To the Doctors, Again!

Good news is that Greg's neck problem ended up being a strained/pulled/tweaked/severely pissed off muscle and nothing more. So, he's still sore, but it's not meningitis or something more serious, so I'm relieved about that.

Ellie on the other hand cost me another co-pay today. Good thing I love these kids so much. Ellie's chest is still retracting, but not severely. Her oxygen is down a little from last Friday's InstaCare appointment, but within the acceptable range. Her fever is under control with Motrin. Her cough is getting worse. ("Definitely an RSV cough," her doctor commented.) Her wheezing is the main issue now though . . . so we tried a nebulizer treatment at the doctor's office, but it had almost zero effect. Which was disappointing. But, hopefully we're on the tail end of this (although we were warned it may get a little worse before it gets better.) And, of course, we should continue to use the bulb suction, saline drops and a humidifier. I think in my two daughter's short lives I've spent approximately $48,000 (give or take) in co-pays to be told the same sage humidifier advice again and again. Not that I was expecting anything different this time. Sometimes it's just worth the money to have them rule out anything more serious, and to validate my feelings of, "Wow, this kid sure seems sick."

In Annie's Words Part Deux

I've done this before with Annie, asking her questions about her Mommy . . . and I thought I'd try it again and see how things changed.

How old is your mom?
I don't know hold old are you.

How tall is your mom?
[Silently points at the top of my head for several seconds, then finally answers] That tall. When I stand up I just a little tall.

What is your mom's favorite thing to do?
Play a game. Do something else. Do you like to play games with me?

What does your mom do when you're not around?
Go to the store. Go to bed.

If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
I don't know. Famous means "Where is your Mommy?!" (Wow, that's profound. And I'm sure somewhere Jayden & Sean Preston Federline are all, "Word, Annie!")

What is your mom really good at?
Cleaning up. No, not cleaning up. Getting clothes for you. And cleaning up.

What is your mom not so good at?
I don't know.

What does your mom do for her job?
Email. Do graphics work.

What is your mom's favorite food?
All of she's food. [Then she commands] Mommy, type lots of letters.
Um, broccoli, chicken. I like chicken too! I like chicken or broccoli.

What do you and your mom do together?
Clean up. Like clean up toys

How are you and your mom the same?
I'm not taller and I'm two and you're not and you're taller. I have kinda brownish hair and you have kinda black brownish hair.

How are you and your mom different?
You are taller and I am little.

How do you know your mom loves you?
I don't know.

What can you tell me about your Daddy?
He just sits. (He's been sick and in bed all day.) Maybe he likes to make breakfast when he feels sick.

What do you and Daddy like to do together?
Play in my room.

What is Ellie like?
She's likes to sleep. Sometimes she likes to sleep not. Maybe she likes to watch you clean downstairs.

What is something mom always says to you?
Easel Weasel. They kinda rhyme. (Um, OK. I have no idea where this comes from.)

What makes mom happy?
If I laugh.

What makes mom sad?
If I yell at you, then I will go in time out.

What does your mom do to make you laugh?
If I laugh it will make you laugh.

What was your mom like as a child?
Liked to play a game and all your sisters play a game with you. You say, "Bang it! Beer it up!" That when your other sister grow up, then they will play an Annie game! "Bang it or Beer it up!" "Bang it!! Beer it up!!!"

What makes you proud of your mom?
I don't know. I want to watch "Little People" video.

If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Do you like Oscar? Um, Dora, Elmo, Sponge Bob, Barney. Maybe Dora, and I like Dora. Dora, or Diego. Diego I like more.

Annie kinda just kept talking once we were through the questions. Here's the transcript of her ramblings:
When we go to California, we should go to Dizzleyland. And when we go to California, we should have a baby boy! If we have a baby boy, I will be happy, if we have a baby boy, I will be really happy. When we go to California, why not see all the bad guys? (Disney villians.) When we have a baby boy in California, he will be scared of the bad guys.

