to me than to you, but I feel like I owe it to all the people whose cloth book posts I drooled over as I was looking for inspiration for my own. I'm also including a cute picture of the girls to tide you over to the next post, which will probably be another riveting sleep one, or possibly something about how Kalina can read (and I mean honest-to-goodness sound out) several words and how much trouble we're all going to be in when Elise can crawl because her appetite for learning is rather unstoppable. Plus I'm probably bragging a little, but at least it's about something other than my kids for once (excluding the previous sentence, that is).

The cover says Kalina, but I have made it clear that the pages are for sharing, as they are bound with metal rings and can be removed and exchanged. In the coming months, Elise will receive her own cover and set of pages, which will also be for sharing, but I'm pretty sure if I gave them to her right now they wouldn't survive more than about one car ride, or would at least be sopping wet by the end of it.

While the book is for the kids, I'll admit that it was also an excellent way for me to get acquainted with my new sewing machine and while away the long hours of winter (not that most of my "long hours" lasted much more than 20 minutes at a time). I also wanted to prove how much I love my girls in case this blog and years of devotion don't do the trick.

Kalina helped with some pages, while other I kept as complete surprises. It actually ended up being a lovely little project for us, as she got to help make some of the important decisions (the cover fabric, for instance, which she was insistent upon in the store and still remembered weeks later even though I'd tucked it away and hadn't done anything with it yet) and "keep track of"/play with the pieces.

I did often have to remind myself that it's just a children's toy, and that it didn't need to be perfect, and nobody (but myself) would be critiquing my work. Not that I could've made it perfect if I'd tried. It's already been tested at church, and with great success--most of the pages are right up Kalina's alley (I know what my little girl likes!), with a few that I've intended for her to grow into.

I did discover that some of the activities need a little more help from Mommy than I'd intended (the snaps are tough), but I'm mostly just grateful that Kalina's responsible to ask for help rather than tearing the book to shreds. Elise's book will, on the other hand, be more suited toward a younger audience. And will probably be made of titanium if I want it to stay intact. Voracious little learner, that girl!

I used cheap fabric/scraps, felt, a magic marker, lots of Velcor, snaps, a zipper, google eyes, magnets, yarn, buttons, ribbon and other assorted materials. Despite trying to keep it cheap, I think the book ended up costing a fortune, especially when you count the hours of freelancing lost. Anything for my girls! I enjoyed every minute. No, I will not make one for your child. :) And here's my description of each page:

Page 1: This page is about getting ready for the day. Untuck the bear from her bed, unzip the "closet" and help her find an outfit. Then, she can have breakfast, comb her hair, wash her face and brush her teeth.

Page 2: Make your own flowers! Each piece (petal, stem, center) of each flower is outlined in thread (I drew it with disappearing marker first and then sewed over that to create the outline). The petals, centers and stem pieces store in a pocket behind the background and can be placed on the design to fill out the flowers.

Page 3: The three removable birdie finger puppets (complete with google eyes) live in a nest. Their egg hats store up above in the leaf pocket. The nest, by the way, has a couple slits in it so you can stick your hand through and operate the puppets inside it.

Pages 4-5: On this spread, Kalina and Elise can choose an object (pennant, flower, flag, balloon, kite) and a ribbon to attach it to each tactile animal (suede, fleece, terrycloth, plush). Also, each of the objects buttons on, so they can be rearranged. Yes, there are 5 objects and 4 animals. You'll see why later.






Page 6: It's a garden! Snap an orange and an apple onto trees, and corn and a tomato onto plants. A carrot and a potato tuck into pockets. Once you "harvest" them, you can put them into the reusable shopping bag.

Page 7: I was going to sew the farm animal buttons onto this page, but Kalina had so much fun playing with them that I left them loose. They store in a pocket in the barn. The first time one of them gets lost, I'm sewing the rest on. The barn doors, hayloft, chicken coop, pigpen and haystack are all flaps for the animals to hide behind. There's also a pasture, pond and a windmill that really spins, kind of.

