in the spotlight

Rachel's in the spotlight this week.  I feel like the blog (and life) has been so much about Rebecca lately.  So this week is about my dear Rachel. 

Rachel is all about dress up--always has been.  Here are some of her very first dress up moments (I had so much fun looking through them all that I'm going to post a bunch--she was just about Rebecca's age in most of these pictures):

And here's one of her latest.

She changes her clothes multiple times a day in the afternoons when she's home from school, always into something she considers "beautiful."  I never know what she'll have on when she comes downstairs from her rest time, but I do know that she'll be waving her arms elegantly and dancing through the room (usually trying to catch a glimpse of herself in the glass on the fireplace!).

It's Dr. Seuss week at school, and each day has a different theme.  I'll post a picture each day of what she's wearing--we spent quite awhile on Friday getting her clothes together for the week, deciding what she could wear to go along with each theme.  You can imagine how excited she was to choose a week's worth of fun clothes.  Of course, she's excited--it's a celebration...something special.....and you know my Rachel.  Throw any sort of celebration in there and she's thrilled.

So today was Cat in the Hat day, and they were supposed to wear a hat to school.  We went through all of her hats and this is the one she chose to wear.

Brought me back to this day....the day I bought the hat at a garage sale--one of her first dress up pieces.

improvement

Things are looking up.  Rebecca's getting better.  She's slept ALL night--even until 6:00 am--for the last three nights.  Three nights ago was my first full night of sleep in months.   I couldn't believe it when I opened my eyes and it was 6:07!  (The other nights I've not slept the whole night, but it's not because of Rebecca.  It's just because I don't always sleep really well.)

She's been a much happier girl, too.  It's so nice!  Seems like she's been a fussy girl for months.  I missed my happy girl!

There's not a whole lot in the way of news to write about.  We went to the zoo this weekend, but I didn't take any pictures to show you.  We went to the park yesterday, (it was almost 60 degrees!  In February!) and it was lots of fun, but I didn't take any pictures.  Rebecca LOVED the swing.  Every time we'd try to get her out she'd say, "Again?  Again?"  Rachel spent most of the time dancing on a big tree stump (her stage). 

Rebecca's finally sitting still a little bit longer for stories.  She brings me books over and over through the day, saying, "Deed it?"  (Read it?)  I don't usually get through the whole book before she's up and moving on to another book or to do something else, but at least we're making progress at some sort of attention span. 

Rachel, on the other hand, is a little bit more interested in reading herself.  Until now it's something she has tolerated when necessary (every weekend she brings a book home for homework that she has to read us), but every so often now I'll see her with a book, or trying to read a piece of mail on the table, sounding out the words all on her own.  It's not something she loves to do (yet!) but hopefully she'll develop a love for reading as she continues to get better at it.  She loves to be read to, though.

The girls' favorite new toys are our old phones. On Friday our phones weren't working. The cable guy came (our phone is part of our cable package) and figured out it was our phone that was a problem, so we had to go buy new phones that night. Our old ones quickly became toys. Rebecca "calls" Grandma several times a day, now. Other times she calls Daddy. (The only two people I ever talk to on the phone are Grandma and Daddy, so when you ask her who it is, those are the two names she tells me.) My husband saved the charger so we can still charge them. Otherwise they don't beep, and the beeping is what makes them so fun for them to play with, because they sound real. 

taking the good with the bad

Well, Rebecca never really got well after last week's sicknesses, and now is even more sick.  I was up with her every hour last night (except for a stretch between 1:30-3:00 AM, so I didn't see the 2:00 hour).  She's got a fever and a bad cough, and is fussier and clingier than ever. She has an appointment at the doctor this afternoon.  Likely they'll tell me it's still a virus and they can't do anything for me, but if there's any chance that it's become an infection and antibiotics will help, then I want to find out.

I drank two cups of coffee this morning.  I NEVER drink two cups of coffee.  It's going to be one of those days....

But despite her being sick, there are some happy things to write about.  She's been working on her colors for a couple of months, and I think she's finally got them down pretty well.  Purple seems to be her favorite.  Every morning she points to her hair bows, which hang on the wall by her changing table, and says, "Bow.....burple."  She wants a purple bow, no matter what color her clothes are.  Sometimes I pick out purple clothes just so she can wear a purple bow.  Other days she has to be satisfied with a different color bow. 

She spends a LOT of time on my lap since she's been so sick, and has been loving looking at her word book over and over and over while she sits there.

She can tell me practically every word for the pictures in the book.  My husband looked at it with her the other day and couldn't believe how much she knew.

