do's & don'ts

A few lessons learned on our vacation.

DON'T leave the tripod at home or schedule THE family picture for one hour before you are checking out. Still; here we are on the last day of our fun family reunion in the mountains. We are lacking Elias, Becky's husband. While on the tour bus in Asheville, the tour guide couldn't get over how many kids we had and called us the most fertile family. In what world?? At this point we're balancing on "perfect American family" with 1 or 2 kids per family. Not saying it's going to stay there. . but really. Maybe it's amazing that my parents had 4 kids, that we all married amazing spouses, that we all love each other (still), and that we like to be together (at least once a year). Maybe. What's absolutely true was that it was truly a blessing to be with everyone. And, who can say what the Most Fertile Family will look like in another two years when we try for this again.

DO post on the internet slightly awkward, completely hilarious picture that you discovered after you sent your husband on a walk with the rest of the family. Really, I'm just trying to show you Ben & Jen's new van. :-)

DON'T wish you could take your little niece & nephew home with you; it's not gonna happen!

DO bring your best friend on vacation with you.

DO pick a place with an amazing view!! It made any tiny inconvenience in the house inconsequential. When the power went out for a few hours one night, I sat on the porch, rocked & read. Most relaxing hours of the vacation.

DO keep a weather eye for stranger people wearing way too many clothes on a hot day & playing the flute when you're in downtown Asheville. Apparently, this is what makes Asheville great.

DON'T forget what it's like to go on your first bus ride EVER! In case you've forgotten, it's pretty fun! Especially if it doesn't take you to a first anxiety filled day of school but rather a fun, family-filled day of walking, shopping, eating, and freak-sightings.

DO take your kids to a creek & let them play!!! (Thanks to Ben's friend for a great tip!) This park was located in Montreat, NC (5 minutes from Black Mt). It was shady & a creek ran through with many good spots of wading, splashing, excavating & lots of clambering. There were also play-sets, but who cares about swings when you can splash in the water!

DON'T trust the random guy at the bottom of the "mountain" who says the paved pathway doesn't go all the way to the top. Ask someone in a uniform. :-) But conversely, DO be thankful for grandpa's & brother-in-laws who can do the baby-lugging for you when your real baby carrier is fishing. (Thanks Dad & Patrick!)

DON'T listen to handsome, extremely photographic brother when he says, "Let's take this photo 19th century style." Especially when he nor youngest sister follow orders. At least Susie got it spot on!

DO bring a baby carrier along on hikes in the mountains! I'm sure glad I did. :-)

DON'T have high expectations about kids taking a beautiful, planned portrait! :-) Don't even expect everyone to smile OR look at the camera. Or, in this case, ANYone look at the camera.

but of course, DO plan on laughing a lot, kissing a few boo-boos, playing a few games, reading a book, watching Psych & Brian Regan (did I mention we laughed a lot), and wreaking havoc everywhere we went -- out for pizza, to the an Appalachian music concert, on a tour bus, to a park, a pool, on a hike, or just for a walk!

* This is my second post today, so don't miss the one about Rachel.

look at me, mom!

Beginning right before vacation, Rachel started to make some real spurts in mental & physical accomplishments. The funniest is that she has now started walking. It all started with our well check-up to the pediatrician the week before vacation. The Nurse Practioner asked if she had started walking yet. "Nope. Not really. I mean, she can walk, but she just doesn't choose to do so by herself." The NP replied that if she didn't start walking by the next month, to give her a call; she might need some physical therapy. (What??!!) Not one minute passed from this conversation when Rachel took about 5 steps by herself, going towards the NP. She sure showed that (very nice) NP that there was NO WAY she was going to have physical therapy at 16 months old! During vacation she really started to take off & everybody kept showing off by saying things like, "Rachel just took 10 steps toward me from that coffee table over there." She still crawls some, but she also walks when she finds it convenient for herself. So, we're gradually making the transition.

