Judith is Growing!

Judith is growing bigger and bigger! As of her doctor visit today, she is 29 1/2 inches tall (10-25th percentile) and 19 pounds (0 percentile - but much better!). At her last appointment three months ago, Judith was at 16 pounds, 14 ounces, and well below the growth chart. Now she is just a bit below the growth chart (about 19 pounds 8 ounces would put her at the 5th percentile at the bottom of the chart). Her doctor is pleased that she is not as far off the chart as she was, and is happy with her size at this point.

Other than that, Judith is doing very well. She is on track developmentally and seems to be a happy and healthy baby! Of course, happiness is relative at times. She did need four shots today - HIB (her last one!), DTaP, MMR, and Varicella (aka chickenpox). In the past she has had a bad reaction to the DTaP in particular, with a large knot at the spot, a bruise and a fever. That reaction is certainly a possibility this time as well.

The MMR and Chickenpox vaccines are new for her this time. If she has a reaction to the Chickenpox, it will look like chickenpox and occur within the next one to three days. If she has a reaction to the MMR, it would be a rash and a fever that's like measles, and would occur about a week from now. They do say that with both reactions, the rash is not contagious. It would not be a problem for example for her to go to day care with these reactions. Out of an abundance of caution however, the doctor recommends that if she has a reaction and breaks out in a rash that she not be around anyone who is immune-suppressed, such as someone undergoing chemotherapy. There are no recorded instances of someone catching one of these diseases from a child with a reaction to the vaccine, but again, it's an abundance of caution that leads them to recommend being careful.

In terms of the rest of her health, Judith is doing well. She has five teeth that appear to be fully in, and five other teeth that are in the process of coming in. Most of the teeth coming in currently are further back molars. I generally know when we are going to have a morning where I am going to notice a great difference in their appearance from the day before - it follows the nights when Judith was up multiple times! But when she does not have teeth issues, she does generally sleep 12 hours at night, which is a wonderful, wonderful thing!

In terms of development, as I said, Judith is right on track. The doctor hopes that by the 18 month visit she'll be using a few words in context. But Judith can stack two blocks occasionally (of course it's more fun to knock them down), is doing a great job walking forward and backward, is working on her scribbling abilities, does an excellent job picking up her Cheerios with her pincher grip, and is generally right on track. Of course one of the most entertaining aspects of development for Robert and myself is Judith engaging in imitative behavior. They say it is truly how children learn, and a pretty good reflection of how they see the person they are primarily with.

So what does it say about me that Judith's main imitative behaviors are trying to hold her little plastic phone between her ear and her shoulder, carrying around multiple bags at the same time, and picking up pens with which she tries to write in my Sudoku book? I think that's a fairly good summary of me. I spend time on the phone (especially with work some days), schlep A LOT of "stuff" back and forth between here and the office (and all around the house - we have a lot of stuff!), and like to unwind with Sudoku. I think that's my life in a nutshell! She would probably spend time typing on the laptop as well, except I now try to make it go away when she's around, so that she doesn't destroy it! (I don't think my work would like it if she broke their equipment, no matter how cute they think she is!)

Another behavior that is normal at this time is starting to help around the house. This is help that seems like help to her, but to us may not have quite the same connotation (though of course we find it absolutely adorable!). In this field, Judith has become quite adept at closing things: doors to closets (especially our walk in closet when she's outside of it and one of us is inside), the dryer (particularly when we're trying to empty it or put new clothes into it), the dishwasher (especially when we are trying to again, unload or load it), and the various drawers around the house (particularly when you are getting something out of the drawer). The other area where Judith excels at trying to help is in regard to shoes. She loves to bring us our shoes and bring us her shoes to let us know that it is time to go outside now. We are quite taken with the fact that she has not yet brought Robert's shoes to me or vice versa - she keeps getting it right! But as she spends more time outside, we are needing to teach her that we don't wear shoes in the house. I have bought her slippers, but they are just a tad big (they'll fit in the next week or two, I'm sure) and they are a bit warm - being intended for winter. But it is very cute to be sitting and working on something and have her put shoes in your lap to say, "It's time to go to the park now, let's play!" Very helpful, indeed!

One other item of note in Judith's development relates to her hair. As you might have wondered what happened when you saw the picture, here's the story. So, over the past few weeks I have been putting Judith's hair in the barrettes that Charlene sent to her, and they've been working great. Judith pulls some of them out, but most stay put and they have effectively kept her growing bangs out of her face. The problem arises when I start reading articles about children under three choking on items that their moms use to do their hair. The basic teaching on this seems to be, leave little girls' hair alone: no clips, no bands, no pony tails, nothing. All of these items are very dangerous when they come out of the hair and can easily go into the mouth. This is particularly dangerous with the hair bands themselves. The other issue is that having clips and bands in the hair can be painful if they are pulling one hair the wrong way, or if they are just in there in a particularly tight manner. And children Judith's age cannot express that it hurts, nor do they equate the thing on their head to the headache that they are developing.

So for all these reasons, there is a strong recommendation by the American Academy of Pediatrics to not put items into children's hair until they are at least three years old. I had not previously been aware of this, but I understand it, and I try to follow such recommendations as I believe these people have seen a lot more children in a lot more situations than I have, and they don't make these recommendations lightly. (The pediatrician today did totally agree with this and was quite pleased that I wasn't going to be putting anything into Judith's hair - it was something she was going to talk to me about if I came in with Judith's hair done up.)

Therefore, I made the decision that the best course of action was to cut Judith's bangs. Then I thought of my mother cutting our bangs and said to myself, "Well, I could do that for Judith." Well, my mother must have had special powers to get us to sit still! Judith moved, it ended up uneven, I tried to even it up, the scissors were not as sharp as I thought, not all the hairs got cut, and well, the end result is what I call, "The Franciscan Look." Guess what? In the future, I will pay someone who knows what they are doing to do this. Fortunately, at this age, Judith doesn't even necessarily equate the child in the mirror with her, so she isn't going to hold this against me (until she sees the pictures in a few years). So this will not scar her for life. And they will be somewhat grown out and look somewhat better by the time we take her Christmas picture in a few months. In the meantime, we live with it, and I don't worry about moving her bangs out of her eyes all the time. Oh well - live and learn.

The other picture is of Judith pushing her stroller at the park the other night. I mentioned this before and a few people asked for the evidence!

Other than that, we are experiencing a cold snap here. Our high this past week and weekend was in the 80s, and later this week our high is projected to be only 78! Amazing - 15 degrees below normal for this time of year. It's really starting to feel like fall. Yes, it is happening - two years out here and our blood is thinning like those people who are used to this weather! We are thinking that as fall comes, we should plan another trip to Yosemite. We really had a great time last year, and we would like Judith to see leaves change colors (which does not happen here!).

We are excited that within the next month we'll have two family visits. And we ourselves are going to try to schedule our first trip with Judith to Detroit in December or January (but NOT during the holidays). We'll keep you posted on the details if we're able to make it work.

We wish you all a great week! Happy Constitution Day (the US Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787!). Happy feast of St. Robert Bellarmine! And enjoy these last few official days of summer!