Earaches and the Parenting Award

I have a lot to catch up on. Here we go.

Rachel loves books. It thrills my heart as I started buying up nearly every book I could get my hands on either through Amazon.com or garage sales. I found some I loved as a child and we have been graciously given books that I now love as an adult. I've posted before how she loves to sit quietly and flip through a book, normally with an adult, but also on her own. Recently she pulled a book from Aunt Gail out of the pile and it's a Christmas book. It's one of those Dick and Jane books that's been reprinted and the book is rather large. But she loves the pictures and wants us to read it over and over again with her. Here's a picture of it:

I don't have a picture of it, but I had purchased a book called "Who Loves Baby?" It's a 6 page book that's made out of vinyl and it's designed for the owner to insert their own pictures into it. I've added pictures of all 4 grandparents as well as Jason and I. It's not only waterproof, but she can chew on it, has a handle for her to carry around, and has become another favorite. So we flip through every page and point to each picture and say the person's pronoun over and over again. "That's Grandma!" "That's GrampE!" I had forgotten I had purchased it and found it in the bottom of one of her drawers. She can identify her cousin Alana by photo since she's on the fridge and we point to that picture a lot. Shouldn't be long before she's saying everyone's names!

We're also still working on feeding herself. Sometimes in the evenings when I know she's going to take a bath anyway, I'll give her some food and a spoon. She LOVES to be independent (at times).  Although feeding is a new skill she's trying to master, there are times when she gets frustrated enough she'll take matters into her own little clever hands:

In other news, Jason has picked up a new hobby and brought one of his recent purchases home. Rachel was intrigued. Daddy informed her that she'll know how to clean one of these before she goes to Kindergarten:

Rachel is right now transitioning clothing. We're moving away from 12 month clothes and are slowly working our way into 18 months (I'm grateful for the size 12 - 18 right now!) With the weather changing so constantly and sporatically, I feel like I have to keep her in the same 5 outfits all week long. Dang it weather, be warm so we can change out the wardrobe! I'm excited for the new stuff!
Although she can still wear her sweet little butterfly shoes, I decided to go ahead and break her into her new shoes so we could avoid her outgrowing the older shoes without us knowing it and hurting her feet. I LOVE LOVE LOVE these!!!

Sometimes when we're plaing at the house Rachel will find her sunglasses she's had from an infant. They strap around her head and they are cute:

But they're a little small. So I'm trying to get her excited about wearing some bigger ones my friend Ginny got for her:

Sadly, this weather has been really hard not only for me, but for Rachel as well. The past few weeks her tantrums have escalated a bit and we thought it was because she was just going through a phase. We've even resorted to smacking her hands and even swatting her behind in hopes of making her behave and listen. I HATE doing it!!! Then Friday I picked her up from day care and asked what in the world she'd eaten that day, because it was all over her ear. I was informed it wasn't food.....her ear was draining and my heart just broke. Jason and I both researched and we found out that this whole time she didn't feel good AT ALL, but couldn't tell us. She probably had a sore throat and sinus drainage which in turn caused a horrible earache. As soon as I left day care I picked her up a kids' meal from Wendy's and took her to the Medcheck to get her antibiotics. But Sunday evening she was acting SO much happier, so I know that's what was causing the tantrums and fits. It's so hard to tell since she can't talk!!! And she wasn't tugging at her ear or anything out of the ordinary to let us know.

And since she was feeling better Sunday.....here's where I get the award for being a non-outstanding parent. Here's the honest story. She was walking around upstairs kind of entertaining herself so I took the opportunity to run the vacuum cleaner. Sometimes she'll follow me around, sometimes she'll do her own thing, but as long as we keep certain doors closed, I have a good idea where she is.

