What is this?

This clip is a little long. If you skip to about 2:15, you'll see a bit of her new crawl. If you skip to around 3:00 and watch the last 30 seconds of the clip you will see her at her best.

I'm not really sure what she's doing--well, it's actually pretty obvious. She's lifting herself up on all fours, pushing forward as hard as her little arms and legs will push, and then falling flat on her face. She has nearly knocked the wind out of herself doing this.

It's not really a normal crawl. Nor is it really an army crawl. I'm not quite sure what it is but it kind of reminds me of a cross between an inch worm and a seal.

Tooth #2

Must be something special about Friday afternoons. Rachel's second tooth finally pushed through, right next to tooth number one. Perhaps that's why she was so fussy for Val--we'll have to apologize again and show off her new tooth.


Rachel's first tooth, that is now up so far that you can see all the little ridges on it, looks foreignly large and out of place in her mouth. It is also razor sharp, which I keep forgetting until she grabs my hand and sticks it in her mouth to teethe on. Then I remember pretty quickly and tell her not to bite mommy. I didn't care before she had teeth, but I've since learned to care.

She's always had a strong grip with her mouth and the teeth just make it almost unbearable. She wants to chew on everything in sight, which, if I'm holding her, is often my hand.

An evening out

On our way to our date tonight, I had to make Andrew stop and turn the car around. We forgot to drop the baby off at the sitter's. He forgot that we were going to take her to a babysitter's and so thought it was perfectly normal to have her in the car with us.

So we were a little late getting to Val's. We walked in the door and unpacked Rachel and explained to Val the things that Rachel wants to do.

Val took Rachel and we said goodbye.

Apparently Rachel understands that word because before we even turned around to actually leave she started throwing a fit. Val walked into the living room to check on Sawyer with Rachel screaming on her hip. We sneaked out the front door and were soon on our way to BYU for some bowling.

We're cheapskates. We used the 2 for 1 tickets that David got us and, I'm sorry to report, didn't win any new ones (so if you have any more that you don't want, you can give them to us. We like bowling even though we are horrible).

Our scores were so bad that we didn't even take a picture of them because we didn't want them forever captured in time. I will tell you what they were from what I can remember...

First round: Me, 69; Andrew 97.

I know, terrible. My arm was sore before half the frames were over. I think this either has to do with my elbow contusion (because it's sure flamed up again) or the fact that Andrew challenged me to use a heavier ball. It was fun still.

When Andrew went up to pay for the second game the Games Center people were thronging in to bowl. Two freshmen wards and a mutual group had come in and Andrew just barely got to the desk alive and paid with cash for our next game ($3--woot!) before every member of the two freshmen wards paid for their bowling with individual credit cards. Yikes! I think that's the first time in history that paying with cash has actually been useful and more convenient than paying with a card.

Unless, of course, you count life before plastic as history...which I guess it is.

Anyway, the second game was going absolutely horribly for me at the beginning, and only moderately better for Andrew. I was striking out all over the place, and when I say "striking" I don't mean it in the bowling sense of the word. I mean it more in the baseball way. I got gutter ball after gutter ball after gutter ball.

Of course, I did try bowling with a 16 pound ball, at Andrew's behest. That was much to heavy for my poor little arm--I almost bowled myself down the alley but I did manage to let go of the ball in time...and then it took 5 minutes to get down to the pins.

Lifting the 16 lbs. ball--my bones look ready to jump out of my hand.

Needless to say, I wasn't doing too well. I think I had a 30-something at the fifth frame, where Andrew was so kind to point out that he had already bowled a 69 (my previous score). I was so bad that I'm pretty sure the deacons next to us were making fun of me.

I don't even know that they were deacons. They could have been priests for all I know...all these high school kids look young nowadays. We're getting so old.

Well, on the last frame I got a strike (the bowling kind, not the baseball kind) and upped my score to 73! That came out of no where! Andrew got a 104 or something ridiculously high like that. (See, Crystal, I really could bowl with you and make you feel good).

Anyway, to make a long story short, my baby loves me.

We grabbed some food at Orville and Wilbur's after we were finished bowling--it took forever to come so once it did we wolfed it down and ran to go pick up Rachel who was still screaming when we arrived at Val's. Poor, poor Val.

Rachel looked so sad and so very, very tired yet she just kept screaming for mommy. For over two hours. I'm not even sure that Rachel ever stopped to catch her breath. It may have just been one continuous wail. Poor, poor Val!

Rachel was so happy to see us though, and that made me happy. She fell asleep in the car on the way home (it's like a one minute drive--Val lives right around the corner) and then just wanted to snuggled (and nurse) once we got in the door.

It made up for being made fun of by the Young Men at the bowling alley.

Two things that would be great

We have so many inventions, and yet, I find so much lacking in the world. Now, I'm no great problem-solver, but if you happen to be, here are some ideas for you.

1. A vacuum that I don't have to operate on after each use. One that can deal with my hair. Perhaps a self-cleaning, non-clogging kind. That would be cool.