Her communication skills have also started to take off. Her babbling sounds a lot more like words now, even if I still can't understand most of them. Be-be is her newest cutest word & of course was learned with having her sweet cousin Norah stay with us after the vacation. Rachel sure LOVED to have a baby around & would try to pat her head or give her kisses all of the time. I am surprised, however, that she doesn't called babies "GENTLE" because that's really all she heard when she approached Norah. I wish I could describe how she treated Norah & Levi when they were at our house. She wanted to pat their heads & give kisses but all with an ecstatic squealing & jibber jabber; some be-be's interspersed as well. It was as though she was saying, "I can't believe the adults are letting me so close to this little human being! EEeeeeeekkkk! They are so cute! Wait, she has my toy! I want it back! And I also want to pat her head in a REALLY EXCITED way because I love her so much!!!"

She has also started to love baby dolls, & Kate is having to relinquish her control of the doll family & give some to Rachel. She loves to hold, rock & give kisses to them. She has moved towards saying Mo-mee instead of Ma-ma. After I wrote that she said Ray-ray one day; she hasn't said it again... but has started to use "Shishy" or something similar to talk about Kate. She loves shoes. She has started to bring shoes to me & try to fit her cute feet into my shoes as well. Just last night she learned (in a day or two) to hold up her cute little finger when I ask her how old she is. I have started giving her a spoon, which she is learning slowly but surely how to use. She really likes to participate when the art supplies come out; but currently her participation is making a few marks on the paper & then eating the crayons. :-(

My baby is growing up. I suppose it's inevitable that when I held Norah & Levi, it really banished the phrase "Baby Rachel" from my vocab. She's not a baby anymore, although her chubby cheekies say otherwise.

Cinderella. . .dressed in toast?

Wondering much at the title of the post? Kate was getting a little creative with her breakfast this morning & started off with a face that quickly morphed into one of her favorite story book characters -- Cinderella! Can't you see it? The picture was my ploy to save Cinderella in picture form so her dress could be eaten. I walked back to see if said toast was eaten & Kate looks at me quite glumly & says, "I'm disappointed, mom." Apparently she had been making all sorts of promises to Cinderella that her dress would stay perfectly. :-) She lives in another world sometimes!

Rachel is getting cuter by the second! I discovered her in the room yesterday opening books & reading them in a load babbling voice. Adorable! She is very close to walking on her own, but not quite. Favorite summer foods are watermelon & blueberries. I need to catch a picture of her chowing down on a slice of watermelon. The unfortunate thing is that it condemns whatever outfit she has on to watermelon juice being squeezed all over the front no matter what bib I have on her. Maybe I need to change her into a bathing suit first? Still loves to climb into things & almost hide, but since I cleaned the fireplace out, she hasn't been nearly as attracted to it. Is she craving charcoal or something? She's pretty outgoing when she wants to be. She'll give waves to people at the grocery store, but smiles have to be a bit weasled out of her. She loves her Auntie Jen & a few times I'm pretty sure she called her Momma. :-) Most of all she cannot wait to meet her two cousins very shortly! Woohoooooo!

One other note is that we are on the hunt to find out the source of Rachel's eczema. As it hasn't faded on its own (characteristic of infantile eczema), I'm trying to eliminate a food allergy as a possible cause. Since I'm still nursing her, that means I have to go on these elimination diets too. We did two weeks of soy-free living (just for me, since Rachel doesn't eat any soy). No results from that. We are in our second week of a gluten-free diet which has been significantly harder than soy-free. Gluten free basically means wheat free. So, no things like bread or baked goods, but there's also gluten in some hidden things like soy sauce & barbecue sauce. So, today at Chik-fil-A we enjoyed Cow Appreciation Day at with grilled chicken filets (no bun), french fries & a drink. I've actually seen some improvement in my skin, but none that make it seem worthwhile to me to go without bread for the rest of my life! And, the jury's still out on Rachel.

