What a week (and a half) it has been. I was hired by a local security company to work at a convention at the Fairgrounds. It’s nice to make a little extra money once in a while, and to be honest, it comes at a good time. So I sat outside a parking lot and controlled access to the lot. Pretty much I let anybody in who wanted in since the only people who wanted in were allowed to be there. The days were long and boring, I got sunburned several days, and drenched in the rain other days. Only on Thursday, the last day of the event, when it was pouring rain, and nobody was looking at the trucks and rigs, and they all wanted to be let out early was I truly “working” by my definition. It was pouring rain, and it was cold, a couple of trucks came to my gate. I had just been instructed not 10 minutes earlier that no trucks were to leave until 3:00. At the time it was 1:50. I told them “no.” The guy said “just close your eyes” but I stuck to my guns. Then the trolley came by, but couldn’t pass because the trucks were blocking the way. I had to get mean and make them return to their places. Yeah, I was mean!
I was very fortunate to have the assistance of a family who watched the girls for me. They were AWESOME! Rachel and Gabi came home happy and content pretty much every day, and to make it even better, they provided us with dinner almost every night. It was a tiring and long week, but that family made it so much better!
Then yesterday my barbershop chorus had a dress rehearsal in preparation for our big international competition coming up later this month. Again I had to juggle the girls a bit, but with the help of Jeff it went pretty smooth. I fed Gabi in the morning, then took her with me to rehearsal. Jeff waited for Rachel to wake up, fed her breakfast, then came to the rehearsal. He stayed long enough for me to feed Gabi again, and when Rachel was ready to leave he took both girls. While Rachel was there she really liked it. The chorus was in costume singing a song, and Rachel stood transfixed watching, and copying to the best of her ability the choreography. It was so cute!
After dress rehearsal was over I went home and picked up Gabi and took her to my orientation for first time international competitors that my chorus has. Jeff stayed home with Rachel. I finally got home for the day at about 6:45 p.m. and it was nice to spend that last part of the day relatively quietly with the family.
So here’s the latest with Rachel and Gabi.
Rachel is growing up so much. She is super interested in potty training, and I am slowly figuring out what to do. Jeff had just finished brushing her teeth and was going to take her into her room to finish the bedtime routine. We brush Rachel’s teeth together. One of us brushes her teeth, and the other brushes our own teeth. She is much more cooperative about it when we do it that way. Anyway, I noticed Rachel pulled at her diaper which is kind of her indication that she needs to go potty, so I stopped Jeff and asked Rachel if she needed to use the potty. She seemed to indicate yes, so I put her on the potty, and sure enough, she pee peed. Yay Rachel! I know she is ready for real potty training, but I am very unsure about how to go about it other than do what we are doing. She is still wearing a diaper because I’m scared to put big girl panties on her since she doesn’t consistently let me know that she needs to go. Sometimes she does, but far from every time. Any advice, dear readers?
Rachel is also really enjoying doing puzzles. She has three puzzles, and two of the three she can do by herself. The third one is pictures of farm equipment, and the shapes of the pieces and the shapes of the spaces are a little vague. The other two she doesn’t need any help at all. (She’s so smart!) Rachel’s other “likes” include getting undressed and redressed about 40 times per day, reading, drawing on the whiteboard (and occasionally the walls), and playing outside in her sandbox.
Gabi is growing up too. She has officially outgrown her 0-3 month clothes. I have still been squeezing her into them, but seriously, they just don’t fit, so finally yesterday morning I put away her 0-3 month clothes and got out her 3-6 month clothes, which seem to fit her perfectly. Gabi wants to sit up. If she is lying on her back in her bouncy seat she strains her abs and pulls her head up. But she still can’t support herself. So sometimes we sit her in the boppy and put pillows or cushions around her. She is sleeping great at night now. (Thank you bed time cereal.) Yesterday I started giving her cereal for breakfast too. She is nursing pretty well too. I can’t believe she is almost 5 months old. When she was a newborn and she wasn’t growing so well I used to say to her “grow, grow, grow.” Now I say to her “stop growing, stop growing.” She listened to me early on, but she doesn’t listen to me anymore. She just keeps growing. She has a beautiful toothless smile which she shares easily, much to the pleasure of everybody.
I am happy to say that Rachel still is fantastic with Gabi. Rachel likes to make sure that Gabi has a blanket and a toy when she is in the carseat. It’s pretty sweet. Scout is still here (poor neglected baby), and treats both girls appropriately. He is very tolerant of Rachel, and Rachel like playing with him. You should hear it when she points to Scout and says in a stern voice “sit, stay.” Rachel also likes to play “fetch” with him. Scout has a rubber chicken (which lasted a long time, but finally lost its leg). Rachel gets it away from him and throws it down the stairs for him to fetch.
So that’s life here. Now that things are back to normal I’ll take some more pictures and post them soon.
When Nicholas and Michael were potty-training, I bought cloth underpants and plastic pants to put on over them. That way, if they had an accident, it stayed contained. It worked for us – you might want to try it!