Yes, Yes, Yes... Today I took Maxine to the doctor for her 4 month appointment. Looking back, my conversation in the waiting room foreshadowed her appointment. I, like any parent does, struck up a conversation with the Mother next to me. I asked her all of the usual questions a mother of a younger child does, "How old is your child? When did she start walking? Rolling? How do you keep her from getting into things?" You know. The other mother asked, "How old is your daughter? 9 months?" When I told her she was 4 months the mother said, "Geez!! She is BIG." My experience with children is very limited so I wouldn't know how big Maxine should be... especially because my other mom friends all have big kids, too. So, I smiled proudly (I don't know why I am proud I have a big kid... I just am) and went into Maxine's appointment. We quickly discovered that she is 26.25" and weighs 15 lbs and 11 oz. She is in the 97th percentile for her height and somewhere in the 90s for her weight... the 97th percentile sort of overshadowed the weight's pecentile. Oh, and she is, like, 99.9 percentile for cute.
For Martin Luther King Day weekend we all went to Santa Fe. Maxine's dad attended a two day discussion in Don Quixote and Maxine and I were fancy-pants tourists. We wandered throughout downtown and into the art galleries. Maxine was a super star, flashing her smile at everyone. People stopped all of the time to pinch her cheek and tell me how beautiful she is and how special they feel because she is smiling at them (I didn't mention the person ahead of them on the sidewalk that she made feel special, too). We ate amazing food - I swear Mew Mexican food is incredible. Ben went to college at St John's College, where the seminar was held, so we went to his favorite restaurant Horsemen's Haven. This is a cafe located next to a gas station and has the best, hottest green chili in Sant Fe.
I also feel that it is important, at 4 months, for me to provide a State of Maxine entry. Well, she is incredibly social and smiles at everyone. There are several Maxine smiles - the social one that all strangers are privileged to. There is the smile when she is happy to see someone close to her where she looks surprised and then smiles with her eyes, nose crinkles up and a big pen mouthed grin - the smile is so hard that it causes her to jam her face into whomever is holding her or her hands. It is almost a bashful reaction. She has a laughing smile where she kicks, punches and smiles with really hard and gasps - this is the smile that reminds me of her namesake, my Grandma Maxine. Unless you are a stranger, you have got to work for one of her smiles. Not that she isn't nice or is upset... she just needs a good reason to smile and you had better be funny or friendly... I sometimes work up a sweat just trying to get a smile - if you aren't funny, she just stares at your blankly. Having said that, I am certain she is a very nice, giving and thoughtful baby (okay, roll your eyes now) because she will be crying and so upset but if someone she loves comes into the room she will smile. Despite her misery she will smile and still have tears rolling down her face and then, after she has made you feel like a super star, she will return to her misery.
Maxine is also very observant. For instance, when I am breastfeeding her she will sometimes pull away and stare at me. She will look at my hair line, then my eyes, then my nose and mouth. She watches how I smile and what I say... without smiling or anything... just staring. She also watches us eat. This is pretty funny because she will look at the food and then follow it from the plate into our mouths - almost like she is starving and we are torturing her. Apparently, this is normal and I shouldn't give her my burrito.
Also, she is practicing all of these noises. She makes these gutteral moans... or screeches and gasps and sort of moans. All of which she thinks are totally normal and keep me smiling whenever I am around her... she sounds crazy, constipated, maniacal and gosh darn cute!
I am sure I have more on the State of Maxine but I have to go because her father just gave her a plastic grocery bag to play with (And I leave her with him all day!?). The photo below is Maxine and her parents standing next to her dad's piece of art, 1 of only 5 pieces out of 30 that sold at a silent auction fundraiser for an artist cooperative downtown. Yay Dad!!!
