Ma Nishtana (Why is this night different from all other Nights)

So it is Passover. Rachel's first! We went to my parent's friends Ruth & Dick for first night Passover Sedar. It was a great time for all... especially Rachel, who got to try all kinds of new foods!

She also got to meet lots of new people. She had a great time

Rachel tried Gefilte Fish and absolutely loved it! She ate a whole piece and even some of MY piece. After the fist, she ate a whole bowl of Matzo Ball soup. loved that too...

She also tried chopped liver. She didn't hate it but she didn't love it either... And then there was the charoset... YUMMY.... that's her momma's favorite. She liked it too, especially on matzo.

She was pretty full after all that good food, but still found room for a little brisket and string beans with almonds. YUM again!
I had some strange dillusional moment, thinking that if I changed her into her PJ's and gave her a bottle, that maybe she would go to sleep... HA!
But she had a good time sitting on Nana's lap, and playing with grandpa!

This morning, it was a typical Passover breakfast... Matzo Brie! She liked that too... oh, and so did Penny, who had a great time cleaning up Rachel's chair!

Workin for the Weekend

I can't believe another weekend is over. Boy, those 2 days off sure do fly by. Rachel and I had lots of fun while I was off. First of all, she is TOTALLY walking by herself now! She no longer NEEDS to hold anyone's hand or finger to go anywhere. She still wants to grab my hand sometimes, but mainly to drag me into the room to play. One of her new favorite things is at least once a day she takes my hand and leads me into MY bedroom. Then she wants to be THROWN onto the bed, where we play trampoline, and pretend to take a nap (complete with fake snoring!)
She also likes to go to her own room and set off all the musical toys at once. Then she dances to them all. It is pretty funny... and loud!

Getting Better

It's been a little while since I have been able to post anything. Bringing the laptop to work I don't even bother taking it out of the bag at home until my days off. And then today I spent 3 hours on the phone with the folks at Linksys to get my connection issues straightened out... FINALLY, I am able to get back online!
Tonight I have a meeting at school for our first day meeting. I'm pretty excited, but also nervous. I hope my brain can handle all the new info!
On the NEW NEWS front, the biggie is that mom has decided to discontinue the chemotherapy. She feels that putting herself thru that much pain and feeling that miserable is just not worth it. The reality is, the doctors have never said "you must have chemo or you will die". They have basically made it seem that this is just a precaution.. a "just in case" scenario... so she made up her mind to stop. I have to admit... since she made the choice, her entire frame of mind is better. She is going out, enjoying herself, feeling good. I think that is just as good as any medicine. I had her and dad here for dinner last night and they both had a good time playing with Rachel (gee... as if there was any doubt?). It was really a great night all around.
Tomorrow dad goes in for his biopsy. ... and the fun just goes on and on!

Watch Closely Now

Yesterday Rachel made her TV Debut! Wink TV aired the piece they did here at the house about shopping with online coupons. It's available on their web site, but I don't know for how long. I'm hoping the cameraman follows through with the email I sent. He told me he would send me a link to a copy of it that I could download and keep forever. I am still waiting. We got lots of compliments on how adorable Rachel looked... and they did a great job editing the piece!
Copy this link & paste it into your address bar to see the video! http://www.winknews.com/news/top/41709767.html
Or just click on the title of today's blog entry. I think I linked it to the video. At least that's what I intended to do!

Scenes From An Italian Restaurant

Well, she finally did it... Today, Rachel FINALLY fed herself with her spoon... and amazingly enough, I even got it on video!!!

We started out the day going to Tommy's church picnic. It was nice. They had it at Lakes Park and it was an amazing beautiful day... sunny with a cool breeze...

We took Rachel to the swings and the slide. She really enjoyed herself. Now I REALLY have to find one of those wooden play gyms... I came so close yesterday. A lady on freecycle had reposted the one she was giving away because the original taker never showed up. So, she said I could have it! I immediately got on the phone with Charlie to arrange for him to help go get it... and guess what. Just as I was finalizing with him, the lady calls back... seems the people who didn't show up for the set were now standing on her doorstep. She apologized and said she really had no choice but to let the original people take it. Oh well... hey, if any of your local readers are out there... if you hear of anyone giving away one of those wooden play gyms... with the swings and a slide... please let me know!

When I Paint My Masterpiece

This will be short because I'm actually laying in bed but not quite tired enough (hard to believe!)
We finally broke out the box of Crayola's for Rachel, so I took a few pics of her coloring... well... ok... so actually they are more like pictures of her taking all the crayons out of the box, then putting them back in the box.. over and over and over!
This afternoon she has her 15 month check up. And I finally figured out why she has been a little fuss-pot lately... She cut 2 more teeth! her bottom right eye tooth and her top left molar! Poor little monster! No wonder she's been a little cranky!
Ok, so here are the pictures of the crayon adventures... and then its off to bed for me!

