Messy, relieved, helping

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.

Games, get stronger, overload

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.

Today

1. Rachel’s ‘nah, nah, nah’ when I told her the toy had to be put back in the bin when story hour and play time was over.

2. Going to the cupboard for the new box of foil and remembering that Rachel put it in the dish cloth drawer when she was helping unload the grocery bags earlier.

3. Surviving another dental cleaning. I don’t get the upset stomach over them anymore, but I still gag for the bite wing x-ray.

Treasures

1. Rachel’s kisses feel like treasures to me. She doesn’t give them out very often, but last night, after brushing her teeth, when we were on the way back to her room, she leaned toward me and planted two kisses on my lips.

2. Today at the library, Rachel wandered away from me. I knew right where she was, but she was behind a row of chairs and couldn’t see me. She headed back in my direction and when she saw me, she opened her arms wide and rushed to me, eager for a reassuring cuddle.

Kisses

1. Story hour at the library started again today. It was good and exhausting. Rachel was more subdued than I was expecting, but she looked like she was enjoying herself.

2. Rachel gave me three kisses smack on the lips today, plus blew some kisses to S. She likes to push up close to us to cuddle and says ‘awww’ while she’s doing it.

3. One of the funniest things about Rachel right now is the way she pauses to say ‘beep’ whenever she hears a beep, whether it’s the coffee maker, the space heater, rice maker, etc, and no matter what she’s doing, eating, playing, or nursing. She’ll be appearing to doze off when I nurse her in the morning, then S will turn off the heater in the master bedroom, she’ll pop off, wide awake to ‘beep’.

Tasty, a success, looking forward

1. It’s nice finding foods that Rachel will eat. She’s been pretty finicky about her food for several weeks now. I made these broccoli and cheese muffins, and she was asking for more. They are tasty, and not just for babies. Now we’ll see if she’ll eat them a second time.
2. We had a sign language success tonight at dinner. Rachel clearly made the sign for ‘all done’ without my prompting, and I was able to take the tray away before she started littering the floor. 
3. We’re signed up for the library story hour again and I’m looking forward to it starting in a week or two! There’s something really helpful and good about being around other moms of little ones. I have a network of groups I’m in online, but I need the face to face interaction, even if most of it is surface stuff.