Another new "skill" she loves to work on is shutting doors. She'll walk into her room and shut the door because it's great fun. Sometimes even more fun to close the door on mommy or daddy as they come in to check on her. Sometimes it's a game, sometimes she's just being a stinker. So I get done vacuuming and had noticed she'd gone into her room. I went to look for her and couldn't find her. There are only so many places she can hide. So when she wasn't in her room and the living room I almost panicked....then realized there was a light coming from under the bathroom door. I had vacuumed in there and forgotten to shut the door behind me. I almost panicked again thinking she had probably drowned until I realized I was hearing delighted laughter.....followed by splashing. Thankful she was alive and scolding myself for not being more  careful with the doors....I opened the bathroom to a scene that you just HAVE to laugh at:

Not only was there a huge wad of toilet paper on the floor, the roll was no longer on it's holder and was drenched. And then.....

a child.....delighted at playing in the toilet and.....

licking her fingers to get the water.

Yes it's gross. The pictures make me cringe too. But why did I allow her to keep playing long enough to go get the camera and take these pictures? Well.....while a toilet is foul and dangerous.....she wasn't in any harm. And, my mom told me stories about all 3 of us kids playing in a toilet at some point or another. So I took these pictures and promptly gave her a bath and cleaned everything up. We are SO buying the child-proof toilet locks soon. In the meantime, I'll just keep a better eye on the door situation at the house, as the bathroom is one of the few doors that latches properly.  *sigh* Oh this child of mine.

However, another favorite past time?:

Swimming! She loves to lay on her belly, kick her feet and play with her toys. She only does this in the water. She also like to look in the metal piece right above the drain and see her reflection. I'm grateful she enjoys bathtime!

One thing she absolutely detests, however is getting her fingernails clipped. Please trust me this needs to happen way more often than I would like to deal with it. It's a straight up war to clip her fingernails where I typically have to have Jason hold her down. However, yesterday we were sitting on the back deck and I sang "Where is Thumbkin" to her and for some reason she sat there calmly and let me clip them. RESULT! So glad to do that without a fight! Now if we can just keep each and every diaper change as calm.....I must find a song to sing for that.

I think that about sums up everything I was wanting to share!

Blame the Olives?

Yesterday started out like any other day. Rachel and I woke up before everyone else and headed to the grocery store. Instead of Walmart, I opted for Marsh. While there, I remembered we were out of Olives. In the olive isle I saw there was a name brand and an off brand. As any usual bargain shopper would do, I opted for the generic brand and we went on our way. The olives come in to play later in the weekend.

We got back and played at the house for a while when I noticed it was bright, sunny and flat out gorgeous outside. Jason and I are still fighting off some sort of sinus/cold/yucky stuff so we didn't want to do too much. So I opted to get us out of the house and go to the park that's just by our house. Rachel LOVED the park, although everything there is still really big for her. Regardless, I got some fun snaps:

Check out her hair! As with any playground, this one was full of static, making her hair stand up straight on end.
Jason joined us later on:

Afterwards we went and saw our neighbor across the street and I noticed that Rachel's face was still puffy. I thought she was just puffy from the weather changing so dramatically. While we were at their home I felt her forehead and noticed it was kind of squishy, which was odd, but I decided not to make a fuss. But when we got home we saw that the top of her head was red. None of this was making sense and she wasn't running a fever. We gave her some tylenol and continued with our day.

That night as I was giving her a bath I noticed that it wasn't just the top of her head that was red. The skin on her back wasn't smooth. I looked closer and I realized she was covered in one massive hive. So we do what any semi-panicked parents do: We called my mom :o)

Mom said not to worry, it's a normal thing for toddlers. So I tried not to and we put her to bed.

Then this morning she was worse. I took this picture with my phone before I headed to the drug store:

It's not the most flattering picture, but you can see how swollen her forehead and eyes are. So we got her some benadryl and have been trying to keep an eye on her.

So this morning as I was on my way to the drug store the whole weekend started coming back to me and the clues that something was wrong started to come together. And I remembered that she had thrown up twice, but the circumstanced surrounding it made me think she'd just choked, and everything had come up as a result. Then I remembered what she had choked on and thrown up: the olives. She hasn't had much of an appetite, but I remembered when I gave her some olives during lunch yesterday she started crying. I wasn't looking at her when she started crying, so I had assumed she had bitten her cheek or something.

