Busy Little Girl

A couple of people asked about Riley's follow-up appointment about her weight, so I thought I'd better post the results. After all our diligence in feeding her all the cheese, whole milk yogurt, smoothies with "secret ingredients", and Carnation Instant Breakfast (thanks for the great tip, Danielle!) she was willing to eat, Riley gained 11.5 ounces last month. Which puts her.....still in the 3rd percentile. The surprise, however, was that she is now 32.5 inches tall. The doctor was a little surprised, since that's a jump from last month, so she measured her three times herself (Usually the nurse does it before the doctor comes in.) and was sure of that length. That now puts Riley nearly in the 90th percentile for length!

Fortunately, our regular doctor was back in the office and she didn't seem to be quite as panicked about the weight situation as her fill-in was last month. She said we should continue doing the Carnation, but not to push Riley to eat foods that are unhealthy. I think we'll just keep doing what we're doing and hope that someday her bony-ness will pay off. Cory did suggest America's Next Top Model.

This photo is a good example of how Riley keeps her lithe figure. She managed to slip my flip flops on by herself and did a lap around the main floor while sliding them along.

She's holding on to her doll ("baby", which was her first word) and what has recently become the doll's blankie (also pronounced "baby"). The fact that the two are pronounced exactly alike doesn't usually matter much, since baby and blankie are inseparable to Riley.

Until last week, that is. We went to visit our friends, Megan & Jeff, in a Labor & Delivery room in the hospital. Riley was understandably curious about all the unique furniture and gadgets in the room. At one point she pointed up at an empty baby cart bed (I'm sure they have a name, but I don't know what it is. Scot calls it a baby inbox.) and started repeating "baby" over and over. We couldn't imagine how she'd know it was a bed for babies, except maybe because there were a couple of pink receiving blankets in it. I picked her up to show her that there was not a baby in the bed, but she continued to say "baby" every time she wandered near that bed. Megan joked that maybe it was baby's intuition and she could sense that it was a place for babies.

It wasn't until Riley and I took a walk down the hall and back while a doctor visited with Megan & Jeff that I realized, as Riley pointed to a regular hospital bed in the hallway and said "baby," that this whole time she had been saying blankie, in reference to the receiving blankets. I'm sure there will be a whole lot more of those experiences as her vocabulary continues to grow at a faster rate than her pronunciation skills.