Page 8: Matt thinks these puzzles (a star, duck, sailboat and whale) will be too hard for Kalina, but I'm pretty sure she'll catch on so quickly I'll be glad I made them double-sided and all in one color. They store in the pocket. Page 9: I sewed magnets into this page to allow the girls to match up the words with the objects. I worked hard to use all the different vowel sounds, or as many as reasonably possible, and still keep the words short and recognizable. Kalina already knows "cat" and "dog" without breaking a sweat.

Page 10: It's Memory! I used scraps of fabric and see-through Velcro to keep them in place. These turned out so nice in person that I might make a few gift sets. Page 11: When Kalina's a little older (and Elise), I bet she'll be able to weave these strips of fabric into really cool designs. I know I would've.

 Page 12: Cuckoo! All the numbers are Velcro'd on so that Kalina can arrange them in order (or not). The hands really move. And if you tug the bird gently he'll kind of pop out. Pull the string below the clock's face and he'll go back into place.

Bonus: Don't tell Kalina and Elise, but I've arranged it so each of these numbers, 1-12, corresponds with a specific page or spread. Right now, they're in order (1 bear, 2 flowers, 3 birdies, etc.), but as the girls get older it might be a fun challenge to have them match the numbers to the pages.

The back has a big pocket and also a pencil holder.

[Taking a bow.]

A family visit!

This week, Kalina and Elise (and the rest of us) were thrilled to welcome the Kansas branch of my family as well as family friend, Angela, to our stomping grounds.

And while one child was all grins and twirls, the other would only tolerate about 10 seconds of attention from most of our guests before the puppy lip emerged and she had to be handed back to Mommy.

We had a lovely time, beginning with a barbecue picnic at one of our favorite parks and ending with a big chili dinner at Grandpa's house. We did, unfortunately, have to dodge Elise's naps and bedtime as much as possible, seeing as the girl was/is still recovering from Monday's sleepless night.

Between eye rubs, though, she lavished her share of grins, as long as she was safely in Mommy's arms. Kalina, however, soaked in the attention, providing our guests with a fairly comprehensive tour of her toys, and telling some of her best jokes. I think I had as much fun watching as she did playing.

Here are our photos from the occasion (my apologies: I'm not the best at candid shots, but you get the idea!) (thank you to Grandpa for submitting a few more!):

Photo 1: Elise was amenable enough to Angela, who made her flight despite a blizzard. Fortunately, we had some nice, warm weather waiting for her when she arrived and she thawed out quite nicely.

Photo 2: The group digging into barbecue.

Photo 3: Mixing up some corn muffins with Angela. Everyone agreed they were delicious, but who wouldn't when faced with Kalina? (Or Angela, for that matter!)

Photo 4: Kalina had an amazing time showing off for a roomfull of admiring relatives, and especially her Great Aunt Jo.

Photo 5: Cousin Renae finally got to hold Elise--for about 10 seconds!

Photo 6: The cooking staff.

Photo 7: A family dinner!

Photo 8: We couldn't all fit inside. :)

Pediatrician visit!

Elise is 6 months old! In between exlamations of "can you believe it?" and "quit growing, Baby!" we managed to squeeze in a visit to the pediatrician.

True to usual form (with newborns and infants, anyway), I'd scheduled Elise's 6-month appointment during her morning naptime. You'd think I'd learn by now: in the early months, schedule their next appointment for the most inconvenient time you can think of. After all the changes a baby's young life can bring, it'll be perfect 2 months down the road.

Plus, Elise has been having more sleep and nap issues lately, making the morning even more of an adventure. Long story short (because I can make any story that involve my kids' sleep long), I managed to get Elise down for an early-ish nap so that she had slept for at least 30 minute before I had to disturb her. I stuffed the baby into her carseat, rushed her out the door to the car (where Kalina and the diaper bag were already waiting), and made it to the pediatrician's office exactly on time. Which probably annoyed the receptionist, who likes us to be 10-15 minutes early for no apparent reason, but she hid it well.

