Car

Drew called me last night while I was racing to buy a blackout curtain for Rachel's bedroom. She is beginning to wake up earlier, and we think it's because it's getting lighter and lighter earlier and earlier in the morning.

"Guess what Rachel did?" he asked.

"What?" I said.

He told me that she pointed to a picture of a car in a book he was reading to her and she said, "car."

"Of course, then she pointed to a train and said car, too," he observed.

I was still impressed. A train is just a grown-up car on tracks, after all...

And the word of the day is...

SHOE. Rachel pointed to my foot today and I said, "that's Mommy's shoe."
Then she pointed to her foot and said, "shoe."

"Did you say SHOE, honey?" I asked.

"SHOE!" she said.

"YAY!" I yelled, wildly clapping. "I think this kid's gonna talk after all!"

Baby Rachel's mommy

Our friend Judy sent me this e-mail today:

Ruthie was "reading" me a bedtime stories the other night from her "My First Fairy Tales" book, and I asked her, where did you get that book? She replied: Lisa gave it to me. She is Baby Rachel's mommy.

I think that "Baby Rachel's mommy" is a MUCH better byline than "Lisa Grace Lednicer." Don't you agree?

Moo, baa, la la la!

This has become my favorite book. It's by the irrepressible children's author Sandra Boynton. There are pictures of animals with accompanying noises, and every night I'll point to a picture of a cow and say, moo!

"Moo!," says Rachel after taking the pacifier out of her mouth. She sits on my lap, with Spot in one hand and ducky in the other.

"Baa!" I say, pointing to a picture of a sheep.

"Ba!" she says.

"La la la!" I say, pointing to a picture of three little pigs.

"lalalalalalalala," she says.

She can't quite manage "quack" or "neigh" yet. But she tries. Her "meow," comes out more as a babylike squeak: "aagghhh!"

We end, of course, with a cuddle.

Itsy Bitsy Spider...

That's what I sing to Rachel after her bath. She gets so unhappy when I hoist her out of the tub and towel her off, probably because the bathroom is so cold -- it fronts directly outside and we have no insulation.

So, I wrap her up quickly in her flower towel and then sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider verrry sloowwwly. She smiles. Then we go faster! And faster! And faster! "OK, Rachel," I say before speeding up. "We're gonna try it a little faster because I think you're old enough, OK?" Ready, set, GO!!!

She ends up giggling by the end of it.

The song brings me back to my time in Africa, in the first village I stayed in called Keetmanshoop. I taught at the "colored" school, and one of the things I did was sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" to large groups of kids, hand motions and all. "OK, kids, get your spiders ready!" I'd say. Then I'd lead them all in song. There's even a picture of me doing it, in a dress and long, long hair.

And now, 18 years later, I'm singing the same song to my own wonderful daughter. I thought it would happen, someday, vaguely, but the reality is so sweet.

Toddler IIs

Rachel is visiting the Toddler II room; she will officially move there on Friday. Her first report today:

"Rachel had fun playing with pretend food and utensils and was a big helper at clean-up time!"

She really is a great helper, and I can't take credit; it just sort of happened. She still carries her shoes to the drawer in her bedroom every night; tonight, after we'd had a blast playing "ball" upstairs (this consists of her throwing plastic balls around the room that she gets out of a big tub that Doug & Linda gave us last year), she picked up almost every one! I tried to get her to pick up a stray ball that had rolled under the low coffee table; when she wouldn't, I pretended to have difficulty reaching it. She immediately ducked her head under the table, crawled to get it, then crawled back, toddled over the bin and threw it in!

She also is good about throwing food she's finished into the garbage can. I don't even need to help her lift the lid anymore; she does it herself and throws in her mostly-eaten nightly apple.

When I shared my worries about her language development (see previous post) with one of the daycare attendants, she immediately said, "Liz told me that Rachel is super-intelligent. Most of the kids, even those going into Toddler IIIs, don't have a lot of words yet. I wouldn't worry about it at all!"

Tonight she said "hair" and what sounded like "quatre" (French for "four") while she was playing with the crayons. She also loves pointing to noses in books and then her nose, mommy's nose, mommy's eyes, ducky's eyes, etc. It's adorable.

