All Caught Up

I'm totally shocked at how much more fun I'm having blogging now that there is really something fun to blog about. Rachel has definitely been a joy in our household. I can't believe it's been over a month now that we have had her full time in our home. Things are going really well with her. She has hit some awesome milestones since we got her.
*The Physical Therapist took her out of her feet and ankle braces because she is walking really well and everything had been correct.
*Her feeding therapist was completely shocked at how well she was doing that she was able to be released from that also. We sometimes still have to remind her to chew her food because she likes to just leave it in her mouth to suck on but for the most part she is chewing awesome.
* Her favorite crackers are Chicken in a Biscuit and fruit snacks
* She has learned a new lullaby song that Scott's grandmother used to sing to him. You can leave words out and she can fill them in.
* She loves to say "Ready, Set, Go", "Sweet", "Silly Goose", and "NO"
* She is the most dainty dipper I have ever seen.
* She has learned how to growl like a bear and then tackles her big white teddy bear.
* She can take the laptop keys off in point 2 seconds.
* She loves to be rocked.
* She has learned Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam
* She loves to make faces with her tongue
* She has learned eyebrows, eyelashes, chin, and she says "cheeks" so cute
* She is very strong willed and independent and wants to do things on her own
* She loves snow
* She saw Santa five times but only sat on his lap four times during December

We have loved having her sweet spirit in our home. We have had our trials but she is so worth all the laughs, hugs and kisses that we get in return. We love you Rachel.

Eating Spaghetti

So I titled this eating spaghetti but I should have just said playing in my spaghetti. We were told when she eats spaghetti she gets it everywhere. Well we decided to let her have some. I don't think we will do that again for awhile. I really don't think she got anything in her mouth. Eventually she just had her fingers in her bowl completely playing in it. We let her play for awhile and then I just had Scott take her to the bath tub while I cleaned up the kitchen.

Mess Mess Mess everywhere. :-)

Rachel's Piano

So after we got Rachel we were over at my friend Kammi's house and she has a piano. Everytime we would walk in that was where Rachel would go to first. So Scott and I decided we should get Rachel her own piano. So we watched the stores and Toys R Us ended up having this little piano on sale before Christmas so I went and got it for her. It looked like it would be pretty cheap and we weren't totally sure about it but when we put it together we were pleasantly surprised at how great of a piano it really is. It has it's own piano stool with it, the volume at it's highest setting isn't very loud so we don't get tired of hearing her play it, there's a tempo control, she can change the sound of the piano to guitar, organ or several other things, there are prerecorded rhythms she can use, she could record a song if she wants, there is a microphone, and the last but not least part is there is a rapper record that you can play with that sounds like your scratching a record. It is really a cool piano. She loves to play with it. We are so grateful that she has shown such an interest in music.

She even holds her hands correctly when she plays the piano. So impressive.

Yes I am playing the piano and you are taking pictures of me again. Love her expressions.

Sledding Christmas 2010

Well since Rachel got a sled from Santa for Christmas we had to go out sledding. Scott decided the best thing to do would be to take her over to the park and just pull her around the park. So that's what we did. She had so much fun. She loves playing outside in the snow. She doesn't like it if she can't walk in it though. So every time she fell we had to hurry to pick her up because she would get so mad and cry that she was stuck. She is just so funny in the snow.

We tried to get her to do a snow angel but she fell over in Scott's snow angel. I love kids in snow suits. They just can't help themselves get up off the ground by themselves. It's hilarious to watch her try to walk all bundled up like she is.

Yes I know we did get a picture of her smiling. I tell you the girl loves snow.

She was testing whether or not she could actually walk very far. We had a pretty good trampled down area for her to play in that she could walk and not fall down.

This is her totally excited to be outside in the snow face. I love her little expression.

She was trying to make snowballs but the snow is really dry and crusty so it didn't make for any good snowballs.

Helping her get up.

The easiest place to actually pull her around in the sled was on the road. She then of course thought she should play in the road and we kept trying to keep her out of it but no such luck. Good thing the road isn't very busy.

I've fallen and I can't get up. Wish I had gotten her face because she is so crying in this picture.

Army crawling back to the road. We had put her in some piles of snow and she wasn't happy about it so she crawled right out of it backwards until we took her into the house. That was pretty funny to watch also. She is so determined that playing in the road is the funniest because she doesn't face plant.