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?

First Tooth!

After about 4 days of crazy, crabby Charlie, his first tooth popped through on Sunday. Looks like Rachel is going to have to keep her fingers out of his mouth from now on!

All in the Wrist

This is my baby eating cheerios and milk with a spoon. My heart bursts with pride as I look at this picture. Life is so much sweeter when you have to wait for things.

Let's Find Her a Home

This little girl, Megan, needs a home.

She has had so many donations and almost has a full grant for her adoption and yet, no one has come forward to offer her a loving home. She has been transferred to an adult mental institution and will not last long there. Please, my blogging friends, I don't normally do this but I am begging you to spread the word about this little girl. Please post on your blogs, on your facebook or tweet it out. I know our family is not in the position to be her family but I wish we were. She looks so sad and I want her to know happiness in this life.

Fearless

When I had Rachel, I figured I would be the one who would have to be fearless. I would have to put away my doubts about what she could do. I would have to champion for her rights. In my head, she was the one who needed to be protected. I never thought about Rachel being the fearless one.

But she is. At the park today, she was happy climbing up the stairs of a play set to the top of the tall slides and going down them. Until a little boy came by and climbed up the "rock face" that is attached to the same play set. She saw that and didn't even stop to think, "maybe this will be hard?" or "what if I fall?", she just wanted to climb it too. I had to swallow my fear of heights to help my girl climb that wall. She got to the top and guess what she did...she went down the stairs to climb up the wall again.

I was wrong on who needed to take care of who. She is here to help me conquer my fears. Rachel is the fearless one.

And This Little Piggy...

smashed himself into a bench and cried "crap, crap, crap" all the way home.

And I wonder where Rachel gets her "klutz" from.

It's the Great Charlie Pumpkin!

Moving On Up

Rachel has graduated to eating at the table. No more tray for her! And she does better than I expected. She doesn't toss her plate on the floor or even the food on the floor. She likes to take a piece of food and then push her plate away from her like it's crowding her. I think it's hilarious. It's so neat to see her sit at the table and it makes me proud. I wanted a nice photo of her but you can see she wasn't ready for her picture to be taken. I guess she is getting so old that she is starting to want to get out of her jammies "and put her face on" first!

A Silent Sunday

Chunky Charlie

Mr. Charlie is 6 months old and is as big as your average one year old! LOL!
His measurements at the doctors office today were 28 inches long and 23 pounds! He's a big load of squishiness and I love it. Happy 1/2 a year "little" man!