Laurel's "Stats"

We took Laurel for a well-baby check up today and she is doing great...29 1/2 inches long and 18.4 pounds. That's 90th percentile for height and 30th for weight, which makes her one long and lean baby. She was fairly well-behaved (can ten month olds "behave"?) at the doctor's office, but pulled her usual antics when getting into the car seat today. We made her appointment for her one year check up and I just couldn't believe that we are coming up on that milestone.

A year ago I had no clue what was coming my way. (For the record, I still have no idea.) I think the most interesting thing about parenting is that the game changes so often. Once you think you have a system figured out your kid goes and changes somehow and needs things to be done a different way. We get by through trial and error. Today I discovered that a drowsy Laurel can be turned into a sleeping Laurel by playing some Ol' Dirty Bastard. Now, who would have ever guessed that? I think I'm going to make a CD compilation of all the crazy songs that lull my crazy little baby to sleep.

Laurel's sleeping a lot better these days, on account of the less restful napping that she gets at daycare. I might be concerned about this except for the first time she's consistently sleeping for 11 or 12 hours at night and waking up only once or twice. This is a remarkable improvement from the "9 month teething related sleep regression" which was basically a continuation of the "4 month sleep regression" which was actually a lot better than the "2 month colicky-don't-sleep-at-all phase". I think it will take me a couple of months to really recover from the level of sleep deprivation I have been suffering. And once I do, I think I will write a book about all the things no one warns you will happen when you invite a small human being into your home.

Not that it's all bad. A lot of it's hilarious...like watching her trying to grasp slippery bits of kiwi from her high chair tray, or eavesdropping on guitar lessons with daddy. Some of it is heart-warming...I love, love, love that we have story time every night in our house, snuggled up together with Laurel carefully turning the pages of board books that are already wearing down in places. Every day is action-packed...Laurel is constantly attempting to dive off some high surface, or finding rocks that look like cheerios that somehow escaped the vacuum cleaner. Jumping is her favorite activity and yelling while jumping is even better than just plain old jumping. Life is good in a whole new way that I could have never imagined.