impromptu

Rachel had a cold at the beginning of the week, but it didn't phase her for long. By Tuesday night, she was bouncing off the walls because she felt so much better. Four nights with the humidifier, and she is almost a well baby--except that she's been playing with her left ear a lot too. When she got up from her nap this afternoon, she started complaining about it, and I started to worry. I said to her, "Should I take you to the doctor, Rachel?" "UH HUH! Go to the doctor!!" She was very excited at the suggestion. So I called for a sick appointment (I sure wish I had one of those look-down-your-ear contraptions at home), and we were in the office within 30 minutes. I talked to her all the way there, and while we were waiting in the tiny room. She kept mentioning getting a poke (as if she was excited about the possibility), but I corrected her and said there would be no poke this time. "The doctor will probably listen to your heart, look in your mouth and your nose, and in your ears." I tugged on each body part and got close to "see," for practice. We went through the scenario several times before the doctor arrived. Sure enough, as promised, the doctor started with her stethoscope and listened to Rachel's heart. Rachel sat perfectly still. Then, the doctor peeked in Rachel's ears, and declared them perfect. She put the tongue depressor in Rachel's mouth and confirmed that she is cutting her two-year molars, and that is the source of her discomfort.

I was relieved, and I thanked the doctor for the good news, and she left the room. Rachel froze, looked at me, and said, "NOOOOOOSE!!" She was poking at the tip of her nose with her finger and running for the door. "Oh, Rachel, the doctor didn't look in your nose, huh? Can I look in your nose?" "Noooo," she replied, "doctor do it!!" I distracted her so we didn't have to call the doctor to return for a nose examination.

Two-year-olds forget NOTHING and hear EVERYTHING!

where in the world

Our camera batteries are completely shot, so here's one old picture of Rachel...

So where have we been? Where do I begin? Rachel has had an ugly tummy virus for almost two weeks, but it seems to be clearing up. Insanely, I woke up Tuesday morning and decided I should take Rachel to Tennessee to visit her Great-Grandma, who was there visiting relatives. For a variety of reasons, Rachel and I never make it up to the mountains of West Virginia where she lives. Where she was in Tennessee is only 1.5 hours from where Jarrad's dad lives. So, I made all the phone calls to line it up, threw everything in the car, including Rachel, and headed out. We stopped by my hometown and picked up my dad, who graciously accompanied us on our roadtrip as entertainment for Rachel. So on Tuesday afternoon, we landed at Jarrad's dad's house, where we spent the night, and then the four of us (Rachel, Poppy, PopPop, and I) headed to Tennessee and back on Wednesday, spent the night again, and then back through my hometown and back to Raleigh on Thursday. (Hopefully I'll get pictures from the visit from Jarrad's cousin soon.) Whew!

We returned exhausted and sickly. I recovered, but Rachel is quite sick with a nasty headcold. After two weeks of the stomach stuff, I decided to take her on to the doctor on Friday, who predictably told us it was just two viruses back-to-back, and we just have to wait it out. On a funny note, Rachel wasted no time trying to boss the doctor, and the doctor pointed out several times that Rachel is "very grown up for her age." Rachel peepeed in the potty and blew her nose while we were there. What a show off.

Although Rachel's vocabulary has been a bit slow to grow, she finally started saying "more" and "please" this week. She has used the signs for these words for months, but she seems to finally have made the connection between the sign and the actual word (now she runs around saying "muh, muh, muh" for everything). She still has yet to say anything with the "ee" sound (she says "mama" for MiMi), but I do try not to get anxious--difficult, isn't it??

cute moment

Of course, Rachel did not cooperate with my roadtrip plan, which was for her to sleep on the way to pick up my dad and then stay awake with him in the backseat on the way to the mountains. She did the opposite, and she yelled essentially the whole 1.5 hours we were in the car alone. My nerves were completely shot, and, at one point, I turned around to her and said, "Rachel--that is TOO LOUD!" I guess I sounded kind of mean, because she looked so hurt and sad. Her bottom lip poked out and her brow furrowed, as if she was fighting back tears. She silently peered out the window, but she perked up shortly, and recommenced yelling. I felt bad that I hurt her feelings, though.

But the cutest thing for me was when we were spending our second night at PopPop and Uma's house. Rachel and I were sharing a room, which Rachel did not realize on night one. She woke up at 1:15am on night two, and she insisted from her pack n play that she needed to potty. In an effort to keep her from waking up the whole house, I set her on the potty, where she proved to be wide awake. As I sat in front of her, struggling to keep my eyes open, she looked at me, wide-eyed, with a smile all over her face. She was still, and seemed to be studying my face. She reached out and patted my cheek a few times, and then she wanted hugs. My little sweetie didn't really need to potty, but that was okay. I put a new diaper on her and attempted to put her back to bed, which she protested LOUDLY. So, I put her in bed with me, and I told her that she had to go to sleep or she'd have to go back in the pack n play. She seemed to understand that, because she lay down quietly. But she was wide awake, and she tossed and turned, talked to herself and giggled. After about 45 minutes, I decided to try again to put her to bed. She cried. She screamed. I tried to ride it out, and she settled down in about 10 minutes, but started right back up again. So I gave in, and she must have worn herself out, because she ended up falling right to sleep lying next to me--something that hasn't happened in a really really long time. I didn't sleep all that well, but it was really sweet to sleep by my baby. She stirred a few times after 5:00am, but she quickly curled up on me and went back to sleep every time. She was finally up for the day around 6:30am, and she was in a surprisingly great mood.