Summertime Girls

Ah, Summer! Finally hot enough to get in the pool, and then, in a matter of two days, it was almost too hot to do anything else! Thankfully, the temps have moderated a bit (not hitting 100deg), but there still must be water involved if I'm going to be hanging out in the great out doors.

Mom came for a visit & that coincided with Rachel's first time in the pool. She LOVES it. But, she isn't really into any supports except for mom or dad's arms. Those baby floats just don't allow her to experience the water as she'd like -- up close & personal. Really, I think she just wants to drink it (eww!). Kate is still remembering how brave she can be the pool. Feeling it out, as it were. So, lots of paddling about in her floaties, but certainly no jumping or dunking.

When mom visited, she spent several afternoons with her paints out & Kate loved sitting at the dining table & doing "art" with Grandma's brushes and special paper. I even joined in one afternoon and it was fun. Grandma finished a watercolor of the Rachel, Kate, and Lydia while she was here & it's currently hanging in Kate's room. This sort of inspired me to take Kate's drawing & writing skills a bit more seriously as I have noticed that she's regressed in her letter drawing skills. She no longer wants to make any attempts at K (unfortunate that this letter is in her name, huh?). So, I have bought some "school" books & many mornings while Rachel takes her nap we are found at the dining table with our writing, drawing, and Bible stories. It has been a lot of fun. We started with a Kumon workbook on Tracing. It starts of with straight lines, then moves to zig zags and then curvy lines, gradually increasing the difficulties of these zigs, zags, and curves. She LOVES to do it, and if I let her, we'd finish the book in one day. She's so great at drawing straight lines, and she's made a vast improvement on the others as well. We have been using a Bible Story series my parents got for our family and we've just made it through the Resurrection. Lots of good & fruitful conversations through that, too.

Rachel has been making some advances as well. Just this morning she said her own name, "Ray Ray." Very cute! This is added to a limited use vocabulary of: mama, da-dee, ba-ba (bye bye), bah (ball), ah-ba (all done), ta-too (for thank you), and her favorite is Uh-oh! The funniest is that she "grunts" the first syllable UH, and then says the latter one in a speaking voice. She still doesn't use them very often, unless prompted. But, of all the ones she uses contextually withOUT prompting, mommy, daddy, ta-too & uh-oh are it. And, though she hasn't learned to say no, she does a very cute shake of her head -- side to side. This gets used for "no, I don't think so," and also "the music is playing and I'm dancing," or just "you're so funny, mom & I'm so silly!" Frequently, this gets pulled out when I try to get her to stand up. I stand her up, and say Stand up, Rachel, and let go. Then, she plops down & starts shaking her head. However, the last few days she's been standing up some more, and today took a teeeeensy little step towards me before she catapulted to the ground.

It seems that every week, the girls find & make up new games to play. Latest game is a version of Peek-a-boo in Rachel's crib. If Kate goes to "get Rachel up," Rachel sticks her face in between the "lines" (according to Kate) and squints her eyes. Kate puts her face up close to Rachel's and they have a little moment. Then Rachel laughs really hard & picks a new spot to peek through. She loves to give kisses, too, although most of the time they are open mouthed. Mmm... And she makes a face that looks like a kissy face, a true pursing of the lips.

The four girls have a great time playing with each other. The two cousins sure love Rachel and really think she's quite special. Lydia is especially attentive to her, and will frequently sit and play with her even when the others have gone on. The girls are coming over later today & Lydia will spend the night so I'm getting ready for some more summertime fun!

pickles

No, I'm not craving pickles, or icecream. . well, maybe the ice cream. :-)

This post is all about another kind of a pickle, a jam, a tough spot, if you will, and how Rachel seems to show a proclivity for finding them. Enjoy the visual journey through Rachel's pickles.

Usually, there is a bowl of fruit on the lower shelf, but I removed it minutes earlier after she bit into an unpeeled mango. :-) So, this was her compromise. Today I caught her doing the same, but this time she was sitting with her legs dangling like a school girl.

