motor mouth

Rachel and I spent a lot of time out today! First, Jarrad had car issues (again) and we rescued him. Then we went out to lunch (Rachel was a very good girl!). After her 1 hour 45 minute afternoon nap, we went to see our buddy Koen! Aunt Mamber came over for a visit this evening to round out the day. We didn't get to play at home much today, so she'll be glad to have some downtime tomorrow.

Rachel has been babbling like crazy the past couple of days. I think she can make almost every sound in the English language. Now, she just has to figure out how to sort them out and put them together into words, although she sounds like she thinks she's already talking. We can't wait to hear what she has to say (I think she's going to talk our ears off)!

It looks like we will be calling Southbridge Fellowship our new church home! It will be exciting to be a part of a church from the very beginning, and I'm looking forward to jumping in and "getting my hands dirty." Serving Christ's church has always been an important part of my life, and I can't wait to teach my child[ren] how rewarding it is.

Progress Report

	potty	diaper
peepee	5	4
poop	0	1

cute moment

When we were out to lunch today, Rachel was standing in Jarrad's lap, getting sleepy. To entertain her while we talked, I danced her kitty cat hat back and forth and up and down. She thought that was quite hilarious. She cackled and giggled and grinned.

non-toy toy of the day

Rachel's non-toy today is her tooth bud (its portable nature allowed her to play with it even when we were on-the-go). She is teething in a big way right now. This afternoon, she continually had her tongue down on her bottom gums, playing with that new bump in her mouth. She did the same thing for almost a whole week in January, but no tooth ever showed. Will there be one there tomorrow?

life lesson

People often ask me how I like being a stay-at-home mom. I was talking with my own mom on the phone tonight, and I realized why I so love staying home with Rachel. It is amazing to see her develop (and so fast!). I love to watch her discover new things and figure out how to use her little hands and feet. Her brain tells her eyes and her mouth and her toes how they should all work together. She intuitively and instictively understands cause and effect, and she even understands "no," and wants to do it anyway. She was no accident, not merely the result of a fertilized egg magically growing into a functional embryo, then a proportionate fetus, and finally, a fully-developed baby. Rachel is a little being, created by God, in the image of God, put on this earth for a purpose: to worship God. I look forward to watching how God shapes her and molds her, and I can only imagine the impact it will continue to have on my own development. And that's why I so love staying home with Rachel.

sock it to me

What looked like would be a long night really wasn't at all, and Rachel slept fairly soundly until 6:00am. Yes, early, but I'll take it. Her morning nap, only 45 minutes. Her afternoon nap, one hour. We went to EarthFare to restock on a couple of things, and just to get out for fresh air and new scenery. I bought a gDiapers starter kit, just to get two 'little g' pants to try as cloth diaper covers. I think they're going to be great! I'm only mad that they don't offer the colors I want in the kits, so I have to settle for what they've got (bright orange and bright red, but maybe I'll take them back and get the milder blue and green, even though blue it a little boyish). Tomorrow we have lunch with the Pastor of what will probably be our new church. It will be a full day!

I have writer's block tonight, so just enjoy the usual stuff (that's why I set my blog up the way I did haha).

Progress Report

	potty	diaper
peepee	5	7
poop	1	0

Rachel is definitely communicating now regarding the potty. Usually, she'll clearly tell me "potty" (in her own language), and her diaper will be freshly wet when I remove it. But she gets it! Generally, the times she uses the potty are when I know it's been awhile and she probably needs to go, and I sit her down, and she cooperates. She did tell me before she pooped today, though, and I got her on the potty in plenty of time. Good baby!

cute moment

This morning, Jarrad had a gentleman come over to take a look at the area behind our house (we're hoping to clear the trees and make a backyard soon). Jarrad and the nameless man stood outside chatting, right below Rachel's big window in her room. When she spotted them, she started banging on the window and hollering, "DADA, DADA, dada, DADAAAAA." She was so loud that they stopped talking, looked up at the window, and gave Rachel a big smile. She watched them the whole time, giggling, banging, and yelling for Dada. She got a big kick out of seeing the top of Dada's head!

non-toy toy of the day

My sock. Need I say more?

what a good baby

My dad emailed pictures from his visit last weekend. Isn't my nephew, Tyler, cute?? We don't see enough of that kiddo. He's 7 months older than Rachel, and he's a big boy. We're glad Rachel will have him by her side as they grow up!