She's also getting really good at her shape puzzle, and knows most of the names of the shapes, too.

While she doesn't speak in phrases very much yet, she's got a few phrases down.  My favorite:

" 'ere'd it go?" (all slurred together, with her arms outstretched, palms up, shrugging her shoulders)

One of her favorite things right now is saying, "ugg," and throwing her head down on my shoulder and her arms across my chest for a big hug.  I can't resist those.  Even at 3:00 AM when she's up crying.  Fever or no fever, I'll take her hugs at 3:00 AM.  I'd prefer them at 3:00 PM, but I'll take them all.

She's the sweetest, cutest little handful I'll ever deal with.


Edited to add:  She has an ear infection!  Now that I have an antibiotic, I hope it will finally start to get better.  Anything's got to be better than last night.

celebrating

I've decided that Rachel loves any excuse to celebrate.  Christmas is the epitome of celebrations, but she was almost just as excited about Groundhog Day, for goodness sake.

So Valentine's Day was no exception.

Rebecca did her usual wake-up-for-no-good-reason at 5:15 this morning (after waking at 4:00, also for no apparent reason), was quiet after I told her to go nigh night some more, but at 5:30 started screaming, until I got her out of bed at 6:00.

So imagine my surprise, at 6:00 AM, when I opened my door (which I had closed at 5:15 because I knew Rebecca's screaming would begin at any time), and saw Rachel standing in the dark hallway, with both hands behind her back, waiting for me, exclaiming, "Happy Valentine's Day, Mommy!"

 I don't know how long she had been standing there waiting.  But she just couldn't wait to give me my valentine, bless her little heart! 

Then she went and got Daddy's to give to him, and then Rebecca's.  Then she said, "Now the only Valentine left is ME!"  So I told her to wait upstairs and come down in a few minutes.  I came downstairs and got her stuff ready, and called her down.  I gave her a valentine card, a chocolate heart, and a plaster heart magnet that you paint (she loves that stuff).  She got her smock, started painting, and was done by 6:30! 

All morning before school she kept saying, "I'm just too excited, Mommy.  I just can't wait for my Valentine party."

Part of her excitement was that I was going to be at her party.  I hadn't gotten to attend one of her class parties all year because I had no one to watch Rebecca.  On the day of the Christmas party she was really sad because I couldn't come to the party, so I decided then and there that I would find someone to watch Rebecca for Valentine's Day so I could be at her party.  So today I finally was there.  It was nice to finally put faces with the names I hear every day when she tells me about school.  I also found out from another mom about a boy that supposedly likes Rachel. 

(She has no clue that he likes her--we asked her tonight what she thought of him and she said she didn't really like him.  We asked why and she said, "Well, his hair kind of sticks up, not like the other boys' hair."  (Yep, my daughter is deep like that--basing her opinion of people on their hair.)   But, she also told us that Caleb wants to marry her.  I guess Caleb's hair must be okay, because she didn't seem to have any objections to that.)

I made heart shaped pizza for dinner--completely for her sake.  I knew no one else in the family would care, but she, of course, thought it was awesome.  So that made it worth it.  Several times today, Rachel told me, "This is the BEST Valentine's Day EVER!"  

She'll probably say the same thing about President's Day next week.  That's my girl.  All she needs is a reason to celebrate.

desperately seeking sleeping advice

If Rebecca had her way, her schedule would look like this (heck, who am I kidding?  It kind of does look like this....I just don't want it to!):

5:15 AM  Wake Up
10:30 AM  Nap
6:00 PM Bedtime

But who goes to bed at 6 pm and wakes up at 5:15???  Not us! 

She can't seem to sleep later than that, and then she's tired and ready for a nap at 10:30 or 11.  If we're in the car at that time (which we often seem to be, on the way home from somewhere), she falls asleep.   The last few days she's even fallen asleep just downstairs in our house.  Yesterday she was in my lap and fell asleep and today she fell asleep on the floor!  She sleep for about 20 minutes, then something wakes her up, and she's ready to go again.  I put her to bed for her nap at her normal naptime (around 12:30 or 1:00), and she talks for an hour, then cries.  No nap.  Then she's ready to go to bed for the night at 6 pm because she's exhausted.  I don't put her to bed until 7, but she's fussy and rubbing her eyes, and clearly ready for bed at 6. 

Help!  I don't know what to do to break this cycle.  I will definitely do whatever I can to keep her awake at 10:30 in the mornings so she doesn't miss her afternoon nap, but otherwise, I don't know what to do.  How do I get her to sleep past 5:15 in the mornings????  I really don't want to start my mornings at that time.

