Mellow baby?

That's what Shannon, one of the daycare ladies, said in describing Rachel's ability to transition to Toddler I, the next group at St. James. Since she appears to be almost ready to walk, they're thinking of moving her before the end of the year. At the very least, she will go to Toddler I for "visits," much like she did with the mobiles section of St. James. I am not as thrilled with the setting of Toddler 1 as I am with infants and mobiles -- there are no windows, it's in an older part of the church and I've heard mixed reviews of the teachers (although Shannon reassured me that the current set of teachers are pretty good. She should know; her own son, Jahmari, is there).

Anyway, at the same time she will head to Toddler I, we are probably going to switch to 5 days of daycare instead of 4. The expense makes me wince, but she's moving to one nap a day, for about 2 hours, and that doesn't give Drew enough time to work a half-day on Fridays. I asked Shannon whether it was wise to move Rachel to a new section AND switch to 5 days from 4, but she said not to worry, that Rachel was "such a mellow baby, she probably won't have any problem with the transition."

Shannon said Rachel had a great day today. Apparently she spent a good amount of time in a corner, by herself, giggling. I am constantly amazed at her ability to make herself laugh.

Shana tova!

That means "Happy New Year"! for our non-Jewish readers.

We had a friend and her two boys over last night to break the 24-hour fast from Sunday night to Monday night. Susan works with me at the newspaper; her 9-year-old, Harrison, and 3-year-old, Davis, stormed through our small house with boyish energy. They were extremely well-behaved and didn't run or break anything but, oh, the energy! It was a preview of what Drew and I will experience in about a year or so...

I roasted a chicken, some potatoes, made a pear/spinach/gorgonzola cheese salad and, for dessert, pound cake with chocolate sauce and strawberries. All homemade. Harrison, upon first tasting the pound cake, pronounced it "heaven on Earth." Needless to say, I was delighted!

Susan kept remarking what a well-behaved baby Rachel is. She is developing some issues with sharing her toys, but otherwise she did her own thing, looking intently at all the action around her. Her latest cute/funny trick is to take a knit doily we have on our living-room coffee table (made for me by my Spanish tutor in Guatemala before I left), pull it over her head and wrapt it around the back of her neck, like a shawl. It looks like a lace mantilla. She grins hugely when she does that, which always gets a laugh. She also wraps bibs around the back of her neck, toys...anything to get a reaction.

Another recent discovery: She no longer needs me to cut soft foods into teeny tiny pieces. I used to do that with cheese sticks, but Drew gave her half of one the other day and she just bit through it until it was all gone!

Words? Soon?

Rachel was quite the conversationalist last night during Shabbat dinner. We fed her beforehand but included her at the table as I lit the candles. We gave her some challah, and when she was tired of that we gave her one of her small board books, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." She pointed to nearly every page while keeping up a running commentary of gibberish.

At one point, though, Drew & I thought we heard the word, "caterpillar." It really does seem as if she's speaking another language. It's a shame she has to give that other language up for ours, but I'm looking forward to the day when we can have great mommy and daughter conversations!

Why I cried

Drew and I had such a good time with Rachel on Thursday night. She was so playful, crawling toward Drew, pretending she was going to end up in his lap, then crawling to me and doing the same thing. Both of us lifted her upside down and tickled her, which made her laugh and laugh and laugh.

That night as I went to sleep, I told Drew that there will come a day when she won't want to play with me anymore. In fact, there may come a day when she won't want to even be around me. I started really crying.

It made me aware, for the first time, how fast things pass. I thought she'd never stop being an infant. That she'd never sleep through the night. Now it feels as if she'll never walk or talk. But I'm sure that, someday, we'll put away the changing table, and the crib, and the diapers and the toddler clothes.

Now I know why it's so hard for parents to let go, and why so many of us end up wanting grandchildren -- so we can experience it all over again.

Three cheers for Rachel Rachel!

We were so impressed tonight when Rachel GRABBED THE SPOON IN HER JAR OF CARROTS, SCOOPED UP SOME OF IT AND PUT IT IN HER MOUTH!! (in fact, we were so impressed that Drew prounced this momentous occasion "blog-worthy.").

It wasn't a perfect scoop, it was messy and some of it ended up on her face, but still...at least we know she can master eating with a utensil. What a relief. I thought I'd have to spoon-feed her in kindergarten.

We applauded her like mad, which made a big smile spread across her face and she tried to do it again before giving up and scooping out the carrots with her fingers. Sigh. We applaud the behavior we like and don't react to the behavior we don't like. Or we'll talk to her sternly. Result: She rarely throws food on the floor and has learned how to set her sippy cup in the cupholder on her high chair rather than toss it overboard.

I am trying to remain sanguine about the mess and figure that my treat to myself after she and perhaps a sibling are grown up enough to eat properly will be a complete re-do of the kitchen. So, let them fling food with abandon, I say. It will all be covered up with new paint, cabinets, appliances and fixtures.

Ha-ha-ha! Who am I kidding? We will NEVER be able to afford a new kitchen. Maybe my treat to myself will be to hire someone to paint it someday. Perhaps we will be able to at least install new cabinets and buy a refrigerator that won't leak.

Rachel does seem to love spoons. She'll put them in her mouth the wrong way, then grin mischievously to see our reaction. Wait 'till I tell her that Grandpa and Grandma taught mommy how to balance spoons on the end of her nose when she was a kid. I never quite mastered it. But I bet that Dad can still demonstrate how.

Brown bear, brown bear

what do you see? is Rachel's favorite new book. It's a great one that introduces colors and big, colorful things like bears, ducks, frogs and teachers. (Drew tried to tell Rachel this morning that purple is the color of Willy the Wildcat, the mascot of Northwestern. Personally, I hope she does better than we did:)).

She had a brief bout last week with foot, hand and mouth (disease? syndrome? who knows?). Bottom line: it consists of blisters in the mouth, on the hand and on the feet and comes with a low-grade fever. She blew through it in half a day and is now back to her smiley self and healthy appetite intact. I am hoping this bodes well for future bouts with various illnesses.

She has started to point to ducks, pigs, cats and dogs in the books we read, and I obligingly make duck, pig, cat and dog noises. She has been babbling up a storm the last few days and some of the gibberish comes out as weird words, like "jimmy" and "mommy" and "baba." I am really looking forward to the day we can understand what she's saying!

Daredevil, part 3

I was away yesterday, and Drew took Rachel for a ride down the long, curvy, scary-looking slide in the park. She whimpered a bit at the beginning, but then went down -- headfirst -- all by herself! A group of parents clustered around the bottom of the slide waiting for her to go down. When she did, they said, "she's a little daredevil!"

Drew is clearly delighted at the way she's turning out. I guess that means no ballet and tea parties for my little girl.