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.