The Irony of It All: The Not Quite Lake Woebegone Life we Lead

Lea had her 1 year check up today, and, as it turns out, she is perfectly average, which in our world is a very good thing. She is at the 50th percentile for pretty much everything, and weighed in at about 20 lbs. 6 ounces and about 29 inches tall (please note: the inexactitude is related both to my not having been at the appointment and the fact that, at least where Lea is concerned, we've totally distanced ourselves from trying to make sure we have weights and heights down to the last gram and millimeter, respectively. She has looked fine to us, and that's what counts).

The ironic part: Hallie was bigger both in terms of height (at above the 75th percentile) and weight (at around the 60th) at the same [adjusted] age as Lea is now. Our pediatrician, of course, remembered this little factoid, and so did we. Who'd have thunk?

Of course, Hallie still remains taller than average, at over 40.25 inches (putting her between the 75th and 90th percentiles for height) and at pretty much average for weight, at about 33 lbs. 8 ounces as of last week (meaning that she's put on over a pound in the month of January, during her post pneumonia recovery). We're not sure how this happened, but there you have it.

Clearly, though, where Lea is concerned, we just don't have to work as hard (and consequently don't work as hard) to keep her at average: we don't worry about whether she eats 2 cheerios or 20; a couple of tablespoons of yogurt or none at all; etcetera. She just does what we does and we do it with her. We follow her lead and she knows where she wants to go.

With Hallie, honestly, most of the time we do the same thing: Hallie's therapies are, for the most part, very much Hallie-directed and that is a good thing. Even her eating is mostly Hallie directed, with the exception of our feeding-therapy directed 'snacks' (which now incorporate tiny bites of banana, much to Hallie's chagrin. But she's pretty much doing it, and that's important since we need to push her a bit out of the comfort zone on the eating front, even if we try not to go too far and only stay within the parameters of the excellent instructions provided to us by her wonderful feeding psychologist). And, of course, we still fortify those darned bottles, but whatever I'm putting in that goat milk really is doing the trick, and for that (and Hallie's decision to eat toast, fries, pizza, cheese, bacon, and now McDonald's hash brown) I am very grateful.

Anyway, we love living here in what is not quite Lake Woebegone: not everyone is above average, and, you know, that's a good thing. Average is just fine with us.