Doctor's Report and Things That Scare Giant Babies

She's big and healthy. That's the short story. Here's a picture of her first time on a swing in the U.S.:


If one weighs a baby naked, as the fine folks at UW Pediatrics do, one gets a more accurate measure of girth. EXS is 24 pounds (97th percentile for 10 month-olds) and 30 inches (95th percentile). Her weight-for-length ratio is on track from when she was first measured at Ping Jiang at four months.

But even giant babies hate getting blood drawn. Especially when the technicians poke each arm and still can't find a vein. At least she has matching purple bandages for her 6-inch pythons. EXS calmed down pretty quickly and was a peach the rest of the evening. We even went to the swings. (See above)

Know what's scarier than needles? A pig puppet glove and a crocodile hand puppet choking on a rattle.

So two of my awesome co-workers from Seattle Children's Theatre (www.sct.org) bring food and gifts for the family. They sit down and we play with EXS for a while. Now these are trained drama instructors for children ages 3 1/2 through high school...

Using EXS's toys, they tell a story of the 5 Pigs (a cool glove with pig heads on the fingers) who go to market, go home... etc, etc... but they bump into a crocodile (2nd co-worker's naked hand with entertaining crocodile voice) who wants to eat the pigs. The pigs run away, find a rattle that EXS loves playing with, and feed it to the crocodile so the croc cannot eat the pigs. The pigs dance and celebrate. This is totally standard fare for 3 1/2 year olds in a drama class and they eat this stuff up with a spoon. Did I mention these are really good teachers?

The story was awesome, with funny voices and characters and lots of action. When the story was over, EXS paused and slowly turned to look at me.



The story totally freaked her out. Her face wasn't just "Daddy, this is scary." She looked at me to say "Why the hell did you let these people in the house? Animals eat each other? Do I have to eat an animal so it won't eat me? What the f*&%?!?!?"

After 2 minutes, everyone was calm and we fed EXS. All was well. And the care package my co-workers brought was excellent. Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout... spinach lasagna, and cornbread among other goodies.. mmmm.

Thanks SCT!