Rachel had an awesome night last night! Although she stirred, and even woke up, a couple of times, she went right back to sleep without hollering for me or crying. She finally woke up for good just before 7:00am, and I felt like a new person. My list of stuff I need around the house has been growing, so Rachel and I ventured out to Target after her 1-hour morning nap! Rachel sat so nicely in the shopping cart. I actually remembered to bring the CleanShopper cart cover with me, so she was riding in luxury. She fell asleep for about 10 minutes on the way home, so I was worried she wouldn't want to take her afternoon nap. But she went down without a fuss and slept for about 45 minutes.

Rachel was extremely sleepy this evening, and by 5:00pm, she could hardly keep her eyes open. She felt warm, so we checked her temperature: 100.5 Poor baby! She's never had a fever before. She also had a runny nose and her eyes have been really watery all day. Could she be getting a tooth finally? I sure hope that's all it is and that she'll be fine tomorrow.

After bedtime, Jarrad stayed home with Rachel so I could go out to dinner with my cousin Andrea and some other friends. Tomorrow is Andrea's birthday! Rachel woke up after I got home, so we checked her temperature again. It was back to normal. I feel guilty for leaving her tonight.

Rachel has learned how to throw things (though they usually don't go far). Check out this video, where I tried to set her up with lots of throwable things. She was only mildly interested.

Progress Report

	potty	diaper
peepee	6	5
poop	1	1

Rachel tried to poop in her diaper at lunchtime. So I said, "Rachel, potty?" picked her up and dashed upstairs. I removed her clean diaper and sat her on the potty, where she, sure enough, pooped. YAY!!

cute moment

This afternoon, Rachel toppled over and bumped her head. She cried, and I held her and tried to make it better. She calmed down, and for the next 5 or 6 minutes, she just wanted to snuggle with me. She sat in my lap and kept grabbing my hand to hold it over her face (like she wanted to go to sleep). It was the best. Then, a few minutes later, I sat in the rocking chair in her room. She wanted to come up there with me, so I picked her up. While I held her there, she turned to give me one kiss after another. I bet I got 10 kisses! Such a sweet baby.

non-toy toy of the day

Rachel was very interested in dropping her hat and making me fetch it while we were in Target. She played nicely with her hat for awhile before starting the game. Her hat has wonderful little tassles that she loves to examine and feel.

to err is human

Today is a sad one for me. Today, I should admit that I am beginning to hate the cloth diapers and covers I bought. Reasoning led me to purchase the least expensive diapering option to try first, since Rachel isn't a heavy wetter and there might not be any reason to spend more. So, I bought prefold cotton diapers and Dappi brand velcro covers ($3 each). The diapers are plenty absorbant, but they are terribly bulky, and it really slows Rachel down when she's trying to crawl. The covers are the worst. The velcro is cheap and exposed (though it's not supposed to be), so it scratches Rachel's legs and belly. This afternoon, I had had enough, and I put them away. Rachel wore her couple of oh-so-cute pocket diapers for the remainder of the day, and a disposable to bed. I've ordered a couple of fitted diapers to try, but I need to buy better covers. There's so much to choose from it makes my head spin!

Last night was terrible. Rachel was wakeful, and fully woke up around midnight. I changed her very-wet diaper and rocked her for a minute, but then I put her back down. She screamed. She screamed (and I cried in the hallway outside her room) for about 35 minutes before finally going to sleep. I think the problem is that we developed a nasty night-waking habit when she went through the stage of standing in her crib. Now she expects me to come and soothe her back to sleep when she wakes up in the middle of the night. But if I keep that up, she won't get good quality sleep, and we're both bound to be exhausted every day. She woke up again at 4:45am, but I left her completely alone, and she went back to sleep until 6:30am. I couldn't wait to hold her when she woke up this morning, and she didn't seem to hold a grudge.

