growing girl

Lizzy and I took Maddie to the doc on Monday afternoon for her 4-month-old checkup. Lizzy wanted to come to see 'how loud Maddie will scream' when she got her shots. Sounds a little sick to me, but, okay. (she has a half day of school on Mondays, so it was that, or hang out at the after-care place.)

Maddie's such a trooper. She weighs 15 pounds, 5 oz. now, which is around the 80th percentile for babies her age, and her length (forget how much -- 24 inches and some, maybe?) is around the 60th percentile. Her little thighs are so chunky, even the nurse commented on them. ("A nurse's dream!" since that's where they give the shots.) Maddie's such a little sweetheart, too. She does her screaming thing for about 10 seconds, then quiets right down. Does the same for each shot. But then she's pretty okay afterward. Such a lovely child.

After the shots -- Lizzy said she wouldn't like to see that again, thanks. She's quite desperately afraid of needles, but then again, perhaps every kid is -- the nurse said, "Hm, Madeline M----l. My daughter dated a Matt M----l when she was a teenager." I said, "oh-ho-ho REALLY! What's her name??" I must have looked a little too eager to hear about it, because the nurse asked me a series of questions first to ascertain whether it was likely to be the same Matt M. Yep -- same high school, same grad year. So she told me about how her daughter -- whose name I'm pretty sure my husband has never mentioned -- was doing these days, and what she was up to.
Naturally, as soon as I got home, I quizzed Matt about this. "I never dated her!" he says. "I WISH I had dated her! I had a crush on her in middle school! She was SMOKIN' HOT. -- still is, last I saw her!" Okay, okay. That's enough now, mister.

Lizzy's latest craze is playing Connect 4. There's a guy named Mike (a grown-up) at her before and after care center who plays it with her a lot, so we bought a game for our home, and we play her a lot there. It's a great mix of not mind-numbing (think Candyland, or something similar), and something that, quite honestly, Lizzy wins as often as Matt or I do. We're perhaps not trying SUPER hard, but we're certainly not 'letting' her win, either! She's quite the smart one. The game purports to be for ages 7 and up, and she's just turned 6. What can we say -- we simply have a couple of smart, beautiful girls. :) We wouldn't trade 'em, that's for sure.