15-Month Checkup

Mia is at the 95th to 97th percentile for height (if their measurements of a wriggly girl who doesn't like to be pinned down can be trusted!), and 75th to 90th percentile for weight. She has gained a bit over 1 lb. per month since September, which is a healthy amount of weight gain. She is now 26.4 lbs. Good thing she usually prefers walking over being carried! Actually, it has been feeling a bit easier to carry her these days. She has finally started hanging on, with one arm wrapped around mine. I praise her for this, telling her how nice it feels. I could thank her for saving my back as well, but I refrain from saying anything to her that suggests I am too old for this job. She'll figure it out soon enough. My next goal is to get her to wrap her legs around my waist. I keep trying to show her how it is done, but she persists in letting her legs dangle. I'm sure she'll catch on one day, and then with her strength it will be like carrying a boa constrictor around. (Hmmm, maybe I should start thinking up a clever title for that particular blog post.)

Back to the checkup. Everything is AOK. The Amoxicillin fixed the ear infection, the saline nasal spray helped the snottiness, the eardrops cleared out the hard wax. We're supposed to keep putting a drop of mineral oil in each ear 4-5 times per week. (Are they kidding? Okay, okay, let me give her a few days off, then we'll start up again.) I felt like a very effective mother until the doctor criticized us for still giving her milk in a baby bottle. (Some adoption experts suggest this until the age of 2, but Dr. G was adamant.) I said OK, I'd switch from the bottle to the sippy cup, but the Dr. didn't like that too much either. She said sippy cups are bad for their bite, and Mia needs to start learning how to drink from a regular cup. I refrained from saying, "She needs to learn not to throw the cup before she can learn to drink from it." (I try not to be a smart-aleck when it comes to my child.) I did give her some water today in a sippy cup sans lid. As predicted, she drank a little water, but really enjoyed first playing in the water with her fingers, then dumping it out on the floor. (Just missed poor Sam.)