I have Lila's update from her 9 month check-up, but first a story...

I was feeding Lila her lunch earlier and I tried giving her a spoonful of squash. Instead of opening her mouth to eat it, she reached up and grabbed the spoon. Now, she is capable of feeding herself and near the end of every meal I'll give her spoonfuls of food and let her feed herself. Sometimes though, what she really wants is to get her hands on the spoon so that she can play with it - fling it around or scoop the food out of the spoon with her fingers and decorate the high chair with it.

I do, occasionally, let her do these things because I know it's a stage of development. But today I was not in the mood and I could tell that she did not have honorable intentions when she grabbed the spoon. So I pulled it out of her hand. Apparently I did not do it very carefully though and she was really hanging on. Well the spoon came out of her hand alright... and the squash came out of the spoon... and landed on the floor (halfway across the kitchen), on my pants, on her high chair tray (where she played with it and smeared some onto the kitchen table), and *in my hair*!!!

I knew that one day I would end up wearing my child's food, but I still wasn't prepared for it. I just took the Cat Approach to the situation though. I closed my eyes for a few seconds and then went on with the rest of the meal like I had no idea that there was squash in my hair. It was really the only way to maintain my sanity.

As for the doctor visit - there is good and not-so-good. She is a healthy girl and is still growing, though she's slowed down a lot. She's 18 lbs. 13 oz., which is what she weighed one month ago and puts her in the 50th percentile. And she's 27 inches - that's only the 30th percentile. She's short! The doctor wasn't worried though. She said that she grew a lot in the beginning and is now probably slowing down and that's fine. Given my height and Doug's, we don't expect her to be tall.

The doctor was shocked at her verbal abilities - she can already say half a dozen words (and a short sentence)! Go, baby, go! She may be short, but she's way ahead of the curve in social and verbal development! :) Now for the not-so-good: first of all, she's borderline anemic. That's not overly surprising, but it's a reminder that we need to be faithful in giving her vitamins every day. Not just when I happen to remember.

The doctor is concerned about the lack of gross motor development in her legs. She said Lila's muscle tone in the legs felt a bit decreased and she's not interested in standing up at all. It's not uncommon for a child not to be crawling at this point - some babies never crawl! However, Lila won't stand on her legs at all and most babies this age love to bounce (you support them so they don't fall, but they bear weight on their legs and bounce up and down).

I try regularly to get Lila to do this, or just to stand for a few seconds and she won't do it. I think I've gotten her to do it maybe three times ever. And even then, she didn't really stand up, she held weight on her legs, but had her upper body bent forward. Anyway, the doctor is referring her to a physical therapist for evaluation. They might just give us some exercises to do with her to help build the muscles.

Okay, now Doug is waiting on me to finish a movie we started last night. Better go...