ABCs and standing

At bedtime after reading stories, we sing a couple of songs with Rachel. We were going to sing the alphabet song, and I wanted to see if Rachel could do it by herself. So I did it in sign language, and Rachel said the alphabet. I promise I didn’t say any of the letters, she did it all on her own. Okay, she messed up on a couple of the letters, but otherwise did a fantastic job. Now I’ll just tell you, Rachel is no performer. She will not do it on command, so you’ll just have to take my word on this.

Gabi, not wanting to be excluded from all of this bragging, had to step up to the plate and do something spectacular. So this morning she stood all by herself. It was just a few seconds, but unlike Rachel, I was able to get her to duplicate her feat, and I got witnesses. The second time she stood for even longer. I would say the second time was close to 10 seconds.

Unfortunately, not all is sunshine and lollipops. Rachel has taken to hitting lately. Yesterday she slapped me across the face, and she hit Gabi several times. So we have spent more time in time-out lately. Today she slapped Jeff across the face, and so that was more time-out. But it’s not all bad either. Afterward Rachel was watching Dora the Explorer. I went downstairs to spend some snuggle time with her. She saw Gabi standing behind the baby gate at the top of the stairs and she said “Gabi, come here.” I ask her “Do you want Gabi to come watch Dora with you?” She nodded yes. So I brought Gabi downstairs and sat her between my legs and held Rachel under my arm. Rachel said “Gabi, I hold her.” I said “Do you want to hold Gabi?” She nodded yes, so I put Gabi in Rachel’s lap, and Rachel held her very tenderly. I called for Jeff to come take a picture.

I hope this hitting thing is a short lived phase, and I hope I can figure out how to handle this appropriately, but at least I’m certain that Rachel has a sweet and tender side too.