Ouch, the taste of clean, nearing the end

1. Rachel is cutting several new teeth and is a bit of a bear. I don’t blame her, she seems fairly uncomfortable, but it’s a little scary nursing her right now since she has a strong desire to bite.

2. I washed the kitchen floor while Rachel was napping and after she got up, she laid on the kitchen floor and licked it. Babies are funny. I guess she noticed the smell of the cleaner and had to investigate.

3. I’m about a foot away from finishing my scarf. I’m not sure what that translates to in terms of time. A month maybe? Or maybe now that I’m getting so close, I’ll abandon all other pursuits in my spare time.

Merry Christmas, the sparkles are banned.

Busy, foot in mouth

1. Today was a crazy day to go grocery shopping. I had to park in a non parking space because it was so crowded. Shopping took an extra half hour due to the crush of people. Rachel figured out how to unfasten the waist strap in the shopping cart, but was pretty good about not trying to climb out.

2. On the way home, I looked back in the rearview mirror at the reflection of Rachel in her mirror. She was making happy sounds and shoving a foot into her mouth. She looked pretty goofy.

3. While I’m doing dishes, I feel a tug on the back of my sneaker, and there’s Rachel bent down and biting the little tag on the back of my shoe.

Skills and appetite

1. Yesterday, up at my parents, Rachel walked a few steps to my mom, then turned around and walked/lunged to me. She was pretty excited and after that would stand and clap over and over.

2. Rachel is getting her own scrambled egg in the morning since she’s been begging so much off of my plate. She eats most of it.

3. I set Rachel’s cup of milk on her tray and she made the sign for ‘drink’. I haven’t even been that consistent about it.

Today

1. Listening to Rachel saying ” ‘appy, ‘appy, ‘appy” while I’m driving around. She picked it up from the happy birthday song.

2. An excellent one year well baby visit. Rachel is in the 75th percentile in height, 50th in weight, and her head being in the 97th percentile made her doctor laugh, because that was only in the 10th percentile a year ago.

3. Getting to spend more time today with my Florida family. Rachel gets an overwhelming amount of attention from her cousins.

Florida visitors

1. Pausing at the nursery door after my shower  this morning to listen to Rachel’s happy chatter.

2. Niece Mel questioning my parenting skills because Rachel doesn’t have winter outerwear that’s warm enough to go out to play in the snow in below freezing temps, and also because I have no plastic dishes for Rachel to use yet.

3. Trying to get Rachel to take her morning nap wrapped to my back, but failing and giving up  because she’s just getting too much attention for her to fall asleep.

Birthday

1. We had a nice play date with the friends we canceled on a few weeks ago. The other baby is about 5 months younger than Rachel (Baby) and was fascinated by her balloon. Rachel showed off her new words (“balloon” and “ball”), and I think we all enjoyed a change from our routines.
2. I’ve decided it’s time to start a gradual night weaning process. The kellymom website says it’s normal for babies and little kids to wake to feed up until 3 years old, but I just don’t feel like that’s going to work for us. It’s going to make nights rough for a while probably, but they are already pretty bad anyway. I remember feeling a little sad when Rachel was tiny and had started sleeping longer stretches and I missed getting up to nurse her all the time. Now, I feel like most of her awakenings are just out of habit, and none of us are getting decent stretches of sleep anymore. I don’t like thinking that I’m taking away her night time comfort, but I guess I’ll have to make sure that she get’s plenty of cuddling and nursing during the day
3. I gave Rachel her teddy bear for her naps today. She seemed to fight the naps less and was asleep much quicker than normal. I don’t know if it is because she was exhausted from being up so much last night, or her 5 am wakeup time, or the company of the bear, but we’ll try it again tomorrow.
4. S and I were reminiscing about Rachel’s birth last year. She was so scrawny and screamy, and the only things she liked were skin-to-skin, and breastfeeding. That first night in the hospital, S wondered (to himself thankfully) what we were getting ourselves into, but it took me until about the 4th night after her birth to ask myself that, and probably another week or more before I admitted wondering that. I remember the first time she made a noise that wasn’t crying, and how exciting it was. She has always had so much personality, and I love seeing her grow.

Packed, remembered, preparing

1. The last of the Christmas ornaments were finished today, and the ones going to out of state family were all packaged up.

2. I had to stop at the print shop yesterday to pay for our Christmas cards, and when I was leaving, I noticed that they had one on the wall under the owner’s family picture. It feels nice to not be forgotten.

3. Baby is wanting to walk around holding my hands more and more. She’s just going to take off on her own once she has it all figured out.

Christmas is coming

1. Today was an errand day, this morning at least. Our battery tested poorly a month or two ago, and since we only have one car, we didn’t want it to die on us, so today Baby and I got a new battery and new wiper blades installed.
2. A box came for Baby today. I know it’s a Christmas present, so we didn’t open it yet, but she was happy as a clam over a box to beat on.
3. S and I were having leftover cupcakes after dinner tonight. Baby recognized them and demanded her share.

Early birthday shenanigans

1. We had an early birthday party for Baby today with S’s and my parents, and several siblings. It was a lot of fun, and I wasn’t expecting Baby too eat her cupcake, but she got right into it once she flipped it upside down to get the frosting out of the way.

2. I was happy to curl up on the couch once everyone left and Baby went down for her nap. I enjoyed the party, and it wasn’t even a large crowd, but these things are tiring.

3. My youngest brother took pictures of Baby with her cupcake, and he got one of the most adorable pictures of her yet. I like taking pictures of her, but I was glad he took them today, because I would have felt like I missed out if I was behind the camera.