Progress Report

	potty	diaper
peepee	5	7
poop	1	1

It was a battle of wills with the potty today, and Rachel mostly won. The only time I absolutely insisted she sit was when I knew she needed to poop (go #2, as my mom would have me say). I literally held her on the potty until she grunted and went. She was mad, but it only took a few seconds for her to realize I was serious about her going.

cute moment

First thing this morning, Rachel was crawling around, playing in her laundry basket, and being extremely talkative. I needed to put socks on her little feet. I got the first one on, but then she darted under one end of her crib and out the other side. I got down there to put her sock on, and she grinned at me and darted back under to escape back to the opposite end again. We played this game, back and forth, several times before I finally wrestled her sock on her. She's becoming so silly.

non-toy toy of the day

After she finished eating lunch, I let Rachel play with her spoon, and, since she was already a mess, I put a spoonful of yogurt on her highchair tray. She was in squishy heaven!

another pleasant valley sunday

Sundays are so long for little Rachel. She invariably misses her morning nap, so her routine is usually way off. Today was a little better than usual though. She caught a catnap on the way to church and on the way home, so she went down at her normal time for her afternoon nap and slept almost 1.5 hours. We visited Lisa, Matt, and Leah this afternoon, and we got to try out Leah's highchair, which Rachel loved. I've been thinking Rachel hates her highchair (she has some strange highchair behaviors), so we might be investing in one like Leah's soon. On the way home, we stopped by to see our friends Glenn and Jessica, and Glenn's mom Kathy. Rachel had fun looking at a funny book and jumping up and down with Ms. Kathy. Glenn calls every once in a while when he's passing by our house to see if he can stop by and "squish the baby." So cute! Of course, we forgot to take our camera with us on these outings, so no pictures of our friends. I tried to take one with my phone, but it looked pretty terrible. Maybe next time!

Yesterday I was able to buy two gently used Haute brand diapers off Craigslist for Rachel, and I LOVE them. I've been wanting to try them. They come in such cute colors and they feel really sturdy. Finding them used is a blessing. We now have three of the fancy cloth pocket diapers, so Rachel should be able to sleep in cloth full-time now. (I was using disposables at night when her one FuzziBunz pocket diaper was dirty.) I'm so excited! I would love to fill out Rachel's cloth diaper collection with more like these, but they are really expensive, and the others seem to work fine for daytime use. Anyway, cloth diapering is becoming a fun little adventure!

Rachel is definitely saying, "mamamamama" now! It's exciting to hear, and I think maybe she does make the connection. Most of the day, everything is "dadadada," but when she cries from her crib, she says, "mamamamama." It's so sweet. A sidenote of interest: she consistently calls the potty, "dadada."

Progress Report

	potty	diaper
peepee	7	7
poop	0	2

cute moment

After Rachel's nap this afternoon, she peepeed in her potty. As usual, I encouraged her to say, "bye bye, peepee" before I left the room to clean up. She usually looks interested and sits politely while I leave. This time, however, as soon as I said, "say, 'bye bye peepee,'" Rachel sprint-crawled toward the door to escape as soon as it opened. She had a big grin on her face because she knew exactly what was going to happen next. So I took her with me. When we got back, I put the potty in its usual spot. Rachel played for a moment and then giggled and looked up at the potty, waving her fist and saying, "dadada." "Yeah, Rachel, that's the potty," as I helped her make the potty sign. She smiled and kept waving at it. "Do you need to use it again?" I sat her down, and, sure enough, she went again!

non-toy toy of the day

I stayed in Rachel's class at church this morning. For the most part, she didn't really care that I was there, nor did she care that I was tending to other babies. Many of the other babies wore shoes to church, but they were constantly falling off. Rachel, who LOVES to play with shoes, was always able to find the missing shoes. Once, I saw her putting a tiny brown shoe in her mouth. I took it from her and put it away, only to turn around and see her with a large white shoe in her hands! I hadn't even seen that shoe! But Rachel did.

big girls do cry

First of all, I forgot to report yesterday that Rachel had a paci breakthrough! She wasn't very sleepy when I put her down for her morning nap, so it took her 45 minutes to get to sleep. When I peeked in, I noticed she had thrown all four pacis from her crib to the floor, and she had fallen asleep paciless! I was amazed.

