Happy 2 months

Dear Helen,

Two days ago, you turned two months old. I can't say as you have a load of tricks, but you're holding your own. You can pick up your head and rotate it from side to side, which is good because it makes me feel a lot less guilty about letting you sleep on your tummy. Yes, internet, I'm aware of the "back to sleep" campaign. It might be the reason Connor was such a terrible sleeper as a baby because I would never even think of allowing him to lie in a room by himself on his tummy. He wasn't even allowed a pillow until his very loving nanny (and mother of a bazillion kids) convinced me it would be OK. But you, Helen, you get to sleep on your tummy on a pillow - and you sleep great, though now that I really do think the worst of the reflux is behind us, I'm going to ditch your pillow.

We went to your 2 month well child visit yesterday and again, my darling, you are ON the weight charts! You maintain a solid hold on the 10th percentile line. You are at the 50th percentile for height and your head is in the 25th percentile. This, of course, makes your dad and I think you are quite chubby (in a good way, I swear), because we are used to seeing your brother with a 95th percentile head on a not on the growth charts weight. I was able to reaffirm I like your doctor because when he told me you were in the 50th percentile for height I said "Wow, she's average" and he said "only in height. Exceptional in every other way." You finally passed your hearing test in one ear, and my friend Sarah who is an audiologist told me that was very good news as it is quite unlikely that you have hearing loss in one ear and not the other. Guess we should start watching what we say around you.

Like your brother at this age, you are not particularly fond of the carseat. You pretty much scream whenever you get in and will only let up if you fall asleep. But don't worry, I'm an expert at driving through barely red lights, speeding, and cutting through neighborhood streets to hasten our trips. I did it two years ago on a regular basis.

You don't like immunizations any more than your brother did - but with being a second child comes parental experience and at least we were able to very quickly start the Tylenol to get the pain under control. When your brother had the same reaction, I couldn't even think because I had never heard him cry so much, and took me a while to sort out what was going on and give him some Tylenol.

Helen, you are a champ. Not only do you still sleep (thank you, thank you, thank you), you are an incredibly adaptable little girl. Regularly, I find myself waking you because I need to chase your brother out of the house before he destroys it and don't want to leave you alone. You open your eyes, smile, let me change your diaper, and pile in the Baby Bjorn and we're off.

Love,
Mommy