The receptionist and I, by the way, are old friends now. We've chatted several times in the past week as I tried frantically to change the appointment time (no-go), and she at least pretended to earnestly want to help me. She checked me in today and we were almost immediately called to the back.

With her very normal amount of stranger and separation anxiety, Elise was not happy to be placed on the scale. The nurse is certain my kids dislike her (because she normally administers shots), but personally, I think they'd cry for anyone in that situation. The scale showed that Elise is up to 14 lbs., 13 1/2 ounces (can you get any more precise than that?), and is now in about the 30th percentile for weight.

Elise has reached 26 5/8 inches in height (75th percentile) and 41 cm for head circumference (15th percentile). She's growing just perfectly.

After we were done weighing Elise, we had a short wait for the doctor. I'd packed the diaper bag accordingly to keep both kids entertained, but, in fact, they entertained each other. Kalina barraged me with questions about what would be done to Elise, and Elise kept her eyes trained on Kalina because the toddler is always up to something unexpected and interesting and generally hilarious. We also all briefly discussed the bird picture on the wall and the baby in the mirror.

And then the doctor came in, and asked what Elise has been up to. A better question would be what isn't Elise up to? She smiles, giggles, babbles in vowels, rolls back to tummy, sits supported and thoroughly enjoys standing and bouncing. She still doesn't roll tummy to back, and hasn't ventured into consonents yet, but the doctor is worried about neither of these.

He politely inquired about Elise's sleep, something many people by now know not to ask me about because they're putting themselves at risk for a lengthy diatribe that no one can really follow. I'd been saving up some questions for him and was glad to get some answers. Yes, Elise may still need a middle-of-the-night feeding (or two), but yes, it's fine to do some sleep training. Babies this age are all over the map as far as naps and nighttimes, and we just need to figure out what works best for Elise and the family as a whole. It's stuff that I knew, it just sounds better out of a pediatrician's mouth than my own, and it put lots of my invented fears to rest.

I also got the go-ahead to boost Elise's solid food intake, since she seems to be enjoying what I've been giving her.

At about this point, Elise randomly cried in the general direction of the doctor, but calmed down quite quickly and didn't seem to mind him all that much afterward, as long as she was in my arms, at least.

The doctor then began his examination by looking in Elise's ears and eyes, and then listening to her heart. For the second time in a row, he did not hear the heart murmur! Yay!

And then I had to lay Elise down on the exam table, which brought more tears, but we were quickly done.

The whole time, by the way, Kalina intently asked questions about what the doctor was going to do to Elise. While at times this struck me as a bit sadistic, it at least kept her occupied and relatively happy.

Next, it was time for shots. Kalina was fascinated by the doctor's preparations. I hardly wanted to look, but was forced to describe every single detail. Fortunately, Elise only understands a few words--her own name, "blankey time" and possibly "cat," so she did not catch on to what was coming her way.

Naturally, I was dreading the shots, in addition to the rest of the day. Historically, Elise has not done well with needle sticks for a good 12 hours afterward. I was a bit relieved, then, to see that Elise calmed down within 5 minutes. I gently dressed her in her sleeper without laying her on the table again (how could I subject her to that horror again?) and we headed out.

Checking out at the receptionist's desk, Kalina received a train sticker and I got some free samples of Vitamin D drops for Elise.

The rest of the day was tricky, with one shining moment when Kalina volunteered to jump up and down to cheer Elise up. It worked. Elise was also known to smile when Daddy got home. We can't wait for our sunshine to come out again tomorrow!

Photo: Elise hanging out in Kalina's bean-bag chair. She's loved this cozy spot ever since she was a tiny newborn and I placed her there to keep her cuddled while I put Kalina down for naps. Elise used to almost fall asleep in it and I considered for a while transferring it to her crib. You almost never see Elise without something in her mouth nowadays, by the way. Kalina was surprisingly happy to share her old ring toy, which I forgot to transfer to Elise's room when it lay forgotten at the back of her cabinet.