Swim Lessons, Doctor's Appointments, Baths, and a Big Fat Lip

Rainah had quite a day today! It started out with our first swimming lesson; I thought we'd try it out and see how she did with it. She LOVES her baths, and seemed to really the pool we played in last summer in Arizona. It's just a 30 minute class for 6 weeks. We got there a little early and there was another class going on so we watched for a little while. Then we got in... and as soon as I got to the bottom step, she started screaming. And she cried and cried and cried. And clung to me like she's never clung before. The arms around my neck and legs wrapped around my waist. She went under a few times, which made her even less happy. So we'll see how this goes. :) Unfortunately since I was in the pool, there are no photographs from this class; hopefully Don will be able to come watch a class or two and get some shots. They'd just be of her crying, anyway.

So when that was over, we went and had a quick girls' lunch at Chilis since her doctors appointment was at 12:45 and there was no point in going all the way home. Her appointment went well and everything looks and sounds good. She weighed in at 23.8 pounds and 31 inches tall (which I think was off by an inch or two- Don and I measured her later and came up with between 29-30 inches). We thought we were gonna have an easy appointment with no shots, but she ended up having to get two. Don left for that part. She just cried for a minute, though, and was running up and down the hall a few minutes later.


In the waiting room


Kisses from Rainah :)








Rainah is SOOOO big

She crashed in the car and I put her down for her nap when we got home. Did our usual thing, had dinner, then it was bath time.








Look at that TANK!!!!





As we were walking down the hall getting ready to come downstairs, I didn't realize that she was right on my right side and I ran into her, sending her falling right into the corner of her doorway. She started screaming and I picked her up to see blood coming out of her mouth. I cleaned it up and she calmed down pretty quickly considering, but her top lip just continued to swell up through the evening. I feel sooo horrible.







So as I was soothing her, of course she wanted to read. She has 2 sets of little alphabet books; one for each letter. She pulled some out and the one on top was the letter "N". She stood up and came over to me and pointed at my necklace. Now, the other set that she didn't have out, does have a cartoon picture of a necklace for the letter "N". This one didn't, but she didn't even open it up. I couldn't believe it. Then we get to the letter "S" and one of the pictures is a snowman. She gets up and starts walking into the kitchen, so I figured she was done reading, but then I saw her standing at the kitchen table pointing to her place. Then I realized, she has a placemat with snowmen on it. CRAZY!!
Oh, and she also said, "Mama" a bunch of times tonight. She's never even tried to say it. Not sure if she knew what she was saying, but I'd like to think she did. Maybe that knock in the head made her a genius.

16 Months Old

Those 16 months flew by! I can't believe it. Rainah is changing and growing and learning so much every day. It is so amazing to me the things she picks up on. She's been walking for about 4 months now, and is getting pretty good at running. I love watching her try to keep up - those short little legs just going as fast as they can. She's really enjoying being able to play outside- it's going to be a fun summer.
We started doing sign language with her back in the fall and she picked up on it really quickly. I think that "eat" and "more" came first. The most important ones! She also started doing "diaper" pretty quickly, which was nice - she can tell us when she needs her diaper changed, and many times has signed it AS she is going! She also does "milk", "duck", "bath", "moon", "stars", "hat", "sleep", "book", and others that I'm not remembering at the moment.
She still isn't talking much... her first word was, "All Done" and she uses that one quite a bit... all done eating, all done shopping, etc. Dada was next and she loves calling for him. I am pretty sure that I've made out the word cereal a few times, but it usually comes out as, "rararara". I also think that last night when we were looking at pictures, she tried to say, "Papa" when she saw a photo of dad.
For the most part she is a very happy toddler! A far cry from those colicky infant days. She smiles and giggles a lot. She is very affectionate, and is always coming up behind me and hugging my legs when I'm in the kitchen doing something. She likes to give hugs, too. She doesn't have a lot of time to cuddle, but I can't complain too much.
Her schedule has been pretty much the same for quite awhile now: she wakes up anywhere from 6:30-7:30am, we come downstairs, change her diaper, eat breakfast, read some books, then go upstairs and she sits in her excersaucer and watches Playhouse Disney while I shower and get ready. She always makes sure to gather up my pajamas and take them into our closet and drop them in the laundry basket. We then get her dressed and do our various errands like grocery shopping, etc. We go to Gymboree once a week which she just loves. We also go to the library for Babytime once a week. We try to stay busy, especially in the winter months when we can't go outside to play. She has lunch around noon and then naps from about 1-3pm. Then we spend the afternoon/evening playing, taking a bath, and reading. She LOVES books!
Tomorrow is her well child visit with the doctor (we are a month behind because of an appointment being postponed last time), so her stats will be for 16 months instead of 15. We'll be sure to get the blogged!
In the meantime, here is a quick comparison:



Rainah at 4 months old ~ April 29, 2007


Rainah at 16 months old ~ April 29, 2008


Rainah at 4 months old ~ April 29, 2007


Rainah at 16 months ~ April 29, 2007
(couldn't get Chey on the couch... she's having some major knee problems and can't jump up; she barely can get up the stairs! :( )


On another note, today I went to put Rainah down for her nap and something caught my eye outside. I looked out the front door to see a bunch of deer in the front field. I quick put her down and grabbed my camera. I started counting and came up with 16... then I tried to sneak out the front door to get some photos and realized there were a bunch more on the side of the house. I've never seen that many at one time. It was so cool!






She was so pretty with those white rings around her eyes

Hats, Giggles,and Crayons

This afternoon Rainah was having a blast running around the house as I chased her. She kept letting out that adorable toddler giggle; that sound that I just wish I could bottle up. At one point she grabbed a hat and I got a few cute shots.















Then while I was making dinner I decided to give her some crayons and paper since she seems to like drawing outside with chalk so much. She spent more time trying to pick up all the crayons at one time than she did coloring, but she managed to make a few scribbles.

The past week

Ok, so I realize that I have been obsessing about the way my photos look and the whole post processing thing way too much and it's keeping me from posting as much as I'd like to... I have to remember that this particular blogs purpose is to keep friends and family up to date on what Rainah is up to in her daily life as well as for me to keep track of her growth and development as a mother and have something to look back on and read (I have been TERRIBLE at keeping up with the baby book!).
So... I'm going to forget about trying to perfect my photos and focus on what this blog was originally intended for ~ and maybe start another blog to showcase my love of photography.
So here are a few things that we did last week: we started out by hitting the children's museum on Monday since it was a special members only day. Those are nice for us because there are no school groups with older kids running all over the place. They also have food from Qdoba and juice for the kids. Here are some highlights:


Shopping for some fruits and veggies










Rainah's in heaven... mirrors on all sides!


Watch out, Papa! I'm learning!






Hello?? Oh, wait...






The itsy bitsy spider...

it was gorgeous out all week and Rainah just loves playing outside. I bought her some chalk thinking she may enjoy it at some point... and it seems to be her favorite thing to do. She carries it all over the place and once in a while will bend down and make a mark or two. She ends up with way more on herself than on the concrete! This is what happens when you give chalk to a 16 month old:








You can always gauge the humidity by this one's hair!



Back in October we planted a Weeping Willow tree in honor of Rainah's birth; and with the nice weather we've been having, the buds are starting to come out on it (I am so relieved... I hoped it would come back after the winter!)







And last but not least... Rainah has a thing for hats... doesn't like to necessarily wear them, but has to have one to carry around. So she has come up with a new fashion statement... the diaper hat!