On the off chance you’re wondering, she’s growing. She turned 19 months last Thursday, and she visited the doctor recently and she’s 22+ lbs and 30+ inches. She seems even bigger to me!

We were worried about her language at her 15 month appointment, when she didn’t even say “Mama” or “Dada.” The doctor said to wait until 18 months to see if she started talking. And she did! She has about 15 words now, including [always whispered] “titititi” (tickle), “h’ow” (hello), “buhbuh” (bubble), and “deydis” (there it is).

And best of all, she picked up another word in the middle of her exam. Hayden tried to take the toy she was playing with and Rachel declared, “MY!”

She smiled, and either blew me a kiss—or signed thank you.

Rachel doesn’t really talk. For a couple days, she said “Out” a lot. She has managed to hold onto “Uh ohs!” whenever she sees something on the ground. But her signs are really picking up. She’s gotten really good at Thank you, and also learned please, apple, baby and:

Rachel, banana.

I also love how she signs music:

The “official signs”: banana, music.

As we walked through our home airport, after three weeks’ summer vacation at Nana’s and 8 hours of traveling:

“For my birthday, I’m gonna go back to Nana’s,” Hayden proclaimed. “Becca, do you want to come with me?”

“Come wis you? Awe we gon’ get mawwied??”

While we were visiting, my wayward sisters taught Rebecca what to say when she received a proposal of marriage. I didn’t realize how deeply it’d sunken in until we’d been home a few days. Rebecca was rolling around on the floor (for fun, you know) and after a minute, I heard what she was saying:

“Whewe’s my big diamond?!”

Last night, since Hayden was sick, I brought Rebecca with me to his school’s literacy night. She was so well-behaved! I let her draw in Hayden’s notebook and she used the crayons on the table—though not always for pictures. Well, two-dimensional ones:

I asked if it was a house. She informed me, “It’s Hayden’s schoow! An’ dis ownge c’own [orange crayon] is Hayden!” After I took the picture, she added another crayon next to Hayden: “His teachew.”

I was letting Rebecca play in our fenced-in backyard while I put Rachel to bed. “Be careful,” I warned her.

“Don’t wowwy, Mommy.” She gave me a thumbs up. “I wiww be pewfectwy fine.”

“You are so funny,” I told Rebecca.

“Yes, I am.”

1. Rain—don’t have to water the garden! (Borrowed from my friend Elisa, who’s also participating!)
2. My garden (okay, my sugar snap peas) is growing.
3. Ryan just cut both yards and they look very neat.
4. Hayden’s drawings—today he drew me an awesome cow .
5. Getting things done with the rest of the Executive Committee of my writers’ group.
6. Chopped!
7. Chatting with my sister, which I missed today.
8. Contact lenses and glasses.
9. Already having my pineapple CUPside-down CAKES, done and posted on Wayward Girls’ Crafts for this week!
10. Sleeping in! (relatively)

And today’s:

1. Naps, even if in theory only.
2. Rachel kicking with delight!
3. Checking things off my to do list (like this post!).
4. Putting the kids to bed early-ish.
5. That Rebecca’s hair will grow. (See last picture.)
6. Potty training! (And being done!)
7. Finishing off the cookies we made last night—no more temptation.
8. Left overs and Ryan reheating them.
9. Tuna salad sandwiches with celery, making me think of my mom.
10. Hayden including his sisters in playing with his blocks. And his blogs. But more about that next week.

“Dees are my wobots,” she informed us. So these are Rebecca’s Robots:

(Her hands. Also note the plate of shredded cheese, which is pretty much all the child will eat for dinner.)

Her robots talk and help her do all kinds of things (being her hands). They love their mommy robots (my hands) especially.

Some cute things Rebecca has said lately:

• Teese neveh wive in cups! Teese wive in bowws! (Cheese never lives in cups! Cheese lives in bowls!)
• Wohwa’kates: roller skates
• Yeh weww: yeah, well (at the beginning of a sentence)
• Beebee: I’m not even sure what the exact translation of this would be (baby?), but it’s something she says a lot when she’s playing with Pinky, her stuffed animal. It’s either what she called Pinky, or what Pinky calls her. Or maybe both.

