ten down, two to go

Happy 10-month Birthday to Rachel! I can't believe how fast the past 10 months have gone by. It's amazing to see her grow into this little person, with a definite personality and will all her own. And I can't believe how I can possibly love her more every day.

10th month Shameless Photo Count: 462 beautiful pictures of Rachel Mae

Rachel slept all night until 6:30am, AND she took two great naps today. That all means she's pretty well recovered from our weekend. She's become pretty easy to slip back into the routine of things, maybe because we are careful to try and preserve her naps, even when we're away from home. She often surprises me when we're traveling, that she will sleep once she gets used to our new surroundings. I guess she knows what to expect, and I think she appreciates the predictability.

I, on the other hand, was still extremely sleepy this morning, and Rachel was being a snugglebug, so we hung out in her room until breakfast. I love when she's feeling cuddly because she'll play for a few minutes and then come over for some loves, and then go back and play some more, and so on. And I never run out of loves for Rachel!!

I have been aching to shop (it's been forever, and I need some clothes), so I loaded Rachel up right after lunch, and we went to Marshall's. We were there about 45 minutes. Of course, we ended up in the baby department for the majority of our time. I bought a dress for myself, but I haven't tried it on. I'll probably end up returning it. I also bought a fancy wool dress for Rachel for next winter, originally marked $59.99 (at Marshall's--the tag says it retails at $100). I paid $15 for it (which still seems like a lot to me). The brand is Bimbaló - made in Italy. Whatever, I just knew it must be fancy when they let me keep the hanger.

Progress Report

Rachel's diaper was just a tiny bit wet this morning, and she used one other diaper today! Progress indeed!

cute moment

Tonight, Rachel was playing with a little kitten that meows when you squeeze it. She always picks it up and hands it to me (I assume she's asking me to make it meow). She grabbed the kitten and attempted to offer it to me, but accidently dropped it on the way up. She didn't realize she'd dropped it, so she was sitting there, looking at me, holding her clutched hand in the air. After a couple seconds, she caught sight of her empty hand and whipped her head down to see what had happened.

non-toy toy of the day

We haven't said anything about this until tonight, not knowing how our family would react to the fact that we allow Rachel to participate in an extreme sport. Well, the cat's out of the bag. Rachel is an up&coming X-games book surfer...