A Little Bit of Mommy and A Little Bit of Daddy

It is fun to look at Rachel and try to determine whose nose she has and whose eyes she has (obviously Daddy's eyes) and to dream about what she will be like when she gets older. Will she like scrapbook, sew, and shop, be introverted, and good at dancing like Mommy? Will she like to build things, be outgoing, and good with numbers and technology like Daddy? I can't really tell who she looks most like, and I don't know what she will enjoy doing later in life. To me she is Rachel, a beautiful, determined, passionate, sweet, and lovable baby. We will be proud of her and love her whether she enjoys music, swimming, sewing, dancing, reading, math, or something entirely different.

Bunny Day

For those of you who don't know Bunny Day is the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter. It is the day you hunt for eggs and get Easter baskets. My mother created Bunny Day so that we could enjoy the commercial side of Easter while understanding the true meaning of Easter. Easter Sunday is meant for us to celebrate God's miraculous resurrection. He conquered death so that we could have eternal life. Brian and I want to continue the tradition of Bunny Day with Rachel so she will grow up understanding that Easter is not about chocolate bunnies and jelly beans.



We all enjoyed our Bunny Day goodies. Rachel's favorite part may have been taking everything out of the baskets.

A White Spring Wedding

A few weekends ago my sister got married in Sedona. Rachel and I flew down by ourselves before the wedding. I did a lot of praying before we left for smooth travels and a happy baby. Rachel is a pretty good traveler an people were generally pretty helpful and patient. Going through security was a piece of cake and the TSA officers were patient while I juggled a baby, car seat, and all our other stuff with only two arms. Flying home with Brian was a hundred times easier. The plane didn't bother Rachel's ears at all, praise God. The only thing that bothered her was being confined to her car seat. Even though it was hard to be without Brian for 2 1/2 days we were blessed to be surrounding by family and friends who loved on Rachel and kept her entertained. The wedding, in spite of all the things that did not go according to plan, was beautiful. God created a beautiful snowy day and provided us with the opportunity rely on him and demonstrate his love throughout the whole weekend.

Daddy Fixed Rachel's Walker So She Could Use It.

Sunshine

Rachel does not like the sun in her eyes and it is not good for her eyes. I found cute pink sunglasses at Target to solve the problem. She is not a big fan of them yet, but maybe she will learn to appreciate them more. I did trick her into smiling by singing one of her favorite songs so it looks like she likes them.



After repeatedly taking them off She found on a better use for them.

Cloth Diapers

We are an almost exclusively cloth diapering family. Sometimes when I leave her in the church nursery I will put a disposable diaper on her since she hates being wet and I don't know if the workers will change her often enough. They are busy and used to disposables which hold an insane amount of liquid. Also if I have a lot of errands to run and I don't know if there is a nice clean place to change her besides my car she will wear a disposable. Cloth diapering takes only a little more work, is better for the environment, and cheaper than disposables. The biggest negative I have found is that with some outfits her little rear end looks enormous, but the cute tush factor is not enough for me to stop using cloth. We primarily use prefolds and a cover which are the most economical option.



Every 3 days I do a load of diapers which involves a pre-rinse, a wash cycle, hang drying if it is not raining, followed by a short spin in the dryer to soften up the diapers. They get a little stiff in the sun. I thought hang drying diapers would be a pain, but it really isn't. It gets us out of the house and saves us money on our power bill.