pumpkins galore

We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa this week because Rachel had a few days off of school.  One of the days we went to a pumpkin farm near their house.

Today Rachel and Daddy made her jack-o-lantern.

And in other news, Rebecca's been sick...and now I'm sick.  I just got back from urgent care, where the doctor told me I have a really bad ear infection.  That would partly explain why I only slept a couple of hours last night.  Hopefully things will start to get better now.  I've had quite enough of all of this.

school picture

Here's our girl!

We're amazed that she's looking at the camera!

this and that

Remember how excited I was about Rebecca finally saying my name?  Well, now she says it over and over and over, usually in a whiny voice ("Mooooomy....Moooooooomy....Moooooooomy........") all day long, and I'm beginning to rethink that!

But here she is saying it:

She also says "Daddy" over and over, too.  She likes to mix up our names sometimes, too.  And Rachel's often "Daddy."  She can't say Rachel, or anything resembling Rachel, so she calls her Daddy.  I'm sure that'll come eventually.  Rachel couldn't say her own name for a long time, either.

Rachel missed three days of school because of her fever, but finally got back to school on Thursday this week.  She's still pretty congested and coughing a ton, but she's feeling and acting like her old self again.

Every time Rebecca sneezes I worry that she's getting it.  It's one thing for your five year old to be sick, but it's a completely different thing for your one year old to be sick, because she can't express what's bothering her, and just cries and whines.  They're both no fun, but a sick baby is just hard.  Hopefully she will stay healthy.

I'm sitting here waiting for a plumber to get here.  Our shower has been dripping.  My husband tried to fix it, and got to the point of no return.  Our water to the whole house is shut off and he can't fix the shower, and we can't turn our water back on until it's fixed, so we're stuck.  And plumbers are EXPENSIVE!!!  And on Sunday???  Much, much worse....  I told my husband he should've become a plumber.  On second thought, maybe I'll learn how to be a plumber.   Then I could fix our stuff AND get paid tons of money to fix other people's showers on Sundays when they're stuck with no water.

This week, though, I'm embarking on a new adventure...that of a Daisy Girl Scout leader.  My friend, Emily, who is leading with me, aptly explained the training process we've been going through as, "Taking a drink from a fire hose."  I'm overwhelmed with how much they throw at you and ask leaders to do before you can even meet with the girls.  It's surprising they ever get moms to agree to lead!  We had to do an online training, an at-home study, and two classes of training.  There's training for cookie sales (they tell you to have a different parent in charge of cookie sales...hopefully we can find someone interested and able to go to the training!).  There's a training if you want to go camping (thankfully our girls are too young for that right now).  There's a form to fill out if you want to do this....or that....a form for EVERYTHING!  It's very overwhelming.  But I'm anxious to finally get started.  This week we're meeting with the parents and registering the girls. I don't know yet when our first meeting with the girls will be (we still have one training to do in a couple of weeks and we have to wait until the contract with the school, where we'll be meeting, is finalized), but hopefully we can get started soon.  Rachel's looking forward to it.  Hopefully I'm not biting off more than I can chew.

sickness still

I thought we were all on the way to health, but apparently not.  Rachel started a cold on Thursday night, which turned into a fever and ear ache on Sunday night.  Yesterday she had to miss her first kindergarten field trip.  It was a sad, sad morning in our house.  She got herself all dressed, hoping that if she could get dressed, she could go to school and not miss her trip.  When I told her she wouldn't be able to go because of her fever, she was devastated and in tears.  She was begging me to go, but I had to keep saying no.  Finally I had to tell her we had to stop talking about it because her nose was getting even more stuffed up with all of her crying.  She finally got over it and felt okay most of the day. 

We went to the doctor, though, because of the ear ache, and sure enough, it was an ear infection this time (I was happy it wasn't another false alarm, and that the antibiotic will hopefully take care of it!).  Since she was feeling okay most of the day, I thought she may be able to go to school today, but she woke up in the middle of the night last night again with a fever. 

So no school again, today, and she's on the couch under two blankets at the moment, shivering with her fever.  She just took some more ibuprofen so hopefully it's on its way down again. 

Poor girl....we were going to make something with her Easy Bake Oven (something we can only do when her sister is napping) and she was so excited, but then she started shivering so badly that she couldn't even stand up.  I had to insist that she get on the couch with some blankets.  "But I can d-d-d-d-o-o-o-o-o it," she insisted, in between shivers and tears. 

Now it's time for her sister to get up, so our Easy Bake Oven window is now closed.....I told her we'd try and do it this afternoon or tonight after Rebecca goes to bed.  We'll see.

The one nice thing about her being sick (gotta look on the bright side!) is that she's very cuddly and we've gotten to spend lots more time together. 

