Ellowyn's 2-month checkup

Ellowyn's doing great!  Turns out she's a slow grower, like Mira.  She's not gaining weight fast enough to keep up with the trend, so she's slipping down the weight charts.  The same thing happened to Mira (Mira started at 60th percentile when she was born and now that she's 2 years old she's down to 7th percentile).  But since Ellowyn started out on the bigger side and she's still gaining weight, we're not worried about it.  Ellowyn was at I think 80th percentile for weight when she was born and now she's down to 50th.  

But she continues to get taller, so she's still up at 85th percentile for length.  She's a tall girl!

And her head seems to be growing faster than the rest of her body because it's up from 90th percentile to 95th percentile for head circumference.  She has an even bigger noggin than Mira did (Mira's was only ever as big as 80th percentile)!  

Ellowyn got her first round of vaccines at this checkup.  She took them really well.  She cried at the time, but calmed right down when I nursed her afterward.  And then the rest of the day, she just seemed a little sleepier than normal.  I remember some of those early vaccinations really making Mira temperamental, but not so much for Ellowyn.  She's such a happy easy baby.  

Ellowyn is still on Zantac, and her reflux is well controlled by it.  When I told the pediatrician how well Ellowyn was doing on the Zantac, he said that we could consider raising her dose, since she's getting bigger, but as long as the lower dose keeps working, we'll just keep her at her same dose.  But if at any time I feel like it's losing its effectiveness, he told me how much I could up her to.  

Other than that, nothing really to report.  She's doing great, growing slowly but well, a healthy happy girl.  

She's still sleeping really well, although she does sometimes have difficulty getting down to sleep... hopefully that will work itself out as she gets older; I really dislike doing sleep training, I just find it so frustrating.  

An interesting observation that I've made... Ellowyn's eyes are still blue.  Looking back at Mira's baby pictures, I've realized that Mira's eyes had already turned brown by this age.  So maybe Ellowyn's eyes will be blue or green or hazel... or maybe they're just taking their time about turning brown.  I guess we'll see in time.  

Like her big sister, Ellowyn has now completely rejected bottles.  Probably it's something we're doing as parents.  Or maybe it's just that my boobs are THAT GREAT.  But either way, we seem to have no luck in the bottle department.  She just cries the entire time and won't latch on.  We've tried different nipples, different bottles, different people, different locations, different times of day... no love.  So we're giving up on it.  We could probably come to an understanding if we pushed the issue, but it's just not worth it for us.  That does mean that I'll be tied to my baby again like I was with Mira, unable to be apart from her for any substantial length of time, but honestly I got pretty used to that with Mira, so it's a bit of a drag for me, but not terrible.  Someday I'll look back and realize that Ellowyn has grown up too fast and then I'll wish that I was still forced to cradle her in my arms and hold her to my breast for 20 solid minutes a dozen times a day.  There are certainly moments when I feel that way about Mira.

Mira's Balance Bike

I decided a while back that I wanted Mira to have a balance bike (also called a pre-bike or a running bike) rather than one of the more traditional options of 1) a tricycle or 2) a bike with training wheels.  A balance bike seems to me like a smarter option for so many reasons.  It is much easier for little ones to control and more intuitive to use.  It also facilitates learning to balance much more than a trike or training wheels.

We gave Mira her balance bike for her second birthday, which is a little on the young end, but still she took to it so quickly.  I was so pleased.  Here's a video of her first bike ride ever.  She had a little trouble figuring out how to mount it, but once she was positioned on it, she knew instinctively what to do.



These next videos were taken a little over a month later.  You can see, she's really getting the hang of it: the position of her hands on the handlebars is more natural, her steering is much better, and she's willing to sit on the seat, which shows that she's starting to trust the bike.





Since she has a more cautious nature, this bike is perfect for her because she can really feel completely in control the entire time.  She's small, but the bike is so lightweight that even she can maneuver it on her own.  Also, the seat and handlebars are very adjustable, able to accommodate kids as small as Mira all the way up to 5-year-olds.  Anyway, Mira really likes her bike.  Soon I'm sure she'll discover that she can pick up her feet on the downhill and then she'll really take off.

Mira's IRC Fan-club

14:48 <@x^NamShub> Laura Drake
14:48 <@x^NamShub> While driving in the car today, Mira said, "Run people over, Mommy." I swear. You can't make this stuff up.
14:48 <@x^NamShub> Teehee!!!
14:49 < aramith> lolz
14:49 < aramith> mira is going to be such a smartass and/or sociopath
14:51 <@x^NamShub> These are both good options.
14:53 < aramith> YES THEY ARE
15:08 < Drakewolf> OMG I LOVE MY DAUGHTER
15:08 < aramith> Drakewolf: i was quite entertained by her when i visited
15:12 < aramith> especially since the first word i heard her say was "SHIT"*
15:15 < Drakewolf> aramith: Today at lunch, the hostess informed my wife that she was pointing staff members
                   toward our table to go see the "Cutest little girl" (re Mira)
15:15 <@clarkk> Mira FTW!
15:16 < aramith> heh
15:16 < aramith> she's cute, until she KILLS YOU
15:16 < aramith> AND THEN EATS YOUR SOUL (while feeding parts of it to anyone around)
15:16 < Drakewolf> aramith: with the epic eyelashes... of doom

* A disclaimer to clarify my parenting acumen: she was saying "SIT" imperiously and was mis-heard by the visitor who didn't understand sub-2year-toddler-speak.