18-month checkup

Here are Rachel's latest stats, and then a long entry follows. I have thoughtfully put the stats first so those of you who don't want to listen to a long worry rant can skip the entry:

Her head measures 18.5 inches, 50th percentile
Her weight is 22 pounds, 1 oz. (lower end of the scale, but I didn't catch the percentile)
Her length (height, it's called now) is 33.5 inches, 90th percentile

So, she is almost off the charts in terms of height. Dr. Rappaport said that may be why she looks so thin -- she is so tall for her age. We told him what we feed her, and he completely approved -- at least we don't give her Cheetos and chicken nuggets, and he liked the Gardenburgers and whole wheat everything else -- but he's still a little concerned about her weight. So we need to bring her back in two months for a weight check.

He also was worried that she doesn't say a lot of words clearly yet. She says mommy, papa, cra-ca, bye-bye, an occasional hi and that's it. So we need to schedule an audiology test, and then she'll also be tested by a speech and early language person, and then an early intervention person who may have to give us exercises that we need to do with her at home...blah blah blah until I quietly started freaking out. A good friend of ours, a mom whom I trust, told me the "20 by 20" rule - 20 words by 20 months. Rachel isn't even NEAR that. She's a kid who loves books, they're the first things she reaches for in the morning, and she's excellent at following directions, but she can't speak. I was devastated. Why are we even in the position of having to test her? I just thought she'd start speaking. I didn't think she'd need any help!

Then I started to feel guilty. We haven't put Rachel anywhere near a TV and when we're in the house we play NPR, jazz or classical music in the background. And we read to her a lot. But I confess that sometimes when I'm alone with her during dinner, I tend to read the newspaper instead of talk to her all the time. (I tried reading the newspaper aloud to her when she was littler but I lost the meaning of the stories because I was focused on reading aloud. So, I stopped). And sometimes when we take walks I just like to walk in silence rather than chatter away constantly. Could that be contributing to the slowness of language development?

"She does everything late!" I wailed to Drew, who conveniently went to Seattle today. "She walked late..."
"She ARRIVED late, remember?" he reminded me.

Luckily I had a talk with my friend Dan, who has raised two motivated, intelligent, well-adjusted children who now have children of their own. He told me his son, Daniel, didn't talk until he was 2, most likely because his big sister, Lauren, was talking so much. Lauren is a high school language arts teacher; Daniel just landed an amazing job with the U.S. Patent Office evaluating patent applications for biotech firms. He has his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Virginia and is making more money than me in his 20s.

So I will try not to worry. Much.

Making connections

Rachel's ready for school -- Spot in one hand, ducky in the other!

Rachel may not say very much, but she understands relationships. Whenever we see a picture of a rubber ducky in a book, she gets a smile on her face and points to the ducky because it reminds her of her own rubber ducky, which she adores. And when we pass the part in the book where the ducky is located, she'll flip back to remind herself it's there.

Tonight she pointed to a picture of a pine cone and then pointed to the basket of pine cones we keep next to the fireplace. It's like a light went off in her head! I was astonished.

Uh-oh!

Rachel in her "street punk" hat

Rachel has taken to saying "uh-oh!" whenever Drew does something klutzy -- which is often, as he freely admits. It's the cutest thing!

He'll drop a package of bread.
"Uh-oh!" Rachel will say.

I unknowingly dropped my gloves on the kitchen floor as we were headed out the door this morning to daycare (Drew is working in Seattle today and tomorrow).

"Uh-oh," I heard.

I looked down and saw my gloves. I hadn't even noticed I had dropped anything!

Loving little girl

I've been away for a few days, and Drew has been solo parenting Rachel. (THANK YOU, DREW!). Last night, less than an hour before I was due home, he was putting her to bed when she started saying, "mommymommymommymommymommymommy!" and pointing to the picture of herself and me in Eugene, taken about a year ago. I'm in my glasses and my hair is very short; I'm looking down at her and smiling, and she is leaning against my chest with a very pleased expression on her face.

Drew took the photo and handed it to Rachel. She pointed at herself, and Drew said, "that's Rachel!"

Then she pointed at me and he said, "that's Mommy! She's coming home tonight!"

Then she leaned down to the picture and put her lips on my face, as if she was trying to give me a kiss.

Proud Mom Alert

..if you don't want to hear about yet another insufferable mom bragging about her kid, please skip this post.

Last night as I picked Rachel up at daycare, we were notified that Rachel is about to move to the Toddler 2s section of daycare. That transition should be pretty easy because she spends part of the day with the Toddler 2 kids and their teachers. The move should happen by the end of the month; she'll go for "visits" starting Jan. 25.

