Christmas and a Long Lost Love

Rachel survived Christmas only a little worse for the wear. Her stomach was giving her difficulty on Christmas Day, but she seems to be doing a little bit better. She did manage to get into the swing of opening presents.

Thanks to Rachel's cousin Ken for permission to use this image of his arm.

The day after Christmas, Rachel was feeling somewhat better and we went for a walk to the park to take advantage of the warm weather (you know you're getting jaded when 40 degrees is "warm"). Rachel had not been a huge fan of the swings the last several times we had gone to the park, but she rekindled her long lost love on this visit. (Make sure your speakers are on to get the full joy of this video.)


Thanks to Gigi for lending Rachel the bedouin baby snowsuit. One thing not fully captured in the video is that this park is right next to Lake Michigan. We will definitely miss some parts of Rogers Park when we move.

Busy Week!

We've had quite a busy week here in Rachel-land! Early in the week, Rachel filled her time by helping keep her friend Libby busy while Libby's mom tried to get Libby a new baby sister (which eventually happened--welcome, Emma!). Apparently tandem bike-riding is a great distraction among the toddler set...

Then we got our Christmas tree and Rachel was a great help in decorating it...
And then she grew some really big feet!

Just kidding! Here's a glimpse of how it happened...

Rachel is pretty fond of initial sounds lately--she's really trying to talk more! "T" for toast, "Sh" for shoes, and her most impressive--"Appajah" for apple juice.

Me and My Reflection

Rachel just loves to look at herself in the mirror lately. She's figured out that the other baby is herself and has loads of fun flirting with her cute self. Then, just in the last couple of days, she's begun making this goofy face at herself over and over. It's quite fun to watch. You'll also note that she adores little slips of paper (like shopping lists, coupons, and receipts--she's a great help in the grocery store!). Stickers--her latest discovery--are even better!

Snow Baby!

Rachel looooooooves the snow! She likes to crawl in it, pick it up, and--most of all--EAT it. She probably drops her core temperature by a few degrees each time we go outside to play, but she sure enjoys it! We have a few (now getting a bit melty) tiny snow angels in the yard and loads of little footprints. We're hoping to get more fresh snow throughout the winter.
Her snow angel (at left below) looks sort of like a snow bee. The snow is up past her knees!

Blog Name

In case you were wondering, we weren't just being totally random with the name and theme of this blog. Back when Rachel was still Avogadro, we were overwhelmed by everyone's generosity, and we are forever thankful for all of the wonderful things that people gifted us with. Even though we had not decided on a specific baby decorating theme, as people searched for gender-neutral items, a theme spontaneously revealed itself: ducks. We came home from one baby shower with over 20 different duck themed items, not counting the books.

duck clothes,
duck plush toys,
duck blankets,
duck sheets,
books about ducks,
no less than 5 rubber ducks,
duck everything...

Hence the title of our musings.

Fittingly enough, while I was putting the finishing touches on this post, I looked over to see:


This was not posed or staged. This merely reflects the very high probability that at any given moment, Rachel will be within 2 feet of something duck-related.

She's got hair!

Those of you who rely on photos of Rachel to follow her progress probably haven't seen the back of her head lately. And the front of her head doesn't really give a good sense of how very much hair she's got. No ponytails anytime soon, but she's definitely growing hair! Check it out:

Christmas Wishes

If Rachel were to write her Christmas wish list, it would probably look like this:

• Little things to hide in my parents' shoes
• Tupperware--lots and lots of tupperware
• Anything from a recycling bin--newspaper, plastic bottles, jar lids

Those are the sorts of things that bring Rachel the most fun lately. (Except her parents, of course, and she would probably agree that she has enough of those!)

But since Rachel isn't writing this Christmas wish list, and since those of you who might like to give Rachel a Christmas gift are unlikely to find her ideas satisfying, I'll tell you what else I think she might enjoy:

• Books are always great. Especially exciting at this point are touch-and-feel books, anything with holes she can stick her fingers into, and photos of babies. We're just starting to switch to paper page books, but board books are still good as she refines her page-turning skills.
• I think she'll soon be ready for those simple wood-cutout puzzles, with knobs or really chunky.
• She's pretty well set for clothes, but if you see something you like for her, she's wearing size 12 months lately. Unless pants are really stretchy, though, she needs size 18 months pants to fit over her ample diaper. Jeans seldom work at any size.
• She seems to like animals and babies most of all at this point. Also amusing are things she can bang on to make music.
• And, of course, small objects she can hide in her parents' shoes provide endless amusement for the whole family!
  

It looks like it's going to snow this afternoon. Happy Advent to all!

Our Little Chatterbox

Hi, everyone! This is the mom here. We've taken a couple of videos lately of Rachel doing her Rachel stuff. These are the moments few others ever get to see, because they generally only occur when she's at home and comfortable. So here's your chance! We just love to listen to her--new sounds all the time. Ahhh--I remember when she first made intentional sounds at us. It was such a big deal! I suppose one of these days, we'll look forward to a moment when she's quiet for a couple of seconds. But for now, her gabbles and babbles are very dear. Also note--other favorite pastimes lately are emptying any and all drawers and grabbing for the camera!