[Trying on baby clothes on her baby doll.] It fits you! It almost fit you Tamberly! It's almost big for you, but you can wear it when you get big! Let me try a shirt on. We need a pair of scissors. Does this bug you or no? Tamberly is almost big. When people get bigger, they can wear little people clothes. Mommy, try pants on with her shirts. Oh look at her shirt Mommy, she's almost dressed. We should have a baby boy. Elmo is four. We are almost having a baby boy. Mommy, I want you to put on Tamberly's pants on. Because I am holding Tamberly, but if I sit her down, then it will be easier. But if you do it, it will be more easier. And snap her shirt, 'cause it is a onesie. Now put on the pants. We have lots of baby boy shirts. Yeah, for the next boy. Yay, I did it! Do they go together, or not? Say, "Look at my baby!" Fly baby, fly! I carry you so fly! Fly baby! Which room can I fly in, Mommy's room, Annie's room, or Ellie's room? Fly! Super baby! You are heavy! Catch her Mommy! Catch her!! Now fly her back to me! Now I'll fly her back to you! Tamberly wants her Mommy. No! I don't like that Tamberly! Tamberly trying to get you Mommy. Let's put "Little People" video on Mom . . . maybe I put it on last night. It is on the computer. You hold her Mommy, I want to watch "Little People." With Tamberly. (She doesn't need feedback during any of this, it's pretty much a one-sided conversation!)

(This kid is going to be sorely disappointed when we come home from California with no little brother in tow.)

InstaCare x2

So, we ended up at the InstaCare at 8:00AM this morning, with both Ellie AND Greg as patients. I don't know which one was freaking me out more. Greg couldn't move his head in either direction, and his entire neck and back of his head hurts, in a whole extruciating pain kinda way. Which had me worried about meningitis (note to self: don't google potentially life threatening illnesses a half hour before the InstaCare is actually open.) Ellie on the otherhand seems to be able to move her head just fine . . . as she screams relentlessly and throws her head from side to side in angry cries. She was running a fever last night, and has a horrible cough. And was keeping me additionally freaked out by taking rapid, shallow breaths. So, with most of the family still not fully changed out of our pajamas, we headed off to InstaCare as soon as it opened. Ellie, it turns out, has another ear infection (or the first one never cleared up . . . either way, it's on to the hard core antibiotics), as well as a horrible cough that the doctor identified as, "sounding exactly like RSV." Fortunately, her lungs sound clear and her oxygen levels are good, so it hopefully won't get worse, but may possibly be the "beginnings of RSV." So, I have that to watch out for. That and the warning that if Greg shows ANY flu-like symptoms or starts to feel feverish, to head out immediately to the ER. Not trying to stress me out or anything.

Edited to add pictures of my little sickly family (for those of you who don't know Ellie well, the kid is NOT a cuddler . . . neither of our kids would ever really just snuggle up with us unless they're sick. That's how you know it's serious. Unfortunately, Ellie seems to be in the 'getting sicker before getting better' phase of things . . . Greg seems to be showing some improvement though, what with the shot of muscle relaxers and all, so that's good news at least!):

Annie is obviously feeling well, at least.

In the Village . . .

Annie walking around earlier, belting out her own version of a favorite "Lion King" song . . .

"In the village, the Gardner Village, the Lion sleeps tonight! In the village, the Gardner Village . . ."

(For those who may not realize, I do a lot of freelance graphic design while the kids nap/scream/are ignored and denied access to the computer to play pbskids.org . . . my freelance work is a sore spot with Annie. Because of my opportunity to do graphics for a few of the cute shops out at Gardner Village (Posh Frippery, Sassy Babies, Kamille's, Purse-onality), the girls and I end up over there fairly often. We walk around, feed the ducks, pet the ponies, go to the doll store, split a cookie and all around enjoy ourselves. As much as I like doing graphics for realtors and bathtub refinishers, there's something I really love about working out at Gardner Village!)


Had to add one more Annie story for the day . . . while we were driving Annie and I had the following conversation:
"Annie, who's the coolest person you know?" I asked.
"Annie," she responded quickly. "And Cody."
"And Mom . . . " I added, hopefully.
"Oh no, Cody is way cooler-er than Mommy!"
Good to know where I stand.

A Whole Lotta Effort . . .

Here's Ellie's latest attempts at crawling. She kinda gets it now, she crawls, but she hasn't figured out how to make it worth the effort! She gets down and crawls a few feet here and there, but hasn't yet really figured out that this is a useful skill that will get her places.

Anyway, the reason I put this on here is partly the crawling, but partly Annie in the background. She was counting along with the timer on the camera, and I loved when she got caught up on 15. Anyway, enjoy!

Problem with Solids

Ellie is eating more and more solid foods every day. It's exciting to watch her eat more and more, become more like a kid and less like a baby every day. But, there's a part of me that just wishes that my babies just nursed until they are old enough to just eat. It's the mix of the two forms of feeding that kinda stresses me out. For now it feels like solids are this costly, time consuming, messy experiment. I still end up nursing about as often, for about as long, plus I now have to schedule in a few time-intensive high chair visits a day. And clean ups.