Okay, have you ever had a good cry in the middle of the day? Rachel and I cried together this afternoon when I accidently smashed her fingers, leaving them with nasty red marks. I felt horrible. I was doing a mundane chore (replacing the bag in her diaper pail) and I wasn't paying attention to the fact that she had put her tiny little innocent hand up on the edge, right where I slammed the lid--hard. She screamed, but recovered more quickly than I. I felt so guilty.

She had a pretty good day in spite of a rough night last night. She woke up around 1:45am, crying, and, for the first time, it sounded like she was saying "mamamamama" through her tears. It broke my heart. After trying to leave her alone and let her settle herself back down, I went in and fixed it for her. I know she wasn't hungry, she didn't have a dirty diaper, and I think she felt fine, so I guess it was some separation anxiety. Poor baby.

Today, MiMi and Tia Milli came to visit (pic), and PopPop and Uma came by for a few minutes in the evening. Rachel is sure loved by a lot of people!

Progress Report

	potty	diaper
peepee	7	5
poop	0	1

cute moment

I'm trying to teach Rachel to be gentle. She mostly whacks things right now, and she thinks it is especially funny when she whacks a doll or stuffed animal and he says "ow!" When my friend Lisa suggested that perhaps her daughter, Leah, and Rachel shouldn't play together anymore based on this fact, I knew we had a problem (yes, Lisa was kidding, but still...). So now we practice, "Love PinkBear, gentle." Of course, she doesn't have much control right now, but I want her to understand the concept. On the other hand, I don't want to spoil her fun. So, I have designated a small, green finger puppet dinosaur, Little Rex, as her mean animal that she can whack (he growls at her, after all). This morning, I was holding CarSeatBaby (who used to live exclusively in the car seat) and Little Rex. CarSeatBaby was begging for a kiss, while Little Rex kept growling at Rachel. Rachel grinned and looked at CarSeatBaby and then proceeded to give Little Rex a sloppy kiss. She did this several times; poor CarSeatBaby never did get her kiss.

Here are Rachel and Leah playing together about a month ago.

non-toy toy of the day

Today, we retire a long-cherished non-toy toy. Rachel's Kleenex box has slowly deteriorated until it is unsafe and unfun. Not to worry, Rachel--Mommy is almost finished with her next box.

knock, knock...

Wow, Rachel had lots of visitors today! Miles (who is 2 months older than Rachel) and his mommy, Karen visited at lunchtime, then Poppy came, and then PopPop and Uma came! Rachel had a full day, so it was convenient that she had a good sleeping day as well.

We had terrible weather last night, so, at GiGi's urging, Rachel slept in her Pack 'n' Play setup in the hallway outside our room for most of the night. She woke up around 4:15am. Jarrad checked the radar online, and it seemed the worst weather had passed. I took Rachel to her room upstairs and rocked her back to sleep. She must have been happy to be back in her crib, because she slept until almost 7:45am! She took a late 1.5-hour morning nap before Miles came to play, and a short afternoon nap.

Poppy, Rachel and I went for a stroll around the neighborhood, but Rachel got antsy and we had to return home quicker than usual. She did not enjoy being strapped in that stroller today! When we got back home, Rachel played and played. Poppy took lots of great pictures (I'm hoping he'll send us a few). PopPop and Uma came for about an hour before Rachel's bedtime, and Rachel entertained them with silly noises and funny faces. Overall, we had a great Friday!

Progress Report

	potty	diaper	floor
peepee	5	5
poop	1	0	1	I guess I should throw a diaper on her before I answer the phone. oops!

cute moment

Rachel enjoyed playing with her new friend Miles. Since Miles is a little older, he seemed to know he was more in control. When Rachel picked up a toy, he wanted it, and he came over and got it. Rachel doesn't know to care, so she just looked at him with a confused expression on her face. Eventually, he'd drop the toy, and she'd pick it back up and continue to play. Miles and Rachel found each other very interesting!

non-toy toy of the day

When she gets antsy on our walk, I try to find something to entertain her. She loves a leaf. She crunches it and stares at it. I can only give her a leaf when she has her paci in her mouth, though, or she'll try to eat it. Yuck!