I enjoy that....but I do hope she starts feeling better, soon.  It's not fun to watch your little one be sick.

fall farm fun

We spent the morning at a pumpkin farm (we actually didn't get any pumpkins because Rachel's going on a pumpkin field trip on Monday and will get one then, and we already have two, so we just went for the fall fun).  A great time was had by all!  Enjoy the pictures!

I really wanted pictures of the girls in the sea of pumpkins....as you can see, it didn't work out so well.  I had to hold Rebecca to get her to even face the camera.

Lots of slides and such....Rachel loved them!

Rebecca didn't want to hold still for pictures, so none of these turned out so well either (which is why Rachel's trying to hold her and Rebecca's screaming in protest)...

Rebecca loved the goats.  Rachel wasn't quite as friendly with them. 

They both liked looking at the camels, but didn't get close.

Family shots



Rachel wanted to be the leader in the corn maze, so we let her.  She got us out...but we came out the same way we came in, so we didn't really make it through the maze, but she had fun!

There were "gerbil wheels," which Rachel enjoyed, and she

loved this straw tunnel and went through it many times.

They both loved the corn box.

There was also a straw box.

Lots of fun things to ride....

And finally, a soybean maze (a tamer version of a corn maze).

It was a fun day!

what's my name?

I have been asking Rebecca this for a month or two now.  And she finally has the right answer!

"Mom-mieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Sometime it comes out a little twisted....Meee-ma, My-mieee, or Ma-my," but more often than not now she's getting it right.  "Mommy!"

She's also just recently started calling my husband "Daddy."  It's been "Dada" for awhile, but just in the last few days she's started calling us "Mommy and Daddy."  She looked at a picture of the two of us yesterday and said, "Mommy....Daddy."

Love it!

the snow-less snow day

It's 76 degrees with a blue sky.  A gorgeous fall day.  But it was a snow day....  sort of. 

My routine in the morning is to turn on the news while Rebecca drinks a cup of milk.  The big story this morning on the news is that a tanker truck crashed on the ramp of the highway just a minute from our house.  It was the ramp from one huge highway to another huge highway.  The tank contained gasoline, and the driver died.  Both highways were closed in both directions.

I told my husband because the intersection of those two highways is right by where he works and he would have to find a different way to get there.  But dummy me, I didn't even think about the fact that it would affect Rachel's bus route, as well. 

We went about the rest of our morning as usual, and were waiting for the bus, which didn't come.  When someone mentioned the crash, I put two and two together and realized that that's why the bus wasn't coming.  One by one parents decided to drive their kids to school, so I grabbed Rebecca (still in her PJs) and we piled in the van to head to school.  Rachel was about in tears.  Any change in plans, and she is all bent out of shape, and she wanted to ride the bus to school.

Well, I didn't get very far until I realized that not only was Rachel going to be late to school, but I wasn't sure I could even make it to school.  Every way I tried to go was either completely at a stand still or closed.  After 40 minutes, I wasn't even a mile from my house.  Then the last attempt to head in the direction of school was blocked by a police car.  I couldn't even go that way.  I had to head home.

Rachel sobbed most of the way home (which took another 40 minutes).  She really didn't want to miss school.  The only way I finally got her to stop crying was to put a story in the CD player and she eventually started listening to it.  Rebecca was crying, too, because she was missing her naptime.  Finally, once Rachel stopped crying, Rebecca stopped crying, too, and fell asleep in her car seat.  I felt like crying the whole time, completely frustrated by the situation.

So Rachel was home today, and it's felt like a snow day, since we're stuck at home.  Traffic is STILL completely backed up EVERYWHERE because those two major highways are still closed.  They may be closed through tomorrow morning's rush hour, too.  They cancelled afternoon kindergarten because of the hassle to get kids to school. 

We were supposed to have a play date this afternoon but had to cancel it because neither of us can get to the park where we're supposed to meet! 

Definitely feels like a snow day--sunshine, blue skies, and all.

when it rains, it pours

Friday night, one minute Rachel was outside riding bikes with a friend, and the next minute she was laying on the couch with a 102+ degree fever!  All of a sudden she said, "My head really hurts!" and I felt her forehead, which was burning up.  She's spent the weekend running a fever anywhere from 99.4 to 103.5.  Today's been better, though, so hopefully she's on the mend and won't have to miss school tomorrow.  We'll see.

Then I woke up this morning with a terrible headache.  I get lots of headaches, but I rarely wake up with one, and if I do, I can take something and it goes away.  But not today.  Nothing has touched it.  That's on top of the really bad sore throat I've had since Wednesday.

My husband had a fever several days this week and was first diagnosed with bronchial pneumonia at the urgent care center, but later in the week he went to his doctor, who said it was something viral.

So we're just a picture of health around here....

this is a test

I think I may be able to post videos now, after five years of doing this and not much success with it.  This isn't a very exciting video, but I just wanted to try it out.  This is a typical afternoon in the life of Rebecca.

