No Shoes For You!

Lori and her mom picked up some new shoes for Rachel yesterday. So far, she's not a big fan of shoes. If you put them on her feet, she screams bloody murder and refuses to walk, and isn't even really interested in crawling.

But yesterday Lori handed her one of her shoes and she immediately staggered out of her room turned right proceeded down a short hall, turned right into our bedroom and right to our closet where she crouched down and grabbed one of my shoes with her other hand.

Now, I know Rachel is a genius, but seriously it's mind-boggling to think that she had that level of thought. If I hadn't seen it for myself, I probably would have some reservations, but seriously she did it all in one continuous motion. I had her walk around later and I think it was about 40 steps. Which on its own for her to walk that much all at once is pretty impressive.

Sharing

Rachel seems to have really picked up sharing. It's so cute. Whenever she's eating and you come close, she will hold out food to you. Sometimes she's teasing and when you open your mouth she quickly pulls back and throws it in her mouth. But mostly she will feed you if you open your mouth. Of course, sometimes you have to say 'No thank you.' because her hands are all slobbery. Tonight she took some toys out of a plastic bag and had the bag in her hands and I said 'Plastic bags aren't for babies. Can I have it?' She held it out and dropped it. I held my hand out and she stood up picked up the bag and carried it to me and handed it to me.

Hey, Jealousy

Without any real questions about how I had two beautiful girls on my lap, I guess I've had my fun.

The other little girl is Kinley, we were at a picnic with our Sunday school class. Some of you were able to see the picture of her older sister Kira (at 7 month) on my lap at the fourth of July picnic in 2002. Everyone swore that she was my daughter in the photograph.

Well Kinley had just fallen down and gotten a really nasty bump on her head, so her mom decided it was time to go. She asked us to watch Kinley while she went to find Kira and her husband. Kinley was quite upset from the fall so I held her on my lap to calm her.

Rachel came up and regarded us, so I brought her in to sit with us. For awhile they were fine. Kinley's about four months older than Rachel. But after awhile, Rachel started to show signs of being upset, not from being held, but from Kinley being there.

It should be interesting to see how she reacts to a younger brother or sister. (No, this is not an announcement.)

Umm....hmm....

Umm...hmm... how to explain. Or perhaps it's more fun not to.

Moms pregnant with boys less forgetful?

MSNBC.COM -- A Canadian study on memory of pregnant women kept giving contradictory results, until the researchers divided the results by the gender of the fetus.

Not Tired Yet

Autism Test for Babies

MSNBC.COM -- A study in Canada suggests that autism may be diagnosed as early as 12 months old in infants who don't smile much, aren't very active or don't make a lot of eye contact. The study looked at 150 infants. They identified 19 which they predicted would be diagnosed with autism between the ages of 2 and 3 (the typical age when autism is diagnosed) and then tested them when they were between the ages of 2 and 3 and all 19 were dianosed with autism.

I read an interesting article a few months ago that suggested autism wasn't a "have" or "not have" but a scale. I then self-diagnosed myself as being just the smallest bit autistic.

Our child, however, is incredibly active, smiles all the time and makes eye contact whenever possible. When she's being held, sometimes she will smack you on both sides of your head or face. If you close your eyes, she stops hitting. As soon as you open your eyes, you see those hands poised and bap! She's got you again.

And teachers thought they were underpaid...

MSNBC.COM -- A study salary.com suggests that the value of the average stay-at-home is about $130k a year, if it were a paid job. Rachel might need to get a job to help me pay Lori.

Super Girl

Yahoo News -- 'Daddy was poorly, but I looked after him' Girl, age 2, saves dad from diabetic coma. What an awesome story.

Diaper Prices to Rise

MSNBC.COM -- Proctor & Gamble and Kimberly Clark raise prices. Um, yeah, thanks for that. For those non-initiated, you cannot comprehend how many diapers you will go through. It is impossible to count.