Phoebe's 1 year stats and birthday balloons

Phoebe had her one-year check-up this morning, where we learned that she hates:

• having her head circumference measured
• sitting on the scale
• stretching to be measured
• the stethoscope
• the otoscope
• having her finger lanced for a hemoglobin count
• that flashy thing they use to test babies' vision
• the crinkly paper on the exam table
• having the doctor check her hips
• vaccinations

The only thing that was relatively easy for the doctor to do was peer down Phoebe's wide-open throat. 

The only thing Phoebe enjoyed was shaking her head at the doctor and saying, "Uh-uh!" (unless she was too busy screaming to speak, which was often). 

So, basically, things went really well.

As I suspected, Phoebe is my biggest one year old (but I'm sure she'll stringbean-ify once I wean her, since that's what all my kids have seemed to do)! She is 21 lbs. 9 oz. and is 29.25 inches (2 feet 5.25 inches). Her head was 17.88 cm, which shocked the doctor because she jumped her curve quite a bit (not an alarming-alarming amount, but just enough to make the doctor re-measure her to make sure the nurse hadn't mis-measured...which Phoebe, of course, valiantly tried to refuse).

Here are the other kids' weights, just for reference:

Rachel: 19 lbs 12 oz
Miriam: 19 lbs 2 oz (from her Egyptian immunization card)
Benjamin: 18 lbs, even
Zoë: 20 lbs 15 oz (from her Duke MyChart)
Alexander: 21 lbs 1 oz
Phoebe: 21 lbs 9 oz

This evening we sat down to write some birthday messages for Phoebe (before Daddy was home from work, so we'll grab his thoughts later).

From Alexander:

TO: THE AWSUMIST SISTOR IN OUR FAMLLY 
(To: the awesomest sister in our family)

PHOTIFIK (like terrific, but, photific)
OBEDIENT (he spelled that correctly?!)
EBEE (not sure why this is here)
BAYBE (she is, in fact, a baby)
EELS (eels starts with E, duh)

From Zoë:

Phoebe, I can't believe you're already 1! You are the joke of the family and a great sister. Happy Birthday! With love from Zoë. 

PS. I was the joke of the family when I got into the toilet.

From Benjamin:

Perplexing
Happy
nOvember birth
Exercise for the whole family
Benediction of our family
Energetic

You are 1 and 1 is fun! You learned to walk and eat and "sleep" and behind that cuteness is a growing-to-be-a-great young girl. My love for you doubles every day!

From Miriam:

Perplexingly adorable
Heiss, the last one!
One (already?!)
Energetic
Boisterous, bouncy baby
Elated all the time

From Rachel:

Dear Phoebe,

I can't believe you're already a year old! You're such a sweet, funny baby, and watching you grow up has been (and will continue to be) so coll. It's so weird to me that you're so big now when it feels like you were a newborn a little bit ago! You can say a few words (including my name!), crawl, stand up, and take a few steps. But not walk (yet), because I'm still better than you, right?

From me:

Your existence flashed black & white
on the screen & for months my tears
appeared in black & white—elation &

trepidation—too. And when you arrived
in a gush, rushing into the 

world like a whitewater rafter
too close to a precipice, I fell
for you, and my tears fell for you
and mixed—black & white, love & fear—
into shimmering streams of grey on your cheeks
and on mine, as if to say, "We'll be
okay." We're more than okay, and
sometimes it's nice to be
surprised.