Last Friday was our ward Christmas party. Apparently we have good connections, because Santa Claus came for a visit.
I found a fun site where I could have Santa Claus sent Rachel and Gabi a personalized video. It was free (my favorite price).
Message from Santa for Rachel
Message from Santa for Gabi
Last night Jeff and I went to a Messiah Sing Along. We've gone most every year since we've been married. We sing the entire Part I of Messiah, and then we end with Hallelujah Chorus.
Speaking of Hallelujah Chorus, I'm sure most everyone has seen some version of this rendition of that great masterpiece, but just in case you've been living under a rock for the past decade, here are the Silent Monks performing it.
I first saw that about 10 years ago or so when I played the 'cello for a Living Christmas Tree program that is done yearly at a Baptist Church here in town, and they did this. I don't know who came up with it, but apparently every Baptist Church in the United States has done it, at least according to YouTube. When are we Mormons going to join the fun? My favorite is the short person.
Saturday brought snow. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough to cover the ground and to build a snowman. Not all snow is good for packing, but this snow was the best snowman building snow I've encountered in a very long time. We bundled up the girls and took them outside to play in the snow. They had a great time.
Jeff and I had a little snowball fight. I accidentally hit him like three times in such a way that the snow got down his collar and onto his neck. I blame my poor aim. The snow was sticking to my gloves and that threw off my motion.
(I started this post last Wednesday, but I'm finally getting around to finishing it.)
This morning started like any other. I woke Rachel and Gabi up at 7:30 so they could see their daddy before he went to work. Everything was fine until about 9:00 when I was getting Rachel her breakfast. She reached up to get a box of cereal, and suddenly cried out. I was standing right next to her, but I didn't see what happened. I thought maybe she bumped her head, but I couldn't see how that could have happened. I held her and tried to comfort her, but she wasn't acting like it was getting any better. I realized that whenever she moved her head or her arms she cried out in pain. I looked at her head where she was holding it, but I couldn't see anything. I started to get scared because she was not getting any better.
I called my pediatrician, and they asked me to bring her in. I had to get her dressed still, and she cried out as I helped her put her arms through her sleeves.
We got to the doctor, and she laid on the examination table, holding her neck/head, and not moving at all. (Very unlike her.) The doctor examined her, looking for indications of meningitis, and did a throat culture to look for strep. Both were negative. He concluded that it was a bad muscle spasm. He gave her a dosage of children's Motrin, and told me to to continue to treat her with children's Motrin and a little heat for the rest of the day, and call him after lunch. We got home, but the Motrin didn't seem to do much more than barely take the edge off.
I fed the girls lunch and put them down for their naps. Rachel never did act like the pain was relieved. I called the doctor back and told him that she did not seem to have any relief. He told me to check after she woke up from her nap, and if it was still painful he might order x-rays.
Sure enough Rachel was still complaining of pain after her nap, so I took her to the brand new children's hospital for x-rays. (The only good thing about the day was that I finally got to check out the new children's hospital. I drive by it all the time when I go to Costco, but before this I never had the opportunity to go inside.) The x-rays were negative, so that pretty much confirmed that we were just dealing with a bad muscle spasm. I've had plenty of muscle problems in my neck, but I thought Rachel was too young for that kind of thing. I thought it was reserved for old folks like me.
The next morning Rachel was definitely better, but her neck was still bothering her a little, but that was the last time she complained about it. It was really scary for a while, and I'm very grateful to my mother-in-law who helped me out by taking care of Gabi while I took Rachel to the hospital, and fixing dinner, and cleaning the kitchen. I also appreciate my VT companion who saved me from having to take the girls into the cold with one suffering from a very painful muscle spasm to buy children's Motrin. She picked it up for me, and I really appreciate all the help.
Anyway, all ended well, and Rachel has been just fine ever since, but I'll tell you, it was not a fun day!
We have had a very dry end of summer and early fall. It has really only rained 3 or 4 times in the past four months or so. The rainfall has started to pick up finally, though, and it rained all day on Wednesday, and all day yesterday (Thanksgiving). I'm really glad we got the rain. Really I am, but seriously, couldn't we have spread it out a bit more over the past 4 months?
Overnight the temperature dropped even more, and we woke up to a light covering of snow on the ground. Rachel was ecstatic. She remembers snow. As soon as she realized there was snow outside breakfast was forgotten, and she got her winter clothes on, and she was outside. I don't think Gabi remembered the snow, but she was enthusiastic about getting her winter duds on and going out in the snow herself.
I gave the girls blueberries with their lunch. Rachel is to the point where she can eat blueberries without getting the stain everywhere. Gabi, on the other hand . . .
For dessert after dinner we had leftover pie that I had made for Thanksgiving dinner. I made both chocolate and pistachio pies. They were good. Gabi couldn't shovel it in fast enough. She needed both a fork and a spoon to get it in her mouth as fast as possible.
Rachel was all about sharing.