2. A griddle plug that fits in the little grease drawer under the griddle so that after you clean the griddle you can just put the plug in that drawer and not lose it anywhere (not that that's ever happened).

Those two things would make my life so much easier. Mostly just the vacuum though. I don't use my griddle all that often and I lose the plug even less.

The Problem with Paper

I've tried to instill a love of reading into Rachel. It worked because she loves books, sometimes to read, sometimes to eat. I think I may have tried a little too hard in this department though because she loves reading so much that I find it difficult to find time to read to myself.

I've heard that a lot of moms get reading done while they are nursing their babies. That is not the case for me. Rachel thinks that reading is more interesting than eating and this is what happens whenever she hears a page crinkle:

"I wasn't done with that page, mom!"

She's very much like a cat that comes to keep you company while you read the morning paper and just happens to choose the part you wanted to read as their throne. I don't typically read the morning paper, but I have lived with cats who made reading anything difficult.

I happen to enjoy reading while lying on my stomach with the book propped open in front of me. I can't tell you how many times I've had to dump cats off my books, be they textbook, novel, or picture books. They go after any type of paper.

Winter, one of our cats (well, my family's cat, anyway...Andrew and I don't have a cat. We have a baby) has gotten Josie in trouble with her paper-sitting habit. Josie wanted to go to a friend's house but no one was home to tell so she wrote a note explaining where she'd be. Then she looked for a place to put it where a big person would be sure to find it.

The fridge was cluttered with artwork and report cards and Josie didn't think anyone would notice an extra paper there so she continued her search. The counter had her homework spread all over it so she didn't think that was a great place, either.

She finally decided that she would leave the note on the entry way floor so that the first person to come home would have to step over the note, a fail-safe way for them to find it...

Well, I was the first person home but I didn't find the note. Josie was gone, though, so I panicked and started calling all of her friends. Eventually I found where she was and told her to come home right away.

"Why didn't you leave a note?" I demanded angrily.

"I did," she answered innocently.

"Where?" I asked.

She walked into the entry way and pointed.

"Right here!" she said, picking up the cat.

Sure enough directly under the spot the cat had been sitting was a piece of paper, covered in cat hair, with Josie's plans scrawled across it.

Rachel acts very much like the cats. She can spot a book or piece of paper from across the room and in a matter of minutes it will be in her grasp. And I know this will get us into trouble one day. Andrew will have to go to school with shredded, soggy paper and say, "My baby ate my homework."

We'll just have to continue to train her to treat books with respect. That's going to be a hard lesson for her to learn because she desperately wants to bite her books--even though we've never let her chomp on them before (probable because we've never let her, knowing her personality). The best is when she tries to grab (or bite) the pictures in the books. It's so cute.

In the mean time, I'll continue to meander around the room, my book just inches from Rachel's ever reaching hands. Who knows, maybe she'll learn to crawl this way.

New Discoveries

Rachel's been humming for a while, working on her ems. She says "mama," although it's not a word to her yet, just a sound. If she isn't too upset when she wants to eat, she'll often press her lips together and say, "Mmmmmmmmmmm..." If she is upset she just does a regular mouth-wide-open scream.

Recently, though, she discovered that if she lets the air out of her mouth instead of her nose she can get a nice "ba, ba, ba" sound. Since this development she has gone around baaing all day. She baas when she cries, she baas when she's happy, she baas when she's bored.

As you can see in this video she's rather close to crawling. She's not quite there yet, although she is a pro at moving backwards and she can get anywhere she shouldn't be in under 2 seconds. I don't know how she does it.

Always a fan of peek-a-boo, Rachel has invented a new way of playing it. We already have many variations of the game including blankets or burying her face in my chest and then popping back up. This new game involves her stacking toys.

I see you!

Where's Rachel?

There she is!

She is so funny with this toy--it's really the best thing ever. Last night she got on all fours and stared at the orange one that was right under her face. She then leaned over, stuck her face right into the bowl, and then pinched it between her chin and neck to pick it up off the floor. She has so much fun with them!

We're in for it

One of Rachel's favorite things to do is play with anything related to electronics. She loves pounding on the keyboard (gentle touch, Rachel), chewing on cords (no, Rachel), and pushing buttons.

Her favorite thing to do while I am on the phone is to grab the cord, pull it down, and sling shot it at my face. If you're ever on the phone with me and you hear her howling with laughter, that's why. She thinks it's hilarious.

She loves to grab at the computer mouses and will chase the red light with her hands, trying to catch it.

And recently she discovered how to turn the receiver off and on. Of course, she likes all the buttons and knobs, but she absolutely loves the power button. It turns green when you turn it on, and then the display lights up, which is way cool. And then you press it again and the display turns off and the power button goes orange. Could life get better?

She's already knocked over the picture frames we have sitting on this shelf. They have been moved.

She'll crawl (and/or scoot and/or roll) over to her toy bin and try to pull it off the shelf, which would be fine with me if she stuck with just her toys, and of course, she doesn't.

Books and paper can't go anywhere near this girl. She would cross mountains just to get a bite of paper and has been known to cross the living room more than once for this very reason. Andrew's pile of homework and school books, that used to sit on the floor, has been moved to our couch, for obvious reasons. Anything she's not supposed to get into seems to call her name,

"Rachel, come and touch me!"

