I took Chiara to her 18-month check-up today. It’s hard to believe I’ve been a parent for that long! It’s the easiest and the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Sometimes I have to remind myself that it’s a permanent part of my life now, there’s no turning back once you’ve had a kid. You are a parent forever, and it changes who you are fundamentally.

Every check-up, I am asked a few developmental questions. Today Yasmin asked whether Chiara was into books and whether she pointed at things. “Do you want to see?” I asked.

I pulled a book that was on the bookshelf under the examining table. That’s Not My Kitten is a book that Chiara also owns, but her book has slightly different colors and illustrations. I opened to the first pages and spoke to Chiara, who loooovvvveeesss this particular book. “Hey, do you see a mouse?” Chiara pointed her tiny little index finger at the mouse and looked up. “Mouse,” she said.

Then I asked, “Do you see flowers?” And Chiara pointed at the stem of the flowers and said, “Flower.”

Finally I asked, “Do you see a bee?” Chiara looked at the page and I could see her eyes looking right at the bee. But she didn’t move her finger. She just stared at the page for a few moments. I thought to myself that there are no bees in her version of this book, but there are other books she reads that have bees in them, however, the style of the illustration is different and the colors are different (her Hugs book has pink and yellow bumblebees. Go figure.) I tried again. “Chiara, I think I see a bee, do you see a bee?”

She stabbed her finger on the bee and practically shouted, “Bee!”

I can hardly stand it, how amazing human development is. She’s learning at such a rapid pace, and half the time we don’t even realize that we’re teaching her anything.

My mom was here today while I was at work and she vouched for the fact that Chiara is speaking in full sentences, albeit in Korean. Luke thinks it’s funny because her Korean sentences are only about four syllables apiece, but anyway they are complete and grammatically correct. She says, “Give me more food;” “Food is all gone (there are no articles in Korean);” and “There is food.”

Given how central food obviously is in Chiara’s life, it was shocking to learn that despite how much Chiara eats, she gained just one pound in the last 3 months. Ahjuma, Chiara’s nanny, thinks the nurse didn’t weigh Chiara properly. i agree that Chiara seems noticeably heavier to me, but the doctor wasn’t concerned so I didn’t care. The bare facts are, Chiara is 34 inches tall (95th percentile) and weighs just 24 pounds (47th percentile).

The only unpleasant part of the visit was the innoculation. Chiara got two shots today. The doctor asked me to hold her hands and next thing I knew the deed was done. Chiara made a small sound, but didn’t cry. She seemed startled. Then, she turned to look at me and had this expression on her face of complete betrayal. She was so unhappy that I helped the doctor inflict pain on her. She knit her brow, pursed her lips, and stared me down while mewling in a whiny, indignant way. Luke and I call this her fake cry. No tears, and it sounds like a half-strength cry. She kept this up for about 5 minutes as I put her clothes back on. I’m sure she would have kept it up longer if Ahjuma hadn’t shown up to take her back home right then.

We have no recent photos! Hard to believe we’ve slowed down so much!