Perfectly Average

Jane is 6 months old today. It's all going a little too fast for me; I want to slow it down. She continues to grow--- she weighs 15lb 13 oz and is 25 1/2 inches long. That puts her perfectly average-- 50th percentile for both. But perfectly average sure seems big to me. Her pediatrician said to move to feeding her solids twice a day, and then work up to 3x a day by the time she is 8 months. When I told him that baby food sessions were not high on my 'favorites list' and that I really was only feeding her solids at dinner time, he laughed and said "at least I was honest". And then went on that a lot of moms tell him that they're doing more than that but that he can usually tell when they're stretching the truth.


My Grandpa Morse died on Saturday. He has been in a care center for a number of years and had pretty extensive short term memory loss. I would see him about once a year--he would say all the right things to carry on a conversation, but I never really knew if he remembered who I was or was just politely faking it. My Grandma died 10 years ago-- I remember because it was one week before Madelin was born. I flew to Portland for the funeral and looking back, I wonder why the airlines let a 39 week pregnant woman on a flight?? That Grandma is the Juliette that Jane is named after. When Grandma died, it was much more sad-- her death was due to a stroke and burn accident and was very tragic. I think it is nice to know that they are both together again. The funeral is not until a week from Wednesday. Between transferring the body inter-states and waiting out conference weekend, the funeral was pushed back. Janie and I will fly out with my mom on Tuesday and then back again on Thursday. At first I told Mark that I was leaving Jane with him--- he didn't say "No", but was silent as he mentally calculated how little he would accomplish if he had Jane with him all day . . . But of course I'll keep her with me! I am certainly going to be seeing a lot of my family over the next couple weeks. Rachel and her kids fly in tomorrow to stay with my mom for their spring break and Emily and her family will be between St. George and SLC over the next week too as they look for houses in SLC for their impending move. I asked my mom if she could convince Ben to get married while we were there to save us a trip later on, but I am pretty sure they are stuck on their 2008 plan. 2008??? But it's not my show, so I'll just be supportive. It will be nice to see everyone. The girls love having cousins to visit with and I hear that Jackie is super excited to play with "the baby" (Janie). Jackie is so tiny, Jane might nearly outweigh her. Cousins, babies, weddings, funerals, family visits, moves----all so remarkable as milestones, yet still so perfectly average. (cue "Circle of Life" music).