Momentous Milestone

I have been a grossly negligent recorder of a very important milestone. Three weeks ago Rachel stood by herself. The date was July 24 (a.k.a. Pioneer Day). I did not record it because I was unable to duplicate the results consistently. I have such a belief in the scientific method that I can't record an anomaly as if it were a regular occurrence. However, since that first time, Rachel has stood on her own four times. I have witnesses (Andrea, Christina, Jeff, Kristi). So I am ready to call it official. Rachel can stand by herself. She is just an independent little girl, who will only do it when she feels like it, not on command.

So are you ready for another poop story? If not, you may want to skip this part. I warn you, there's a picture.

Tuesday we were sitting around the dinner table eating dinner. I was in kind of a hurry because I had a rehearsal to get to. Rachel was enjoying her dinner, but at the same time was grunting and straining. I thought, "Hey look, Rachel is pooping." Then again. And a third time. I told Jeff, "I'm sorry, but this one's yours. I've got to leave pretty soon."

A minute later I saw something on Rachel's belly that I did not recognize at first, but upon closer observation, saw that it was very runny poop. I looked kind of like fancy mustard. It actually came out both the front and the back. GROSS!

So we took her into the bathroom, stripped her down in the tub, and hosed her off. I didn't make Jeff handle it on his own. That would have been a little much!


Well, let's get that image out of your eyeballs with some cute pictures from yesterday.


Jeff wanted a zoomed in shot of just her head from the infamous picture related to the unpleasant story. She didn't seem at all bothered by the situation.

It's like riding a bike

The bathroom has become a favorite hangout for Rachel, so we usually keep the door closed. This morning as I headed into the bathroom to take a shower, I found that someone had accidentally locked the door. Bummer! Now I abandoned my life of crime some time ago, so I am a little out of practice in lock picking, but apparently it is like riding a bike, and it came right back to me. So no worries, any of you out there who are afraid of me smelling bad. I took a shower.

Rachel's fourth and final primary central incisor has erupted. You may want to keep your fingers a safe distance away.

When Rachel was born, I was almost exactly one year older than my own mom was when I was born. So just for the fun of it, I am going to post some comparison pictures.

Here am I at almost 1 year old.
Here is Rachel at almost 1 year old.

Here is my Mom at approximately my current age.
Here am I at my approximate current age.
You might think my mom looks a little grumpy in her picture, but in her defense, she had 12 kids by that time. I've only got one.

Now accepting applications

Today, my two best friends, Holly and Marlene, moved away. I have known for quite a while that Holly was moving, so in sorrowful anticipation of that event, I began grooming Marlene to take her place as my new best friend. So the next thing I know, Marlene moves away too. So I am now accepting applications for a new best friend. Please include your resume and a cover letter.

We had a few lasts this past week. Our last (and my first) bread day. Holly made bread. It took two tries (no salt the first time), but it was delicious. I brought my homemade blackberry jam.

Our last donut day. Holly made the donuts, and Gary made the glaze. (I helped a little.)


Rachel really, and I mean REALLY like the donuts.


Holly liked them too.
A farewell party at Dina's house.
So good-bye, and good luck to both Marlene and Holly. Please come back soon for a visit. In the meantime, all the best of luck in your new city. Make some new friends. I warn you, though. You are not likely to find someone else like me. (But maybe that's a good thing.)

Baby's Got Some Brand New Shoes

I have kept Rachel barefoot as long as weather permits, but it occurred to me the other day that as she spends more time on the floor, maybe a pair of shoes would be nice. Of course, following the directions in my handbook on raising a baby, a.k.a. "What To Expect the First Year" I wanted the shoes to be as soft and as much like barefoot as possible, so they have a really soft sole. They are pretty cute though. So here is my little foot model.



We went to the water park at the zoo yesterday with Grandma and her cousins Austin, Waveny and Grace. So here's my little swimsuit model (with her cousins).


Thanks, Grandma, for taking us to the water park and the zoo.


Afterwards we went to Cracker Barrel for dinner. Rachel enjoyed immensely her dinner of grilled cheese sandwich and applesauce, and topped it off with a pickle, which she still loves!

Zoo

Rachel is obviously the sweetest thing that was ever born. You can tell because the mosquitoes totally love her. She is being devoured by the little critters. Of course she has to have a couple of big bites right on her face. We hate subtlety in our house.


We went to the zoo on Monday. Rachel has gotten to a point where she really enjoys the zoo. We have been before, but she pretty much just passively sat as we strolled through the zoo, but now she really looks and reacts to what she sees. It is fun.


At the halfway point of the path around the zoo is a water park. We were prepared for it, because it was HOT! We enjoyed getting wet, and it made the second half of the walk more pleasant.


At the gorilla house Rachel made friends with a little girl. As we struck up a conversation, I learned that the other little girl was exactly Rachel's same age, also born on September 22. The funny thing was that the other little girl weighs 14 lbs, while Rachel weighs 23 lbs. Of course we took pictures!


But let's keep this size thing in perspective. Rachel is a lot smaller than a full grown gorilla!


By the end of our zoo trip, Rachel was completely out. I was pretty tired myself.


Rachel is the climbingest little monkey I have ever seen. (Is this a result of excessive time at the zoo? I don't know.) Anyway, she can just about climb on anything. Piano bench? Easy. She just uses her old car seat to give her a step up. Laundry basket. Effortless. Couch? No problem.

Rachel Loves to Swim

Last night Jeff, Rachel and I went to the pool. Rachel loves swimming, or at least she loves the water. We try to get to the pool at least once a week, but sometimes more. Here are a few pictures of us enjoying the water.

After swimming for a while, we played on the swing. Rachel loves the swings too. In fact, is there anything that Rachel doesn't love?

Top 100 Books

The National Endowment for the arts estimates that the average adult has read only 6 of the top 100 books . . .
How about you??? (Copy and paste the list, then put in bold the books you've read, and star (*) the books you loved.)

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen* (an absolute favorite)
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (I saw all of the movies, though)
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling* (loved the whole series)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee* (what a fantastic book)
6 The Bible* (a good book - get it? good book?)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell (liked it more than I thought I would, then there is the short story "Repent Harlequin, said the Tick-Tock Man, which is similar to 1984)
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott (I liked Little Men better)
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (not complete, but a lot of them)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell*
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (Saw this movie too. Jeff has the book and loves it. He keeps trying to get me to read it, but . . .)
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis* (great books - loved the whole series)
34 Emma - Jane Austen*
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen*
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis* (okay, this is one of the series from #33, but if it makes me look well-read, then that's great)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (I have it in Spanish, but I haven't read it yet)
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen* (good book)
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (it was the best of books, it was the worst of books)
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas (I really liked the movie too)
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens (I really like this movie too)
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (I've read some of them)
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas* (good book)
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (My absolutely favorite stage production of all time, bar none.)

A couple of books that are not on this list, but are among my favorites The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter, and The Chosen by Chaim Potok. You should really read both of them.

More Teeth

Well, it's official. After more than a week of threatening to poke through, Rachel's first top tooth has finally erupted. I could see it just under the gum for a while, but now it is there. Just ask my finger.

Homemade Blackberry Jam

My own blackberry bush didn't do that much, and what little was produced was mostly stolen by the birds. Fortunately, Jeff's Grandpa came to the rescue and gave me some of the berries from his bushes, so today I made blackberry freezer jam. My mom, if she could see me now, would be so proud of my domestic skills.

News IQ

Test your News IQ and take this test. I will just say at the outset that I got 11 out of 12 correct.

Click here to take the quiz.

In the comment section tell me how you did (if you dare).