Luna turns two!

Luna surprises herself by successfully blowing out her candles.


On March 11th at 5:23pm, Luna turned two-years old. Luna shares her birthday with Rupert Murdoch (that just makes me laugh...Murdoch, the owner of Fox Network, is naturally considered the most evil figure among Progressives-the irony that our little Lu shares his birthday is not lost).

But some other interesting people share her birthday too. Like the guy who wrote the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, along with Ezra Jack Keats; author and illustrator one of my favorite children's books; A Snowy Day; the first children's book with an urban setting. It's interesting to note that all three of these March 11th personalities are connected the world of publishing.

Luna and I spent her special day together, shopping and doing lunch-alone-while Sienna played at school. In the morning we had her two-year wellness appointment. Dr. Goodnews did the usual ears, mouth, heart routine. Everything looked great. It had been a while since anyone had listened to Luna's heart, so I was holding my breath. While the pediatrician was listening to her, in his smiling-casual-everything-is-rosy-kind-of-way, told me he heard a 'click' in Luna's chest. I'm fairly used to clicks and clanks, and other strange noises doctors glean from pressing a stethoscope against Luna's tiny chest. When I asked Luna's cardiologist later what this meant she responded saying, "rather than a tricuspid valve, Luna's has a bicuspid valve, and the click is a result of that anomaly and means nothing more than if she was a blonde, or redhead or brunette." (For a good, simple set of drawings showing the difference between a tricuspid valve, or normal aortic valve, and a bicuspid valve , click here.)

Luna still walks with a young toddler 'toddle', so we wanted to have the doctor check that out as well. Actually, a better description of Luna's gait would be 'waddle'; which like most things, is adorable at two, and becomes not-so-adorable fairly quickly; like by the age of three. Dr. Goodnews had Luna waddle down the hall and assessed immediately that her toddle-waddle is nothing more than a result of her being a late walker (18 months).

Finally, Luna was measured and weighed. She tips the scale at 25 lbs exactly, measuring 33 1/2 inches tall. She's in the 25 percentile for both, which is just perfect for Lu, and where she's been all along. (Nothing wrong with being petite I say!)

Our appointment ended with an assessment of Luna's verbal skills. Dr. Goodnews asked me how Luna's speech was doing. I explained to him that she's not as verbose as her sister was at this age (seriously thank God, I'm not sure I could handle two kids talking on the level as Sienna).

Dr. Goodnews grilled me on the "does she say this?" series of questions, so I offered the doctor the following dialog that had recently occurred between the girls:

Luna: "Nanu WORK in RESTAURANT!"

Sienna: "Noooooo Looooona, you're too small!"

Luna: "Nanu can work in RESTAURANT!"

Sienna: "Nooooo Loooona, they won't let you! You're too little".

(continue dialog for 20 minutes until both girls spill over into shrieks and cries.)

Dr. Goodnews seemed pleased with this exchange, and just nodded his head and said, "She's right on track."