Christmas

This Christmas was really nice. This year we spent Christmas with my family, and although it ended up being overwhelming for Rachel, it meant a lot to her mommy. We were able to spend a lot of time with both my mom and dad's sides of the family. No one went overboard buying a ton of toys or unnecessary items for Rachel, which was very much appreciated. We did get some great pictures of her this season though:

Look at those two adorable girls with matching pj's!!!

Both Jason and I's mothers worked very hard together to make our stockings. Geri sewed together the stockings and my mom put our names on them. Aren't they adorable?

Rachel was completely intrigued with Alana. Alana's latest trend are mathbox cars. At Thanksgiving my Grandmother brought over all of hers for my cousin's boys to play with, and all 4 of those Great-Grandkids had a blast with them. Alana brought some with her when she came up for Christmas for a visit and played and played with them, which meant Rachel wanted to, too. And to the amazement of all of us, she'll actually make "car" noises when she plays with them. It's a little early for her to understand that cars make noise, let alone emulate the noise. And thankfully, someone was kind enough to give Rachel a few cars of her very own! Granted.....I've noticed she's not nearly as interested in the cars when Alana's not around. But at least she has some for later.

It was a wonderful holiday weekend and by Sunday afternoon we were all exhausted and ready to go home. Rachel has slept around 12 hours every night since we returned home Sunday evening.

Wednesday she needed to go in to get her flu shot and her chicken pox shot. As per usual, she was such a trooper (and secretly I feel the nurse who gave the shots was less than gentle....) but when we got home she just slept and slept. Last night she slept 12 hours and was very unhappy when I went in to wake her up this morning to leave.

She's got a cold coming on, which means we're going to have another round of diaper rash soon. All of us have been sick this week with sniffles, coughs, and I've even lost my voice. I'm ready for our daughter to get her immune system built up so we don't have so many rounds of the yuckies going through our home!

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas!

Tantrums

This past week has been interesting. Rachel's tantrums are picking up gusto. Monday morning Rachel woke up fussy as could be. Nothing would make her happy. Food, drink, toy, pacifier, blanket, toy. NOTHING. I finally managed to get her in the car and off to day care, then called later in the day to check on her. Apparently she was happy as a clam when she got to day care!

That evening she and I went up to visit my Grandma and she suddenly broke into tears that would not stop. We figured out it was her 1 year molars coming in. They were really bothering her. So I finally had to hold her down and barely managed to get some ora-gel on her gums before she started her alligator roll. She calmed down a bit and I let her bite on an ice cube, which seemed to help. Once we got in the car she calmed down even more.

Tuesday went okay, but last night we got home, were downstairs watching tv while she ate her dinner, and when I picked her up to put her in her gated play area she melted to the floor howling and would NOT stop. Nothing consoled her. I finally gave up trying and gave her a bath (boy did she need one) and managed to get her into her pj's. While she was on the changing table she had a pacifier and blanket and closed her eyes. I figured she was tired. So I gently moved her to her bed which started the crying process all over again. This lasted for about an hour. I finally just sat her on the floor and let her flop around crying. As a last resort, I dug into the laundry that hadn't been folded yet and pulled out her waffle blanket with the sating lining. Instantly her head fell on my shoulder and she began rubbing the blanket on her face. I think the transition she's making at day care to be on the toddler schedule is getting harder for her. I looked at her sheet from day care once she was asleep and realized she'd been up for 5 hours. She was way over tired and just couldn't handle it!

This morning when we were getting in the car to leave for the day she REFUSED to let me strap her into her car seat. She dug in her feet and slid herself out of the car seat as best she could. Thinking if I just let her get the fit out of her system I'd be able to buckle her in, I left her alone. She rolled over and stood in the car seat looking around. When she'd calmed down I tried once again to put her in the seat and she threw a fit again. I had a really hard time restraining her to get her in the seat. Once she was in the seat, she was fine. But she's bucking and trying hard to show her independence as much as she can.

But then when we get to day care she'll cry with a completely broken heart when I have to walk away. *sigh* I know this is a phase that will pass, but it sure isn't a fun one. And from what I've read, heard and experienced.....it's going to get worse before it gets better!!

Rachel and Santa

This weekend has been so fun. It's the first weekend in several weeks where we've been home all weekend and Rachel has too! Although these weekends wear me out completely, I am thankful for them. I get to play with my girl all day long for 2 days!

Last night I had asked Rachel something and she shook her head "no." That's the first time I've seen her do that! Throughout the day today she'd be dancing or playing and would shake her head for fun. I can tell she likes the sensation, because it's new!

Also, she's started to use her tongue more to talk. She'll say "La la la" and she'll also stick her tongue out while making noise and it comes out sounding kind of like "loba loba loba". In addition, she's also started moving her hand in front of her mouth when she makes noise. It gives the effect that you or I might have done as a kid to make an "Indian" sound. So cute!