I don't know what to do.  Any and all advice accepted.

20 months

I'm a few weeks late in writing this, but let me tell you about Rebecca at 20 months....

 

-She's fussy.  A LOT.  I don't know if it's because she's been sick a lot lately or if it's just a phase, or if it's her budding personality (I sure hope not!).

-She's clingy.  She doesn't do well if I'm busy doing something else.  She constantly wants me to play with her, carry her, hold her, read to her.   Rachel or Daddy will sometimes do in a pinch, but usually it's me she wants, and makes it clear when she's unhappy that she doesn't have my undivided attention.  She does fine, though, when I leave her at the gym playroom or in the nursery at church.  She's always happy to see me when I come back, but she doesn't cry when I leave, so I'm thankful for that.

-She copies everything Rachel does.  Usually all of the wrong things.

-She loves to climb.  Chairs are her specialty.  Oh, and the steps--she's constantly trying to escape up the stairs to get into Rachel's room to bother things she's not supposed to have.  It happens when we forget to put the gate up (which is way too often).

-She talks non stop.  If she's not talking, she's either sleeping, escaping up the stairs, or she's getting into something she shouldn't.  Usually my purse (I can't count how many times I've found her surrounded by my credit cards, drivers license, cash, gift cards, insurance cards, and the rest of the contents of my wallet.  I've learned to put my purse on top of the refrigerator, but I sometimes forget.)

-She runs to me multiples times a day, throws her arms around my legs, and gives me a huge hug and kiss.  She's so sweet like that (when she's not being a little stinker!).

-She has no interest in TV, unless it's the Baby MacDonald DVD from Baby Einstein.  I should be glad (because Rachel has always been obsessed with TV and watches too much of it), but I really, REALLY wish I could put in a show for her and she'd be interested enough in it that I could leave the room for a few minutes and not have her follow me, fussing.  I've tried....she's mildly interested in Sesame Street, but so far I haven't found any other shows that keep her interest for more than 30 seconds.  And she's seen the Baby MacDonald DVD enough that it doesn't hold her attention as much as it once did.

-She wants to eat all the time.  But then when you put her in her high chair to eat, she wants down after a bite or two.  She'd really love it if I just handed her the food and let her walk around with it, but I don't let her. 

-She likes applesauce, yogurt, mandarin oranges, bananas, and graham crackers better than anything else.  She likes vegetables and meat, which seems strange to me, since Rachel's never wanted to touch them with a ten foot pole, but she'd rather have those other things.  She especially likes applesauce and yogurt because she can spoon feed them to herself, but then most of it winds up on her bib and on the table, instead of in her mouth.  But she doesn't want me to help her to get it into her mouth.  That's for babies, not big girls.

-She loves going out to wait for Rachel to come home on the bus.  I usually go out a little bit early, if it's not too cold, because she likes walking along the sidewalk, picking up leaves, rocks, and anything else she can find.  We wait in the driveway of our neighbors, who have twin girls just a couple of months older than Rebecca.  Rebecca remembers that one of their names is Penny, so whenever we get there she says, "Menny!" and runs up to their door.  Sometimes they're both standing there in the doorway (waiting for their big brother, who is in Rachel's class, to come home), and they play games through the glass at each other.  (Poor Izzy....Rebecca will never remember her name!)

-She loves Pooh Bear.  I don't really know why, because she doesn't want to watch it, but she loves him.  Rachel picked out a Winnie the Pooh pillow pet for her for Christmas, and just in the last several days she's started playing with it a lot.  Last night my husband was playing with it with her, and he said, "Do you have any honey?"  Rebecca said, copying Daddy, "Money!  Money!"  "No," Daddy said "Honey!"  "Money!" Rebecca repeated.  So she's already trying to get Daddy's money.....

-She takes her shoes and socks off constantly.  I find socks laying around the house in the strangest places (both hers and Rachel's--Rachel also hates having shoes and socks on.  I don't know where they get this because neither their Daddy nor I enjoy this!).  After she takes them off, she then puts on other people's shoes and clomps around the house. 

-She sleeps with her pink blanket (just like Rachel's beloved purple blanket, which Rachel picked out for her before she was born), and her 101 Dalmation dog.  Those two things have to be in her bed or it would probably be a major catastrophe.  She buries her head in her blanket with her little bottom up in the air and goes to sleep.  She wakes up with the worst cases of bedhead I've ever seen.

-She flits from thing to thing to thing all day long.  She doesn't stick with any one toy, book, or activity for very long.  Probably all part of being 20 months old, but I somehow remember Rachel having more of an attention span than she does.  I guess we'll see.  But what it results in right now is that every room in the house where she is allowed is turned upside down every day.  We call her the human tornado.

