mountain mama

Yesterday afternoon, we drove to the mountains to visit PopPop and Uma. We love coming here because it's so peaceful. It always feels like we're on vacation. Plus, they enjoy Rachel so much. It's fun to watch them play with her, and it's nice to get a break from feeling "on duty" all the time. Uma cooks yummy food and even cleans up after us! PopPop likes to feed Rachel and give her new experiences, like putting pears in her hand and encouraging her to lick them off. I love that Rachel gets fun, different experiences with our families. I think it's important that her grandparents don't always try to follow my rules. After all, what fun would it be to go to Grandma's house if she's mean like Mommy??

Rachel is having a great time in the mountains, watching silly yellow birds, squirrels, and ducks. I'm ashamed to say we haven't been here since Rachel was 7 or 8 weeks old, so this feels like a completely new place to her (and it kind of is: PopPop and Uma have completely redecorated, and their home is beautiful). She's been crawling around and finding fun things to explore. I am most excited with how friendly she was with PopPop and Uma, right off the bat. I think PopPop reminds her of her daddy.

Rachel slept well here last night, although it took a while for her to get settled down. She did wake up early early, at 5:30am, but she played full-speed ahead until I finally put her down for a nap at 9:25am, and she didn't argue.

Progress Report

Rachel was dry in the morning and used 2 diapers yesterday (altough I think she may have wet her travel diaper twice before we got here). She was wet first thing this morning, and completely uninterested in the potty (there are way more interesting things to see and do here), so I didn't bother her about it before her nap, and, consequently, she has used a diaper (once or twice) already this morning.

cute moment

Rachel is enjoying PopPop's booming voice and silly grin. This morning, he came downstairs and dropped down to the floor, eye-level with Rachel. She smiled and crawled all the way across the room to get right in his face.

non-toy toy of the day

PopPop and Uma are most creative in finding non-toys for Rachel. So far, she has played with her Easter basket, tupperware lids, a basket of magazines, and containers of Cheerios. But, her favorite non-toy has been ribbon. First, she was playing with the yellow satin ribbon from the Easter basket they gave her. Then, Uma found some blue, green, and red ribbon. She tied them together in the middle to make a great non-toy. Her favorite game today was to put the ribbons in the magazine basket, then take them out, then put them back, etc. She was hard at work. She played a similar game yesterday morning with Little Rex and a Kleenex box...