This morning Jason and I took her to see Santa. I would like to once again express my gratitude and appreciation for our day care!!! Not only did we not have to wait in line at a mall or some other public place, but we got to go see Santa for free, no line, and they even served us breakfast! I LOVE OUR DAY CARE! I was impressed with the quality of the Santa as well. And to top it off, Rachel didn't cry!

Okay, so she wasn't HAPPY....but she didn't cry!

The guy did a great job and I love the effort they put in to making this special. We were in and out in 10 minutes, and I even talked with some of the ladies there! Awesome.

This evening I tried to put some effort into straightening up Rachel's room while she entertained herself. I stepped out of the room for a moment and when I came back, she'd disappeared. This is SO my daughter:

She somehow managed to wedge herself between her crib and the changing table, found a book, and was contently sitting there reading it to herself. I remember finding nooks and crannies to sit in and read quietly to myself. This was too cute!

Butterflies

When I was little, my parents would sometimes call me "Madam Butterfly" and I remember absolutely loving this nickname. Naturally, when Rachel came along I instinctively began to call her "Butterfly".

While we were on vacation and Rachel stayed with her Terry grandparents, Geri found these adorable pants and got them because they had butterflies:

This is our new "thing" in the morning. I'll set Rachel on the floor after feeding her some applesauce and she immediately goes over to her crib to try to pull her pacifier out of the crib as well as her blanket. She LOVES snuggling into a blanket. From the time she was an infant she's liked to touch soft things to her forehead. It used to be my hand she'll pull to her face. Then the cloth diaper. Now it's the pajamas I've just taken off of her, whatever blanket is close by, even a bib sometimes. It's how she tells me she's sleepy or she's comfy. And I love it!

A few other things she's doing that I haven't remembered to blog is that she loves music. And most of the time when she hears it she'll smile and clap her hands. Sometimes she'll bounce like she's dancing.

Oh - and I have the pictures of her big boo boo:

I'm grateful it didn't bleed, but it did bruise something horrible. I'm just glad she didn't hurt her eye! This week she also got another accident report. She apparently fell and hit a bookshelf hard enough that it made the inside of her mouth bleed. Poor toddler who toddles!

Yesterday before we left for the morning she kept trying to climb on her new horse that Connie got her for her birthday. And she giggled and cooed when I put her on it and pushed her around the living room. She LOVES being pushed on the horse or her little red car. I can tell when we bring her home from day care and she'll play for just a little bit before bed that she's happier. I think the one big nap a day is working well for her. Last night was the first night in a while that I've seen her just eat and eat and eat. Typically she'll be squirming to get out of her high chair after about 10 minutes. She ate turkey, cheese, and entire banana and some graham crackers. We're very blessed to have such a good eater!!

Her little "tantrums" have started to become fewer and far between....but I have a sinking feeling it's a calm before the storm. She'll be throwing really big fits before too much longer, so I'm enjoying the little tantrums and the fact that they seem to be subsiding for now.

Birthdays, Boo Boos and Bugs

Thank you THANK YOU to everyone who came and helped celebrate Rachel's first birthday. Although she was kind of fussy from having such a large week being around so many people, the entire week was a blast (for me) and I appreciate each and every one of you being a part of it!

Some of the birthday photos that were taken have been loaded into the Rachel 7 album, so please check them out!

Once her party was over with Jason and I headed to Jamaica while Rachel headed to Evansville with her grandparents. She had a great time down there visiting with them and Geri said she got very excited when they returned on Saturday and she saw her room with her bed.

We'd been home a little over a week when, last Wednesday, as I was putting Rachel in the car she threw up. I had given her water in the morning and put some vitamins in it. Thinking that the vitamins are what made her sick I thought nothing of it because she stopped. I just took her jacket off when I took her in to day care and got a call about an hour later that she was throwing up again. So I grabbed my stuff and left work to take her home. She threw up several more times in the car on the way home, resulting in a bath as soon as we got in the door. Once she was cleaned up I put her to bed and that kid slept for 2.5 hours.

When she woke up she started playing like nothing was wrong. As she "cruised" her way around the living room I sat down to do something for work and she was standing right beside me. Without warning she fell forward and bonked her head on the glass shelf of an electronics component stand we have in the living room right now (and is for sale!!!) Although I don't have the pictures of it with me right now I felt HORRIBLE. I'm thankful she didn't hurt her eye, as the bruise and the cut were very close to it. It left a bruise and barely cut the skin. Poor kid. She's home sick from day care and she bonks her head!

