Purees as Finger Food...Not on my Watch

DSC_9281.jpg, originally uploaded by Brian Bjork.

This week Rachel figured out how to get finger foods from her hands into her mouth. She strongly feels that this is the best method for transporting food including purees to her mouth. She protests with whines and cries through a tightly closed mouth when I try to use a spoon until she manages to get some puree into her hands. She then squishes the puree out of her fist between her fingers and manages wipe it all over her face, ears, neck, hair, and bib while attempting to feed herself or block yet another spoonful trying to land in her mouth. This is when "bad mommy" rears her ugly head. I shudder at the sight of gooey sticky messes. I have discussed the importance of allowing children to explore their food during my short stint with feeding therapy (lucky for me the child I was co-treating had major food aversions and would not touch most foods so sessions were relatively clean); however, I cannot bring myself to take my own advice and allow Rachel to play with her food. Luckily for me Rachel is a determined and passionate child (i.e. strong willed) and will not give up easily. She will force me to face my aversion to goo, stickiness, and mess head on, and I am sure in the end we will both be the better for it. Thank you Rachel for forcing me to face my issues with mess and making me a more relaxed person and better mommy even though I must admit right now I am not feeling that grateful.

Hard at Work

Rachel continues to be hard at work learning to crawl.

...And She's Off

DSC_9263.jpg, originally uploaded by Brian Bjork.

Rachel is hard at work learning to crawl. Her attempts go something like this: She sees something that looks like it might be fun to chew on, gets up on all fours, pushes off, and... goes backwards. Not deterred by this small setback she tries again only to move farther away from the desired object. You can see the frustration building as she attempts again and scoots even further away. After numerous failures to move towards the desired object she scrunches up her little face, rolls over, and begins to cry as if the world is ending. It is tough being a baby, but luckily Mommy and Daddy are right there with a hug, help sitting back up, and a toy to play with. All is right with the world once again.

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.