Baby Talk

At Baby Girl’s 12-month appointment, the doctor told us, “Now, this is something you really can’t control so please be prepared for this… according to her growth chart, she’s going to be short.” I had to stifle a laugh of relief that it wasn’t as terrible or fatal as it started out sounding. Honestly, I didn’t think our kids would be anything but short seeing as the average height between their parents would be 5 feet. She does look small and has been hovering around the same weight for 6 months, but she looks like she belongs with us, I appreciate that I can still carry her when she lets me, and teeny yet chubby babies are so cute!

Our hungry caterpillar may be hitting a growth spurt because she sure loves to eat! After being sick for a little while, her cute belly has come back and I’m so glad I get to enjoy her squishiness for a little longer (don’t tell me you don’t squish chubby babies for fun). At daycare, she knows which cupboard contains all the food and when it’s opened she gives a happy burst of joy and claps her hands—every time, without fail. The teachers even demonstrated this for me one day when I was picking her up, and I couldn’t stop laughing because it was like they were pressing Baby Girl’s “Get Happy” button!

A couple of days later, baby girl was eating goldfish crackers next to her friend and was eyeing the cantaloupe that her friend’s Mom brought for her. The teacher told Baby Girl, “Go ahead, L, ask her…” Baby Girl babbled something to her friend, who babbled something back to her, and then proceeded to hand her a piece of her cantaloupe! After many different occurrences of this phenomenon, we are believers in how smart babies are, and know that it must be us who don’t understand their language.

We’ve actually found a fruit that Baby Girl loves more than bananas—peaches! Now that it’s peach season, we had her try some and were surprised at how fast she could eat them. I guess we should have bought a whole bushel because our whole bag was all gone within three days.