She's doing a lot better, but whatever bug she brought home that day has now found it's way to my friend Amber that watched her all day and night Thursday, myself, Jason, my mom and my brother. I'm trying to avoid as many people as possible for fear the bug is still with us and is still contagious. It's HORRIBLE. Jason ended up being in the ER on Friday. My mom came and took Rachel on Saturday morning and watched her until Sunday evening, which is how that household got it.

This morning when I went in to wake Rachel up she sat on my lap and ate some applesauce. In between a few bites I said, "You're funny!" and she stopped eating, looked up at me, and smiled like she knew what I was talking about. It was adorable!!

First Birthday

The day has arrived for our sweet girl to turn ONE! What a year it's been too. Here was our sweet girl this morning before we left to start our day:

You can see her face is still a little swollen with sleep, but she's a happy girl today!

Let's see...what can I catch you up on since my last post?

She has started walking! It's now up to about 4 - 5 steps at a time, but she gets a big smile on her face when she does it. I picked her up from Day Care yesterday and the lady encouraged her to walk to me instead of crawling like she normally does. It's awesome! And frightening at the same time!

Another new trend: tantrums. Oh yes, they have started! Last night I wanted to show Jason how she could walk and she melted like Gumby each time we set her on the floor. Granted, she was tired, but she's started to kick her feet and do the Alligator roll when she's unhappy about something.

She has started visiting the toddler room and I believe she'll be transitioning there either in December or January full time. She's not an "infant" anymore as of today! Her new classroom is adorable and the teacher is great. She's teaching Rachel how to sleep on a cot at Day Care, so my hope is we convert her crib into a big girl bed sometime early next year!!

Her babble is still adorable. LOTS of raspberries and spitting, because she finds it fun. She also whispers sometimes when she's making noises and it's so sweet. Of course, she does yell a lot too because she can, and that's sweet as well.

We did get her car seat! It's currently sitting in our living room and Rachel has taken to climbing on it...

She also climbs on other things....

And as graceful and careful as it looks like she's being....she has knocked that little rocking chair over and bonked her head on the swing. She's getting braver though, that's for sure.

For funsies....here's a picture of a cute little sweater she has:

Look at that Toboggan on top!!! I love this sweater!

This past weekend my friend Amber watched Rachel while Jason and I ran an errand and she took these for me:

How cute is that? Waiting with the dog for mommy and daddy to come home. I love having little baby finger prints on our windows. (And I love love love bib overalls!)

She's growing like a weed, soaking up knowledge like a sponge, and playing like it's her job. We couldn't have asked for a better baby.

Ready for another year of following Rachel?

A First Giant Step...

You read the title right: Our girl is starting to walk! Oh the gigantic leap this beautiful little baby has made in her life! It happened last Saturday, November 5. She stood up on her own in the middle of the living room next to me, so I scooted back where I was sitting on the floor and coaxed herl. Sure enough, she took a step towards me, and every day since then she's taken at least one step. Last night she took 2 all on her own!! Soon she'll be tottering around on both legs instead of on all fours. I'm so excited for our little one.

This past Tuesday I had my very first parent teacher conference. Turns out, it was the teacher's first PTC as well! We had a great conversation and I'm so excited about Rachel's progress there. She's social, happy, and developing beautifully. I was also told that it's time for Rachel to transition from the Infant 2 room to the toddler room. In order for this to happen, all children must:
- Wear shoes every day
- Walk reasonably well
- Take one nap a day (from 12 - 2:30)
- Eat table food well

The only item from the above list she will struggle with is the one nap a day. Currently I've just let her sleep whenever she's tired. And why not? Forcing her into a strict routine will cause so many problems down the road if our plans suddenly change (which they do often). I've not wanted her to be on a strict schedule as a baby. Now we'll be working to move her naps to the middle of the day. And if that's the biggest transition she needs to make to qualify? I'll take it. They began the "transitioning" of her nap schedule on Wednesday and today I received the following picture from the Day Care Director:

Her note read "So.....I think the nap time is catching up with her". I laughed so hard! I can't get this child to hardly lay down to go to sleep, let alone fall asleep somewhere other than her crib!

Rachel refuses baby food. She doesn't want to be fed, she wants to feed herself. So table food from now on it is! She does still take a bottle (which she insists on holding herself). This is awesome. Her teacher says that there are some kids that are over a year old and still don't do table food, and here Rachel will only eat table food. And she eats everything! Apparently yesterday she had 2 pieces of pizza. And regularly eats seconds. On Tuesday evening I stopped and got Taco Bell for our visit with my Grandma and she ate almost an entire taco on her own! I'm so proud of her.

She has started pinching, and I'm not thrilled with this development. If you pick her up, she'll grab a handful of your shirt to hang on to while you hold her. However, sometimes her hand will move and she ends up grabbing your skin with her thumb and index finger. Even if I keep her nails trimmed it still hurts!!

