Stand and Deliver

Since she got two rubber duckies in her stocking, Rachel has been getting to take baths instead of showers for the past few nights. She really seems to love it, and it saves water. We only fill the bath up 6-8 inches and it's enough for her to splash around in. She's shown crawling-like inclinations as she tries to get to ducks out of reach and she talks to them. The baths also allow Lori to participate a little more; she can sit outside the shower on the floor with the shower door open and play with the baby, too. Last night, Lori had left to take care of some stuff and the door was still open. Rachel leaned towards the edge of the shower, walked her hands up the side of the tub, until she could grasp the ledge that would be outside of the shower doors, to keep water in the shower. Then she began to pull herself up. The first two times, she started to fall to one side partway up. But if I sat her back down in the water, she would splash for a few seconds and then lean forward and try it again. She seemed to do more pulling with her arms than pushing with her legs, but pretty soon she was standing on her own repeatedly without falling to one side in the process.

I really think the past few days have hit another milestone... she just seems more perceptive, more alert and much closer to talking and walking than she did even just a few days ago. Still, no signs of a desire to walk. I think it's because she's learning a lot by observing and she doesn't see us crawling.

Last night she ate the whole bowl of rice cereal without making a mess. The only mess was when I dribbled some on her (ok, and me too.)

Another toy she got for Christmas is a Baby Winnie that Pooh that 'magically dances' It comes with a baby rattle and when that is shaken, the toy wiggles around. Pretty clever, and you could see her starting to realize the cause and effect. It's so awesome to see discovery and thought in her, or any child or adult for that matter... that look of "dawning" as they start to put two and two together.

Merry Christmas!

Well Baby

Rachel had her six-month "Well Baby" appointment yesterday. She had to get stuck four times. She didn't enjoy that, but it's interesting how quickly babies seem to forget shots... like a few seconds after each one, they're fine and happy again. The pain is fleeting. To have that kind of innocence would be awesome. At least in situations like that.

She is 25-3/4" long and 16lb6oz and her head is 17-1/4" in circumference. Length and weight are right at the 50th percentile and the head is a little larger. The fluid in her ears from the ear infections looks much better, but she did have to have one ear scraped so the doctor could see into it -- she has narrow ear canals. She did not like that.

She threw such a fit at one point that the doctor said "ooh, a bit of a temper." and we were both thinking to ourselves "Nuh-uh. Not our sunshine." But, it could be true, she could end up with a temper, with me as her dad. On that, still working on the being positive and learning from her thing. She does have such a happy life.

With support, she thinks about the walking thing, sometimes taking a few steps. If she's sitting on the bed and we come up and lean against it, she will grab onto us and try to pull herself to standing. She isn't yet pushing enough with her legs, trying to do all the work with her arms. The other night she was in her playpen and all of the sudden we looked over and she was at the edge with her arms over gazing out. Really not sure how she was able to get to that stage. She wasn't in any danger, but if she repeats that too much, then we'll need to abandon the bassinet attachment and just use the larger playard area, which will bum her out because she seems to love sitting up so high, surveying the room.

Can You Hear Me Now?

Rachel's cold was on its way out when she got a fever. Back to the doctors and yep, ear infections in both ears. Grrrrr.... So she went on amoxicillin(sp?) and a day and a half later the fever broke. She seems to be getting much better and she's been mostly sleeping through the night and actually sleeping quite a bit during the day, too.