Our biggest issue though has to be the colorful spit up. Everywhere. Bright orange or pea green regurgitation that gets on clothes, the floor, the blankets. Not only does it create a lot of laundry (and carpet scrubbing), but it creates complicated, icky laundry! Stuff that has to be 'Shouted' and double checked before it gets thrown in the dryer (which often gets forgotten, so it also adds cute little now-orange-spotted sleepers to the landfill about once a week.)

And no matter how well I thought I cleaned up these colorful upheavals, I keep spotting more and more reemerging colorful stains all over my bedroom floor. When I'm done having kids, we are SO getting new carpet. (Wait, strike that. When we've potty trained the last one. Then we're getting new carpet!)

Must Be Something in the Air . . .

Both of my little girls have been little stinkers this weekend. Annie's stems completely from a lack of sleep. We had dinner over at a neighbors house on Friday night, and had fun playing games until late, letting Annie stay up and play with their three year old daughter. Meaning our two year old wasn't in bed 'til almost 11PM. We all had so much fun though, that it was well worth it. Even the next two days, when she was grumpy and unreasonable in only a way a tired two year old can be!

On Sunday, Annie had to be taken out of Sacrament Meeting, not once, but twice, for acting up and freaking out. Twice! Maybe for a lot of two year olds, this wouldn't be a big deal. But for as long as I can remember (once we passed the infant stage), we have never had to take Annie out of Sacrament Meeting. Not once. So to have multiple foyer-time-outs was unprecedented. But before I completely lost it with her, she would do something adorably cute, like when she sat there with paper and crayons and made a long line of 'peaks and valley' kinda writing (almost like looking at an EKG readout), and said, "Look Mom! I spelled Mommy! M-O-M-M-Y! That's you!" She's been trying so hard to write letters, but her two year old coordination makes a lot of them impossible still . . . she's getting there though. And has found that she can now consistently write an 'H'. Which is cool for me, because she'll draw a picture and then write a big 'H' next to it and bring it to me and say, "Look Mom! An "H", for Hilary! This one is for you! H!" We'd bought Annie a 50 cent package of clearance Dora Valentine's Cards and stickers to play with. The other day she ran to me with about 6 or 7 of the Dora Cards she'd just finished coloring on, and turned one over to proudly show me the large 'H' that fills the 'To: and From:' portion of the card. "These are for you Mommy! H is for Hilary!" Never have I been so happy to have my name start with 'H'. I mean, 'G' is way trickier! I'm gonna be getting these little love notes long before Greg is reaping her writing rewards!

Annie gets frustrated that she can't write all the letters she wants to though. She'll scribble all over a page, and then show me all the letters she accidentally created . . . often 'M', 'W', 'S', 'T', 'I', 'A', and 'X'. We actually bought her a workbook that has the letters to trace, and while tracing she's been able to do every letter up to 'F' so far (that's as far as we've gotten in the workbook), but as soon as she's done all the dotted line examples, she's lost. I can't believe how quickly she's getting this though. I can't wait 'til her fine motor skills more closely match up with the things she wants to draw! For now though, she's getting frustrated, often asking me to color in something or write a word for her, that she won't even attempt, because she says, "I non't know how," or "You do it, I can't." The other day we were doing little mazes, preschool level
draw a line from start to finish' kinda things you'd see in a "Highlights" magazine. She'd done several, remarkably well, when she suddenly decided this game was out of her league. I just kept encouraging her to just try it, and of course, she refused. That's when we call Grandma, who tells Annie, "Can you try it? Then if you can't do it, Mom can help you," to which Annie of course instantly tries and succeeds (or at least attempts it, which I consider a success!)

Ellie, in the meantime, would go to nobody but Mommy all weekend, basically freaking out like someone was sawing off a limb with a dull knife if anyone dared reach for her. Good times. She just seemed easily overwhelmed this weekend . . . when around just my sister Star, she would actually go to her for awhile without many problems, but as soon as more people showed up, Ellie freaked out and had to have Mom again.

After Ellie's initial 'Crawl Fest 2009' we got so excited about yesterday, she's pretty much wigged out anytime we've set her down on the floor again. I guess I may have a few more days to finish baby proofing our floors (like finding all of the bobby pins Annie randomly yanks out of her hair and drops on the floor) before she gives mobility another go.

I'm hoping now that we're through the amoxicillan for Ellie, and through the weekend of whacked schedules for both of them, that things will settle back to normal and we can go back to my normal only-mildly-high-maintenance-and-high-strung little girls!

