Baby, I’m amazed…

That’s what comes to mind almost every time I spend time with Lena (aka monster – although she’s not really a monster… except when she’s hungry). I’m just continually shocked by the day-to-day changes that occur in my daughter. I have no idea where she is on the “gifted baby”chart or if she’s even on the chart… and to be honest, I’m pretty sure I don’t care. To me, she’s doing just fine, and I’d rather avoid all the comparisons that tend to come with new parents. I have enough competition through sports and my job, I don’t need my daughter’s performance or lack thereof to become an issue (Now when she starts getting grades at school, I’ll make sure she does her best, but her best shouldn’t be gauged against that of her classmates.) And I’m also pretty sure that a good portion of the baby comparisons are just a bunch of bull. For example, I took Lena to her 4-month checkup (2 months ago) and she was in the mid-70s/low-80s percentiles for weight and length. Now she’s up in the mid-high 90s. But after I sat back and breathed a sigh of relief that my baby was firmly back in the “A-“ category, I actually wondered what the heck I was so happy about. Is it going to affect how I interact with my baby? Is she somehow less “loveable” or inferior to my Russian neighbor’s baby because she might be a little smaller? That had better not be the case or else there will be one pissed-off, dark-haired grandmother from Pennsylvania boarding the next plane to Sacramento. Don’t worry, mom. It’s not.

Okay, now I’m stepping off my soapbox or whatever that was. As I was saying I’m amazed by what changes occur in Lena on a daily basis. The day she leaned forward to grab a magazine off Kim’s lap definitely evoked a “whoah, wait… when did she learn how to do that?” (That happened on August 17, btw) And I don’t think I’ve ever cheered as hard as I did the day she rolled over for me. But her latest thing… is dancing. So I had to share this. Pay particular attention to the part of the song where Jason Mraz sings “Scooch on over closer dear” – while I’m pretty sure she didn’t understand what he was saying, it was an odd coincidence.