Today was a day of reckoning. Well, for Andrew at least. Today was Andrew's nine-month check-up at the doctor's office. And the results are . . . (Since we know all of you wait with bated breath to find out how our son is growing, or not). Andrew now weighs in at 22 lbs 15 oz (actually, 15.5 from what I saw--so he's practically 23 lbs--good thing we got that convertable carseat when we did), measures 30 1/4 inches, and has a head circumference of 47 centimeters. Actually, he's maintaining a pretty consistent growth rate, at 90th percentile for height and 80th for weight.

He continues to be the delight (and bane) of our existence. Lately, our house has epitomized the case of the early bird and the worms (well, at least I think I qualify as a worm, Dan maybe not so much so). How so, you ask? Well, gentle reader, let me explain. In the last week, Andrew has slept to or past 6 am perhaps twice. Most of the time, he prefers to rouse his parents at the somewhat less civilized hour of 5 (well, between 5:15 and 5:45). For those of you who are naturally early risers, this may not be so bad. For those of us who prefer not rising until after seven of the clock, this is not so exciting. Suffice it to say that I face the prospect of Daylight Saving Time (by the way, did you know that there is no "s" after Saving? http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/b.html) later this month with trepidation, not to mention dread. If any of you have suggestions on how to encourage our son to sleep later, please let us know! We will be grateful for any and all advice. This morning he woke up at 5:15, and after an abortive attempt to feed him and change him, we (well, I) put him back in his crib where he remained, playing quite happily until 6:15 or so, when he started to make himself a little more vocal. If the walls separating our bedrooms weren't so darn thin, we might actually have been able to sleep!

My final comment for the day. I think Baby Einstein is overrated. I bought a DVD for Andrew at a garage sale, and, despite the pleasant calming pictures it flashes across the screen tantalizingly, Andrew couldn't be more oblivious. He'd much rather try to help me type this post. Currently he's waving Stop, Train, Stop! at me. Perhaps he thinks that will provide better inspiration for the somewhat insipid material I have to work with today! Anyway, back to Baby Einstein. I recently read a commentary in Time magazine on Baby Einstein v. Barbie. The author's contention was that Baby Einstein represents those parents who are anxious for their child to get into the top preschools, so they can attend the top kindergartens, the top elementary schools, and so on. Barbies, on the other hand, are for those parents who just want us to be happy. (I must confess that we're likely to fall in the latter category, although I'm not sure that we really want to endorse Barbie, particularly not for Andrew). The author's concern with this distinction was that currently the media seems to portray those overambitious parents as the majority of today's parents, when, as he rightly pointed out, the vast majority of parents fall in the latter category. I think he's right to decry the media fascination with these overobsessive parents (when the real crisis seems rather to be with those parents who are indifferent or hostile), but I'm not sure that his respective toy choices are necessarily the most representative! (See http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1538507,00.html for the full article.)