big girls do cry

First of all, I forgot to report yesterday that Rachel had a paci breakthrough! She wasn't very sleepy when I put her down for her morning nap, so it took her 45 minutes to get to sleep. When I peeked in, I noticed she had thrown all four pacis from her crib to the floor, and she had fallen asleep paciless! I was amazed.

Okay, have you ever had a good cry in the middle of the day? Rachel and I cried together this afternoon when I accidently smashed her fingers, leaving them with nasty red marks. I felt horrible. I was doing a mundane chore (replacing the bag in her diaper pail) and I wasn't paying attention to the fact that she had put her tiny little innocent hand up on the edge, right where I slammed the lid--hard. She screamed, but recovered more quickly than I. I felt so guilty.

She had a pretty good day in spite of a rough night last night. She woke up around 1:45am, crying, and, for the first time, it sounded like she was saying "mamamamama" through her tears. It broke my heart. After trying to leave her alone and let her settle herself back down, I went in and fixed it for her. I know she wasn't hungry, she didn't have a dirty diaper, and I think she felt fine, so I guess it was some separation anxiety. Poor baby.

Today, MiMi and Tia Milli came to visit (pic), and PopPop and Uma came by for a few minutes in the evening. Rachel is sure loved by a lot of people!

Progress Report

	potty	diaper
peepee	7	5
poop	0	1

cute moment

I'm trying to teach Rachel to be gentle. She mostly whacks things right now, and she thinks it is especially funny when she whacks a doll or stuffed animal and he says "ow!" When my friend Lisa suggested that perhaps her daughter, Leah, and Rachel shouldn't play together anymore based on this fact, I knew we had a problem (yes, Lisa was kidding, but still...). So now we practice, "Love PinkBear, gentle." Of course, she doesn't have much control right now, but I want her to understand the concept. On the other hand, I don't want to spoil her fun. So, I have designated a small, green finger puppet dinosaur, Little Rex, as her mean animal that she can whack (he growls at her, after all). This morning, I was holding CarSeatBaby (who used to live exclusively in the car seat) and Little Rex. CarSeatBaby was begging for a kiss, while Little Rex kept growling at Rachel. Rachel grinned and looked at CarSeatBaby and then proceeded to give Little Rex a sloppy kiss. She did this several times; poor CarSeatBaby never did get her kiss.

Here are Rachel and Leah playing together about a month ago.

non-toy toy of the day

Today, we retire a long-cherished non-toy toy. Rachel's Kleenex box has slowly deteriorated until it is unsafe and unfun. Not to worry, Rachel--Mommy is almost finished with her next box.