Enjoy!

thankful

I just watched, helplessly, as Rachel tumbled down the stairs below me.  One of the scariest moments of my life.

She had just gotten ready for bed and was all excited about a new nightgown she was wearing and wanted to show Daddy.  I told her to hurry up, and sat down on her bed to wait for her to come back so I could read her her story.  She started quickly down the first couple of stairs and then I heard thumping.  It took a second to register what was happening, and when I realized she was falling I bolted out of her room to the top of the stairs.  When I got to the top I saw her tumble, sideways, curled up in a ball, down the last 1/3 of the stairs to the very hard ceramic tile at the bottom.  I ran down as fast as I could and scooped her up in my arms.

It took her a few seconds to make any sound.  She cried, but not too much.  She was more scared and shaken up than anything.  Her leg and shoulder hurt, she said.  But she could walk and move everything okay. 

Then I started crying.

So thankful.


(Now if I can only get the image of her falling out of my head.

She has some pretty bad rug burns on one leg and a big bruise developing on her shoulder.  It could've been sooooo much worse.)

one of those days

12:15 PM
I leave for the bank while my husband is home for lunch because I just HAVE to get out of the house.   Rebecca has been fussing ALL morning and NOTHING is making her happy. No fever...just LOTS and LOTS of fussing. She wants to eat, doesn't want to sit in her high chair. Not allowed to eat out of her high chair. Doesn't like that. Fuss. Wants to be held. Pick up. Fuss--wants down. Fuss--wants back up. Over and over and over.

12:35 PM
I return home.  Rebecca is in bed, screaming.  Daddy put her there because she wouldn't stop crying and was rubbing her eyes.

1:11 PM
Rebecca finally is quiet, after lots of screaming.  I breathe a sigh of relief.

1:44 PM
Rachel yells down the stairs to me--something she KNOWS she's not supposed to do when her sister is in bed.

1:44 PM
Rebecca wakes up crying--only 33 minutes of sleep.  I yell at Rachel in frustration.

1:46 PM
Rebecca is screaming in bed, again.  I'm waiting for her to go back to sleep.  It may never happen.  My head hurts.  I don't want to go get her, because it will just be a repeat of this morning.

Wondering what has gotten into my baby these last few weeks.  I need some Calgon to take me away....

this and that

:: Rebecca's been sick.  Several nights ago she started waking up around 9 pm, crying, and wouldn't go back to sleep.  We figured it was teething.  Well, the night before last she woke up again, but this time with a fever.  Then she woke up two or three more times in the night, crying, burning up, shivering, miserable.  Several doses of pain reliever and lots of tugs at the ears later, we were pretty sure it was an ear infection.  I found out (after five years of being a parent--thankfully I haven't needed to know before now!) that our pediatrician's office is open on Saturday morning, so I got her in.  Only her ears were "beautiful," according to the doctor.  No ear infection.  Viral.  She got another dose of ibuprofen when she got home, after it kicked in she got off my lap and started playing for the first time all day, and hasn't had a fever since!  I don't know what it was, but it's so nice to see her back to normal, and it was great to get a full night of sleep last night!  (She's still fussy at times and chewing on her hands non stop, but at least she's smiling and playing and sleeping and *wince* even getting into EVERYTHING like normal).

:: It's COLD!  Rachel was so thrilled because she finally got to wear her slip under her dress to church.  Her older cousin passed a slip down to her with a bunch of other clothes over the summer, and she's been wanting to wear it, but I kept telling her it was too warm (the slip has several layers on the bottom, making it kind of flouncy, which is why she loves it, but I thought it would make her too hot in the summertime).  So she got to wear it, but I had to remind her several times not to lift her dress up to show people her slip, since she was so proud of it. Finally she said, "Yeah, it's kind of like having a secret!" 

:: Rachel had a walk-a-thon at school last week.  Instead of a traditional school fundraiser, where kids sell stuff, they just ask for pledges for their walking.  It was a dreary, chilly day, but at least the rain held off.  Rebecca and I joined Rachel at school during the time her class would be walking.  It was nice to put faces with the names I hear her talking about. 

16 months

At 16 months Rebecca seems to be talking so much more than I remember Rachel talking at this age.  She's actually understandable sometimes. 

One of her newest words is "box."  There's a diaper box that's been in the hallway outside her bedroom for a few days (I need to move it...but then I wouldn't have been able to teach her this word!) and she kept pointing to it, wanting to know what it was.  I told her it was a box.  So she practiced saying it, and now every time we go in or out of her room she points to it and says, "box!"

One of her other newer words is "bup" which means "cup," but also "button."  She uses it when pointing to a button on my shirt, but also her belly button (which she loves to play with!).

She's started noticing when airplanes fly by, but when she hears them she says, "gock," which is her word for "truck."  Anything that makes noise is either a bus or a truck, in her eyes. 