Many of these are negative, I've realized.  I don't want to come across that way.  She really is a very sweet girl, but is at SUCH a difficult age, in my opinion.  Maybe because Rachel was my only child when she was this age, I didn't notice it being this difficult with her, but I'm really whipped--all the time.  I don't sleep well anyway, but add to it the fact that she wakes up multiple times a night, and that she wants my undivided attention all the time, and that just compounds how tired I am, constantly.  But all of these little quirks make up the sweet little human tornado named Rebecca Joy.  Oh how I love that girl!

sleep, glorious sleep

The last several weeks (and even moreso in the last few days), I've felt like I've had a newborn again.  A newborn who walks, talks, and gets into trouble, that is.  Rebecca has been waking up over and over and over at night.  And since she's had a fever, I feel like I need to go in each time to make sure she's not running a fever again.  Some of the times she was.  Others, she wasn't.  She just woke up and couldn't put herself back to sleep on her own.  It's like she's forgotten how.  All I do is go in, tell her it's still nigh night time, and tell her to lay back down and go to sleep.  And she does.  But she needs me to go in and remind her.  Ugh.

So I've been walking around like a zombie for days.  So tired.  And during the day she's been super fussy and clingy, too.  A bad combination--a tired, fed-up mom and a fussy, sick, sleepy toddler.

Combine that with the fact that Rachel had several nights of waking up, coughing, and you've got a recipe for a VERY BAD DAY (and even worse nights).  I've had several of them lately.

So on Monday I kept Rachel home from school for her cough (which was constant!) and took both girls to the doctor.

Both girls were diagnosed with a virus.  Ugh.  But I did manage to secure a prescription for Rachel for cough medicine with codeine--the only thing that seems to help her sleep when she has a bad cough (I'm the same way).  So at least the doctor's office trip wasn't a complete wash.

So Rachel has slept the last two nights without waking up at all.  Hooray!  But Rebecca hadn't improved (even though she's been fever free for a day and a half).  So last night, in a desperate attempt for sleep, I gave her the teeny-tiniest dose of children's benadryl.  She hadn't had it before, so I wasn't quite sure it would work (I know sometimes it makes kids hyper, and I certainly didn't want that), but I was willing to give it a try, since there was a chance that it could help her (and me!) sleep.

I'm thrilled to report that it worked!  I went to sleep at 10 PM last night and didn't wake up until 5 AM (without Rebecca crying--I just woke up because my body's so used to her waking me up at that time, I think).  That's the longest stretch of sleep I've had in a long time.  Of course, I woke up with a stuffy nose and a headache (thanks to my girls sharing their germs with me, I'm sure), but at least I got some uninterrupted sleep.    YAY!!!

She woke up at 5:15.  I went in to tell her she needed to go back to sleep, but she was complaining about her diaper.  I checked, and she was wet through her clothes, so I changed her and put her back in bed.  I got to go back to bed for another half hour, so it was definitely an improvement.

We'll see how today goes.  Hopefully since we both got some sleep, she'll be a little less fussy and I'll be a little more patient.

holding down the fort

I was home from church with two "sick" girls this morning.  I say "sick" because earlier they were running, playing and fighting (in princess dresses) like any other day.  But as soon as Rebecca's ibuprofen wore off, her fever came back, she was crying at everything, and back in my lap, where she spent most of yesterday.  Rachel is coughing several times a minute.  Still no fever.

Yesterday Rebecca spent most of the day either crying or sitting in my lap, until the ibuprofen would kick in, and she'd get down and play for awhile.  It never lasted long, though.  Thankfully, this morning she was happy most of the morning, until around 10:30, when it started wearing off.  She eventually fell asleep in my lap!  So right now she's in bed.  Hopefully when she wakes up, the ibuprofen I just gave her will have kicked back in again and she'll be her normal self for awhile.

If I manage to avoid getting sick, it will be a miracle, since Rachel's been known to cough right in my face when she doesn't remember to cover her mouth, and Rebecca's spent the better part of two days on my lap, drooling all over me (she has a tooth coming in, in addition to the fever).

Uh oh, she's crying up in bed....so much for her nap.

a passion for groundhogs

Yesterday at school Rachel's class learned about Groundhog Day.  They had a story about it in their little "Weekly Reader" type magazine, and their teacher read them a book about it, too.  She came home talking about it and kept saying all afternoon and evening how excited she was that it was going to be Groundhog Day.