Oh, and speaking of amoxicillan, Annie this morning, after I informed Ellie that she had just taken her last dose, exclaimed, "Holy cow Ellie! You take lots of medicines! For ten days! TEN days!! Good job."

Who's a Big Girl?

So, Ellie seems to have finally decided that maybe, just maybe, it's time to start getting around under her own power. She's started crawling today. Like actual, real, productive movement, kinda crawling. She's been going backwards for weeks, and I think it was last Sunday at Greg's parents house that she even went a foot or two forward, but by and large she's showed no real interest in trying any harder than that. (Although, I did leave the room for a minute the other day, only to race back when I heard her screaming and find her UNDER my bed. She had backed herself completely under it, until her entire body, including her poor little sideways head, was stuck between the bed and the floor. She laid off all attempts at crawling for a few days after that. I have found out one thing about my girls, they do not handle defeat/embarrassment well. When Annie was a little older than a year, if was not 100% sure she could say a word, she would mutter it to herself quietly for a week or so, until one day she'd blurt it out, like, "Look what I can say!" She just had to know she could do it first.)

Today though, when we had some nice family-only time, where the four of us were playing around in our frontroom, and Ellie suddenly decided to just go for it, and crawled with actual purpose for several feet. And here I was thinking she'd never crawl. :-)

It still ain't fast, and it still ain't pretty . . . but it's happening, and I'm sure any day now she'll be completely under foot and I'll be muttering, "Why did I ever want you to be able to crawl!?"

We're The Safety Kids!

So, this weekend was the Safety Kids Fair . . . something we've done every year since Annie was born. We have more fun than is probably warranted by the event, but we love it so much we always go Friday and Saturday. This Saturday we even got two free bike helmets, since our kids were in the first 200 kids in line.

Here's Annie on Friday, in her 'Princess' face painting.
Dressed up like a doctor working on the teddy bear patients.
The event was a good warm up for Disneyland, since we found that Annie will happily run up to costumed people and offer them big hugs and high fives.
Ellie and me just chillin' by the fire truck.
Annie on the police Harley.
Annie in the bike rodeo . . . the hygienic scrub hat under the borrowed bike helmet really completes this look!

These are now day 2 photos . . . we always go back on Saturday, despite the horrendous crowds, so that Daddy gets to be involved. Annie got her face painted again, this time as a butterfly. She's unbelievably calm and well behaved during the painting process.
Showing off her pink butterfly self.
Annie rolling around in the Gymboree tube.
Dr. Annie was called in again to work on the teddy bear patients.
Annie driving a golf cart.
Fire Chief Ellie and Daddy.

Updated Annie Pictures

So, I'm probably going a little stir crazy . . . from ear infections and fevers, we've been pretty stuck inside for the last week. Throw on top of that the stress and sleep deprivation from the sick kids, the ups and downs of my parent's house hunting/selling and the drama that just seems to plague me of late (my friend got her divorce papers, which has caused all kinds of emotions . . . plus her creepy soon-to-be-ex-husband searched her diaper bag when she left the room while he came to visit his son (for the first time in like 7 weeks) only to find out she does in fact have a cell phone (my parents got her one) and wants to know the number for it now). (I know, I know, I use far to many parentheses . . . I also over use ellipses . . . and I was once told by a college professor that I was having a love affair with the comma) and I'm just kinda drained. Don't expect anything overly amusing or relevant on my blog anytime in the next few days (not that I'm saying this is your go to place for wit in the first place, I'm just sayin' it'll be less than normal even until life slows down a little!) I'll probably just post random pictures. That's easy.

Here's Annie, still sick, but feeling so much better than before.



Her eyes are still all puffy and stuff, but at least it looks like the 'light's back on' in there!


Ellie with her new favorite binkie. I still can't believe we went two kids and didn't discover this little trick until now! It calms her down instantly . . . I now understand why babies have binkies, they are like wonder-drugs-of-calmness! I'm concocting some form of headgear type device for my next kid's binkie and by golly, he/she will learn to use one! They are amazing!

The Teenage Years Should Be Fun

I was just informed by my two year old . . .

"Mom. You're freaking me out."


Oh, and an Annie-update . . . she is now on amoxicillin for an ear infection and sinus infection, and the nurse reported a healthy 98.7 temperature (of course, that was one hour after motrin.) She seems a lot better today. More lethargic than normal, but better than yesterday. Bad news: her asthma medicine they put her on isn't performing as well as they wanted it to, so we're being bumped up to a higher dose. I've never been so grateful for flex spending accounts as when I keep getting prescriptions for different $35 inhalers!