Her teacher also says she thinks Rachel will be a "girly girl", which thrills me. Not that there's anything wrong with her being any other way....but she loves dolls. LOVES them. She likes to gently pull books off of the shelf and sit and turn the pages on her own. Sometime she'll "talk" or coo as she does this and it almost looks like she's "reading" it. She doesn't like it when the other kids get rowdy, she likes it when they are calm. And when she has to be around the baby infants in the Infant 1 room, she's so very gentle with them.

I was also told that the teacher who runs the Toddler room had mentioned to Rachel's current teacher that she's excited for Rachel to transition up so she'll be in the new teacher's room because "She's so cute!" Now how good do you think that makes this mother feel? That teachers are already excited to have our daughter because they find her adorable as well.

She does have a sweet disposition....waving when people say hi, smiling when they smile at her....so far she doesn't seem to be too overly shy. However if she's babbling or talking, she'll instantly stop when someone new walks into the room. It takes just a little bit to warm up to them then she'll continue on.

She'll "blink" at you or give you a big cheesy grin for no reason....or raspberry at you for fun.

I've noticed that she constantly is trying to find ways to walk to an identified destination rather than crawling whenever possible. She'll find something with wheels or that's light enough she can push and use it to walk to where she wants to go.

This past weekend we picked out and purchased her new car seat and I may transition her to it earlier rather than later. Her current car seat has been adjusted out almost as far as I can adjust it and I don't have a winter coat on her yet. Now that it's getting colder I think I will need to go ahead and put her in the new car seat so she's got enough room under the straps for her to wear her coat!

Jason also got her a little baby laptop for her birthday. She loves to pull up and try to grab at the buttons on our laptops, so he wanted her to have her own. It's able to connect to our computers so we can put "e-mails" from us to her on there. It's such a sweet idea.

Just a few more weeks and she'll hit the big "01".

Mohawks

So a more textual update of Rachel....

She's standing up more on her own. And when I say that I mean tonight we were watching tv and realized that she just stood up on her two feet without pulling herself up and stood there as balanced as could be. We also got our second accident report at Day Care today. Apparently she was walking along the bookshelves that are in the middle of the room (they are very short, she can see over the top of them), lost her balance and hit her face on the shelf. Her teacher said that she didn't show any signs of bruising, but just in case she wanted me to know. Have I mentioned how much I really do love her Day Care?

In addition, 2 days in a row this week they've sent her home looking like this:

With a MOHAWK! I'm sure most parents wouldn't find it funny. I think it's hilarious. Her new teacher, Jessica, is really nice. She said she was cleaning her up after eating and she couldn't help but spike her hair since it's starting to come in. I swear, about 2 weeks ago she woke up and her hair was thicker. I kid you not. As I gave her a bath the night before I washed her hair and again was sad she still doesn't have much. The next morning I could tell it was thicker....and it hasn't really grown (noticeably) as much since. So they sent her home spiked up one day, we all laughed, then the next night I go to get her and they were giggling about it again. I love it! I love that they love to have fun with my girl. I love that at least 3 times a week I have at least one teacher tell me how cute she is or something funny they've appreciated that she's done.

I'm not sure if anyone else agrees with me, but I don't think Rachel's overly photogenic. And I don't say that she's not adorable. Quite the contrary. What I mean is (and I've thought this since she was a newborn) that photographs don't truly capture the "essence" of Rachel. Her personality, and especially her eyes, are what make this girl truly captivating. Everyone agrees that even though she can't communicate very well, she has a personality all her own. She smiles and expresses her frustration or thrills with her eyes. Still photos don't capture that, you really have to see her in person to see what I mean.

Oh! Music to a mother's ears! This past Tuesday she's started saying "Mama" again. I could care less if she's just babbling or if she means "Mom". The fact is, I'm hearing this phrase again and I am SOOOOO excited about it!

Other things she's doing (and I apologize if this is a repeat from a previous post....) she does hold her bottle all by herself now. And we've almost completely phased out all of her 9 month clothes and have started wearing more (but not all) of her 12 mo. clothes.

We give her a lot more table food and are starting to decrease her bottle intake. (The doctor said we should!) She's down to no more than 4 bottles a day, and I'm not sure yet if I can decrease to 3. (Rachel probably wouldn't hear of it). I've started feeding her these ravioli dishes by Gerber and although she kind of chokes while eating them, I'm noticing each time she eats a bowl of them she does better. She LOVES bananas and I'm thankful as that's one fruit that's easy to get at the grocery and is soft enough she can eat it.

Her favorite toys right now are her dolls. She still says "Dada or deetdeet" when she's playing with one. Her other favorite: photographs. She loves books. She loves the photos on the fridge. She loves the photo of the baby on the diaper package.

