miles of stones

We had another great day. Rachel woke up at 6:30am again, and took two great naps. Rachel was really glad to see GiGi, who came over this afternoon and played while I mowed the yard. Mowing is a chore I actually enjoy doing, and our yard is small (for now) and flat, so it's easy. Today was a beautiful day to enjoy being outside for a few minutes.

Rachel has been working up to standing on her own without using anything to pull up. She mastered the skill today, and used it often. I'm expecting her to soon switch from crawling to walking as her preferred mode of transportation. It's exciting!

She also has mastered the pincer grasp--which lets her pick up small objects between her thumb and forefinger! She's been feeding herself Cheerios really well (although she does get lazy and just put her face right down on the Cheerios at times). She's also starting to use the sign for "more," sometimes spontaneously and sometimes when I say "more." She does the sign exactly right occasionally, but, most of the time, it looks like she's just clapping. I'm waiting to see the sign for "eat," and I'd love to see "potty" and "all finished," but those require more dexterity than she has. Plus, it's mostly impossible to distinguish between her normal silly gestures and possible actual sign language. Here's a (sorry-so-long) video to prove my claims:

Progress Report

Rachel's diaper was wet this morning.

	potty	diaper
peepee	5	4
poop	1	0

cute moment

Jarrad was outside Rachel's window working this afternoon. I opened her window so she could talk to him. When she heard him banging around, she headed straight for the gate in her doorway and said, "Dada." I pointed to the window and told her Dada is outside. She was confused. Then Jarrad called her. She snapped her head around at the doorway again and looked all around the room for him. I finally carried her over to the window and she caught sight of Dada. Oh, the grinning and squeals that followed were priceless.

non-toy toy of the day

Rachel got a bath today, and when Rachel bathes, she prefers playing with a wet washcloth (or two) to any of her bath books or toys. One day I let her hang on to the damp washcloth all afternoon, and she held it regardless of whatever else she was doing.