Happy Half Birthday to Maia!

Good morning! We've just returned from Maia's 18-month appointment with her pediatrician, and all is very well. (That's pretty much been the way it's gone for all of these appointments . . . nothing exciting to report.) She didn't have any immunizations, which made the whole experience much more pleasant. She's maturning into a typical toddler in that she really has no interest in being touched with the stethoscope or the ear-light-thing or anything along those lines, and so she shed some tears despite the absence of shots. But anyway, here are the vital (?) stats:

Height: 34 inches (98th percentile!)
Weight: 23 lbs, 6.5 oz (about the 40th percentile)
Head circumference: 48.3 cm (90th percentile)

Our ped said that, to get a general picture of things, you can double the height of an 18-month old girl to estimate her adult height. That puts Maia somewhere around the 5' 8" (or so) height as an adult. If that's accurate, she'll be taller than me, which gives me a striking mental image of what teenage Maia might be like. :) Interestingly, you can do the same kind of estimation with a boy's height, but not until the 2-year mark.

The other thing of note at the appointment was Maia's vocabulary. Our Dr. said that the average 18-month old (averaging girls and the--usually--significantly less verbal boys) has about a dozen words. Maia has about 150. So, Maia's vocabulary at this point is off the charts, which is really cool, and it certainly makes our lives easier that she can say so many things. Just in the last half day, she's added the words "pizza" and "Katie" to her list.

Today, after Maia's nap is over and after we've had lunch here at the house, I think that we'll go down to Zingerman's with Aunt Katie to get a half-birthday treat of some sort for Maia. We'll spend some time playing outside and running around downtown, and then return home. I teach my class for kids at the U of M hospital this evening, and then I'll probably drive downtown again to meet Brian, Katie and Maia somewhere (they plan to take the 5-mile bike ride to get there while I'm teaching).

That's all for now! I just thought I'd do the appointment update while I had everything fresh in my mind.