And some more:

Another favorite game is MontahINK! (Monsters, Inc.) Rebecca is Suwwy (Sully) and Pinky is either Boo or Mike ‘Akow’ki. I’m usually whatever Pinky isn’t, though sometimes Rachel gets that honor. Hayden has played Mike and Wannaw (Randall). Once I was even Wannanoos (Mr. Waternoose).

Her hair, obviously, spends a lot of time in her face, so today I did this (she cried, but she’s come to accept it):

I’m not really thrilled with how I did, but cutting my kids’ hair too short is something I’m good at.

What do you think? What are you grateful for? Isn’t Rebecca pretty much the best little girl in the world?

• yeyyow
• yittle/yiddew (especially Rebecca’s favorite nickname for Rachel, “yiddew baby!”)
• yeash (leash)
• And my favorite: I yub you!

I also love little kids’ attempts to jump. Rebecca is obsessed with jumping over the cracks when we’re walking on pavement, but her little feet never leave the ground at the same time (though she actually can jump—just not while walking).

What are your favorite learning (yearning?) processes to watch?

My favorites from Rebecca:

• ackshee . . . (actually)
• s’uw (sure, but without the sh. Or the r.)
• Kudaihav . . . ? (Could I have . . . ?)
• Pe-p’ease? (Pretty please?) (This just recently advanced from “Me-mease?”)
• Mayme we can . . . (Maybe—Rebecca is generating alternatives)
• F’iends (Friends)

But I think the most surprising recent words were this:

Last night at dinner, we were talking about our visit with Nana (my mom). I asked my son Hayden what his favorite part of the visit was. He decided his favorite part was getting new blocks from Nana.

“Here’s the backstory,” he said. And he proceeded to explain in great detail the shopping trip a week ago when we bought the new blocks.

“It’s great on so many levels,” he concluded.

(!!)

What are your favorite kid phrases?

We did the Toilet Training in Less Than a Day method again. Although it lived up to its name with Hayden, it took two or three days for it to really click with Rebecca.

(I know. I’m disappointed potty training took three whole days.)

But now, three weeks in, she’s doing absolutely great! She’s afraid of “big poddies” (I had to bring her home in the middle of church yesterday to get her to go), but very good at waiting until we get home.

We’re proud of our big girl!

What milestones have you hit this month?

(Another U note: I taught our preschool for the U week, right before General Conference, so I taught the kids who President Uchtdorf [counselor/assistant to the Prophet] is. When Hayden was learning the planets with Nana this week, she was reviewing and tried to get him to name a planet that began with U. “Planet Uchtdorf!” Hayden declared.)

This morning, Rachel used the couch to stand up for the first time! This is her last week, using the rocking chair (also the true first):

She’s still growing, but not quite as fast as she used to be. She was almost average sized at 4 months (a first for one of my children!), but at 6 (really 7) months, she was closer to the 35th percentile in weight. (Height was at the 98th percentile, but since she’s not abnormally long/tall, the doctor and I think that was probably a mis-measure.)

Rebecca is growing, too! She’s officially two and a half today. Lately she seems to be speaking much more clearly. For example, she doesn’t say “pea’ bu’ saas” but “peadut butter sammatch.” She still doesn’t say her r’s, favoring y’s and w’s instead. (“Diapehy” is a favorite of mine.)

She started having serious problems with bedhead, so I tried to get her to use scrunchies. If I did her hair “wike Tinkie Behww!” or to match mine (“We matsh?”), she was excited to let me touch her hair (a first!). I got her a few scrunchies at the dollar store last week, and she lets me do her hair almost every day now.

Hayden is learning new words. He likes to sound out words often these days (Last night: “G-g-g-gum. G! Gummmmm. M!”). He loves preschool, especially when it’s our turn to teach/host. He’s also experimenting with more photography (revolving around his latest favorite toy) and self-portraiture.

Warning: extreme closeup!

I fear I’ve created a monster, though: last week, I showed him the folder of Internet bookmarks I had just for him. I showed him how to open the browser. I showed him which link (of the 2-3) led to PBS Kids games. And now all he wants to do is play on the computer! (We have a few rules, of course: he has to ask first and get off whenever we tell him to.) It’s a little annoying during a lot of the day, but makes for a quieter quiet time. (And Rebecca happily taking naps again is helping with that, too!)