One of Rachel's favorite things about our visit was feeding the ducks that hang out at the pond in PopPop and Uma's neighborhood. This morning, before I went to Rachel when she woke up, I heard her calling the ducks. Uma called the ducks over by putting her fist to her mouth and quacking. Rachel's interpretation of that is putting her open palm to her mouth and saying "duck duck duck duck duck." She is still talking about our trip, including Uma and the ducks.

non-toy toy of the day

Rachel took a decent nap today, for the first time in almost a week. She was in a good mood between nap and bedtime, and she spent a lot of it folding and stacking her diapers. She hasn't played with her diapers in a long time, since we don't use them much. Rachel also continues to play with the bucket of bubble gum she got from the big gorilla at the mall on Halloween.

But her favorite play right now comes from her shopping cart and her vacuum (the popper push toy). She prefers that someone push one while she pushes the other, so she is constantly insisting on that. She has enjoyed two visits from GiGi this week, and GiGi has been a willing playmate.

schoop de terrible-cold-that-follows de croup

Rachel and I have had a loooooong week, mostly stuck in the house, mostly by ourselves. Apparently following the natural progression of this particular virus, Rachel's croup cleared up fairly quickly, with the worst cold in history to follow. She sounds like she has concrete in her little sinuses, and she obviously feels run-down. She took a really long nap this afternoon, though, and that seemed to help her feel better. We even took a trip out shopping this afternoon (Rachel's eyes got really big, and she ran to the door when I asked her if she wanted to go shopping). We went into one of those huge pet superstores, and, being Saturday, there were lots of doggies roaming around. We also saw some cute kitties waiting to be adopted, and the birds made Rachel giggle. What a great [free] field trip!

cute moment

I was spot cleaning our hardwoods the other day, and Rachel wanted to touch the bottle of cleaner (which claims to be all-natural soy-based, but who can tell). I warned her sternly that it was a "no touch." She went away for a few seconds and then came back, grinning mischievously. She proceeded to turn around, bend over with her heiny in the air, and backed up, causing her bottom to touch the bottle of cleaner. Trying not to laugh, I informed her that that still counted as touching, and the cleaner is a "no touch." She then went over to her kitchen and got a spoon, came back, and touched the cleaner with the spoon, grinning and looking at me for a reaction. I scolded her, and then I put the cleaner up where she couldn't reach it. Duh.

non-toy toy of the day

Yesterday, Rachel sat in this bag all afternoon, until it was hardly recognizable. And even after it had ripped in several places, she continued to sit in it, and she demanded that I give it a try as well. I'll have to admit--sitting in a bag is pretty cozy.

schoop de croup

Rachel woke up around 1:30 or 2am with croup. Scary?...YES. She woke up coughing like she was really choking on something, and then she was wheezing like she couldn't catch her breath. My first thought was, "Oh no, my child has asthma!!!" She sounded like she was gasping for breath. I rocked her and she collapsed sweetly on me, but when I tried to put her back in her crib, I was scared to leave her because she sounded like she couldn't breathe. My brainstorming had yielded two possibilities: asthma or pneumonia. So I rocked her a little more, and then I took her down to Jarrad, and we called the advice nurse. I let the nurse hear Rachel over the phone, and, cooperatively, Rachel coughed for her. The nurse said definitively, "Yep, she's got the croup." I guess I am grateful it's that, since it's a rarely-serious virus-caused illness that passes in 5-6 days. No asthma, praise God!

Rachel and I went to my mom's extended family reunion Sunday afternoon, and we spent the night at MiMi and Poppy's house Sunday night. As soon as we walked into their house, Rachel clearly recognized where we were, and started looking for Poppy (who hadn't attended the reunion). She slept great Sunday night, and we were able to visit a couple of old friends on Monday. Here's a picture of Rachel Mae with GreatGrandma Mae.

cute moment

Monday afternoon, Poppy and Rachel were playing outside, and Rachel was chasing their cat (named Bear). He's a fluffy black cat who lives outside and is really sweet, but he is not used to the likes of Rachel. She tries to catch up with him and give him loving pats, but he usually shrinks away with intsictual self-preservation. At one point, Bear was lying in some ivy up on the hill, and Rachel got about a foot from him and was pointing at him, grinning from ear to ear. She looked down at Poppy and me, pleased with herself for finding the cat. She kept her eyes on us, pointing to Bear and squealing with delight. In the meantime, Bear slithered away without Rachel noticing, leaving Rachel pointing and squealing at the bed of ivy. She then bent over to give Bear a friendly whack, only to find he was gone. She quickly looked around for him, but he had disappeared into a thorn patch, out of her reach.

non-toy toy of the day

At the reunion, Rachel found the kids' table, complete with kids' chairs. She spent a lot of the afternoon rearranging the chairs the way she thought was most appropriate.