Sixteen Candles

Well, she'd have sixteen candles if I gave her a candle for every month. Pumpkin is 16 months old now. She had her 16 month checkup today, and was pronounced to be healthy from head to toe and on track developmentally. She's average height, but on the skinny side (as the doctor noted, while watching Pumpkin bustle around the exam room while we were asking our questions, she is quite active). She has 10-15 words or signs, which is more than enough to avoid worry. Probably the only things we need to worry about are her teeth. She has a lot of them. She likes to brush her teeth- she happily toddles off down the hall to the bathroom when we announce it is time to do so- but her technique still needs work. And then there is that middle of the night nursing. I try to get her to drink water after it, but some nights, she is just not interested, and I am not at my parenting best at 2 a.m., so I tend to give in easily so that I can stumble back to bed.

While I was preparing for her appointment, I flipped through some of the earlier pages of the notebook I have used for all things pregnancy and baby related. I have some pages devoted to my favorite memories from various time periods. I plan to eventually use these in a scrapbook I'll make for Pumpkin. You know, in my copious spare time.

These memories made me smile when I came across them last night. Here are some highlights:

• Pregnancy- feeling kicks and hiccups, and eating all the ice cream I wanted
• Birth- what a great coach Hubby was
• Newborn (0-6 weeks)- the way she slept with her legs rotated to one side, and her elaborate wake up routine (it involved a lot of stretches and grimaces)
• 6 weeks - 3 months- the feeling of her sleeping against my chest, and the cute, high-pitched whine she had when she wanted more milk and I was too slow in providing it
• 3 months - 6 months- the smiles, the way she reached out to drink from my glass, and her "regal" pose in her car seat (with her arms draped onto the side of the seat)
• 6 - 9 months- the laughs and the way she played with her own hair while nursing (it made her look like a little monkey)
• 9 - 12 months- how much she loved to wave hello and good-bye, and the beaming smile she would get when I would clap for one of her accomplishments
• 12 - 18 months (so far)- big hugs, little kisses, her excitement at seeing birds, and how fun it is when she learns a new word

The notebook also has our early logs of her wet and dirty diapers, but I'll spare you the highlights of those. The notebook lacks a record of the worst things about each age. Perhaps I'll put that in this blog at some point, so that I don't get a nasty surprise if I ever decide to have another baby. Or perhaps I'll just let those memories fade, and only keep the good ones.