"Rachel, slobber on me and then scatter me across the living room!"

"Rachel, push me under the couch so no one will ever find me!"

And thus marks the beginning of our baby proofing era.

Loudest Baby Award

This Sunday was my last Sunday conducting music for sacrament meeting, which I'm kind of glad about since it's kind of difficult to lead the music with Andrew playing the organ and Rachel screaming in the congregation. Not that conducting while Andrew's playing is hard, but it's hard for me to be on the stand while Rachel is going wild.

Rachel got to sit with her friend Amy this week. She always likes hanging out with other babies. They were showing each other their skills. Amy showed Rachel how she can suck on a soother properly while Rachel demonstrated her ability to chomp on every part of a soother...except the nipple. Amy wins the "being able to actually suck on a pacifier" award, hands down.

After they got bored with that, they showed Bonnie and me their hair pulling techniques. Amy typically uses her hands. Rachel also employs her mouth taking big mouthfuls of hair and pulling away to see if she pulled any out (a habit we hope ends soon). They tied for the "hair pulling" award.

Rachel really took the cake when it came to the "loudest baby in sacrament meeting" award although the Gormley baby was giving her a run for her money.

Since her tooth came through she's been a happier girl and so she didn't cry during sacrament meeting, unlike last week when I was sitting up in the stands debating whether or not to walk off in front of the bishopric and weave my way through those who were passing the sacrament to get to my screaming baby. Andrew jumped up and ran out the back door before I could make up my mind.

Anyway, Rachel didn't cry today but that didn't mean she wasn't adding to the cacophony of baby squeals in the chapel. On the contrary, she was the star member.

Nearly continuously she was squealing or making raspberries. There was no quieting her. She even got Amy started up a bit, but since Amy will take a pacifier she stopped. Rachel just spits the soother out with an extra loud raspberry noise.

"Aaaah-aah-aaAAah pppppphhhhhhhllllllphhhh!" she'd shriek and spit over and over and over again.

People were turning around to look at her, some smiling, others sending looks that said, "Can't you keep that baby quiet?"

Truthfully, no. She didn't come with volume control.

I could hear her all the way up on the stand--and she was sitting pretty close to the back. When we did go down to sit with her I shushed her all I could but she ignored me. Oh, well. What can you do? At least she's cute.

And that's the last time we'll have to do that for a while so now I can sit in the congregation with Rachel and try to keep her quiet every Sunday. Perhaps that's not such a good deal after all--now when she screams I can't say, "She just missed her mommy," I'll have to take care of her and not pawn it off on someone else. Hey, wait! I want my calling back!

Just kidding. I have more than enough callings without that one.

The highlight of my day was when Matt made Rachel conduct the music with me. I could see her beating her arms in time to the music. It was so cute. I love it when babies do that--Dylan Avery was doing it last week all on his own accord, about melted my heart even though he was just staring up at me and wildly flaring his arms since he didn't have Matt to help him do nice steady arm strokes. Babies are just so cute! I'm glad we have one.

Major Breakthrough

Try as we might, we still can't get a good look at Rachel's first tooth. She bites down on our fingers or covers her tooth with her tongue every time we try to sneak a peek.

I was right about which tooth would come in first: her lower front left one. It made its first appearance on Friday afternoon. At least, that's when I noticed it--it hurts significantly more when she bites now, which was how I found out her tooth broke through her gums.

We try to remember to brush Rachel's tooth every night. I've been brushing her "teeth" since she was really little but only sporadically because she didn't have any teeth so it really seemed pointless. Once she started teething though it became one of her favorite activities. She would get all excited every time I walked her into the bathroom--she'd spy the toothbrushes and start squealing and reaching for them. It's still hard to remember to do because I keep forgetting that she has teeth...

First I give her a good rub down with the finger toothbrush, which she just can't get enough of. She doesn't like it when I rub her gums with my finger, but if I put the brush on and rub she relishes every moment of it.


After that we give her a toothbrush and she chews on it for however long we'll let her have it, or until she jabs herself in the back of the mouth with it, or until she throws it across the room.

Face Lift

The Mother's Lounge got a face lift. Andrew and I just finished designing it about an hour ago. We happen to think it's beautiful.

Perhaps we're a little strange, but every time we finish a project we stare at it. If it's a book (or even a page in a book) we print it as a PDF and stare at it. And leave in on our desktop so we can open it up and stare at it again. And send it to each other so that we can compliment each other.

If it's a web page, we open it up every time we get on our browser and "ooh" and "aah." This lasts for about a week, or until whenever it begins to seem commonplace.

Right now, I have The Mother's Lounge open. It looks very...bright and happy. It makes me kind of want to do our own blog over again.

Perhaps we're prideful, but I think of it more as being "well pleased." Kind of like how we stare at Rachel. She's cute, she's new, she does cool stuff. We're not really proud of her...just happy that she's sharing her life with us.

It's the same thing with our designing, only not quite so emotionally charged.