So Big

About three or four days ago, and for the first time, I looked at Annaliese and was not struck with an awe-filled sense of how tiny she is. In fact, what came out of my mouth was quite the opposite. “You’re so big!”

Annaliese last weighed in at 5 pounds, 8 ounces. She is still tiny, but her weight has increased almost 40% (39.6825..% for the mathematically inclined). Holding her in my arms, I find it hard to remember how small she really was.

Five pounds, eight ounces is a truly interesting weight for our youngest child. She has been with us for over a month, but is just now reaching the weight Andrew was when he was born (5 and 9). As I think about the two of them, I see Andrew at this weight, a floppy newborn who has no idea there is a world outside of himself. I suspect that a newborn actually has no concept of the world inside themselves, either.

I look at Anna as she is now and compare her to an infant Andrew. While at this weight, he was clueless to the world; she is already well aware of it. She looks at Mollie and I. She has tracked my finger as I waved it in front of her and she strains her neck backwards while she sits in her swing to see the mobile rotating above her. I find myself surprised that the similarity of size means nothing when one child has had an extra month to take in their surroundings. At this weight, though admittedly he was only a few hours old, Andrew wasn’t even eating on his own; Annaliese took about 80 ml for an early morning snack last night.

Another interesting factoid has just crossed my mind. Having been born about one month before Andrew, she is reaching his birth weight on his birth-day. It will be interesting to see how she grows; will she follow the timetable set by her big brother, or will she go off on her own tangent.

One thing I know for sure, our giant of a child son has set the growth curve pretty high!