So How Are Leigh and Sophia?

Sophia and Leigh dance along to Survivor's Eye of the Tiger.

"Enough about you and your excuses, Chris," I can hear you all saying. "How are the two worthies of the family doing?"

It's a fair question. After all, the last time I posted anything, Sophia was roughly half as old as she is now. And since we last chatted electronically, Leigh officially left her job and began working part-time to support the real estate endeavors of our friend Kim.

Well, Sophia is now nearly four and a half months old, and as of two weeks ago she weighed 14.5 pounds and was 25.5 inches long. This means that if she stopped growing today for the rest of her life, she would be more than 2 feet tall, which in my mind is an important hurdle.

According to the doctor, her various measurements place Sophia at the 97th percentile for size at her age, while she is at the 90th percentile for the circumfrence of her head. This of course means that Sophia is much larger than most girls her age; however, we've chosen to interpret this as confirmation that Sophia is superior in every way to 97 percent of other babies.

How big is she? Sophia, at four months old, is now wearing primarily clothes made for babies 6-9 months old and has grown out of at least one 6-9-month outfit.

Last week Sophia mastered the ability to roll both from her front to her back and vice versa; so while she isn't yet exercising that ability very often, it's not totally impossible that she could wake up one morning and hit roughly 150 RPM in rolling from one end of the house to another.


Fun With Slow Shutter Speeds - 500-mph Sophia!

One more sobering accomplishment is Sophia's increasing drool and gum pain, ushering in the beginning of teething. She is now in the throes of it, and what would otherwise be long nightly sleeps are now disrupted by her waking up wailing with gum pain. Her hand-eye coordination improves daily, so now she is generally able to grab her teething beads and put them into her mouth the right way. She doesn't always do well at it - sometimes she grabs the beads and slaps herself in the head a few times with them before getting them under control.

She can't yet stand completely without assistance, but if you give her the help of a little steadying, she's more than strong enough to sit up and stand on her own. She has a beautiful little voice and has begun chattering happily away with nonsense, although such outbursts normally are the prelude to something a little more stormy.

She is advancing so quickly that I expect to come home one night in the next month or two and hear her greet me while she's downstairs tinkering with the car.

One minor hiccup came when Leigh and I tried to take Sophia to her first Sonics game - unfortunately, an NBA game is just a little loud for an infant.

Leigh is doing exceptionally well. She was worried that she wouldn't be a good Mom, but as I kept telling her, she's simply astounding - a much better mother than I am a father. She mothers with a mix of unflappable, dry humor and patience - and that's when she's dealing with her wayward husband. She's even better with the kid.

Those who have known us for some time will be surprised - nay, shocked - to learn that Leigh has become something of a chef. Once upon a time, my ability to scramble eggs and cook Macaroni & Cheese made me the culinary expert in the house. No more. Now when I come home, Leigh invariably has an irresistible dish on the stove and ready to serve. Aside from a little phobia about cooking chicken - something dating back to a particularly traumatic dish we tried to concoct back in Charlotte - she's simply amazing. And, since she listens to NPR all morning while I flip to the sports pages, she's also much smarter than I am.

Not that that - or the fact that I'm hugely fortunate to be blessed with the two of them - is exactly news. My next post will reveal just how tolerant Leigh is of her slightly deviant husband.


The city of Seattle is beginning to buzz about Leigh's new, peculiar growth.