No!

Rachel has long been able to express when she was displeased or didn't want something that was offered to her by (sometimes) sweetly saying "No" and shaking her head. This morning on the way to Day Care from the backseat I could hear a very prominent "No!". When we pulled into day care and I was taking her out of the car seat she was still practicing and what I couldn't see while I was driving is that she was actually furrowing her brow and pointing with her index finger whilst saying "No!" It's already started.....my child makes fun of me. And sadly....it was SO stinkin' cute.

A few new developments to report....

We've almost completely made the transition from 12 month clothes to 18 month clothes. This is one of the few times I'm grateful that manufacturers all make their clothes differently. Some pants fit her length-wise, but not waist-wise. Some fit her perfectly. Regardless, I feel she looks less like a trash bag right now. With the weather going back and forth right at the time I'm making the switch from 12 - 18 month clothes, I felt frantic trying to find outfits that match! So....I have a new rule when I buy her clothes: try your darndest to by an ENTIRE outfit at once. Random shirts and pants here and there are ok, but avoid them if possible because when I know there is a "matched" outfit already chosen, it makes my life much easier. I have a hard enough time with my own wardrobe...so trying to keep hers together is a real challenge!

Doing a recent inventory on her clothing I noticed that last year I ended up with hand me downs and items from sales that are actually dresses. Perfect for church! Except her shoes don't match. *cringe* Gosh I didn't realize this would end up being such a challenge. One piece footie pajamas were so much cuter and easier! Anyway, I went in search of shoes and I have decided that trying to find cute, reasonably priced, economical and functional baby shoes is a hunt. And I do love a good hunt. I ended up finding a gently used pair on eBay that fit the bill. My concern is because I didn't want any open-toed sandals. Rachel is both hard on shoes and her feet. If we don't get her good "functional" shoes, she'll tear up her toe nails and her toes. They should arrive today and I will be sure to take a picture of them! Now she can wear her cute dresses and I don't have to worry about her toes. Yippee!!

Last night was Jason and I's 9th Anniversary and we went out to a nice dinner to celebrate. I asked her teacher at day care to be the babysitter and she's done this before. Not only is she an excellent babysitter, normally available, and decently priced, Rachel already adores this girl and we get extra parent-teacher time for her to give us tips and tricks of things they do with her at Day Care. It's a win-win-win all around. Liz was telling me last night that Rachel is REALLY doing well with a spoon at lunch time. I was stunned. Really? Just this morning I was reminded that she's got a long way to go. She currently enjoys eating with the spoon upside down, which means a really big mess. She also has been known to use the handle as the spoon end which also results in a mess. I tend to let her, because she needs to figure it out on her own. But I normally will give her a spoon to eat with, even if we serve her finger foods for dinner so she can practice. Apparently she "practices" at home doing whatever she pleases and she uses it "proper" at day care so people think she's talented. Oh what a kid.

New words and phrases!!!

She's picked up the questions "What's that?" or "Who's that?" since I'm trying to get her to verbally identify objects. So now when she looks at pictures or sees something she'll ask one of those questions, although I think it's more of a repetitious question as opposed to actually wondering what something is.

Monty still comes out "Button" or "Martin"....and it's still cute. Once in a while I call him Button too :o)

Obviously we have No down pat.

Mommy, Mama, Mom are all now used in regularity and either mean "Mommy I want more" "Mommy I want that" "Mommy COME GET ME!".

Jason is called either "Dada" or "Dadoo" (and I love that she calls him Dadoo. It's so funny!")

"Gaa Gaa".....this is one I cannot figure out. Whenever we're at my Grandma's house, she always stands in the same spot and says "Gaa Gaa" and points to the same windowed cabinet. I have NO idea what she's seeing. The other day at home she pulled out a Winnie the Pooh book and said it again. I can't figure out what the correlation is between that book and that cabinet. But those are the only times she's said it, and she's done it more than once. There are blue and white dishes in the cabinet and 2 glass birds. I thought perhaps she was pointing to the birds in the cabinet....but there aren't any birds on the book she said it to and I'm completely perplexed!

Ducks/Birds....etc. still comes out "Gack gack". Not sure why she says it twice, but she does.

Ball. This is very intelligible and very obvious. Anything round is a ball.

Ee-Sai means "Outside!" Right now there's no entertainment whatsoever for her outside. Hopefully this weekend we're going to go get her a slide. While we have no wants or desire to put a playground in our backyard since we have an awesome park just up the street, I would like to get her a little slide to climb around on. Regardless, she likes to be in the yard just walking around.