I love that they’re growing and discovering new things ad getting more independent, but I’m always sad to feel their early childhood slipping away.

What milestones have your kids hit recently?

I used my “finger phone.” “Hi, Rebecca. How are you?”

“Gud.”

“What are you doing?”

“Nuffing. Watcha TV. Fee Ferm.” [Phineas & Ferb]

Rebecca really looked forward to her birthday this year (probably mostly because Hayden thought it was exciting). I kept having to tell her that it wasn’t her birthday yet. Finally, she got the message—whenever the subject came up, she’d say, “Becca birt-day! Nek week. Mon-ay.” [Next week. Monday.]

After her birthday, we (again, mostly Hayden) taught Rebecca her age. “How old are you?” we’d ask.

“Two!” she’d proclaim for the first week, and hold up her fingers:

After the first week, the answer changed. “How old are you?” we ask.

She’s still just as proud to proclaim her new answer: “Becca!”

Sometimes, Rebecca has rough naps. It takes her over an hour to fall asleep (though she seldom cries, so that’s good). One day, she’d been in bed for 90 minutes and started bawling. I came in to get her.

“Becca ‘wake,” she told me piteously.

“I can hear that.”

“Becca ky.” [cry]

“Did you sleep at all?”

“Uh huh.” She holds up her fingers the same as above. “One minnut.” (She also likes to tell me “one minnut” when she wants me to wait for her.)

Last week, Rebecca got sent to her room for the first time. She and Hayden had been fighting, so they both got sent to their room. Rebecca submitted peacefully, allowing me to lead her to her room, and sitting quietly in the arm chair there. She insisted I close the door. (This was probably because Hayden threw his usual screaming fit at the mere mention of being sent to his room, and as always, I had to physically drag him there. Maturity FTW.)

After Rebecca’s two minutes were up, I opened the door and invited her to come out. (Hayden was still screaming at this point, laying over the threshold to his room.) Rebecca preferred to stay in her room. Can’t say I blame her.

Later that day, something happened to upset her while she was in another room. “I go my woom!” she announced to her father amid her tears.

I found her there, laying on the arm chair, crying, a few minutes later. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I sad.” [Biggest frown in the world]

“Can I hold you to help you feel better?”

“No. Me’cine [medicine] help me feel better.”

Edited to add: whenever she thinks I’m upset, she uses her cutest, most innocent tone: “Sumping wong, Mommy? Needa Pinky?”

What are your favorite kid moments recently? Or what are your favorite toddler moments?

On the other hand, you also realize that the good times—the first smiles, the intent study of your hairline, the incredible cuteness of tiny toes and feet and hands—will be gone equally fast. And you look at all the adorable things your older kids are doing, and you can’t begin to capture them all.

Personally, I wish I could get down all the new words Rebecca learns every day—she’s become an amazing mimic and can string together up to 5 words. I wish I could list all the words she knows, but I doubt I could recall more than a quarter of her vocabulary. She’s also learning to count and say the alphabet (and she won’t even be two for two more weeks—the benefits of having an older sibling who gets counting and alphabet books).

I wish I could record all Hayden is learning, too—how he puts things together, physically and mentally. He’s learning new concepts and words every day, too (though he already knows so much that it’s not the exponential growth Rebecca is seeing). He loves to run and play outside, and he likes to read books.

Rachel, of course, doesn’t do a whole lot, but I find myself wanting to hang on to these little moments the most with her. She’s already grown so much that I can just feel the rest of her babyhood slipping through my fingers.

Just thinking about the things I’m “missing” because I don’t have something recording my kids’ every action makes me a little anxious, reminding me that I’m missing out more. But just being aware that today is slipping away makes me pay more attention, even if I can’t leap up and get the video camera and coax a repeat of some spontaneous cute thing.

And it reminds me to keep paying attention—to treasure these little moments as they’re happening—to live in the present.

How do you treasure today?

Photo by Erik Fitzpatrick