Rachel is entertaining herself quite well this morning. Here is the Wolfie magnet I usually have on the dishwasher. She likes to play with it, and I guess she thought lil Wolfie needed a meal, because she strapped him in and everything, and then asked for the tray. Right now, she's loading his tray up with food from her kitchen...
Rachel continually amazes me with her thought processes. On Monday, I babysat another baby girl, Kyler, who is just learning to walk. As she crawled around, I caught her almost crawling into our fireplace. I picked her up and showed her the rocks, and told her that's a no-no. She stared at me blankly and then fled the scene. Later, I got out Rachel's walk-behind toy, and Kyler strolled back and forth for a while. Rachel was eying that toy, and, as soon as Kyler let go of it, Rachel dashed to it, grabbed it, and rolled it over and onto the rocks. She then pointed back and forth from Kyler to the toy, as if to taunt her. It was hard for me to believe she was baiting Kyler, but it was SO deliberate, so I can't deny it either. She's a nut.
Earlier that day, Rachel was trying to climb onto our coffee table, something she knows is a no-no. I reminded her a time or two, and then told her she would get a time out the next time she did it. She nodded yes and went over to get a floor pillow, placed it in her time-out corner (she knows the procedure), and sat down, laughing. "Okay," I said, waving my finger in her face "you will sit in time out for one minute because you were climbing on the table." She sat there, solemn, while I moved away and pretended to ignore her for a minute. I came back and told her she was all finished. She went straight over to her Elmo, who she carried to the coffee table, where he proceeded to climb. She scolded him, "No, no--out!" She placed him on the time out pillow. "Minute," she said, waving her finger. She walked away briefly, and then returned, "All finished." Well, Elmo was quickly back to the table, climbing again. This time, though, as Rachel began to scold him, she had a thought. She dropped her Elmo, went to her toys, and pulled out the giant red foam finger Jarrad brought home from a game last year. She came back to Elmo, wearing the finger. She stuck it right in his face and waved it around saying, "no, no...no, no." HA! That must be what I look like to her when I'm waving my giant finger in her face. I got a great laugh out of that.
Rachel found the lint that magically grows between her little tiny toes. She now regularly pulls off her socks and harasses me until I clean them out. Where does that stuff come from??? I think we'd both like to know...
For over a week, Rachel outright refused to eat vegetables of any kind. Five days ago, I scooped some green peas into a little Rachel-sized bowl, and she began to whine and say, "No-no-no-no...." I told her she didn't have to eat the peas, I just wanted to put them on her tray, in case she changes her mind (sometimes, when she refuses a food, I'll put it in front of her and then pretend not to notice or care if she eats it, and, as soon as I turn my back, she eats it). The closer the peas got to her, the more upset she became, to the point where she was crying actual tears by the time I set them on her tray. She cried, but ceased immediately when I removed the peas. Drama, drama. Yesterday for lunch, Rachel ate a scrambled egg with cheese, a big serving of yogurt, and a big serving of applesauce (the applesauce made special for her by her PopPop). Ten minutes after cleaning her up and getting her down from her seat, she was asking to eat again. I said to her, "Fine--if you want to eat again, you are going to eat vegetables." We went back and forth a time or two, and she protested, but finally agreed that she would eat green beans ("bee beas"). I opened a can and handed her a bean. She smiled at it and held it for a minute, and then she ate it. And THEN, she asked for more. I gave her more, which she ate, and then asked for more, until the whole can of beans was gone. I could not believe it, but praise God!
While she was eating those beans, I scooped up a bean that was curved at the end and then came to a point. When Rachel saw it, she pointed, laughed, and then said, "duck, duck, duck, duck." She is so silly.
Rachel has such fun riding on her blanket-sleigh.
Rachel also thinks it's great fun to diaper Elmo.
Here is a sample of a conversation Rachel and I have had several times a day since her last doctor's appointment, when she got her flu immunization booster shot...
Rachel: Poke!
Mommy: You got a poke?
Rachel: Doctor.
Mommy: Yes, the doctor gave you a poke.
Rachel: Ah eee.
Mommy: And then you were all finished.
Rachel: Sticker.
Mommy: And then you got a sticker?
Rachel: Ah eee. Bye bye.
Mommy: Yes, and then we said, "Bye bye, Doctor."
We practice before we go to the doctor, on my mother's advice. I tell Rachel that we are going to the doctor, and the doctor will give her a 'poke,' and every time I say 'poke,' I stick her with my fingernail in her thigh, and then I say, 'and then you get a sticker!!' We focus on the sticker. When we went for her flu booster, she got anxious and was yelling "no, no, no, no..." and shaking her head furiously, before the shot, through the shot, and after the shot. When she realized it was over, she cried for about 15 seconds and then demanded a sticker. That's my girl! And she's been talking about it ever since. She even gives me a poke, her daddy, her stuffed animals...everyone in our house is fully immunized by now...
Photo by Theresa Hauber
Here's another pretty picture of my little girl. There are others that are still works in progress...