We've also started letting her watch Sesame Street and she's entranced. Last weekend I think I watched a total of 3 55 minute episodes in one day and she watched them with me. I wont' lie: I LOVE watching that show with her and I do get annoyed that about halfway through an episode she'll start to get tired and I have to pause it until she wakes up from a nap. I've never NOT loved Sesame Street, so being able to watch it with her brings no small amount of joy to this mama. Although Elmo is her favorite....and he isn't mine. So that's an area we'll suffer through with her....however I will take 100 Elmo's if it means we don't EVER have Barney in our house. By my own request, he's a banned character.

When she hears music, she's starting to dance and bounce rhythmically. She also will clap her hands.

Oh - did I mention she's figured out how to open cabinets? NOT my favorite development! I've at least managed to get a child-proof lock for the cabinet under the sink where the cleaning supplies are. But the other cabinets....no such luck. I've purchased several different types of child-proofing paraphernalia, but alas none of them will work on our cabinets. So I'm going to have to go out and try to find some more.

Her top two teeth are much more noticeable, although I still have to turn her upside down to see them. Tonight as I was doing just that, I noticed 2 more buds out to the side of the top 2 teeth that are coming in. Teeth # 5 & 6 are already starting to show! It won't be long now....I wonder if I think she'll look odd with teeth since it's been so long that we've seen her without them?

The past couple of weeks I've found myself sneaking in to her bedroom after we put her to sleep to check on her and I can't leave right away. I must touch her hair, her face and cover her with the blankets that she, most of the time, is laying on top of. She's so beautiful and just mesmerizing when she sleeps. I can't help myself. I'm so thankful for this small child that's going to turn a year old this month.

Halloween 2011

I searched high and low for the perfect costume for this girl. I think I found it!

Here's the best part of the costume that I didn't even realize when I purchased it: if you push the lion (that's on her tummy) on the nose, it roars!!!

She wore this thing for perhaps 30 minutes. I barely got a picture of her holding still because she was so wriggly and unhappy. We didn't get home until after 6:00 and she was so sleepy when we got home. I put her in her costume and we walked to see the lady next door. We said hi, chatted for a bit, then came right back home again. Rachel took a bottle and then wanted nothing more to do with being awake. She got a quick bath and was instantly in bed. Oh well....we'll do Halloween bigger next year.

Bibs

I'm a sucker for bib overalls. I had them as a child, I had them as a teenager and I still treasure a pair my roommate in college donated to me. So it should come as no surprise that I made sure our daughter had a pair of her very own. And last weekend I dressed her all up just so I could take a picture:

And I LOVE her little pink shoes! Found 'em for $1 at a garage sale. They don't stay on her feet, however, so they're just for me to enjoy how cute they are.

Croup Troup

The past few weeks have been packed with this that or the other. Last week was a particularly cumbersome week. Sunday we had a wonderful time at my parents' house with my dear dear friend Ginny and her two kids. Jason worked with them to teach them how to shoot guns and Ginny took our photos. I've not been punctual about getting Rachel's 6 or 9 month pictures done....so we'll call them 11 month pictures. I take a picture of her, at a minimum, weekly so there's no need to try to hit the major milestones...especially with our schedule. It's impossible. Regardless, the pictures are A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!! Here's a few for a quick preview:

The rest of the photos can be viewed at the link to the right of this page titled "Rachel 6".

The photos were taken around the property at my parents' place. To me, there's just something about Fall and needing to have a barn in the pictures to make it really feel "Fall-ish". So the setting was perfect. The weather, however, wasn't. The entire picture process took less than 30 minutes and it was chilly and windy. The pictures are awesome! However, the aftermath led to poor Miss Rachel and a bout of the croup.

If you aren't familiar with croup, it tends to happen in children from newborn to about 3 - 5 years. It's where their throats get a little inflamed, causing the child to sound like a seal barking when they cough. She seemed kind of fussy on Sunday night, but nothing out of the ordinary. And I wasn't overly surprised when I went to pick her up on Monday night from Day Care that she had a cough that had formed. But I was stunned when the director said it sounded like croup and I needed to get her checked out, pronto.

So Monday night we got home from Day Care and she took a nap just like she always does after we get home. While she slept, I packed the diaper bag, packed a dinner for myself, and got everything ready to go to the ER. Because that's what you do nowadays when the doctor's office is closed. It's not an emergency, but when you need to be seen, you go to the ER. I did not like the thought of it, but it had to be done. Jason had a massive headache and agreed to get some rest at home in case we got stuck there for a while and I needed him to come and relieve me later.

We were in and out of the ER in less than 30 minutes, thankfully. They gave us some red syrup to give Rachel to relieve some of her symptoms, but warned us it would make her hyper. She was already exhausted so we decided against giving it to her that night.

