Six months, 11 pounds, and counting

You’re still reading this? OK, I guess Karen was right. We’ll put periodic blogging back into the schedule for the die-hard Tiegan followers. [Dr. Evil voice:]Very well, where shall I begin?

In some respects, Mr. T is a typical baby. He smiles and giggles and loves exploring his (shrill) vocal range. He grabs his toes and rolls over by himself. He sleeps up to four hours at a stretch. (To be clear, that’s a good thing: For parents, the increase from two and a half hours to four hours of uninterrupted sleep is the difference between walking up a sand dune in lead boots and, say, walking up a sand dune without lead boots.) As his doctors and developmental specialists regularly remind us, though, he’s still a preemie and requires special attention. The tiny fellow is still tiny. His latest 11lbs, 4 oz weigh-in does not register on the growth chart for his adjusted age, although his rate of growth is good. We learned last week from his most recent developmental check-in that he needs to improve his upper-body strength. Tiegan was a little discouraged by that assessment, so we hired a personal trainer to come once a week and start him on a work-out regimen. So as not to alarm children’s rights groups, we’ll call her a physical therapist. (I pause to wonder what athletic heights I could have achieved had I started a serious training regimen at six months.) Tiegan is also still highly susceptible to infection, which means we have to remain anal about hand-sanitizing and being around other people. Primary source insight into our paranoia can be found at www.synagis.com.

All in all, the whole family is doing quite well, especially so when compared to where we were a few months ago. Karen has not yet gone back to work, focusing all of her considerable efforts on her family for now, but she has returned to teaching her tae-boxing classes twice a week. Moorea continues to be the sweetest, most beautiful little kid one could imagine (two-almost-three-year-old temper tantrums excepted) and a source of almost constant hilarity. Her latest gem, while watching Karen change Tiegan’s diaper: “Oh no! Mama, Tiegan has as hole in his penis!” And I am trying not to let it all slip by too quickly.