double the sleep

Rachel had her 15-month physical yesterday, weighing in at 21lb 13oz (35%), measuring 30" long (45%--she'll be 3 ft tall before we know it!), with a head circumference at 90%. The doctor assured me her head size was due to all her brains (I didn't even ask). The doc also commented that, of all the 15-month-olds she'd seen, Rachel did really well with her shots; she only cried about 20 seconds before I was able to distract her by pointing out all the trash the doctor had left behind on the examining table. Rachel promptly pointed to the trash can in the room. The doctor said she could tell Rachel is a helper. I think helper is code for bossy.

Rachel visited some friends at lunch today. Leah is 2.5 months younger than Rachel, and Kyler (pictured) is 6 months old. It was fun to watch the babies interact, and Rachel definitely pulled rank on the other girls by snatching toys away. I hope she doesn't turn into a bully.

I think partially due to her shots, and partly due to her level of activity and lack of sleep yesterday, Rachel took two awesome naps today for the first time in at least a month. Rachel has been a one-nap baby for quite some time now, and I've reconciled myself to that. She has a ~40-minute quiet time in her crib mid-morning, usually, and then one nap in the afternoon (of course, her one nap is rarely longer than 1.5 hours). This morning, she fell asleep almost as soon as I put her in her crib for quiet time, and she slept 2 hours! So mid-afternoon, after we got home from our playdate, I put her in her crib for quiet time, and she fell asleep again--this time for almost 1.5 hours!! I couldn't believe it. I forgot how much I can get done with that kind of time on my hands. So by the time she got up from the 2nd nap, my kitchen and floors were spotless, a load of laundry was clean, and I was in a great mood.

My wonderful cousin DeeDee is always bringing fun new toys for Rachel to play with (her kids are older, so we get their hand-me-downs). We hit the jackpot this week when she brought over their old play kitchen! We put it in the dining room by the windows, and Rachel has been playing there almost non-stop. I even caught her pretending to wash her hands in the tiny sink!

cute moment

Rachel has noticed the birds chirping outside, and she likes to imitate them. She listens intently, and then she grins and says, "teh, teh, teh."

My favorite outside noise, though, is when airplanes fly over. Our house is right under the path of some of the planes taking off and landing at the nearby airport, and Rachel still has not grown accustomed to the noise. When we are downstairs, it's a little louder, (I guess because of all the windows), and when a plane comes by (5 or 6 times a day, maybe?), Rachel almost always stops what she's doing, looks at me with a really serious look and wide eyes, and then sprints over and clings on until the plane is gone. She knows what it is now, but she still likes to be near me. And I don't mind if that doesn't change just yet.

non-toy toy of the day

Yesterday, while I was getting myself ready for the day, I stepped out of my bathroom to look for Rachel, who had grown unusually quiet. There she sat on our bedroom floor, with an open tub of Vaseline, greasy all over. I guess she figured out how to remove the lid. Oops!