June 26, 2006

I forgot to mention that yesterday was my niece’s birthday. She turned 2. She had a visit to the doctor earlier in the week, and she is very healthy, fortunately. Her stats are: 25th percentile for weight, 75th for height, and 85th for head circumference. So she’s a tall, skinny potato head. And she’s beautiful. I started calling her Lolly for a bit (short for lollipop), but it didn’t stick, though my sister laughed.

She comes by the head size thing honestly, at least on her mother’s (my sister’s) side. My father’s head is ginormous and my mother’s head is hugemongous. Neither of them looks disproportionate, but it’s one of those things where you can tell when they go to try on hats or get shirts over their heads. My niece’s head must be housing a big old brain, because she’s super smart already (of course, I am biased. That goes without saying. But I’m pretty sure it’s empirically true).

Case in point: Last time I saw her she could count to ten (now, 3 weeks later, it’s 15. Genius, I tell you). So she’d do it, and then we’d all cheer. She quickly figured out a short cut, so instead of doing all the numbers, she’d go, “One, two, nine, ten!” and then look around expectantly for the cheering. That’s my girl.

Anyway, happy birthday, Peanut! I love you.