Um, mom, I was just looking for a drink. . .

And, who doesn't need a little reading nook.

The funniest bit is that this isn't even all of them -- just the ones I've caught on film. This morning, I found her standing on top of the platform for our garden tub. This means she had climbed up the little "step" & then up one more level, near the faucet, if you will. And, what was she doing?? Standing, holding onto a basket of magazines we have up there.

Perhaps her favorite place is the fireplace. Yes, you heard it, the fireplace. She climbs up on our brick hearth & reaches into our ashy fireplace right before mom whisks her away. This is a game, right??

my baby is one!

Sweet Rachel Claire turned one today! We'll have her party later on, but I wanted to write a quick update. Rahel is so proud of being a bigger girl. Yesterday, I gave her a whole cracker, and she looked at me with these eyes that said, "Yes!!!! I'm so glad you finally see me for the grown up that I am! Whoopee!" She doesn't say many different words, but her eyes (and eyebrows) can be very expressive. Her favorite word is da-da-da, and it can be used to express all sorts of things. Kate often turns to me and interprets what that da-da meant. "Mom, she said she's finished." or "Mom, she's wants to play with me." She's said a few words very few times (like papa, ba-ba, ah-duh, and ank-yu -- this last one is mostly an intonation, not really formed syllables of sound). She does sign for more & all done when prompted.

Just the other day, she stood for the first time by herself. It only happens when I'm holding her hands & let go. :-) I can tell she's trying to work on standing up by herself. She scoots her bottom up really high in the air and I can tell she really wants the top half of her body to lift itself up to standing position. But, she hasn't worked it out yet. She cruises quickly and is proficient at switching from coffee table to couch and back again. She likes to play with her walker & is very good at it. Kate helps her steer and off they go! Her favorite things are still her books, which she takes one by one out of her shelf almost every day. Recently, she's started crawling into big sis' room to play with the Little People house. When I was cleaning up breakfast dishes today while Kate finished up eating, all of a sudden I was a bit disconcerted to hear a huge flushing sound. Then, I realized it was from the play house. :-)

She is an extremely easy going baby. She still takes two naps a day, nurses four times, and eats three times. She loves bananas & sippy cups the best. You'd think for a girl who ate bananas (several of them) every day, she'd be over them by now, but NO. . I forgot to mention that she also rarely says a word for banana. We know she's excited when she starts flapping her arms & bobbing her head from side to side or up and down. The head bobbing is also her "dancing" and is very cute to watch. She is nowhere near as shy as her big sister was, and will even give smiles away to total strangers.

She loves riding in her stroller, especially if I go fast! And, she just moved up to her big sister's car seat, although it's still rear facing. With the fruit basket upset in the back seat, we had to move her over from the center (right next to sister) over to the window, and I think she really misses being close to Kate.

She's a great sleeper. Example: We go to prayer meeting at the Baileys on Wednesdays. At her normal bed time (8), I put her down there. About an hr or hour and a half later, we get her up & move her to the car. No cries. She stays awake usually for the entire ride home and then gets put back into her crib at home, and falls right to sleep again. She sucks her thumb quite adorably, but only when she's tired. This is a handy cue for mom! She likes to have something cozy to hold in one hand while she sucks the other thumb. Few pictures of this b/c who takes a picture of their kid when they are also trying to get them into bed (not me!).

As far as food goes, she's an eating machine! She frequently eats until her tummy looks HUGE and is hard as a rock. And sometimes, that's because I've cut her off! Today, for her birthday breakfast, she had 4 pancakes and some scrambled eggs. Sister had to be forced to finish her eggs & 1 pancake. She eats all table food these days and is very good at getting into her mouth. No plates or spoons for her yet, she's still using her God-given utensils, her fingers.

If you'd like to see her slideshow, I've linked to it on facebook.