Today was Gabi's 18 month check up. She actually turned 18 months old over a week ago, but her doctor's appointment was today.
Here are her vital statistics:
Height: 32 inches 60%
Weight: 24 lbs. 1 oz. 55%
Head Circumference: 18¼ inches 50%
The nurse practitioner who did the exam gave her several blocks to play with to check her fine motor skills. At her age they would expect her to be able to stack 2 or 3 blocks. Gabi stacked 6 blocks. So yeah, she's pretty much a genius!
Rachel does not like having her hair combed. At least not by me. So in an effort to make hair combing more welcome, when she wanted to spray my hair with water and comb it, I welcomed her attentions.
She was having a great time, spraying my head with (cold) water, and combing it. I had to stop her when she started hitting my scalp with the tines of the comb. It hurt. So she went to the kitchen and came back with a fork. She told me it was a dinglehopper and was going to take my tangles out.
Where did she learn that one?
For her birthday Rachel got a bubble blowing machine. Gabi loves bubbles, and today she spent some quality time playing with Rachel's bubble machine.
Today was the primary program in our ward. I teach the Sunbeams, but since I have a team teacher, my partner sat with the sunbeams, and I sat on the front row to help with the music. (We have a very large primary, and the music director was on one side, so I stood on the other to help keep the kids focused.) Anyway, Jeff was sitting in the back with Rachel and Gabi. During the first song I felt a tug on my skirt and looked down to see Rachel. I picked her up and held her. Pretty soon Amber (my sister-in-law) came and took Rachel so she could sit with them, and I could help with the primary program with no interruption. Rachel sat very quietly and was very well behaved the whole time. Near the end of the program I saw that Rachel had opened her little bag of fruit snacks. She was sharing them with Amber's little girl Rose. In fact she gave more to Rose than she ate herself. I was so proud of her the way she was sharing and being so sweet. It brought tears to my eyes.
Tomorrow Gabi turns 18 months old. At 18 months she can join the nursery. We went ahead and jumped the gun just a bit, and sent her to the nursery for her first official day today. Several months ago I was pretty worried about how she would do. But Jeff has been taking her to nursery for several weeks now and staying with her, not to mention I've taken her to the nursery when I go to the Book of Mormon class on Tuesdays, so she has gotten some exposure. Anyway, she did great. I took her to the nursery room and she didn't even give me a backwards glance. She found a toy to play with right away, and could not have cared less when I left.
I just can't believe how much my girls are growing up!
I had a chuckle as I was getting Gabi ready for church this morning, and I saw how far up her little tights went up, almost to her armpits.
Yesterday Jeff took the girls to the park in the morning and again in the afternoon after naps so that I could get some much needed work done on cleaning the house. (I'm not very good at housecleaning as it is, and much less so with the girls around.) Anyway, Jeff took some fun pictures of the girls at the park.
Rachel changed her clothes for her second excursion to the park. Actually she wore her Tinkerbell pajamas in the afternoon.
You may have noticed that three weeks have passed since my last post. I'm very ashamed of myself, and hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. What you missed were two more Halloween excursions, and lots of eating of candy (by the girls). (Okay, I ate some candy too.) You also missed Jeff and I working at the Breeder's Cup. Other than that, pretty much same old same old.
I am embarking on unfamiliar territory. Gabi is approaching 18 months old, and she is now the same age Rachel was when I was put on bed rest. Jeff didn't complain, but it wasn't hard to tell that he struggled with Rachel at that age. Now I am having my first experience being the primary caregiver of a (nearly) 18-month-old. Let me tell you, it's not particularly easy! I'm never sure how much they understand. Are they being naughty without meaning to? Or are they figuring out how to push my buttons? Anyway, these next three months should be interesting (that's code for "a challenge").
Last night we went to a Halloween Party which was a hay-ride and trunk or treat. Rachel was a beautiful magical unicorn with wings. (She thought she was a unicorn butterfly. Works for me.) Gabi was a pirate. Of course ours were the cutest kids at the party.
Anyway, we all had a really good time, and it didn't hurt that the scenery and the sunset were beautiful!
It has been a busy week, so yesterday got away from me and I didn't post Gabi's 17 month birthday. But it happened anyway. She is 17 months old. 
Gabi is starting to talk some. Pretty much all of her words are shortened to one syllable (or less). But she says Mama ("ma"), Daddy ("da"), dog ("dah"), ball ("ba"), Baby Signing Time, ("beh sa ta"), thanks ("tha"), hat ("ha"). It's easy to tell what she is saying because she also does the sign for it.
We went to a fall festival this evening in Holiday Manor. It was just a small thing with a couple of bouncey castles and face painting. Rachel wanted to get her face painted like a tiger. The lady who was doing the face painting was really good. Here's Rachel's tiger face.
After we got home Rachel wanted to wear her Halloween costume which is a lion. So the final result was a liger. Napoleon Dynamite would be proud!
