Hair

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?

Bubbles

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 we acquired a bag of hand-me-down clothes. In it was a Disney Princess Cinderella dress. Rachel immediately put it on just in time to take her nap. Naps are better with Disney Princess dresses on.
I used to hate wearing dresses when I was a little kid, and my mom made me wear them all the time. I think Grandma Bateman would like Rachel better than she liked me, and that's saying something because it's common knowledge that I was her favorite. :)

Sunday

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.

Unfamiliar Territory

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!

Gabi is 17 months old (yesterday)

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.

Fall Festival

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.

Potty Trained

The answer is: Monday October 11, 2010.

Potty Training

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?

Girls Night Out

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.

Gabi at the playground at Chick-Fil-A

A Week of Birthday Celebrations

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.