This morning at 6:15, I heard her SPRINTING out of her bed and down the stairs.  I always have the news on in the morning, so she came running into the family room and said, "Did he come out yet?" 

I told her he wasn't supposed to come out until about 7:20, so she sat and watched the news with me, very intently, for the next hour.  (She never watches the news--she's usually playing during that time.)

When it was time for him to come out, she was so excited, and literally on the edge of her seat.  While finishing her bowl of Cheerios, she listened as they read the proclamation that Puxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and there would be 6 more weeks of winter.    At this, she THREW her bowl of Cheerios across the room and screamed, "NO!" and burst into tears!  She was immediately in big trouble for her bad temper, but it was sure hard to stifle back my own laughter at her extreme passion!  Who knew it would elicit such a response!? After she calmed down and cleaned up her mess (which thankfully wasn't much, because she eats her Cheerios dry and they were almost gone, anyway), I explained to her that it was just a fun story, and it doesn't really mean that there will for sure be 6 more weeks of winter.  When asked why she was so upset she said, "Because I really was hoping to go camping with Daddy in the spring, so I want it to be spring sooner!"

Gotta love my girl and all of her passion....for Groundhog Day and just life in general.  

another dentist trip

After Rachel's terrible dentist visit over the summer, I asked the dentist what I could do to ensure that Rebecca didn't have the same fear of dentists as Rachel.  She told me to go ahead and bring her in the next time I came with Rachel.  I didn't want to make their appointments on the same day, because I didn't want to have to wrangle Rebecca while it was Rachel's turn, and didn't want to be dealing with Rachel when it was Rebecca's turn.  So I made their appointments separately, a week apart, and left the other girl home with Daddy.

So today it was Rebecca's turn.  I had no idea what to expect.  How would they clean this baby's teeth, when I can barely get her to open her mouth for two seconds when I try and brush her teeth? 

They explained that they do a "knee to knee" cleaning, where the hygienist's knees touch mine, facing each other, and Rebecca is in my lap, straddling me, and I lay her back into the hygienist's lap.  She said she would likely cry, and it's actually better that way because then her mouth would be open!  So I had to hold her hands and let her cry while the hygienist quickly cleaned her 11 teeth.  It didn't take long, and she stopped crying as soon as I sat her back up in my lap and held her for a minute.  They said she did great. 

Since I expected her to cry, it didn't bother me too much, and thankfully, it was pretty quick.  And if it will help prevent her from having a fear later on of the dentist, then I'm all for it. 

My husband goes to the dentist next week, and I just made an appointment for myself for later in February, and then we'll be done with the dentist for awhile!  Yay!

chugga-chugga

For about two years our train table has been up in Rachel's room holding her Playmobil toy zoo and toy school.  The trains and track have been packed away in the drawers. 

A month or so ago we got a couple of the trains out and Rebecca's been carrying them around the house.  But yesterday we brought the table back downstairs, where it once was, and set up the track and trains again for Rebecca.  We got it all ready while she was napping, knowing she'd be so surprised when she got up.

We were right!  She usually wakes up super crabby.  Yesterday was no different, until Daddy brought her into the playroom and there was the train table.  It was like Christmas morning!  I got her full reaction on video, but here are a few pictures I took, too.  (Notice the bed head!  She had just gotten up when I took these.)

She's been playing with little else since then.  It's Rachel's favorite new toy, again, too. 

tuckered

This is what happens when you wake up before 5:30 AM every morning.

She fell asleep while Rachel was watching a video.

Isn't she sweet?

I just wish she'd learn to sleep later.

to the dentist again

Over the summer I wrote about Rachel's terrible first trip to the dentist.

Today was her 6 month check up.  I've been d-r-e-a-d-i-n-g it all month (really, for 6 months...but I've seen it looming on the calendar at the end of January for the last 24 days, and have worried and worried about it).  I really didn't want a reprise of the last visit. 

She knew it was coming up, but didn't actually know it was today until we told her last night.  I didn't want her freaking out about it for days, so I waited to tell her.  Last night she and Daddy re-read her "Going To The Dentist" book and today she and I role-played a dentist visit.  She told me she wasn't scared and was excited about it.  I was doubtful, but hopeful at the same time, that things would be better this time.

And they were!  She did GREAT!

She opened her mouth wide when needed, didn't grab the cleaning utensils from the hygenist's hands, didn't complain, cry, or in any way show that she was displeased.  She was a pro. 

During the x-ray part she did say her tummy hurt and she had to go potty, and then afterwards she said she didn't.  I'm pretty sure that was her nerves, but she stayed still and let the lady put the x-ray things in her mouth, even though she didn't like it.

