seventeen

At seventeen months, Rebecca continues to talk and talk, and is learning new words every day.  We don't remember Rachel talking this much at this age, so it looks like she's going to give Rachel a run for her money in a year or so, since Rachel is the talker in the family at the moment.

She still loves saying Mommy and Daddy (all day long!).  I can't tell you how many times a day she says, "Daddy?"  and I say, "Daddy went bye bye to work."  Then she'll say either, "Daddy....bye bye," or "gock," which means, "work."   Her ears perk up as soon as she hears his key in the lock in the afternoons and she runs to the door calling, "Daddy!  Daddy!"

She can't say her own name, but whenever she's referring to herself she uses a three syllable word, with the same inflection as "Rebecca."  It sounds like, "ah-DAH-dah."  And for Rachel's name, she sounds kind of like she's saying Daddy, so it's hard to tell when she's talking about Rachel and when she's talking about Daddy.

Many of her other words sound like "gock," as I've mentioned before.  She uses it for sock, rock, truck, book, back, clock, and most other words that end in the "ck" sound!  Her others words are:
ball
up
down
no
nigh-night
bye-bye
Bah-pa (Grandpa)
Ma-Maw (Grandma)
dah (dog--her favorite stuffed animal)
ah-dah (all done)
app-ah (apple)
e-i-e-i (when she wants me to sing "Old MacDonald," which is often lately!)
and lots more little odd words that I can't think of at the moment.

In the last couple of days she's started playing dress up like her sister.  She piles as many bead necklaces around her neck as possible (Rachel started playing with beads right around this age, too), and carrying a purse.  After she puts the purse on her arm she calls, "Bye!" and walks into the other room.  She likes putting on hats and sunglasses, too.  One of these days I'll get a picture.

She loves books, and carries these little three inch square books around much of the day (they fit in her hand easily, which is why I think she likes them).  She doesn't sit still for you to read them to her.  She just wants to carry them around.  She will sit still for a couple of books, though.  She loves "Brown Bear Brown Bear," by Eric Carle and "Time for Bed," by Mem Fox.  She also likes the lift the flap books by Karen Katz.  I have to be careful with those because she's torn the flaps off when I'm not looking, so I have to keep those in her room and we look at them together.  She also likes "Five Little Monkeys," but she'll only sit still for the first two or three monkeys jumping on the bed!  She wags her finger when I say, "no more monkeys jumping on the bed!"  Every time I try to read her any book other than those, she closes the book after just a page or two.  I don't remember if Rachel did that or not, but it's sure frustrating!

She has gotten a little better about not putting everything in her mouth, but she still likes to explore new things this way.  Friday I found her chewing on a AAA battery.  Nice....  She cried when I threw it in the garbage (which is where I thought it was to begin with, so I don't know how she got it).

She's good at playing by herself for stretches at a time.  In the morning I put her in her playpen so I can take a shower and then take Rachel out to the bus.  She'll stay in there for about an hour most days.  And many times throughout the day she'll go in the dining room (our playroom) and play on her own, usually with the play food and dishes.  In the last week she's played a lot with her little people farm.  I have to check on her fairly frequently, though, because if she's quiet for too long, she's usually into something she shouldn't (like a battery!).

I missed my girls today.  I spent most of the day up in bed--still sick.  I thought I was getting better, and spent much of yesterday at a girl scout training, and last night with my parents, who were visiting, but this morning I woke up with my head pounding and my ear throbbing and filled up.  I went back to urgent care (I've never been there before and now I've been there twice in a week!) and he said the ear infection is gone, but there's a lot of fluid built up behind my ear drum, which can cause pain like an ear infection.  So now I'm on a steroid to try and drain it.  I've been really uncomfortable all day and any little sound makes me cringe.  So I spent the day in my room away from my girls.  Every time I tried to come downstairs to be with the family their noise drove me away before too long.  I can't wait until this is gone!!!!  Ugh.

At one point today my husband, who took care of the girls all day, came upstairs and said, "You owe me...."  Then later he said, "I guess this is what they mean when they say, 'in sickness and health.'"  So I know he had a rough day with them....  But I'm so grateful that he was home and could take care of them while I rested in quiet.  Tomorrow will be rough unless this starts getting better quickly.