a narrow win

Rachel was in a pretty good mood today and yesterday, and so was I. She took at 1.5-hour morning nap, which allowed me to be really productive. I put an old sheet under her high chair (per GiGi's recommendation), which greatly reduced mealtime stress (Rachel will not stop throwing food. I get so frustrated with her because she throws food, then says, "nahnah"...I don't know what to do!). Yesterday afternoon, we met Koen and Carla at a museum. It was a 25-minute drive there, but a 40-minute drive back (rush hour). Rachel was not happy being strapped down that long. It didn't help that we were driving home during her normal dinner time. If I had any sense, we would have stayed put and had dinner near the museum, and then gone home after rush hour. DUH.

We met my friend Shawna for lunch today. We went to a place with a salad bar and pizza buffet. Rachel ate a bunch of cottage cheese, some crackers, and she devoured some vanilla pudding. I was going to let her taste a peanut butter cookie (yum!), but she threw it overboard before she even tasted it. Her loss, I say!

Aunt Mamber came over after work, and Rachel pranced around as usual. She really loves having Aunt Mamber around so much, and it's always a nice break for me, even if all I do is look at a magazine for a few minutes while she's playing with Rachel. Here is a picture of Rachel giving Aunt Mamber one of her sweet hugs.

Progress Report

	potty	diaper
peepee	5	4
poop	1	1

I tried to relax a little about the potty yesterday. As a result, she only used it a couple times. Today, I broke out the Cheerios and bribed her shamelessly. I think it worked, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. For the first time in a while, though, she used the potty more than her diaper, and she was consistently telling me she needed to go all afternoon. She only used one diaper between lunch and bedtime!

cute moment

There was another baby at the restaurant today, and, as her family left, I leaned over to Rachel and said, "Say, 'bye bye' Rachel." Rachel looked over and started waving. Awwwww. Then she yelled "BYE BYE, BYE BYE, BYE BYE, BYE BYE," at the top of her lungs--not exactly what I had in mind.

non-toy toy of the day

Since Rachel is finished using the toddler tub (I need to give it back to her cousin, who kindly let us borrow it), I put it in Rachel's room to keep her busy while I vacuumed upstairs. She thought it was a funny to have the tub in her room, and she enjoyed climbing in and out, and pretending to bathe the giant teddy bear.