I was SO proud of her.

Oh, and she made it into the "cavity free club."  She got a t-shirt and everything.

The dentist showed me on the x-ray that her two front teeth are probably going to come out any time now.  Her adult teeth are pretty close to pushing their way out.  That's going to change the look of my sweet little girl--I think kids look so grown up with the adult teeth in on top.  :(   I'm not ready for that.

What a big girl she's getting to be.


(But this comment from her yesterday reminded me that she's not SUCH a big girl yet....  She was watching a video from the library.  The library DVDs often have lots of scratches on them and get "stuck" in spots.  Some of them are so bad that you can't even finish watching them.  Her movie got stuck, so she was pressing the "skip" button on the remote to try and get past the stuck part.  It didn't work.  She said, "Mommy, why did it get more stucker when I pressed the button?"  Little things like that make me smile.  She's still a little girl, and hopefully I can keep her that way for as long as possible.)

sick?

I've been stuck at home the last couple of days because Rebecca's had some reeeeeeeeeeeeeeealy nasty diapers for three days.  She doesn't seem to be sick in any other way than this, but I haven't wanted to chance her giving this "bug" to anyone else (if it is, in fact, a bug), or take the chance of her having one of her really gross diapers while we're out somewhere, for either myself or someone else to deal with.

I called the doctor this morning since it's been three days.  They don't want to see her because she doesn't have a fever, but said to feed her applesauce, bananas, and hard cheese to try and stop it.  Thankfully she loves applesauce and bananas, so that part is easy.  We'll see if it works.  They say they like to control it with diet when they can.

So I don't know if this constitutes her being sick or not, but it feels like it, since I can't really go anywhere.  I'd been so good at sticking to my MWF gym schedule, but I didn't want to take her to the playroom this morning (they don't change diapers there, so they'd come get me if she had a yucky diaper, but I didn't want it to happen while I was in the middle of my workout or my shower!).  So I missed for the first time in two weeks.  It was a good thing I didn't go, though, because she did have a messy diaper, which meant another change of clothes (she's gone through a LOT of clothes in the last few days, and had lots of baths, too!).  I'm glad that didn't happen while I was at the gym.

We did go to the grocery store briefly both yesterday and today (I forgot some things yesterday and needed to stock up on applesauce today anyway).  So at least I got out of the house.

So here's what she's been up to at home.  She likes seeing her picture on the little screen on the back of the camera, so whenever I get the camera out, she enjoys posing in different places and then running over to see "Becca!" (as she calls herself) on the back of the camera.

Posing for Mommy (I forgot to turn the flash off--that shadow in the background annoys me!)

Playing with her tractor (from Great Grandpa for Christmas--thank you, Great Grandpa!  You weren't there when she opened it at Christmastime, but she LOVES it!  She plays with it several times every day).

Her face looks so funny because just as I snapped the picture she said, "There it goes!"  (it moves and had just taken off!)

"Gock-Gock" (this is what she calls sitting in the rocking chair--what she means is "rock-rock." )

Love my handful of a cutie-pie.  Hopefully her diapers will be back to normal soon and we can get out again.

attention

The last two days Rebecca has been a little bit less of a handful.  The reason, I think, is because she's gotten more attention.  Yesterday Rachel didn't have school, so they played together (some) and I also have been more intentional about playing with her and giving her my full attention.  So getting my positive attention=less trouble.  But here's the thing:  when I'm paying more attention to her, I can't do the things I need to do (dishes, laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc). 

So I go back and forth in my mind.  Of course she is more important than those things, so she should come first.  But those things still need to get done.  You'd think after 5+ years of being a mom, I'd have a balance down, but I'm far from it.

When she does the things that annoy me, I get frustrated that I'm interrupted from the things that need to get done.  When I pay attention to her, she does fewer things to annoy me, but then I'm frustrated that the things that need to get done aren't getting done.  Either way, I'm frustrated.  Maybe one of these days, I'll figure out this stay at home mom thing without so much frustration. 

Someday. 

But right now she's in bed, so I'd better go get some of those things done!

high maintenance

Children are high maintenance.  Or at least, mine are.

Example:  As what I thought would be a special treat, I took Rachel to see "Beauty and the Beast" in 3D at the theater today.  Here I thought she'd be thrilled.  And she was, until halfway through the movie, when she started complaining that
a) she was hungry,
b) she was tired, and
c) she wanted to play with her leap pad

She said she could finish watching the movie at home.