Tuesday Jason stayed home with her in the morning and I came home to take over in the afternoon. Wednesday my mom took care of her all day since it was her day off. And by Thursday she was back to her normal routine.

But as with anything that makes Rachel sick, comes the diaper rash. Oh this one was awful as well. Thankfully, we've been through this before I have the plethora of diaper rash creams that were left over from the last round. As of this evening, her rash is going away....but it's been hesitant to do so.

Other things that Rachel is now doing since I last posted....

She is mere INCHES away from walking! This past Sunday we were watching tv downstairs with her in her baby gated area and I was in there with her. She was holding herself up on her little musical table and reached her hand out to me with a smile of anticipation. She tried to take her first step and let go of the table, only to tumble to the floor. She can stand unsupported for about 5 seconds before she topples over. But I can see that determination in her and I know she'll be walking very soon!

This evening I had to stop by Walmart after picking her up to get a few things. I kept her in her car seat just to make things easier for the both of us and as we hit the clearance isle her face lit up and she pointed to the shelf and excitedly exclaimed "Deet Deet!!" I'm not sure why, but deet deet means "baby!" She LOVES pictures and LOVES babies. So I picked up two different dolls and held them in front of her, yielding instant smiles. Just for funsies, I picked up some sort of boys toy and held it up to her and her face remained unchanged. The girl loves dolls!

Mom had given me this homemade doll she got at the Saurkraut festival a few years ago right before she was born. And I've told mom this....Jason and I find the doll creepy. Rachel, however, feels differently. The doll happened to be out and I gave it to her to see what she would do. Her face lit up, she took the doll by both hands, looked it in the eyes and started "talking" to it. Oh it was priceless!!

We've had a little bit of trouble at bedtime with her, and this isn't really something new. Some nights she's exhausted and ready to go to bed without any trouble. Other nights I have to let her scream herself to sleep, and I hate doing it. She definitely is NOT happy on the nights where she's not at day care. The weekends don't seem too horribly awful, but the night after my friend Amber watched her and the night after my mom watched her she fought with all her might to not sleep, even though she was tired. What is it about upsetting a schedule that makes kids so fussy? If anything, they should be more worn out and ready for bed! Amber and mom both played with her all day and had a great time with her!! I just don't know why that is. I hear about this from other mothers as well.

Rachel is now shunning baby food and only wants either a bottle or people food. I think the independence is alluring to her, and that's fine by me. I'd rather let her feed herself while we eat anyway. It keeps her occupied and we get to eat with fewer interruptions! Tonight I tried the Gerber Graduates ravioli with her. She choked a little bit, but not too badly and ate the ENTIRE container. In addition to half a piece of cheese and some Cheerios.

The other day as I dropped her off at Day Care she hadn't drank her whole bottle and upon arriving we found another baby in the high chair already. The lady who makes the food said, "Oh yeah, put that kid in the high chair as well. Trust me, she will EAT." I hear it all the time that this girl loves her food, and I'm so thankful she's not a picky eater (right now)!!! I've not found anything I can think of that she flat out will not eat.

She's kind of stopped saying "mama" and "dada" regularly like she was.....although we do hear a lot of "Dadada" and "deet deet". She doesn't always necessarily mean "daddy" when she says that. She says that whenever she sees a photograph. Her teacher says she's caught her in her crib waving at the pictures posted there, which are of Jason, myself and our parents. Oh, this kid just pulls at your heart strings!

Her first birthday is just around the corner!! For anyone that wants to come, we'll be having a "party" on Saturday, November 26th. Nothing fancy or formal, but we'll have a cake and decorations. Presents are NOT necessary. (Please trust me, this child wants for nothing!) However, I would like to have as many faces as possible to photograph with her and to help us celebrate her first birthday. So friends and family alike are welcome to come and be with us!! We'll probably start the party around noon and people can come and go at their leisure. Sort of an open house kind of thing. I'm also not sending out formal invitations to anyone, so this is the formal invitation to everyone!!

I apologize for the lack of photos in this post...I have plenty. But in order to get a post published sometime this month, I had to do it now while I'm lacking my extra hard drive.

Oh there's always so many things I think of and say to myself, "Oh, I should blog about that!" Because this blog isn't just for you....this is going to help me fill out her baby book properly since I'm not as diligent as I was at the beginning! But I can't remember any of those things right now. Most of what I observe with Rachel just can't be put into words.

Rachel Bathroom Humor

I realize I'm behind on getting pictures and updates posted. Spring and Fall at our house just seem to fill up and fly by!

A few weeks ago my brother, his wife and their daughter came up from Louisianna to visit. My mom has plenty more pictures than I do (and I keep meaning to get those from her) so I'll try to get those at least uploaded to the albums. But I had to share this of the girls:

That's our neice, Alana (sans pants) pushing Rachel around in her little red car. It was too cute. Alana's just learning how to talk in sentences, so watching the two of them together is priceless.

