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!