AHHHHHH!!!  I was really annoyed....and told her we had paid money to see the movie in 3D and we were going to stay until it was over, and she had to wait until we got home to have something to eat.  We had already bought popcorn, so I wasn't about to go spend another small fortune to get her anything else to eat. 

When we got home I told her dad what she had said.  He told her that he didn't care if she was hungry or tired, that she needs to learn not to say those things.  (How do you teach tact to a five year old, anyway?)  It'll be a long time before we take her to the movies again.  Ugh.

And then there's this child....

This one is the epitome of high maintenance right now.

Climbing, getting into things, constantly wanting to eat, doing things she knows she shouldn't with a grin on her face....  I don't remember Rachel ever being this much of a handful.  I count the minutes until naptime and bedtime, just because she'll be contained in her crib and can't bother anything.  Oh, I forgot to mention that last week she actually climbed out of her playpen.  She piled two toys on top of each other, stepped up on them, and somehow got over the top.  She landed flat on her back on the floor with a thud, screaming (I was drying my hair, and over the hairdryer noise I heard the thud, turned the hairdryer off to investigate, and then heard the screaming).  She was fine, just scared, and hasn't tried it since (I also took the big toys out of the playpen so she can't pile them to try it again). 

A handful.

But ohhhhhhhhh.....how I love them.  Last night Rebecca woke up in the middle of the night, screaming.  If she wakes up, she usually fusses a little and goes back to sleep.  But this was big crying.  I don't know if it was a bad dream or what, but she was obviously upset.  I went in, scooped her up, and she put her head on my shoulder, where she was quiet and calm.  It was so sweet.  As I got back in bed a few minutes later, I realized that I'd gladly put up with the daily frustrations for those moments of sweetness. 

And last night Rachel and I were baking cookies together, and we were joking about something.  "Mommy, you're so funny," she told me.  Or she'll sit on my lap in the mornings and say, "Mommy, I just love you so much!"  They are both so sweet, giving me hugs, kisses, and grins.  It makes the other parts worth it.  I just wish the balance was a little more even--equal parts sweetness and frustration!  Right now it seems like the frustration is outweighing the sweetness.  But I'll keep them.  I know there will be days where the sweetness wins out.

dressing up

Rebecca loves doing everything her big sister does.  (Rachel, in turn, wants to do everything her little sister does, too!) 

So lately whenever Rachel plays dress up and puts on a princess dress, Rebecca comes up to me saying, "dess?  dess?"  because she wants a dress, too.  I knew I had some smaller princess dresses somewhere put away that Rachel used to wear, but I couldn't remember for sure where they were, and didn't want to take Rebecca with me to look for them.  So I always had to try and satisfy her with a hat, beads, or shoes, instead of the dress she was wanting.

So over the weekend I was finally able to look for the smaller dresses, and found them!

So here's Rebecca in her first princess dress.

She kept touching her chest, saying "pitty!" and then saying "La La!" ....telling me she was a pretty princess like Cinderella. 

So when I took Rebecca's picture, of course, Rachel wanted her picture taken, too.  Instead of a princess dress, she had elected to dress in her way-too-small Care Bear costume with her new Belle shoes, which she got for Christmas.  Quite an ensemble.

reality

Last week it was back to reality.  No more Christmas vacation laziness.  Rachel went back to school on Wednesday, I started back at the gym (I hadn't been since I got sick....was that November???)...it was like starting from scratch.  Not that I had done much to begin with, but I had built up some stamina until I got sick.  Then my sickness, the girls' sicknesses, and then December/Christmas got in the way, and...well....excuses, excuses.  But anyway, I started back at the gym.  Hopefully I can be consistent.

Girl scouts starts back up tomorrow--anyone want to buy some cookies????  Cookie sales start next week!

I finished another book--yet another one that I started (a YEAR ago!), returned to the library, and finally got back around to.  This one was "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo."  Everyone talked and talked about how good it was, and now the movie's out, so I wanted to finish it, but I felt like the first half of the book was soooooo slow.  It took me a long time to get into it, which is one reason why I never finished it.  After about halfway, though, I couldn't put it down.  That's hard when you've got two little girls around who need you.  I struggle sometimes with reading--I enjoy it, but when I'm in the middle of a good book it's hard to do the things I'm supposed to do, so then I get frustrated and sometimes I think it's better if I'd never started it!  But anyway, I finally finished it, a year later.  Now I want to read the next one in the series.

Rebecca's sleeping hasn't been quite so good.  She had been doing so well, and then at the end of last week her naps started getting shorter and she started waking up early again.  I don't know what's going on.  She goes to the doctor on Tuesday for a recheck of her ears, so we'll see if there's anything physically wrong with her, or if she's just her usual poor sleeper-self.