Bubbles! And that's exactly how she says it, with enthusiasm! If you've ever seen "Finding Nemo", the yellow fish that Stephen Root voices gets really excited about the bubbles. That's how she says "Bubbles!" We sit outside and blow bubbles. Recently she was insistent on holding the bubble wand, which eventually broke in two. I'm glad we have two bottles of bubbles. I'm thinking of looking into a bubble machine....much easier and less mess!

Eyes - she LOVES to point out (and poke) my eyes. She says "eyes" a lot! She can also point to her nose and mouth sometimes when we say it, depending on her mood and distraction level.

Hi and Bye - She will wave hi and bye...sometimes. If she's comfortable in the setting she's in with people she knows, she will clearly say Hi and Bye bye, sometimes throwing in a wave to go along with it. She apparently greets and dismisses all the parents that come in to pick up kids. In addition, she doesn't hardly cry when the parents come in to get their kids anymore. Such an improvement!!

Elmo - yup. She can say Elmo with no troubles and identify him. She can also distinguish Elmo from Murray, which I find amazing. They're both the same color, but she does know the difference. And it's not surprising...we don't really let her watch anything other than Sesame Street. The other night she woke up shortly after going to bed and came downstairs with us. We continued watching our show (something that would terrify a child) along with her. When someone came at one of the actors with a chainsaw she started screaming, which tells me she's started to watch tv a little closer. So we cannot watch tv with her around unless it's something child-friendly. She's more aware, so we need to be more careful with the tv.

In other developments...

While she doesn't actually put the pieces back into place, I have this adorable Melissa and Doug puzzle with sea creatures. She can identify which piece goes in which area, but not necessarily putting them there.

She can identify colors and pick up items that are the same color, although she doesn't know the colors yet.

Last Saturday Rachel was sitting at her little table eating a snack when she reached over and "kissed" me. My heart melted. She can kiss people! This is both adorably sweet and frightening. I'm thankful that when she doesn't know someone she clams up and sizes them up before speaking again. My hope is that same action will keep her from kissing strangers. However, the fact that I can ~sometimes~ ask for a kiss and she gives me one makes me happy. She does blow kisses sometimes. I've caught her standing by the door waiting for me at Day Care blowing kisses to the classroom. Hilarious! Her "kisses" are when she leans in, she'll go "mmmmm!" and she'll just touch her face to mine. Sometimes she opens her mouth and touches your face with her lips. Regardless, it's cute and I'll take it!

In the car sometimes she'll "sing". She also "sings" herself to sleep. Sometimes I'll sing with her and she loves that.

She's also started dancing more. I've tried to dance with her. Especially when she hears the Elmo theme song. She LOVES Elmo! Probably because, once again, the only show we let her watch it Sesame Street. There are lots of kid shows on Netflix, so it's not that we don't have a variety. It's just that Sesame Street is really the only kid show Jason and I can tolerate since we have to watch tv with her, so that's what she sees!

But back to the dancing, sometimes she'll bounce for no reason, or walk funny like she's trying to dance and walk at the same time.

She does like to nod her head "yes" and she does this sometimes for no reason.

Oh and the screaming! At first it was fun, because it was in delight. But she's quickly learned she can also scream when she's not happy. Like when we tell her "No" or take something away from her she's not to supposed to have but has somehow managed to pull off of the table or counter.

And let's not forget the jibberish. She can speak in full on sentences! However...we have no idea what she's saying. But she seems to understand it. I could listen to her babble all day long. It's sweet and I can't wait to have full on conversations with her!

Her teacher also informed me last night that Rachel is the only child in the classroom that will crawl onto her cot at nap time and put herself to sleep once she has her blanket and pacifier. Oh that makes me a proud mama! Granted, there are a LOT of nights where she doesn't want to go to sleep and will cry and scream for a bit before finally giving up and laying down. Most nights we really try to wear her out so when we lay her down she'll hum for a little bit and then drift off. But I'm glad to know that our method of "Self-soothing" is working out well. Matter of fact, since she does so well at day care on the cots, I am reconsidering converting her bed again. I had brought it up a few months ago, but we thought it was too early. Now I'm thinking she might be ready. I just don't know if we are. It's kind of nice to have the knowledge that when she goes to sleep she can't get out of her bed and get into anything and get hurt.

