1. Some days there is a burst of productivity that happens and a large portion of the house gets clean and I am happy.
2. Letting R decide how to place the clean rugs in the bathroom. Her little potty now is framed by the toilet rug.
3. E trying to throw a ball into the kitchen sink and laughing hilariously when I sent it out back at him.
1. Reading over my last few entries. Sometimes you forget how gosh darn cute your kid is.
2. A phone with enough space to install the WordPress app.
3. Decadent triple chocolate cupcakes.
1. Rachel asking for a snack and getting refused because it’s almost time for breakfast, then bringing tiny dolly out and pointing her hand at the top of the fridge saying ‘dolly snack’, as if I won’t refuse dolly too.
2. A new to us solid kitchen table.
3. Rachel asking to be ‘cozy’. Sometimes this means she’s brought me a book and wants to snuggle on the couch being read to, and other times it’s us sharing muffins at the kitchen table.
1. The way the living room sheers move with the wind.
2. Rachel’s voluntary hugs and kisses.
3. Harvesting acorn squash from our own garden.
1. I love seeing Rachel’s imagination develop. She plays in her crib while I shower, and her standard toys for that are her stacking cups, and a set of plastic pegs with a foam board to stick them in. Sometimes she just makes towers with the pegs or stacks the cups, but the other day when I went back in to get her, she handed me a cup of soup (some pegs in a cup), told me it was hot, and asked me to pray.
2. In Rachel’s book of things to spot, there’s an earthworm poking out of the ground saying ‘hi’. She thinks this is hilarious and wants to find the hi worm every time we look at that book. Yesterday there was a dead worm on the sidewalk, she didn’t know it was dead, but she went over to it and stomped on it, then loudly was saying ‘bye, worm, bye’ and waving to it, expecting it to wriggle away. I generally discourage creature stomping outside the house, but she’s been helping S take care of the Japanese beetles recently.
3. I tackled a painting project and after 4 days, it’s complete. I hope it’s a long time before I paint a stairwell again. It wasn’t too bad, but it would have been a bit better if I had a board for making a scaffolding. At least I had a ladder.
1. Rachel nods and smiles and pats herself, ‘keepy’ she says. She points at S and me and says the same thing. ‘Creepy’ is another one of her new words, and I don’t think she grasps it’s meaning yet, but it is funny.
2. I’m taking advantage of Rachel’s one long nap a day to work on some painting. It was the ceiling in the stairwell and upper hallway yesterday, and now the walls are getting patched and trim taped off.
3. Repurposing a flood water stained quilt top into a drop cloth. It’s a little sad, but better than it taking up space in my sewing supplies for another six years.
1. Rachel pulled the boppy pillow out of her closet and has been lounging in it when she’s playing in her room. Diaper changes and dressing are often a bit of a challenge, so I asked her if she wanted to use the pillow while I changed her. She nodded yes, and I told her that she was being all fancy lounging in her pillow getting changed. Now every time I change her, she wants to lay in the pillow, and she giggles and says ‘fancy!’
2. Around and around Rachel and I went through the living room and kitchen, again and again. We bought her some rubber boots for wet days and she’s having trouble walking in them, so she clung to my hand and did laps until I got bored, when we switched to practicing taking them off and putting them on.
3. Going out in the cool of the evening and putting hawksweed from the front yard. It is satisfying to pull up.
1. Blueberry picking with Rachel was heaps of fun last week. She was so serious about it and kept picking them for her own little bucket. I kept hearing her softly counting ‘one, two, one, two’ as she dropped the blueberries in. She didn’t even start eating any until we were about to leave.
2. S telling me about Rachel sliding down a little slide at a park we were at recently, and even though her legs kind of stuck to the slide, she said ‘wheeeee’ on the way down.
3. Making winter travel plans makes me happy.
1. Rachel offering one of her rare hugs and a kiss while she was covered in yogurt. I patted her on the back, but declined closer contact until she was cleaned up, when suddenly she wasn’t interested in bestowing affection anymore.
2. My feeling of relief that the lens hood seemed to take the brunt of the tumble Rachel gave it when she pulled my camera off the shelf. The hood broke, but it’s a cheap piece.
3. Rachel helping pick up toys in the church nursery and when story hour is over. I only gave her a little bit of encouragement and she joined right in. A few months ago, there’s no way that was happening.
1. ‘Ammal!’ Rachel exclaims, followed by ‘tack, tack, tack’. I guess ‘you’re a duck!’, and on we go with one of Rachel’s favorite games. We kind of take turns giving the other an animal noise to guess, and she’s pretty good at it.
2. I’m not able to do my pushups with Rachel flopped onto my back. Also, she’s too tall to walk between my legs, especially when I’m in the middle of side lunges.
3. Library story hour was a little overwhelming today due to the huge number of babies, toddlers, and responsible adults. No wonder Rachel went to a quiet spot and laid on the floor.
The Habits of Myrtle the Turtle 