For those who care (family and friends), I thought I'd share Baby's stats from her 15-month checkup. For those who don't (random people who have stumbled upon my blog), sorry!
Let me clarify one thing first: Baby does have a real name. It is because of that second group of readers, potentially psychos (no offense), that I have censored her given name and replaced it with her nickname, which actually is Baby. She probably responds more quickly to Baby than to the name on her birth certificate, in fact.
Baby is 30 inches tall (37th percentile) and 21 lbs. 14 ozs. (36th percentile). Her head circumference is still gargantuan at 48.5 cm (98th percentile). "It's like an orange on a toothpick!" (So I Married and Ax Murderer fans, anyone?).
Baby was always a tiny bit behind in her gross motor skills for her first 9 months of life, which her doctor attributed to her large head being too heavy for her body to maneuver around. No problem. But then, between her 9 month and 12 month checkups, she didn't learn any new gross motor skills. This is the time when most babies are crawling all over the house, standing and cruising against furniture, and for many, taking those first steps. Baby could sit up on her own (when propped up to sitting) and she had just begun an awkward "combat crawl" before her birthday. However, she was right on track in every other way (communication skills, fine motor skills, etc.), so her doc prescribed some physical therapy to get those muscles moving.
The physical therapy was a bit difficult for Baby at first. Once she realized during that first session that she would be forced to do torturous exercises, she would start screaming the second we walked into the building and not stop until the second we left. We didn't get much accomplished during her first 3 or 4 sessions. Finally, she began to loosen up and play with some of the neat toys they have, and she also warmed up to her PT. The weekly sessions are as much for my benefit as hers; the PT instructs me on new exercises every week for us to work on at home. Baby has since learned to sit up from a lying down position, pull herself up to kneeling (and standing, more recently), climb stairs, and the biggie, crawl! The crawling stage is very important so I was absolutely thrilled when she slowly, deliberately crawled for the first time (a bit wobbly!).
Baby's first time swimming. She wouldn't put her hands underwater and was teased by Grandma and Grandpa.
I am now a huge fan of early intervention with physical therapy. Her diagnostic evaluation showed that our 12-month old had the gross motor abilities of a 7-month old. Sure, that doesn't seem too horrible, but she was growing bigger by the day and her muscles just were not keeping up with her size. It was important that we do something early to help her catch up to her peers. Today, the main skill that she is lacking is walking, but believe it or not, there are plenty of 15-month olds who haven't taken those first steps yet. She'll get there soon enough.
Have I mentioned that Baby doesn't have any teeth, either? Her doc was surprised but not concerned. He said we'll send her to a dentist to see what's up if they still don't arrive by 18 months. I guess that my baby just wants to stay a baby as long as she can! Sounds good to me.
She squishes her chin into her chest, the back of her head presses against the chair (often folding her ear forward), and all this is accompanied by a long, deep moan.
What a cool hike today! The Red Rock Canyon features 200 million years of geology, according to the Gazette. The 5-year-old in our group was searching for seashells after we told her that most of the rock formations we once at the bottom of a sea. 
Now, I am usually the type that begins a hike with a good idea of exactly which turns to make and exactly how long the walk will be. We were joined by a couple teenagers today who would rather explore more freely, which was fine by me because they offered to carry the babies. The only difficulty arose when we had to scale this steep, scary, slippery rock (it doesn't look very steep in this photo, but believe me, it was!). If you'd rather avoid this part, just follow the directions outlined in the Gazette's Red Rock Canyon Geology Loop. It's a 4 mile loop that catches several rock formations worthy of having proper names and gains 600 feet in elevation.