We're also discussing getting rid of her baby furniture (probably minus the bed) because her clothes don't really fit in the drawers anymore, she's too long for the changing table so we change her on the floor anyway, and she can easily get in to two of the drawers where I keep some of her stuff. So we might be in the market for some new furniture!

Sadly, I also think her earaches are coming back. I'm keeping a close eye on her. This morning I noticed some "gunk" on the side of her face and I thought it was ear drainage. However, as I tried to clean it off she cried like it hurt. When I was done I realized that it actually looks like some sort of scab....which wasn't there when we left last night so I'm not sure what to make of it. I'll check her out again when I pick her up tonight.

That's the latest on our girl. Growing like a weed and getting cuter every day!

Who IS this?

Last weekend was a VERY busy weekend. Thursday when I picked Rachel up from day care, she was running a fever, which means I couldn't take her in on Friday. My Aunt Gail and Uncle Paul came and watched her during the day while Jason worked and they had a great time. Aunt Gail said she was glad she didn't have to share :o)

Friday after I got home from work we immediately headed down to Newburgh for a few nights. Rachel still wasn't feeling good, it was storming, and we got stuck in rush hour traffic. Needless to say, a 3.5 hour trip took nearly 5 and I don't think any of us were more excited than the other to be out of the car.

Saturday Rachel spent the whole day with Grandma Terry and by the time I got back from Ferdinand where I'd gone for a bridal shower, she seemed to be feeling better. Her fever was gone and she seemed in better spirits. (I personally think she just likes Grandma's cooking better than mine, which is probably for the best!)

Before we left on Sunday, Grandma Terry arranged Rachel's first Easter Egg Hunt:

 It took her a little while to get the hang of it, but she finally did. I captured this image of Rachel with Jason and Howell:

Sunday we left and drove up thru Bloomington on our way home. Again another 5 hour trip. Thankfully, Rachel slept for a few hours as we timed our departure around her nap time. But she was SO wound up when we got home and finally got her out of the car.

There is no way anyone could have fathomed how horrible she has felt for weeks. She's normally got a runny nose, so that wasn't a very clear sign. She was fussy a lot, but again nothing new. It wasn't until her ears actually started leaking that we knew there was a problem, so she'd been "sick" for about 3 weeks untreated and without us really knowing what was going on.

Monday night and Tuesday morning were....horrible. Everything seems to send her into a tantrum. She was throwing food, kicking me, pulling my hair, scratching at me, smacking me...Although I would never actually do this, I was tempted to drop kick her. Seriously. Her teacher at day care went on and on about how wonderful and sweet she is, yet when we'd get her home she'd throw these horrible fits, refuse to eat, and it was just downright unbearable. Why in the world would she behave so sweetly everywhere else and be so completely rotten at home? My thought was that she just didn't like being home with us and we must be doing something wrong.

Tuesday at my weekly trip to Grandma's I expressed this concern and even noticed myself that Rachel was being such a sweetheart, not throwing much food on purpose, in a good mood, smiling, laughing, playing...

Then Wednesday came and a sudden change happened. I'm in awe. I almost cried. Our sweet daughter is back!!! We'd get home and she'd happily sit in her high chair and eat. When done, we'd go outside and she'd babble on and on and say sweet things, giggling and screaming in delight. So....who is the world IS this child we have now? I don't know....but I'm going to keep her!

Today is Saturday and this morning Rachel accompanied me to the grocery store. She wasn't loud or obnoxious. She didn't pull things off the shelf. She just sat in the cart, smiling and flirting with everyone that looked at her. She didn't fuss when I put her in the car seat. It was SOO....O to the M to the GOSH nice.

When we got home she was getting tired so I laid her down, finished unpacking the groceries then Jason watched her while I ran out and went sailing. (Garage sailing).

When I got home we had ANOTHER Easter egg hunt. Apparently they had one at day care on Friday and sent Rachel home with 5 eggs. So I'd repeatedly toss them into the yard and she'd go running after them and put them in the bag they came home in...with ears :o)

 

It's been a perfect day for it! She's down for a nap now, but when she wakes up we're going to walk down to the park and play for a little bit.

I just cannot believe the sudden and drastic change in this child. We did end up having to take her back to the doctor for some stronger antibiotics and they seem to be doing the trick. She's not as anxious about taking them like she was her other antibiotics, but we can normally force them down. She's also still on ear drops and I'm quite ready for that bottle to empty itself....we have to give them 3x a day and it's getting tedious. But it's all worth it if it means we get to have this sweet, wonderful child instead of the braty-I-don't-feel-good child we had before!

Happy Easter!