Should've Jotted it Down . . .

So, Annie freaked me out around 2AM, by suddenly crying out for me and screaming, "I need water, Mommy! Water! Water!" I rushed in there and brought her a water bottle that she just chugged down. She was burning up, she was the hottest I've felt her all week. We'd given her motrin before she fell asleep, so I had Greg go get the Tylenol and give her some before we went back to bed. She seemed to fall right back asleep as we left the room. Then about two minutes later, she happily and loudly (and I do mean loudly, she's down the hall behind a closed door and she sounded like she was in the same room as me) started talking about going to the ballet when she is older. Just happily chatting away about the ballet. And then about how she'll go to Relief Society and Primary. And a whole bunch of other stuff that I wish I had written down while she was saying it, 'cause Greg and I were laughing about it, but now neither of us can remember much past the ballet stuff. Next time, screw the lack of sleep I'm already suffering from, I'm getting up and writing it all down while she's saying it!

And yeah, this is gross . . . but there is weird yellow crap dripping out of Annie's ear . . . I am SO glad we have her doctor's appointment today at 11AM. (We had this scheduled already, for her check up for her asthma.) She just told Aunt Star on the phone, "Ellie is asleep, but later we are going to the doctor so we can see how I am doing with my asthma medicine." Star commented, "She sounds so grown up!"

It's Getting Worse

Look at my poor kid! It breaks my heart!! She's so warm to the touch, despite being pumped full of cherry flavored children's Tylenol . . . we may be in Motrin territory now . . .




Ellie on the otherhand is like, "Why are we all just layin' around watching the Disney channel all day!? Let's play people!!" Who knew my kid with the ear infection would be the happy one today!?


(Edited to add: just two hours after our last tylenol dose, Annie's fever is 101.5 under her arm, and she's complaining about her head hurting really bad. These were the exact same symptoms my friend Rach had before she started throwing up for 24 hours straight . . . )

I Hope It Doesn't Get Any Worse

Annie went to the park yesterday with Greg when he got home from work last night. Despite it being like 50 degrees outside, and her wearing multiple layers, she came home complaining about being cold. She then cuddled under a blanket with Greg on the couch and watched a movie. And was still cold. At dinner she refused to eat more than a few bites, and looking back I was realizing she had eaten next to nothing all day. And now she was saying she was cold, and was 'sore' and her forehead was hot. Poor kid. Fortunately, she has not started throwing up yet (as many of our friends have been this week!), but I'm worried it's just getting started. At least Ellie's about over this ear infection and her amoxicillin-fueled diaper rash is under control.

But still, if I were you, I'd steer clear of our house though . . . I have a feeling things are going to get worse before they get better . . .

(She's still in her footie pajamas this morning, but just asked me to go get her pillow and blanket so she can get warm. Poor thing.)

World Through Annie's Eyes

Annie's become kind of obsessed with taking pictures. All by herself. Here's a sampling of her latest work from this weekend.
















On our way home from the zoo on Saturday, we were singing "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" in the car, and apparently I sang it wrong, because Annie adamently corrected, "Mom! Even. Though. The. Sound. Of It. Is. Something Quite. Atrocious." My bad. We then sang the next line, and at the end I asked Annie, "Do you know what 'Precocious' means?" I loosely explained that it meant someone sounds smart. Annie lit up and exclaimed, "I smart!" in a complete 'hey! this song is about me! kinda moment.' Well, she does have precocious down pat!

Also on the drive home from the zoo, Annie started to ask us which animals like drinking water, just like she does. We named pretty much every single animal we'd seen at the zoo, or that you'd find on a farm, and she was just fascinated that all of these animals liked to drink water as much as she did! Greg and I (the competitive people we are) had kinda turned it into a bit of a game/race, naming animals back and forth to see who could go the longest without repeating one. Although the game ended when Greg said, "A cow," and Annie interrupted and said, "No Daddy! Cows drink milk, not water!" We explained that cows make milk, but they drink water. And that only baby cows drank milk. I told her, "Annie, animal babies drink milk that they get from their Mommy's, just like Ellie does." Annie though about it for a second then said, "That makes sense." I know that'll lose something in translation, but her delivery of that line was about the funniest thing I've heard her say in awhile. Although really, I still don't think she really believes us that cows aren't big milk drinkers.

It's Like I'm Twelve All Over Again . . .