Sleeping with the Television On

We had an amazing day today. Our local CBS news crew came to the house to interview me for a segment they are doing on shopping online with coupons! I answered a survey on their web site and long story short, they asked if they could interview me. It was pretty cool! Rachel, of course, was the little star of the show. They took lots of tape of her playing with her Elmo doll, playing with Penny out in the yard, playing the piano... She was quite the little ham! I am just sorry I completely forgot to pull out my camera to take a shot of her with the newscaster! I wanted to put it in her Life Story book! (Something that is just a vision in my head at the moment... I haven't actually started it)
After Chris Cifatte and his camerman left, my mom and our friend Linda stopped over for a little visit. Of course, Nana had to play with her little munchkin, and Rachel just loved it. After they left, we just played some more... until she BIT ME! My adorable little child actually chomped down on the back of my leg while I was pouring her a drink!
She also did something this morning that totally blew my mind. I had no idea kids could be so... manipulative... at such a young age!
Every morning we have a routine. Before I take her out of her crib, we have to play with Elmo. It's an Elmo Live doll. So I have to turn it on and push his buttons so he will sing, dance, and tell her how much he loves her... ok, so when that little deal is over, I shut Elmo and take her out of her crib to get her changed and dressed. Well, today she did not want to stop playing with Elmo that soon. So she started to throw a little tantrum. Throwing herself down on the mattress, screaming, etc... now here is the funny part... she is sitting up, crying for Elmo... she then slowly leans forward to gently presses her head against the slats of the crib... then start screaming as if she really hit her head hard! She did this over and over! I almost cried from laughing so hard! (which of course, made her cry louder)
We got past this when I gave her something else to hold while I pulled her out of the crib... but wow... what an eye opener THAT was! We will have to put a stop to it, but for today... it was just too funny.

We are Family

6 months ago today, we became a Forever Family. I can't believe it's already been 6 months since we held Rachel in our arms for the first time. Things have changed so much since that amazing day. I spoke to my friend Sophie this morning, and we talked about how all the memories of that day were still so vivid... the smell of the bus, the kids in the school across the street from the civil affairs building, the faces of all those little precious babies waiting for us to reach out to them...

It just blows my mind that we went through all of those emotions only 6 months ago. And in the past 6 months, we've had so many changes. Rachel can walk now. She has her ears pierced. She says Momma & Daddy, she's got favorite foods, favorite toys, favorite tv shows and favorite music.

She loves to take a bath. She likes asparagus & brussel sprouts. She doesn't care for hamburgers, but loves hot dogs. She has a laugh that is infectious. When you tell her no, she pouts and gives the "cry without tears" face, but she will back away from whatever you tell her no about.

She ADORES Elmo... especially her Elmo Live doll... There are just so many amazing things that have happened over the last 6 months. Can't wait to see what the NEXT 6 months brings!

Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend

Here are the Ear Piercing photos... first, the before shots... blissfully unaware of what is about to happen! Then she is sitting in the chair at the Piercing Pagoda. When it came time to actually do the piercing, the girl had me hold Rachel on my lap.

Just after having her ears pierced. She only whimpered for a minute. Then the nice lady handed her a bowl full of lollipops and let her choose the one she wanted

She chose the blue lollipop... and in no time flat, she was happy as a clam. And blue... everywhere, blue! her hands, her lips, her shirt... oh well... as long as she was happy. And she sure looks beautiful with her new diamond studs!

Taking Care of Business

Wow... what a busy weekend we had! Saturday we went to Tasi's baby shower. That was lots of fun, and Rachel had a great time playing with some of Jack's toys! Now I have to find the one where the balls pop out of the top and go back down the tube...
she had a great time with that one! She also liked playing with Jack's matchbox cars, only she would hold them up to her ear like a cell phone!
After we came home from Tasi's shower, I left her with her daddy so I could catch some sleep before work.
Sunday morning, I got home from work and was actually really glad we had daylight savings! Because now it is still REALLY dark when I get home, so Rachel was still sleeping! I actually got to take a quick 2 hour nap before it was time to get up with her. We got up, dressed her all nice and pretty, and headed to Tommy's church for our baby shower! His church decided to wait until we were home for a while before having a shower for us. It was really nice. They had little finger sandwiches and punch, and then they had a beautiful (and yummy) cake.
Rachel got some beautiful clothes and adorable stuffed toys. She also got a few books and cd's. It was really nice. And we found out that the church picnic will be in a couple of weeks, and they all asked if we would be there. I remember going last year and it was really nice... so of course, we will be there this year!


After the shower, Tommy watched Rachel while I ran some errands. (Really exciting stuff... I bought a new shower head! WOOHOO!)
When I came home, we had lots of excitement. Rachel decided it was time to finally start REALLY walking! She spent the next 45 minutes just walking back and forth from one end of the family room to the other. First walking to momma, then to daddy.... and back and forth and back and forth... each time she would just giggle and laugh! and naturally, so would her daddy and I! By the time she decided to go back to crawling, she was totally exhausted. It was a quick dinner and then off to bed for our little future olympic runner! LOL
After she went to bed, we had dinner, but I was so totally exhausted, I almost fell asleep in my plate. So by 9pm, I decided I would rather sleep then eat. I plopped on the couch, put my laptop on my lap, and proceeded to fall asleep... hand on mouse and all... Tommy finally woke me at 2am to go to bed!
Today I decided it was finally time to get Rachel's ears pierced. So I'm sitting here waiting for her to wake up from her nap... we are going to hit Target for some shopping time first, and then go to the mall and find a good place to get her ears done. Then we will probably go to visit her Nana and Grandpa for a little while.