Rachel isn't quite to that stage where she's in to everything, but she does love to practice crawling and walking, so I hate to leave her in her fenced off area all the time. One day she was in the living room while I did some cleaning up in the kitchen and I peeked in on her every few minutes. I stuck my head around the corner and realized she wasn't there. Thankfully, I knew she could only have gone into our bedroom since I had a VERY close eye on the utility room. There she was....she'd crawled all the way into our bathroom and had pulled herself up on the side of the bath tub and was inching her way along. So instead of picking her up and carrying her out of the bathroom, I stood back and watched her. Obviously, she found the toilet (thankfully the lid was shut!!) Then the thought hit me...I should really let her ~safely~ explore the bathroom. Why not introdce her to it now? So I picked her up and took her in to the little bathroom where she always takes a bath.

She always stands at the side of the tub as I get the water ready, so that's nothing new. But I flushed the toilet so she could listen and see it, and THAT was new!

My Turn!!!

And what child doesn't love a good roll of toilet paper?

 And there's that baby in the mirror again!

Yes, as you can clearly see from this picture....I was focused on taking her picture and didn't even think about the hot wax that's in the night light there in the background. Of course she stuck her fingers in it and I had to peel the hot wax off. Thankfully, she didn't cry or fuss, so she wasn't burned. But that was the end of the bathroom pictures.

So what's Rachel doing that's new? Well, she is walking very well as long as she's holding on to something. I had purchased a bunch of toys with handles and wheels that she can walk behind, and a few of them convert to a riding toy for later. She does like to hand on to these and walk through a room because she can walk quicker. The downside to those are, she's so used to having to walk sideways because she's hanging on to the wall, cabinets or furniture that she ends up try to do the same to the walking toys and trips. It's a matter of coordination and she's quickly learning!

She's kind of stopped saying "mamamama" and "dadadada" as much. She still does, but you can tell her babbling habits have just changed a bit. She now likes to say "Deet deet deet", and yell (and sometimes scream) "aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!" when she gets excited.

In most of her "tasks", walking, crawling, looking etc. she constantly has her mouth open. I think having her mouth open helps her think.

Last night was the first time I've seen her give a cheesy smile. Normally her smiles require her entire face to be involved. My grandma says she smiles with her eyes. But for some reason she's starting to put on a big cheesy grin instead of her sweet baby smile. It's really funny! I'm hoping in the set of pictures my Aunt Gail took last night she captured her doing this so I can post.

She likes to "bounce" on her feet when she's standing next to a piece of furniture. Kind of like a person does when they've been standing a while and they want to bend their legs for a bit of a relief.

Here's another picture I wanted to share:

This is at my Grandma Esche's house. She's had that Pound Puppy since before even I can remember. Rachel saw it sitting on the chair and instantly grabbed its ears and bit its nose!

I'm not sure what she's doing here, but it was just cute.

How can you not just love this face?!

And I LOVE this picture and am really mad it came out fuzzy!

The Spaghetti Incident

Before I begin today's post, I want to take a moment and remember Gina Rogers. This past weekend Rachel lost her Great-Grandma. In her memory, I want to repost a recent picture of her. She will be greatly missed.

We're all going to miss this lady very VERY much.

Recently I've been trying to give Rachel "people" food as often as I can. One night I was exhausted and just wanted to eat my dinner when it dawned on me that I could keep Rachel entertained while I ate by letting her eat. Since my "spaghetti" isn't really marinara sauce, but something MUCH more plain, I opted to let her try it. Here's what happened:

She looked a little apprehensive....

But was eager to put her little hands in whatever it was mommy had placed before her.

The final result? A happy and fithly baby! I think she ate a little bit of it...most of it I found below the tray on her tummy. Ah! So cute!

Rachel has become absolutely adorable. Yes, I'm biased....but I have MANY others who aren't biased and will come up to me and tell me so. For example....here she is as we waited for GramE a few weekends ago:

Her sleeping habits have also made me giggle. MANY mornings recently I'll check her out on the monitor and I can see that she's on her tummy with her butt in the air. I have no idea HOW that is comfortable, but that's how she sleeps! And she's starting to be able to fall asleep on her own a little bit better. Not always, but it is improving. However, I'll hear all this shuffling on the montior and turn it on to see her rolling around the crib. There are times it almost seems like she's circling the way a dog would before it lays down. She makes her rounds around the crib and never seems to wind up in the same spot twice. It's like she has to find that "comfortable" position before she can fall asleep.