Although my mom informed me this morning that apparently my brother and I had broken out in the same hives with the same symptoms when we were her age. So, at least now we know it's probably not the olives...but just to make myself feel better, I threw them out anyway! Next time I'll opt for the name brand ones.

Rachel Shenanigans

Finally, some pictures and stories to update you with. Here's a few random ones:

 Rachel playing with Uncle Alex and her monkey puppet. Look at her hair!!! She'd just had a bath so you can see the little tufts sticking up.

A cookie and a palm leaf....uh, dead palm leaf. What more could one ask for?

Ah, the raised eyebrows. This picture gives me pause. I didn't realize I'd actually captured this face on camera. One of Rachel's new development has been facial expressions. Particularly when she's eating, her face has become animated, but not quite always matching what she's doing. For example, she'll be staring at the food in front of her, contentedly eating away, then all of a sudden she'll raise her eyebrows like she is in the picture above and look at her food. It's almost like she's about ready to say, "Well, what a surprise we have here, food!" Except she doesn't say anything. She just raises her eyebrows in anticipation and I almost think she's going to say something. Again, it doesn't really match what she's doing, it's just funny.

She's also learned how to furrow her brow, similarly to what I do when I'm trying to be firm and tell her, "NO." Sometimes she'll furrow her brow, walk right up to me and say, "NO." Then go about her business.

Another one of my favorites is when she's sitting she'll nod her head, as if to say "Yes." Except, she does it while she's in the car seat, eating, or just walking. And while she's nodding, she'll raise her eyebrows along with her head. Head up, eyebrows up. Head down, eyebrows down. Not sure why, but she does.

It's as if she's learned that she can contort her face, but she has no idea what her faces are supposed to mean. So she does them at random when she feels like it. But they're hilarious!! They happen so fast and without warning that I can't capture them on camera. I think I have a few on video...but I'm still dealing with the stupid Sony software that came with the camera and haven't taken the 8 hours it'll take me to figure out how to convert all of the files into a more useable format. In the meantime, at least I have videos I can watch, I just can't share them. :o(

Back to the picture:Yesterday as I was trying to keep her entertained while also trying in vain to do some much needed housework, I had the laundry basket sitting in the living room. She got fussy, I needed to get to the laundry room, so I stuck her in the basket and pushed her around a bit. She sat in there after I was done pushing her just long enough for me to grab the camera and snap a picture as she was getting out.

Then later as she was eating she insisted on drinking some of my chocolate milk, leaving an adorable mustache. However, she wanted out of her chair and when I refused to do so as I tried to take a picture, she got mad. Hence, her frowning mustache face.

As comes with any toddler as they try to learn their world: shenanigans. Personally, I love shenanigans. Some of Rachel's recent ones have me laughing, others leave me wanting to pull my hair out.


Let me walk you through our morning this morning.

It's Sunday, so we're going to church. It's also the weekend, and sadly Rachel's on a schedule that does not include sleeping in. (On Saturday she woke me up at 4:30....but I digress!) This morning she slept until around 6:30. Thankfully, I was already awake, I just wasn't out of bed yet. So I went in and got her some breakfast, changed her clothes, and tried to put her back down for a quick nap so I could get ready. No dice. Instead, I allowed her to entertain herself in our bathroom while I attempted to get ready. So rather than throw my hands up in exasperation, I opted to capture on film our child's latest shenanigans in our bathroom.

Exhibit 1:

If she could talk, one of my first questions would be: "Why is Mommy and Daddy's bathroom such a fun place to be?" As soon as she gets in our bathroom, she heads for the shower. I can hear her in there screaming in delight....I'm not sure why....but she does. Look at that face! Total joy from just standing in the shower!

Exhibit 2:

Once we've played in the shower she instantly goes for the plunger. Oh if I only had a better place to store that nasty thing! But I really don't, and Rachel isn't in our bathroom all that often. *sigh* I want to ask her, "What the crap?"....but I'm afraid my humor would be lost on her. Seriously, what is so alluring about a toilet plunger?

