Rachel playing the piano

This is one of the video's of Rachel playing the piano a couple of weeks ago.

Hair cut

I finally gave Rachel a little hair cut this morning. I can't believe how much she looks like a 'little girl' now. Those baby looks are long gone now :( And yes, I actually did cry a little bit this morning after I cut her hair - just because I can't believe how different she looked..my baby girl is growing up (and let's be honest - it's the hormones, too - I cry over everything - just ask Ron!)

Here's a picture from this morning...


In other news, her front tooth is officially out now. Yay - I can actually write it in her baby book! ha ha I can't remember if I mentioned anything about the tooth in my last post or not. Funny that she got her top tooth first but I don't care - she HAS A TOOTH NOW! YAY!!!! Her cheeks have been rosy over the past few days and she's been warm/feverish a couple of times, too - maybe she's getting more? I'm not getting my hopes up - one tooth is good for now!

Lately Rachel has become to attached to her dolls. She carries them all over the house and even burps them! (so cute to see). I brought up her baby furniture for her dolls and she's been using it. I can't believe how realistic this stuff is. The stroller folds just like the one we have for Rachel. There is also a carseat, a highchair and a playpen. She loves to take her dolls for walks in the stroller and when she eats, her doll has to be in the highchair beside Rachel. Too cute.

Other than that, things are going great and our little munchkin is becoming quite the little girl. She is saying more and more words every day...it won't be long now before she's talking our ear off. Lucky Ron - two women like that in the house! ha ha

Wow - it's time for an update!

So much has happened over the past few weeks...I don't even know where to begin.

I'm back to work and enjoying it. I thought it would take a lot longer to get adjusted to being a "working Mom" but it's really not so bad...especially on payday! ha ha Seriously though, Rachel still sleeps so much during the day that I don't feel like I'm missing out on a lot. I'm home by 3:15 usually so I get to spend some quality time with her before Ron gets home around 4:30 and then after dinner we get to play with her until bedtime (still at 7pm). I do find though that the days go by a lot faster - I honestly didn't think that was possible. Another good thing about me being back at work is that Rachel gets to spend some quality time with her grandparents. Grandad comes over every morning at 6:30 until 9ish. Then Grandma takes over until I get home from work. Oma comes down every Wednesday to spend the day with Rachel as well so she's really lucky to be able to spend that kind of time with her grandparents. Plus, she's so excited when Ron & I get home from work - it really just makes your day to see that little smile. It's a tiny reminder as to why we're doing what we're doing.

The pregnancy is moving along quickly, too. I can't believe I'm already at the 'count down' stage. Only 18 weeks to go until my due date! I have another doctor's appointment next week and I can't wait to hear the heartbeat. This baby seems to be more active than Rachel but then I wonder if I just don't remember her being like this. It's amazing the things you forget - just in the course of a year and a bit.

We broke down and bought a new vehicle at the end of August. We have been looking for a few months but just couldn't agree on anything...or we didn't see anything that we 'loved'. I was having a hard time with this whole 'car payment' thing - I haven't had one in years and with me going on maternity leave again in January, it was something that we really needed to take into consideration. The last thing we need is a huge car payment. We finally decided on a 2008 Ford Escape and we LOVE it! I do miss Ruby, my little red rocket, but it was time to face the music - I needed a more 'family oriented' vehicle...the two door car had to go but I was NOT ready for a mini van :) Rachel seems to enjoy the new vehicle as well - she can see more now. We also put her car seat behind the driver seat now instead of in the middle since we'll be adding another carseat in January. We went to a carseat clinic at the beginning of January and they told us that Ron did a great job installing it. We figured it was best to get it checked out since it was a new vehicle and things have changed in cars over the years as far as how you install a carseat. So now we're good to go - we know our little Rachel is in there safe & sound.

Rachel is quite the little toddler. Everyday she learns something new. She's doing really well with her sign language and I'm amazed at how much she understands when we speak to her. She's talking a lot more - still just a lot of noises but she does say 'duck' now which is funny. And everytime she hears a dog bark, she has to bark, too! She can meow like a cat, quack like a duck and moo like a cow, too. She "jumps", dances and loves to look at you through her legs - as she is bent over with her head on the floor. It's really cute though when a song comes on the radio that she likes - she immediately starts to dance. If we're in the car and the song is more to Ron's liking, she will do the 'head banger' move - where she sits in her carseat and literally just bangs her head and laughs. If it's a softer song, she will sing and put her arms in the air. She recently discovered how to open our pantry and she will bring the cookies to you and say 'mmmm'. She is infatuated with her belly button (it's an outtie) and she knows where her nose, leg, toes & eyes are. She loves to comb her own hair after her bath and she helps get undressed as well. This age is so much fun - I really think a newborn is going to be boring! ha ha Rachel still goes to bed at 7 every night and usually sleeps until at least 7 the next morning. Then she has a 2 hour nap in the morning as well as a 1.5-2 hour nap in the afternoon. The kid loves her sleep...let's hope her brother/sister does as well :)

Her latest obsession is the piano. She was playing it on her own tonight (usually I sit with her) so I actually recorded her for awhile. I really need to upload that to You Tube, in addition to getting some pictures up here, too! Blogger still doesn't like me enough to let me add pictures whenever I want. I think it's just our computer but I don't know - it's frustrating. I'll have to bring my laptop home this weekend and upload some.

At any rate, everyone is doing well in our household and we've been keeping busy. Oh my goodness - it seems like every weekend there is something going on. But that's ok - it keeps us out of trouble :)

That's about all the time I have for an update now. It's past my bedtime - yes, it's sad that it's only 9:08pm and it's past my bedtime but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do, right?

Stay tuned for another post this weekend...I promise the next update won't be another month from now!