Rachel's enjoying school.  On Friday they started "Favorite Toy Friday," where they get to bring in...you guessed it...a favorite toy!  It can't be anything electronic, so she was very sad that she couldn't take her new favorite toy, which is the Leap Pad Explorer that she got for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa.  So instead she took a book that we made on the computer with her new Crayola Story Studio kit, where we made a coloring book of Cinderella with Rachel in the coloring book.  You scan in your picture, it morphs it into a coloring book drawing, and adds it into the pages, which you print out.  She loves that she's on the same page with the princesses.  Anyway, she took that to school as her favorite toy!  She's already trying to decide what she wants to take next week.

We've finished our bathroom remodel, and now my husband wants to move on to the guest bath in the upstairs hallway.  The problem is that our checkbook doesn't match his ambition.  He loved doing the bathroom, was really happy with his work, and wants to continue.  I don't know what we'll end up doing--maybe just a couple of small things that do need to get done (like fixing the hole in the wall that he made recently because he saw some water damage and wanted to know what was causing it!).

2012

Happy New Year!

I already finished a book this year.  It was Water for Elephants.  I actually had it out months ago, didn't get to it, and got it out again to read over Christmas vacation.  I can't believe I actually got it finished (I'm good at starting books and not finishing them) before vacation is over!  Now I want to watch the movie.

We're almost done with our first house project of the year, too (Actually, I've hardly done a thing.  My very hard working husband has done almost everything).  For over a month now he has been plugging away on our master bathroom.  We needed a new floor badly.  So he ripped out everything except the shower (we wish we could've done that, too, but we decided not to spend the money on a new shower).  He ripped up the old floor, fixed some water damaged spots in the floor, and tiled the floor (his first time doing tile--and it looks great!).  Then he took out the old medicine cabinet, patched the resulting hole in the wall, painted the ceiling and walls, then put in a new vanity and sink.  Last night (our new years eve excitement) we put up the new mirror and cabinet on the wall.  Today we picked out towel racks, etc, and he just got done putting those up.  The only things left to do are to put up the base trim, which he stained yesterday and today, and then put the toilet back in place.  I can't wait for it to be done and am so thankful for a husband who is so handy!

Rebecca is starting the year off with some awesome sleep for her very thankful mommy.  The last few days she's napped 3 hours--this is the same girl who has had trouble sleeping past 45 minutes for her entire life!  And she's slept until 6:30 or 6:45 the last several mornings as well.  After 19 months, she finally seems to be figuring out this sleeping thing.   Way to go, Rebecca, and Happy New Year to me!!

Rachel is beginning 2012 as the cleanest five year old in town.  She got a bunch of bath toys for Christmas--Disney princess Barbie-type dolls that go in the bathtub and some other Disney princess foam "paper doll" type things that you stick up on the bathtub wall.  She's begging me twice a day to take a bath because she loves playing with them so much! 

Rebecca loves baths just as much as Rachel.  If I'd let them both play in the bathtub all day, they'd both be as happy as clams (and would probably be in a lot less trouble, too--the bathtub is pretty good at containing my little mischievous Rebecca!).

I don't think I've written on here that we've caught her three times up on top of the kitchen table.  She has learned how to climb up on the kitchen chairs, and then she continues up to the table.  So we can't put anything of any importance on the table anymore, and we have to watch her like a hawk. 

She's still talking up a storm.  She now calls herself "Becca" (we never call her that, so that's just her own version of Rebecca) and she calls Rachel, "Day-tul," which is actually kind of close to what Rachel used to call herself before she could say her own name.

home again

We're home after a fun Christmas.  I'm surrounded by toys, suitcases, and dirty laundry, so I have my work cut out for me today, while trying to keep Rebecca out of everything she's trying to get into.  Rachel's loving playing with all of her new toys.  Rebecca plays with them for awhile, but then goes back to getting into stuff.  Ugh.  Hopefully I can get something accomplished.  In the meantime, enjoy some pictures from our Christmas celebrations (sadly, we didn't take very many--too much excitement to remember to grab the camera!).

 Rachel in her new Belle dress from Santa--the gift she wanted most--

she took her PJs off right away to put it on, and has had it on much of the last four days.... 

Holding Wilber, the pig, from Charlotte's Web, a book we read together recently.

 

 Rebecca in her new chair

 Rebecca and her new car ramp--mostly she just likes holding the cars

 Again in her new chair--getting ready to leave for Grandma's house

Waiting to open presents at Grandma's house