Rachel's 2nd Easter

I can't believe Rachel has already celebrated two Easters! It is amazing to me how much she has changed in just a year. Last Easter she was only 3 months old and was just so tiny, such a precious little baby. This year she is 15 1/2 months old and is still my precious baby, but she just seems so much bigger, so much like a little girl now.

We had a great weekend. I was off on Friday so we all got an extra day together as a family! Matt and I took Rach and Charlie up to Partridge Creek to do some shopping and we bought Rach a couple new pairs of summer shoes. Then we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house and decorated Easter eggs. Rach didn't really decorate but she did like looking at the colors and holding the eggs. Unfortunately she also liked holding an egg in each hand and then hitting them together...a few did get cracked, oops!

Saturday was pretty laid back. We all went to the gym again in the morning (also did this Friday) and then hung out at home until Matt had to go to work. After that Rach and I went grocery shopping. I know I have said it before, but Rach is such a good shopper. She is happy and awesome pretty much the whole time. She did get especially happy when I was getting more apples for us. As I was putting them into the plastic bag she was sitting in the cart kicking her little feet saying, "Apple! Apple! Apple!" with this huge smile on her face! Yep, the girl likes her apples! (An odd note, as much as Rach likes apples, she is not a fan of applesauce. My only guess is that it is a consistency thing.)

Sunday was Easter and we headed back over to Grandma and Grandpa's house after Rach got her Easter basket at home. From us Rach got 2 new coloring books, a new box of crayons, 2 small chocolate bunnies, and 3 pairs of summer Minnie Mouse jammies.

Easter was a great day. I'm pretty sure it's safe to say we all had an amazing time. Rachel looked like a little princess angel in her dress (mad props to Matt on this one. I had bought her 4 dresses, yeah that's just how I roll, and we narrowed it down to 2, with me voting for 1 and Matt voting for the 1 she actually wore. Great job Daddy!). Grandma and Grandpa were super generous and spoiled Rach (& us) with not one, but two Easter baskets of goodies. Rach had a blast pulling everything out. She got a new book about puppies, some chocolate, a new princess bath towel, a bunny sippy cup, a bunny t-shirt, and a new summer outfit. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

After that it was time for the egg hunt. Rach caught on very quickly about finding and picking up the eggs, however she did not want to drop them into her bunny basket. Silly girl just wanted to carry them around with her! So we pretty much just let her. She would carry one in each hand and just walk, and walk, and walk all around the house! She did this Friday too. She hardly sat down at all, even to play with her toys. She just wanted to walk all over. It was adorable but made me feel slightly bad that we don't have a bigger house for her to be able to walk like that at home. (Come on housing market, get better so we can get rid of the condo!) Rach also enjoyed Easter food. She had never had ham before but she certainly liked it at lunch! After her nap we had Grandma's famous bunny cake and Rach loved it, no surprise there!

Overall, Easter was really one of those days that I just wanted to be able to hit the "Pause" button on and freeze us there in time for a bit. Rach was even more adorable than usual, she was so happy and silly and fun. She is at such a great age and it seems like time is just going by so fast! I look at her little face and see this beautiful little girl. She is sweet and affectionate and silly and has a great personality and sense of humor already. I am absolutely amazed by something she does or says each day now (the latest this weekend is saying "Please", so adorable!). She absolutely melts my heart and I feel so unbelievably blessed to have her. Rachel Ann, Mommy loves you so much more than words can say. You fill my heart with more love and my life with more joy than I ever thought was possible.

15 Month Check Up & Some Pictures

Wow, I can't believe Rachel is 15 (& 1/2) months old already! Time really does fly when you are having fun! Last Thursday, April 14, 2011, Matt and I took Rachel for her 15 month check up. Rach did great and checked out just fine! Both Matt and I commented how nice it was to be at the pediatrician's office for a well visit instead of a sick visit! Rach must have agreed because she was all smiles, happy, and chatty with everyone there!

Rach did have to get a couple shots which she didn't like at all and she did cry but she calmed down really quick once we were able to pick her up. A cute/sad story, after the doctor was done checking Rach the nurse came back in with her shots. When she came in Rach smiled big, waved, and said "HI!". The poor nurse actually looked/felt guilty that this sweet, friendly little girl had no idea what was about to happen. :( The good news is that the doctor said she believes that after these last shots the only one that Rach will be due for at her 18 month check is the MMR and we are actually going to delay that one until her 2 year visit so fingers crossed Rach's 18 month check will be shot free!!!