Other little things she's doing....She has started to say "Mamamamama". And when she does, it can mean one of several things:
1. Mom (me)
2. Any toy in site
3. Pick me up
4. I'm unhappy
5. I'm happy
6. Babble

It's all in her tone and the direction she "speaks". One night we Skyped with Jason and she did say "Dadadada!!!"

Yesterday we were playing in her play area and I introduced her to a new toy. It's a drum by Leap Frog and when you bang on it, it'll say a letter of the alphabet and it also plays music. If you don't touch the toy for about a minute or two, it'll say "Bye bye!" and shut off. The drum did this and Rachel said "Bye...." Ahhhh!!! She's so close to talking! So I've tried really hard to talk slowly and repeat everything I say as many times as I can stand.

Rachel still loves jewelry and anything sparkly. She also loves to find the tiniest of lint or debris on the floor and explore it.

A new thing she's doing, and this is perfectly normal, is squinting. She'll think about something (or at least it looks like she is) and she'll squit a bit while she does it. Last night she kept putting her forehead to mine to see me really close up and she'd giggle as she did so.

She adores books. She'll sit in my lap and we'll read a short book, then she'll pick it up and try to turn the pages herself. We've received so many books that are full of colors and she loves to look at them.

With regularity, although not consistency, she'll wave "hi" and "bye". Sometimes she'll wave for no reason, and other times she'll "wave" by just holding up her hand out in front of her or above her head.

She's also FINALLY clapping her hands! I'm not sure why she wouldn't do that before. She would bang toys together, or hold her hands together, but she just wouldn't clap! Now she does, just for fun.

Another favorite thing for her to do is raspberries. She'll also mimic you if you cough, laugh, raspberry or go "fffffff".

I've noticed that if I just set her in her play area and walk away, she'll get upset. However, if I get into the play area with her, let her find a toy and start exploring and then get out, she doesn't seem to mind as much. And she'll be in there being busy as can be by herself for about 30 minutes before she starts to get lonely and will whine to see another person.

She is walking by holding on to things and absolutely LOVES the freedom to go where she pleases....to a point.

When she gets excited about something and I'm holding her, she'll kick her feet and inhale loudly. It's a noise she made as a newborn that used to freak me out as I thought she couldn't breathe. I'm still not fond of the noise, but I have learned it means "yay" not "I'm choking!"

I also snapped a picture of her recently wearing this awesome hat I found at a garage sale:

Anything on her head she thinks is a form of "Peek-A-Boo" and must be removed immediately. So I can't keep hats on her head. But I love this one and was so happy to get a picture of her wearing it. Ahhh! She's so cute!

Before I close, I have to share this picture of Rachel (I can't remember if I already have or not)....but her Day Care director sent me this of Rachel finger painting:

The picture turned out really well. But could this kid be less enthused about finger painting? They took two of her and in both of them she's scowling. Ha!!

Travels

This kid's been a travelin'. We'll go back to a few weekends ago when we met up with Rachel's Terry Grandparents in Louisville. Geri and I took her to the Kentucky State Fair while the guys went to see a movie. Here's some of the festivities....

I love this picture. I'm caught with a goofy look and Rachel's caught trying to eat my straw. This is worth to be submitted to "Awkward Family Photos"!

Check out the size of that goose. It's HUGE!!!

Doesn't it look like that goat is enjoying Rachel petting it?! Truthfully, this was just a candid and awesome shot that Geri captured. Truth is, the goat was less than happy about Rachel petting it.

Rachel's not in this photo, but I had to share. For obvious reasons.

Yup. We decided to allow Rachel to experience a "freak" show. Literally. Sadly, not as creepy as I thought it would be. But it was creepy!

Once we left the fair Rachel went on to spend the week with Grandma Terry. I think she had a good time....

Then last weekend after Jason left for the Middle East Rachel and I hopped in the car and headed to Evansville, just us girls. On Monday we headed to Holiday World!!

She helped me decide where we should start.

Perhaps it's more exhausting than one would think to be pushed around in a stroller....

We could not pull her away from Holidog for some reason...


It was a wonderful weekend! Now we're both home and doing great trying to keep ourselves entertained.

Some other milestones she's been working on....

Crawling is now second nature. She's pretty adept about getting around easily.
Walking is probably her next  big step. She can hang on to the furniture and move around very easily.
Talking is also fun for her. Right now her phrases consists of raspberries, Ma ma, Ba ba, Da da. I haven't quite decided when she says "Ma ma" if she actually is referring to me. Sometimes she'll say "Ma ma" then look at me, but I can't tell for certain if she's put a meaning to her babble yet. If not, she's darn close!

She's starting to give "kisses".....which are actually her opening her mouth really wide, sticking her lips on you, then she'll stick out her tongue and lick you. Sounds gross, but at this age it's actually cute. Whenever she sees herself in a mirror, she'll "kiss" herself. Sadly, it's adorable!!!