She loves playing outside.  Her favorite thing is to get in and out of her red cars (she has a cozy coupe and a push along buggy car) or getting on and off of her little bike (not a real bike, just one you push with your feet).  She would really love to ride Rachel's bike and points to it all the time.  I'm sure next spring she'll be riding the tricycle all over the place.

Inside her favorite thing to do (besides carrying around other people's shoes or trying to capture the remote) is to chew on pretend food.  She empties the toy grocery cart daily of the plastic food and carries around various pieces, chewing on the ones that fit in her mouth.

She's a super friendly girl.  When we go out she waves to everyone and tells them hi.  People are always stopping to talk to her because she's told them hi. 

Rebecca has always loved to eat, but her tastes are changing a little bit.  She loves veggies, surprisingly, but doesn't like anything that is hard for her to pick up.  If I feed it to her, then she'll eat it, but if it's hard to pick up (like rice or scrambled eggs), she doesn't want to eat it until I feed it to her on a spoon. 

She loves being held, and gives hugs and kisses.  She's such a sweet girl!  

finally

There's a tooth poking through!  That's my assurance that this fussiness will come to an end soon.  It's one of the one year molars, and I'm sure she's getting the other three, too, though they haven't made an appearance yet....but the fact that one finally started coming through tells me that this WILL pass...eventually.

I'm so tired of having a fussy girl.  She's always been so happy until lately.  She still has her moments (usually when we go somewhere--she's pretty happy when we're out and about but mostly she's fussy.

Unless she's bothering something she shouldn't.  Then she's perfectly happy!  Like today when she got into Rachel's paints.  Twice!  FYI--Washable paint doesn't come out of carpeting as easily as one would think.  I now know from experience.)

My husband gave me a wonderful gift today--a whole afternoon to myself!  He took the girls hiking.  It took an hour to get there and an hour to get back, plus the hiking time (Rachel hiked 2 miles all by herself up a "mountain!"--we don't really have mountains in our state, but this was actually called a mountain), so I had quite a nice chunk of time, at home, BY MYSELF!  I don't remember the last time I was in the house by myself.  I actually asked him to take them somewhere because I needed to sew, and I didn't know how in the world I would do it with them (actually, Rebecca) around.  Rachel asked me a month or so ago to make her a Snow White cape because she wants to be Snow White for halloween.  She has the rest of the costume already, but wanted a cape to go with it.  We went to the craft store a few weeks ago and she helped me choose the pattern and material, and I finally got around to making it today while they were gone.

Here they are on their hike....

Rachel at the top

Cute Rebecca

My girls!

I'm not thrilled with the results of the cape, because the directions on the pattern were wrong, and the material was hard to work with, but she loves it and wore it all evening after she got home, so that's what counts.  It's actually a Little Red Riding Hood cape, so she can be either Snow White or Little Red Riding Hood.  She played both.  Next she wants me to make her an Alice In Wonderland costume (there's a pattern for that in the same package as the cape pattern, which is what made her think of it).  I don't think I'll be sewing again anytime soon, though I did enjoy it.  It had been years since I had the sewing machine out.  But it's just too difficult with our little mischief maker around.     

So here she is with her newest obsession--wearing her sister's "gack gack" (back pack).  She can't put it on by herself so she walks around carrying it saying, "gack gack, gack gack," until you put it on her.  Then she tries really hard to take it off, but can't, so she either falls over or ends up fussing.

She looks so funny...

But it was so big that I gave her a smaller one that we have.

She wears it around all the time (notice all of the drool??  Definitely teething....)

what's in a name?

Rebecca's learning lots of words.  But she's pretty efficient.  For instance, "gock" is her word for sock, truck (sounds a little more like "guck" though), rock, and clock.  As long as you're right there and are observant, you know what she's talking about.

This efficiency isn't always useful, though.  Today I was holding her and I said, "What's my name?" 

She replied, "Mamamamama," to which I cheered,

"Good girl!!"

I then asked her, "What's your name?" 

She replied, "Mamamamama...."

Oh well....she tried.

fussing

Rebecca's been fussy.  That sums up the last week or so....

Here's what she's usually doing:

(Trying to climb up on Mommy's lap, saying, "Up!  Up!" in a very whiny voice.)

When she's not climbing, or fussing because she can't climb on whatever it is she wants to climb on, she's playing and being cute....but usually she's fussing, at least lately.

(The lighting isn't very good, because the sun was streaming in the windows.  I should've closed the blinds for better pictures, but I was enjoying the sunshine!)

She's drooling a lot and has a runny nose, so it could be teething...or a cold...or teething during a cold.   Whatever it is, I hope it's over soon. 

And Rachel wanted me to take her picture, too.  Here's what she was doing:

(watching a show--doesn't look too comfortable, does it?)