Remember those adolescent days of learning to shave your legs? (Raxor burn and nicks and all that.) Yeah, I haven't progressed much. Mainly because of the abnormal lack of leg hair I have 99% of the time. Feel free to send me hate mail or throw tomatoes at my house, but despite my being mammalian and all, I grow a surprising lack of leg hair. Like almost none. My Mom (who claims to shave her legs at least once a day . . . which means there are days where she does it twice) has threatened to disown me if I bring this up again. Good thing she doesn't read my blog. So, I tend to shave my legs like three or four times a year, and that's really only 'cause I feel like I'm supposed to or something.

This morning I had that 'urge' again . . . like, hey, it's a Saturday morning, and I'm sitting here putting lotion on my legs and wouldn't it be cool to go ahead and run a razor over them like a normal person! So, I rummaged through Greg's bathroom drawer and grabbed a random razor (this was my big mistake, I should've gone for his nice one!) I hopped up on my bathroom counter, and filled the sink up with some water, and very similiarly to when I was 12 and like what I've seen on shaving gel commercials, I took the razor and started running it up my leg in random stipes. I don't really care much where I shave on my legs, I don't follow a 'pattern' or anything, since it doesn't really matter being that I'm a hairless freak and all. I noticed when I was all done that I had a little patch of redness, and a little spec of blood I had to wipe up, but all in all, it seemed to be an uneventful leg shaving routine.

Then my legs started to burn.

At first it just felt uncomfortable as my socks rubbed up against my skin, a slight tingle. Then the feeling intensified. We were out and about for most of the day, but all I could think of half the time was how badly my legs hurt. Pretty soon it was like someone was taking sandpaper and roughing up open skin. The pain was intense. More than 12 hours later they still hurt so bad that I've been finding topical products with lidocaine in them to try and dull the sting. As soon as we were home for the day I checked out my legs, only to find them horrifically maimed . . . so, of course I took pictures, to share with all of you my not-so-secret shame that I cannot properly shave my legs at the ripe old age of 29. Sad, but true.


In non-maiming myself news . . . how freaking cute are my kids in the matching sweaters I got online from Children's Place?! Ellie has the matching hat, which makes her ensemble all the more adorable!

Nine Months Already!?

Ellie is nine months old today. To celebrate we went to the doctor's for a check up and came home from said appointment with a prescription for Amoxicillin, 'cause it turns out the poor kid had an ear infection.
How did I miss that!? With Annie, my Mom-fu was strong, I knew that kid had an ear infection as soon as they started to turn pink inside . . . with Ellie I'm clueless! (Of course, with Annie, there was a new ear infection about every 2 weeks, so it didn't exactly take a rocket scientist to figure things out. But I did have a knack at catching them before she was symptomatic.)

But, other than the raging infection going on, my nine month old is perfectly healthy (and our new pediatrician doesn't seem at all freaked out by her teeny tinyness, so I'm relieved.) She's gaining well, is babbly, happy, active, cute as a freaking button and the doctor was completely smitten with her . . . and people who gush over my babies are like my bestest friends, so me and this new doctor are tight.

Here's how things checked out:
Age: 9 months
Weight: 15 lbs. 7 oz. (4th percentile, which is up!)
Height: 23.38 in. (15th percentile)
Head Cir.: 17.1 in. (79th percentile . . . he he he, how my kids don't look like bobble heads with 4% weight and 80% heads is beyond me!)
Hair: none
Teeth: no where in sight
Eye Color: cool!

I know it's a dumb question, but it was actually on my mental list of things to ask the pediatrician . . . "What color are her eyes?!" I was hoping that someone who's looked at as many kids' eyes as a pediatrician could settle our eye color debate once and for all. I cannot describe Ellie's eye color (except in Costco, where they are so freakishly cool in their gunmetal-ness that I want to get family photos done in there!) Everywhere else though they are somewhere between blue/green/hazel/brown/gray. The doctor was doing her exam, and as she shined the light into Ellie's eyes, I was getting ready to ask my question when the doctor suddenly said, "Wow, those are cool! I've never seen a color like this!" "Exactly," I enthusiastically agreed, "so what color would you say it is?" She thought for a second, "Um . . . kinda blue/green/hazel, with a little brown and gray." "Well, that was no help!" After much discussion, she settled on, "Cool. They're just cool looking . . . if anyone asks what color they are, just tell them they're cool." That'll have to do . . . and unlike blue-green-hazel-brown-gray, 'cool' will actually fit on her drivers license when she gets one! I don't know if that's an option though . . .