We didn't have Gabi's face painted. I didn't think she could keep still long enough. Rachel just barely lasted that long. But here's Gabi's very cute unpainted face anyway.
On our way home we stopped at Dairy Queen for the girls' dinner. We got them chicken strips, which they love. I only bought one meal for them to split, which meant just one drink. But my sweet little girls shared perfectly with each other.
So Rachel had an accident today. It was unfortunate, but since it was her first accident in a week, I'm still pretty happy about it. I'm not happy that she had accident, I'm happy that she only had one accident in a week.
Yesterday we almost gave up on potty training Rachel. She had three poopie accidents, and I don't even remember how many pee pee accidents. One of the poopie accidents ended up on the wall. I was really frustrated!
This morning I girded up my loins, fresh courage took, and decided to try again. She actually did great all day today (until the very end). Most significantly she had a real breakthrough. After her nap Rachel of her own free will went upstairs, and I recognized that she needed to go to the bathroom. I'll followed her into the bathroom, and she peed in the potty. About 10 minutes later she did the same thing. She headed upstairs on her own, and did some obvious body language to indicate that she had to go to the bathroom. I followed her, but this time she didn't want me in the bathroom with her. With some trepidation I allowed her to take care of business on her own. After I heard the water run I joined her in the bathroom, and using my detective skills I found evidence that she pooped in the potty. That was the first time EVER she has taken initiative to poop in the potty.
Now I am under no illusion that she has potty training mastered, but I feel a lot better about it tonight than I did last night.
So my question is, how much longer will she rely on me to get her to the bathroom on her own?
Following a tradition, Jeff went to dinner with his dad and brother, and then to the priesthood session of General Conference. So I decided to have girls night out with Rachel and Gabi. We went to Chick-Fil-A. I thought it would be fun since both girls like chicken, and they have a fun playground. The evening did not proceed without mishaps. I was holding Gabi and the food, and opening the door to the play area. Gabi knocked over the girls' drink, and as I tried to save it I knocked over my drink. Fortunately, the kind employee who cleaned up my mess also brought us new drinks.
The rest of the time there was pretty uneventful. They had a really good time on the playground. I was worried about Rachel's potty habit, so I was constantly asking her if she needed to use the potty, and she kept saying no. Her potty training lately has been something less than reliable. Finally I asked her and she didn't say no, so I took that as a yes and we went to the bathroom. Right in front of us was another family, so Rachel had to hold it while we waited for them to finish. I was pleading with her to hold it, and thankfully she did, and she peed in the potty.
When it was time to go home I reminded Rachel that we were going to watch a movie (Kung-Fu Panda), so she didn't resist the idea at all.
We went home and watched the movie for a while, and then it was time for the girls to go to bed. Rachel wanted to sleep in my bed but I wouldn't let her because she doesn't sleep very well when she sleeps with us, but she was being pretty funny. We were laying there and she said "Go to sleep!" So I closed my eyes and pretended to snore. Rachel liked that, so she pretended to snore too. The only thing is she doesn't know how to, so she was making all kinds of weird noises. We were laughing about it pretty good. I finally got the girls to bed and they went down without a peep.
Earlier today Jeff took Rachel to watch her cousin Grace play soccer. I stayed home with Gabi because it was her nap time. Rachel had a great time, and Jeff took some pictures.
It is so easy to dwell on the frustrations surrounding potty training, and believe me, there have been some major frustrations, but I have to say how wonderfully sweet Rachel has been lately. She has been very kind, very generous, very forgiving lately. The other day Gabi bit Rachel on the hand. Rather than retaliate, she came straight to me for some sympathy. She has been very good about sharing her toys, or at least making sure that Gabi also has a toy to play with.
Gabi, meanwhile, has entered the terrible twos somewhat prematurely. You would think that I would know what to do with my second, after having experimented on Rachel, but I don't. Rachel's temper tantrums were fierce, but very infrequent. Gabi's tantrums are not nearly as fierce, but much more frequent. So I'm learning all over again.
I don't know how Rachel managed it, but we had three parties for her. One last Monday with the extended family, one on Wednesday, her actual birthday, with her immediate family, and one on Saturday with her friends. I guess when you turn 3 you get 3 parties. I hope that trend doesn't continue as she gets older!
Anyway, on Friday evening I was working in the back yard getting everything ready for the party. During the course of my work I stepped on a rusty roofing nail with my bare foot. It went in pretty far, and it hurt pretty bad. On Saturday morning I went to the Urgent Care office and got a tetanus shot. I came back home with just 30 minutes to spare before the birthday guests were arriving.
The kids all seemed to have fun. They played on the jungle gym, the played in the sand/water box, we had bubbles, we had face painting, and I made balloon animals. It would be more accurate to say that I made balloon dogs because that's the only animal I know how to make. Then we had cupcakes and ice cream and opened presents.
The number of kids and the length of time all seemed to work out perfectly. They all seemed to have fun, there was no crying, no fighting, and I think they all went home happy.