Exhibit 3:

Well, gosh mom. You took away the plunger, I'm going after whatever else was over here that you obviously don't want me to play with: the toilet brush. Which is worse, honestly?

Exhibit 4:

I know if she understood what she was playing with the thought that would have gone through her head would have been, "Heh Heh....mom would never think I'd go after the toilet brush holder." She would have been right in her thinking. I never would have thought she'd go after the toilet brush holder. Jason got a surprise when he woke up and his sink was full of toilet gadgets. Where else was I supposed to hide them!?

WORDS:
Rachel has her own language. Most of it's not intelligible, but the few words I have figured out are sweet.

Every morning Monty follows me around as I'm taking care of Rachel. Consequently, he's also there every evening as well. To be blunt, Monty is constantly under my feet and he's in Rachel's face every moment we're at home. Mostly because Rachel drops a lot of food on the floor. (sometimes he just steals the food from her hands when she's not looking). So we talk to Monty. A Lot. In a sing-song voice Rachel says "Monty" a lot as a result. Except in comes out sounding more like "Martin" or "Button" most of the time. I've learned though, that "Martin" or "Button" mean Monty.

This weekend I spent the entire time with Rachel and I've learned that she can say "Bye Bye" very well. So well, in fact, that she'll grab her coat, come over to me, and say "Bye!" Then run to the door. This means "Let's get out of here!" Sadly, it's been too cold or muddy to go outside much, and Rachel loves to be outside. She also likes to go Bye Bye. Sometimes she'll wave, but not always.

As we were getting ready for bed I filled her humidifier, which is in the shape of a duck. She's always been intrigued by the humidifier. When we had it on the floor, she would take it completely apart and play with the water within. Now we have it on a table, so she just takes the top off of it, or she watches me fill it. Tonight she pointed to it and said, "Dug dug". I think it's a combination of "Duck" and "Quack". Regardless, she knows what a duck is!

Someone (I believe my Grandmother) got her a book by Eric Carle called "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" It's one of those hard cardboard books that are great for toddlers with thick pages that are easy to turn. What really makes it awesome is that every page has a little window that you slide open revealing a colorful picture. Rachel LOVES this book. It's pretty, simple, and she can open and close the windows on each page. Not to mention, it's a large book, so it's easy for her to hold. She'll flip through the pages again and again and I finally got bored with the book after the 15th time yesterday morning and started saying "Hello!" each time she'd turn to the page with the teacher on it. For some reason that stuck with her, and now she calls the book "Lello" or "Lo" because she wants me to say "Hello!" When I open the page.

And it isn't enough that she's trying to say the words, she says them with the exact same inflection that I use when I say the words. Although she does try my patience from needing me to hold her and she's in my face every moment she's awake, I am flattered that she follows me around mimicking everything I'm doing.

She loves to have me chase her around the house and tickle her. She'll scream with delight when I run away from her then come charging back and pick her up.

Bath time is particularly fun for me. Not only am I finally able to wash all of the filth that somehow manages to cling to her from the time she wakes up, she's also really animated and loves the tub. When I let the water out and pick her up out of the tub she literally climbs me trying to get closer to me because she's cold. And the entire time she's going "Burrrr!!!"

One last thing and then I need to move on to my next task. Tonight I was sitting in my rocking chair rocking while she was sitting in her chair rocking. She found an open package of diapers next to her bureau. She took them out of the plastic bag they were in and carried them over to the dirty clothes hamper, and dropped them in. She made 3 trips before I finally put the diapers away. A few moments later I asked her to go get me the diapers out of the hamper. She seemed a little confused, but then caught on and one by one dug them back out and brought them to me. Her little arms couldn't reach them, so each time she'd have to work her away around the hamper to stand on a few books to be able to reach inside. She IS learning commands, which is great! And secretly, I feel a little guilty that I am teaching her words and commands almost like we did with our dog. Except, I don't coerce her into learning with treats.