I'm not sure if we are the only ones that do this, but I guess it's just our "thing", but Matt and I always guess/bet at these appointments what Rach's stats are going to be (height & weight). I'm not sure if it's a Dad thing or just a Matt thing, but Matt always overestimates both!! Now, not to toot my own horn but I did pretty darn good this last time. I guessed Rach was 33.5 inches long, and she is actually 33 inches long. Only off by a half inch! Then I guessed that Rach is 23.7 pounds, and you know what the scale said, 23.74! Oh yeah! (Yes, I take joy in the little things knowing that even though I still carry around a lot of guilt for working and being away from Rachel that at least I do still know my baby pretty well).

Other than the shots it was a great appointment. Rach's ears, nose, and mouth looked great. The doctor told us Rach was getting a fine amount of milk each day, not to stress about the bottle, and that Rach's verbal abilities are well above where a typical 15 month old's are. It was funny, she asked us how many words Rach says and we started listing them, the doctor actually stopped us and said that was great and that they usually only hope for 3-5 at 15 months!

In other news, we had another great weekend. Grandma and Grandpa hung out with Rach Friday night so that Matt and I could have a date night. Matt took Saturday off so we all got to be home and spend the day together Saturday. We took Rach out to breakfast and then hung out at home and worked on cleaning/organizing. Rach also got tooth #11!! It is unreal to me how much she looks like a little girl now instead of a baby! It is so amazing to watch her grow up!

Now for the pictures:

Milk is yummy!

I love my chair!

Super cute, happy girl having fun on a Daddy-Daughter day!

Mommy's two favorite people, the loves of my life!

An Overdue Update

I had always intended on blogging more than just once a week but unfortunately things have been so busy, at home and at work, lately that I hardly have much of a choice. I have a back log of cute pictures that I want to make sure I get around to posting and a ton of cute/funny stories that I want to make sure I don't forget. Also, I've had an issue/situation weighing heavily on my mind lately. I'm not sure if I want to write about it or not. Some days I think it would be good to get it out and I practically have the entire post composed in my head and other days I think that I would just be opening up a can of worms and potentially making a bad situation even worse. We shall see.

Anywho, things have been good in casa de Phillips. It's hard to believe that tomorrow it will be just 2 weeks since Rach "took off the training wheels" and became a full-time walker. To watch her motor around the house, daycare, and everywhere in between you would think she'd been at it for much longer. Her balance and confidence levels are amazing! She is also fast! I think she really wants to run but still needs to master the mechanics of that. Really the only times that she falls now are when she starts moving her little legs and feet so fast that she trips herself up!

We had a really good last weekend and got to spend a lot of time together as a family. I left work early on Friday. Matt, Rach, and I spent the afternoon at Target, Sonic, and the gym before settling in at home that night. Saturday Matt didn't need to be at work until 4PM so we spent most of the day together. Rach and I went grocery shopping after Matt went to work. Sunday Rach and I went shopping at Lakeside and met up with my friend Jess for lunch at Panera and then went to Grandma and Grandpa's for a short visit.

The two pictures below are of Rach waiting with me outside Panera for Jess since we got there early. She is really just a happy, happy little girl! She is always full of smiles and laughter. And my usually shy Little Bear was actually saying "Hi" to people in the mall as they walked by us! For lunch, Rach and I shared a turkey sandwich and chicken noodle soup and I'm pretty sure that Rach ate more than Mommy did! We did not however share a smoothie, we each had our own. As I've mentioned before, Rachel loves fruit smoothies. I always make her a new batch of homemade smoothies every week, but she's also allowed to get one while we are out if it is a healthy one. Luckily Panera's are all natural and organic. During lunch Rach was a little chatter bug, only stopping to eat, smile, and laugh. (Also, as you can see, we do not go anywhere without Puppy.)

In other news, at daycare Rachel has officially been moved to the Toddler 1 room. (She started out in the Infant 1 room, then in September when she was 8 months old was moved to the Infant 2 room.) I'm not sure how long she will be in this room, some of the paperwork said approx. until 18 months old (she's already 15 months). My guess is that at the latest she will be in there until the end of August. The daycare's year runs like a school year and the "new" year starts in September. By then Rach would be almost 20 months old (yikes!) so really we are only talking about a difference of 2 months or so.

Matt and I are excited about this new room. The kids are all very close in age and ability levels (all are walking as opposed to her old room that had "little" 8 and 9 month olds in it). In the toddler rooms they also start having a curriculum that they follow every day/week. A few things they will be working on are shapes, colors, numbers, letters, and sign language. They also have a set schedule. All of the kids eat lunch and snack at the same time and nap at the same time. Overall, it just seems so much more organized and structured.

Unfortunately the change has been a little upsetting for Rach. Both this morning and yesterday morning when Matt had to drop her off in her new room for the first time Rach was upset and cried and did not want Daddy to leave. :( Luckily she did end up having a good day there yesterday. When I went to pick her up she was playing and smiling and everyone told me she was happy. I'm hoping to get the same report today!

