I Need To What?

"I don't think crawling is really necessary."

 "You sure are funny, Mom!"

Straw-tastic!

So I put an empty honey bear bottle in the dishwasher thinking I would use it to teach Charlie how to drink from a straw like we did with Rachel. Well, I ended up throwing it out. Little man doesn't need my help, it seems. But, I am SO looking forward to getting rid of bottles once and for all!

Signs She Knows

The first of many outings to the Botanical Gardens, I'm sure

I thought I would actually take a second and make a list of the signs our Rachel girl knows:

Apple
Banana
Flower
Food
Juice
Milk
Cracker
More
Finished
Up
Down
Help
Shoes
Diaper
Out
On
Hat
Music
Cold
Hot
Bath
Time
Doggie
Fish
Bird
Go
Cereal
Sleepy

I think there are probably a couple more but I can't think of them right now. It's pretty cool to have listed them and see on paper the progress she has made in a year. When we first moved here, she knew "food' and "more". I wish she would sign "mama" and "dada" but for some reason she won't. She won't even try and they aren't even hard to sign. Maybe she's just waiting for the day she can say it. Maybe.

Out for a Stroll

Well, out in the stroller while Dada pushed them as he was rollerblading! These two love a walk. They also love being next to each other. They were too tired to smile for the camera but never too tired to cuddle up next to each other.

Good Morning!

She's Out of the Gate

For a while now I've been waiting for the big "wow". The big "She actually gets it!" moment when it comes to Rachel and signing. Rachel knows many signs and will do them when you ask her a question. Recently, she started initiating signs in order to get what she wants. It started with "food", then "music" and now "juice". But it was always a struggle to get her to identify items by signing. I would point at a picture of a banana and ask Rachel, "What is this?" and she would look and either not sign and walk away or make up a sign like she didn't know. The connection between the sign and a picture just wasn't there.

I have been working on it with her using the picture books she has and she started signing the words when seeing the pictures in the book. I thought that maybe she was only recognizing the pictures in that certain book and that knowledge wouldn't carry over to any other pictures of bananas, for example. Well, my jaw hit the floor today when Rachel started signing hat while holding a block. I thought, does that block actually have a picture of a hat on it?? And sure enough, there was a hat!! So, I picked up a block with an apple on it and asked Rachel what it was a picture of and she signed "apple!" Then I picked up the "fish" block and asked her and without hesitation, she signed "fish!"

Can I tell you how happy this makes me? That she is now seeing different pictures of different items in different locations and knows that they are all the same thing and correctly signing them? It's amazing. This makes me feel like we really are making progress and it's not just memorization and repeating. This makes me look even more forward to Rachel starting school in September. My big girl. You never cease to amaze me!

7 Months

 My sleepy girl. This is probably the only time I'm able to get any good pictures of you. You move to fast now my honey. In this picture you look so big. I can't believe this is you. You are no longer a baby.

 This "little" guy turned 7 months old today. He has two bottom teeth and is developing a funny bone.

 He's always scratching his head and it's the funniest thing to watch.

Puppy Love

Rachel and her love of Dizzy, our pug, continues on.

What Do I Do With This?

Charlie has a cowlick swoosh and the back of his head. But this is to the extreme. It crosses all the way across the back of his head and swirls upward over his left ear. What do you do with hair that grows like that?