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Abigail's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 10/13/02 -------------------- 4/17/02 3/15/02 2/4/02 1/15/02 9/14/01 8/16/01 7/26/01 7/20/01 7/7/01 4/17/01 4/17/01 12/5/00 10/25/00 10/14/00 7/12/00 6/21/00 6/7/00 5/31/00 5/23/00 5/17/00 5/9/00 5/3/00 4/25/00 4/19/00 4/12/00 4/4/00 3/28/00 3/22/00 3/15/00 3/7/00 2/29/00 2/28/00 2/23/00 2/15/00 2/9/00 2/4/00 2/2/00 1/26/00 1/25/00 1/18/00 1/11/00 1/4/00 12/28/99 12/21/99 12/14/99 11/1/99 10/28/99 10/21/99 10/5/99 9/29/99 9/1/99 8/1/99 7/1/99 6/1/99 5/1/99 4/1/99 -------------------- Abigail's Introduction

April 4, 2000

Lena and Liberty had their 12-month checkup last week--about three weeks early, but that's ok. Lena is 16 pounds, 9 ounces, 28 1/4 inches. Liberty is 17 pounds, 1 ounce, 28 ¾ inches. They're still little runts! Seriously, they're growing beautifully and the nurse practitioner is happy about that.

They have a wonderful nurse practitioner, Paula, who takes a lot of time with them at each appointment. Most of my friends' pediatricians don't do anything besides weighing and measuring the baby at well-baby check ups. Paula does all sorts of developmental things with Lena and Liberty. She also tells us what kinds of games we can play to help the girls' development along. I really appreciate that.

Lena and Liberty, on the other hand, are not necessarily cooperative at each visit. I think it depends who goes first. Whoever goes first sometimes refuses to perform for Paula. It doesn't matter if Paula wants her to do something that she has been doing for the past six months, she won't do it. At the 10-month checkup, Lena was first. For the first test, all she had to do was take two blocks out of Paula's hands and clap them together--this is something she does constantly at home. She just wouldn't do it. So we tried and we tried and I started sweating and saying, "I swear she does that all the time at home." And Paula was looking at me like, "yeah, right lady." OK, she wasn't *really* thinking that, that was just my imagination.

Meanwhile, Liberty was sitting on her daddy's lap, patiently waiting her turn and passing the time by doing all of her tricks. She was playing patty-cake, waving bye-bye, blowing kisses, and anything else that she knew we would think was cute. Then Paula gave up on Lena for the moment and started giving Liberty all of the little developmental tests. Of course, Liberty did everything with ease, and once Lena saw her sister playing with Paula so enthusiastically, she grew more and more interested in Paula's games. By the time Paula was finished with Liberty, Lena was more than ready to cooperate.

So at the 12-month check up we had Liberty go first and I couldn't believe it, but they totally flip-flopped. She didn't want to do any tricks, but Lena was more than happy to perform. I can't believe the games these girls play sometimes. There's never a dull moment with these girls!