One of the Toddler 2 teachers, Elizabeth, is usually with Rachel in the lobby of the church when I arrive to pick her up. I always ask, "how was her day?" and Elizabeth always answers, "she had a GREAT day. She always does!"

Yesterday, she said, "she's a smart cookie."
Me: Really?
Elizabeth: Yeah. She is REALLY smart. Oh, yeah.

Turns out that the kids do some kind of singing game where the kids have to pause during a song and wave their hands in the air and Rachel is the only one who gets how to do it.

"You made my DAY!" I told Elizabeth. She looked kind of surprised.

Later, Drew made me repeat the conversation twice. I bet he can't wait to get home tonight!

18 months!

Rachel is 1 1/2 years old today! Can't believe that milestone is here. She is:

--saying a few words, although I'm worried that she doesn't say more. A friend told me the informal milestone of "20 by 20" -- i.e., 20 words by 20 months. She's not even close to that. So far her universe consists of: mama, dada, challah, bye-bye, hi (sometimes) and cra-ca (for "cracker'). How is she ever going to argue a brief in front of the Supreme Court if she can't communicate?

--running races with her friends in daycare, although she has yet to run around the house.

--playing peek-a-boo a lot. She covers her eyes, usually when Drew and I are sitting next to her at dinner, and we'll say, "hey, have you seen Rachel? Where's Rachel?" and then she'll uncover her eyes and have a big smile on her face, as if she's one-upped us. She can do this a dozen times if we'd play along.

--still not drinking milk from a cup, although we are doing our darndest to wean her from the bottle. It is proving to be a tough task.

--getting heavier and heavier to carry. I tend to set her down a lot while I'm working in the kitchen and picking up around the house; Drew tends to hold her while he's opening the refrigerator, washing lettuce, etc. No wonder she whines to be picked up a lot!

--speaking of the refrigerator, she loves opening the freezer door, probably because it's so easy to open and close. The fridge is a bit harder, but she definitely tries!

--very fond of closing doors. And turning off lights.

--not seeming to care to venture into dangerous areas, such as the basement, by trying to get down the steps by herself. I am hoping we can get away with only one baby gate (at the top of the attic stairs, which I can tell she dearly wants to figure out!)

--so affectionate. She loves sitting in my lap and reaching for toys, or turning the pages of a book while I have my arms around her.

--very appreciative when Drew and I sing her songs. She applauds when we finsh! Really!

--developing very delicate features, yet at the same time she really is starting to look less babylike and more like a kid. I have to remind myself that I can't really call her a baby anymore. She's a toddler!

--enjoying putting things into bins, boxes, etc. She does with the washable Crayons we got her: She hasn't yet figured out how to use them to draw (although she may just not be interested), but she loves putting them in their skinny box and taking them out again. It's quite a challenge!

--less and less likely to put un-food-like things in her mouth although she likes Drew's asthma inhaler. She grabs it and pretends to inhale, herself! (it locks up when Drew is finished with it, so there's no danger)

--developing an attachement to two "friends" -- her stuffed dog, Spot, that arrived at Hanukkah with a book about Spot (thanks, Mom and Dad!), and her rubber duckie. She likes to know they're around, and sometimes she will pull one or both onto her lap when we're reading books at night.

--using her pacifier less and less, although Drew clearly has more tolerance for non-pacifier fussing than I do. I tend to just pop one in her mouth if she's whining and whining and whining.

--getting big hands and feet. I hope her hands are as graceful as Drew's.

--"setting the table" -- i.e., when we give her silverware she will toddle to kitchen table, where we eat most of our meals, and set it down. She will do the same with napkins. The other day she even took PLATES out of the dishwasher!

--"the most wonderful, beautiful little girl in the world" -- Drew

Lazy Sundays

Sometimes I wonder if we're giving Rachel enough stimulation on weekends. Yesterday she didn't get much of a nap because Drew missed the naptime window. She started getting fussy around 4:30 and Drew insisted on putting her down for a nap. Amazingly enough, she slept until 7:30! She only woke up when Drew roused her. Then she contented herself eating a bunch of pepperonis from his pizza that he had gotten for dinner.

He kept her up a little later than usual when I went downstairs to work on a story. I was afraid the late nap had ruined her sleep schedule but no--she slept until 9 this morning! I didn't wake up until 8:45!

