Rachel loves to wiggle and shake. The other day I watched her waggling her head all around. “I love your dancing,” I told her.
She smiled, and either blew me a kiss—or signed thank you.
Rachel’s middle name is Diana; she’s named after my mother. Growing up, my mother had a nickname she absolutely hated: Banana Cake. (I only tell you this in the strictest confidence. Do NOT use this against my mother.)
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:
Checking things off my to do list (like this post!).
Putting the kids to bed early-ish.
That Rebecca’s hair will grow. (See last picture.)
Potty training! (And being done!)
Finishing off the cookies we made last night—no more temptation.
Left overs and Ryan reheating them.
Tuna salad sandwiches with celery, making me think of my mom.
Hayden including his sisters in playing with his blocks. And his blogs. But more about that next week.
One day—it was a Friday, but that doesn’t matter—there was a little girl—and that does matter—learning to use the potty. And as she sat on the potty, she perched her fingers on her knees, with her pointer fingers out.
“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?
This weekend two of my sisters came to visit me. Jaime interviewed my kids (well, the ones who talk) and their answers were revealing. Rebecca’s interview was an especial favorite. The highlight is definitely 1:32-1:55.
We don’t have a way to upload our regular videos right now, but I got this one with our still camera (hence quality, shakiness and silence) today. As a reminder, she’s 5 months and 10 days old:
She’s got that lateral motion down. Forward is . . . a work in progress.
With Hayden, we had two people giving examples—me and Ryan. (And, let’s face it, most of the time it was me. That whole earning-money thing. Whatever.)
With Rebecca, she has two people with her pretty much all the time to model behaviors. She’s picking up signing probably about the same as Hayden did, and of course some things she hasn’t learned yet that he knew at this age—but some things she’s practically a prodigy at already.
Like this one:
She also does this whenever she sees me with my arms folded, and randomly throughout the day. I love finding her sitting on the floor, her arms folded and her head deeply bowed. She’s also done this while we were eating lunch or even out to eat, as if to remind us that we forgot to say our prayers.
I know there will be an equal number of disadvantages for her, of course—I just won’t have the same amount time I devoted to Hayden to give my singular attention to her—but I’m pretty proud of this one!
How were your later children easier than your first? What things did you notice them picking up on faster?
