The Pickle turned 9 months old last Wednesday (4/20), so we had her nine-month appointment on Friday.

The stats:
Height:  28 inches (73%)
Weight:  20 lb 2 oz (82%0
Head:  19 in (off the charts still)

Alice first had to get her hep B booster - she is such a little toughy.  She never actually cried, just squawked for four seconds (this is not an exaggeration), and then was done.  We then had to take her to the lab to get her finger pricked for her iron test - again, she never cried, never even fussed.  She DID give the lab tech a look of, "What the heck are you doing THAT for?!"  Other than that, she was a tough little bird!

She is slightly anemic, so they're putting her on some iron supplements for the next month.  We go back on May 20 to see if it's gotten better.  Other than that, it was a blessing to read the phrases "happy, healthy, developmentally normal 9-month-old." 

I've been having a blogging drought lately.

As far as Alice goes, things are amazing and wonderful and she's perfect.  Things obviously have their imperfections (like the reverse cycling she's doing right now), but I'm so amazed and blessed to have such a perfect baby.  I sometimes just look at her and cry from her beauty.

I feel like I've already touched on all of my words for Maddie.  It's just hard and it aches and it's dull, right on my heart.  I can't change it, and I can't make it better.  There's not much new or different to say - it just hurts, and it will forever.  Sometimes I have insights into my own feelings, but they're just that.  Sometimes it feels so weird to share them, it feels like I'm assuming they're important to others when they're just mine.

I don't really know where I'm going with this.  I know April is an awful time for a lot of my friends, and my heart goes out to them.