Tomorrow afternoon we have to take Rach for her 15 month check up. We are expecting it to go well and to just have it reinforced that we have the world's most awesome child! I'll have to update later on how it goes and all her important stats.

A Cute Quick Pic

Just got a text from Matt with the following picture and message:

"Dad, can Mick come to daycare with me? Pleeeeeaaaaassssseeeee!"

There seriously are no words to describe just how much I truly love this perfect little girl! (yes, her Dad is pretty funny and great too!)

Super Proud Mommy Post

Well it is official....we have a walker!!! I need to mark my calendar that on March 31, 2011 at 14 1/2, almost 15 months old our sweet baby girl became an official walker!

It is so funny because just yesterday in my post I mentioned that Rach still wasn't walking full-time but the amount of steps and the distances were becoming noticeably longer and then when I got home last night Matt mentioned that she had been practicing a ton yesterday, but still pretty short distances, no more than about 5 or 6 steps. Then, bam! Something happened last night and it was like this little light bulb went off in Rach's head like "why do I keep crawling?!?".

Matt and Rach were hanging out in the living room and I was making dinner in the kitchen. Matt said that one minute she was just standing by the coffee table and then the next she was walking away! Matt had called out to me and said "your daughter is on her way to see you." So I look around the corner (fully expecting to see a crawling Rachel) and there she is, walking and smiling on her way to see Mommy! Rach was so cute and proud of herself! She was smiling and giggling like crazy! Of course Matt and I were super excited and proud too!

Once that little switch was turned on, it was on! She just wanted to keep walking all over the house. She would start in the kitchen then go through the dining room then into the living room then turn around and go back...repeating this the entire time I was making dinner and while Matt and I ate dinner. She did take a break to eat her own dinner, but when she was done, right back to walking laps around the house. She took another short break to get a bath, but then, yep you guessed it...the walking laps continued upstairs. She would stand up in her room, walk through the hall, into our room, turn around, and then back again.

I thought that for sure she would tire herself out and we would have a good night's sleep, but she was so excited and charged up it took far longer than usual to get her to calm down and fall asleep! Then she woke up a good half hour/45 minutes early this morning and couldn't wait to get her cute little feet back on the ground again! Fingers crossed her excitement for this new found "trick" will tire her out good today!

I know some (uninformed) people might think that almost 15 months is "late" for a walker, however any doctor and/or resource will tell you that the normal range for walking is 8 - 18 months. That is a huge range and we were still more than 3 months away from the high end of it. Not to mention that kids all develop at their own pace. Sure, Rach just started walking however she is super verbal and can talk laps (ha, pun intended!) around the little girl at daycare whose annoying mom thinks its so awesome that she started walking at 10 months.

Rather selfishly I am happy/hopeful that this should now calm down some of the ridiculous competitiveness of some mommys and the annoying comments/"concerns" of others that just don't know any better. Not only was Rach's pediatrician never concerned (she stated that taller babies tended to walk later) but I'm also fairly certain that the age a child hits certain milestones at has zero effect on how successful, happy, smart, etc they will be later in life. Let's be honest, I know a few kids that started walking before or at their first birthdays and their greatest accomplishments in life will probably be if they secure a job that isn't at Walmart and stay out of jail! Heck, my cousin started walking at 15 months and is now a doctor! I'm willing to bet that 17 years from now there will not be a box to fill out stating "at what age did you start walking?" when Rach is filling out her college application for the University of Notre Dame! **Rachel Bear, you are absolutely perfect and wonderful. Do not let anyone ever tell you othewise.**

Okay, enough of my protective mama bear venting! I will say that it is true what I have heard/read that babies that walk later tend to do it faster than the earlier walkers. Its like they have been thinking about it and waiting until they could do it and get it perfect. Rach pretty much went from 0 to 60 in a matter of minutes/hours. There really were no tentative first steps, slowly learning (I guess we could say that's what she has been practicing for the past 2 months!) she was up and going, fast! A few times Matt and I looked at each other like, "is she trying to run already?!?", that's how quickly those little feet were going!

I have to admit that I am not only proud of my angel but also so happy about how/when this amazing milestone happened. It wasn't at daycare, it was at home. And not only was it at home but it was a night that both Matt and I were there and Matt had his video camera nearby, perfect! I really couldn't have arranged it or planned it better myself! I am so thankful that both Matt and I got to witness this milestone and all 3 of us got to share in it as a family!

(I know that most of our friends/family were unable to open the videos we sent last night. Matt is working on the formatting and we will hopefully have them sent back to you this weekend so you can see our Little Bear in action!)