Drew has decided that missing nap is not a good thing, so we ended up lingering over breakfast until 11. At 11:30 she got sleepy and he put her down for a nap while I tried to de-clutter a bit. She woke up at 1:30, I have her lunch, Drew got back at 2:30...and now it is really too late to go to the Childrens Museum, which closes at 5, and it's getting dark outside so a walk probably isn't a good idea. I guess we'll just play in the living room until dinnertime.

Rachel eats turkey

Yes, it's true: Drew was at the grocery store earlier today and said he got some sliced turkey at the deli. Rachel whined and pointed toward it -- her only way of communicating these days, and yes, I'm getting tired of it and really looking forward to the day when she can articulate what she wants -- and he gave her some. She wolfed it down and didn't stop until she had eaten about half a slice.

All right, people, go ahead and laugh at my distress earlier this week about her eating habits. I can take it.

p.s.: Last night, she said a recognizable "challah!" when I gave her some to eat.

Who's....?

On a whim tonight at dinner, I asked Rachel, "Who's Mommy?"
She pointed to me.
"Who's Daddy?"
She pointed to Drew.
"Who's Rachel?"
She pointed to her face.

"YAY!" we said, applauding wildly. She recognizes us!

Drew, imitating what could have been going through Rachel's head: "People, I've lived with you for 18 months. Don't you think I've figured out who you are by now??"

More books...

Rachel's daycare report over the last few days has been filled with details about books:

"she enjoyed helping turn the pages at storytime."

And this, from yesterday: "Rachel loved looking at a book about "Frogs," she carried it everywhere she went."

I can't wait until she's old enough for me to read her Greek myths!

Pepperoni?? Are you kidding?

After I got home from chorus last night and had a late dinner (I didn't have time to eat before rehearsal), Drew informed me that Rachel likes pepperoni.

Huh??

He picked her up from daycare, stopped at Rocco's Pizza to pick up a slice, then noticed that Rachel was very interested in the cardboard box that the pizza came in. "Do you want to see what's inside, honey?" he asked. She did, and as soon as he opened the box, "she grabbed a pepperoni and stuffed it into her mouth," he said proudly.

When she indicated she wanted another one, he gave it to her after they arrived home.

I forgot to mention that she also likes bacon. At least she did when we were on the Oregon Coast with Molly and her kids. It's probably the worst possible food one can eat, but I like it on Sunday mornings as a special treat.

The Wisdom of Dad

I couldn't resist sharing this message, which my dad sent after reading my post yesterday about Rachel's reluctance to try new foods:

"As to your blog.. I well remember a little young lady who it seems, if I remember correctly, spent one whole year of her life eating nothing but hamburgers and peas for dinner, in fact we had a special frying pan for the hamburger. The Teflon finally gave out after a year and we had to throw away the frying pan.

In other words...this too shall pass."

And now that young lady (me) has written a cookbook, eaten enthusiastically on three continents and loves sushi.

I will try to take your advice, Dad. Please remember it when Rachel visits at Passover and refuses to eat anything at the Seder.:)

Flower girl

Rachel has a towel in the shape of a flower that a friend from chorus gave us. We have gotten so much use out of it, probably because she looks absolutely adorable when wrapped up in it.

Tonight she was crying a bit as I dried her off after she stepped out of the tub. (I used to sit her on the toilet and dry her off, but now it's easier to just do it while she's standing up). I quickly wrapped her up and hauled her into my lap. She leaned against me and was so cuddly that I was moved to tell her that I will always remember her this way. She will always be my little girl, even when she's too big to sit in my lap.

Of course, I started crying. Rachel, in turn, started babbling away. She seemed quite content -- didn't even try to turn off the lights, a favorite pastime these days.

Food issues

I cringed as I put the title on this blog, which I'm doing only because Drew made me promise not to headline it "Bad Mommy Part 435." It's easy to feel like I'm a bad mommy when Rachel refuses to eat anything but the following: Gardenburgers. Liquid vegetables from baby food jars. Cheese sticks. Pasta shells. Apples. Water. Milk.

Drew has decided that we are too complacent with giving her whatever she wants to eat, which I'm beginning to resent. When I was pregnant, we vowed that we wouldn't fix two meals a night to satisfy our little princess. She'd have to eat what we ate, or she wouldn't eat. (Well, maybe a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. A brilliant friend of mine offered that choice to her son when he was going through a picky period. After a month, he got tired of it and resumed eating what the rest of the family was eating). Well, she's not even 2 years old and I'm already a short-order cook. How did we get here?

At daycare, she has started refusing the lunch which she ate quite willingly when she was in the infants section. Teacher Karen thinks that Rachel is holding out until she gets home and gets to eat what she wants. (Rachel did, however, love eating the turkey sandwiches they made yesterday). When she moves to the Toddler 2 section, we will no longer be able to supplement the day-care food with food from home. She eats whatever they serve her, or nothing at all. (We have decided to stop bringing supplemental food, just so she's prepared).

The last two nights I've tried to feed her tomatoes (Monday) and corn kernels (today). The tomato was a total disaster -- when I didn't immediately take it away when she rejected it, she sobbed -- and I mean really sobbed. She had a huge look of betrayal on her face: "Why is Mommy so mad at me? What have I done?" And tonight wasn't much better. I ate the corn with her spoon, I took a couple of kernels in my hands and put them in my mouth, making yummy noises all the time -- nothing.

I am at my wits' end. I want to take this kid to restaurants here and overseas. I want her to discover how wonderful food can be when prepared with love and energy. But I can't do that if she doesn't like what I cook.

Bottles and binkies

Drew and I had a huge fight tonight about weaning Rachel from the bottle. She is great about drinking water from her sippy cup but refuses milk except in a bottle. I'm afraid that if we don't offer her milk in a bottle she won't drink it; Drew firmly believes we need to wean her. "She's in the only one in Toddler 1s who still drinks from a bottle," he said angrily.

I would love to rid our house of bottles; for one, it would open up space on our kitchen counter, where we put the bottles, nipples, caps, etc. to dry. But I keep thinking of friends of ours who have a 3-year-old who takes a bottle of milk at night. It's a sleep cue, my friend says confidently. And their daughter seems normal, so why rush it? I also think that it will be easier to explain to Rachel when she's older and can understand why she can't drink from a bottle -- the "bottle fairy" took them away, or we lost the bottle and now she has to drink from a cup, etc.

So tonight, to bolster his argument, Drew brought out The Book -- "What to Expect/The toddler years," which is my generation's version of Dr. Spock -- and it said that we really should be weaning her from the bottle. So I agreed to start her gradually -- offer milk in a sippy cup at night but not in a bottle. And then gradually make a complete switch.

But...what if she never drinks milk again? How can that possibly be good for her development??

About the binkies: Drew has a much higher tolerance for her crying. I told him that social pressure will cause her to stop using a binkie when it's time; he's started not giving them to her unless she really starts wailing. In all fairness, she seems to use them less and less these days. So I guess I better just suck it up and put up with the fussiness.

What I didn't appreciate was the implication that I'm undermining Drew's parenting, or that I give in to Rachel as soon as she starts whining and fussing. I try not to. Really.

More words...

Drew got to the coast at 10:30 p.m. on New Year's, so he was too late to hear her say this, while eating a Ritz cracker: "goo crack-a."

"Did you just say good cracker?" I asked her in astonishment. That's how a lot of our conversations go these days: I asked her if she really said what I thought she said, and she just smiles. Or ignores me, as if it's no big deal.

She also has started saying "bye-bye!" very clearly. She said it when we were leaving the condo and and said it again this morning when she and Drew were leaving the house to got to the park.

She also remembered to put her socks and shoes away when we returned from the coast last night. Walked right through the kitchen into her bedroom, opened up the sock drawer...she knew the drill.

Hopefully if it's warm and not rainy tomorrow, we'll have a family day at the park, or perhaps at the Children's Museum. It will feel odd to get back to our regular schedules on Monday. I'll miss the relaxed feeling, coupled with occasional stress, of the holidays.

Happy New Year!

We had a great time at the Oregon coast with Molly and her kids. Molly and I put the kids to bed then ate fish and chips while we watched the fire in the living room of the condo she rented and listened to the surf.

Between the storms and the darkness, it was a white knuckle drive back. Luckily I was able to return some jeans to the Gap -- they were too big! -- but I was feeling so crummy by the time I got home, I just had enough energy to get Udon soup and some sushi for our dinner. Drew took Rachel back with him in my car and took care of getting her to sleep while I unpacked and set out the food.

Today I am working the the late shift since I needed the morning to try to sleep off this cold I seem to have caught (2nd in 1 month, alas). Can't blame this one on The Little Girl. I took Sudafed last night and am still groggy but didn't want to waste a sick day.