Many of Rachel's milestones, along with some other things

Rachel has hit a lot of her first milestones in the last few months. It is true that they grow up so fast. But it is so fun watching her grow, learn, and develop. Her temperament is wonderful. She must be one of the most easy-going, patient babies ever. It is a blessing that we thank Heavenly Father for every day.

Rachel started cooing around two and a half months. She is quite a social little girl. She enjoys smiling and babbling for people.

Sept 24, 2011

She has liked experimenting with her voice a lot. She likes to go from high-pitched to scratchy to yelling. And then there are times when she just coos with her sweet little voice. 

Oct 26, 2011

We were a little slow to move her out of the bassinet. I think she was 4 months before we moved her to a pack-n-play, though still in our room. You can see how she took up most of the space in the bassinet and how she shook it when moving around. We then moved her into the crib in Allie's room at 6 months, which was later than we planned, but worked out alright. Some nights can be rough, but overall it has been a pretty smooth transition for both girls.

This was taken before moving her to the crib. This is how she would greet you when you go to get her in the morning or after a nap. She still greets you with a smile, but now she is usually sitting up by the time you get to her. Today she actually pulled herself up in the crib. I guess it is time to lower the mattress.

Nov 9, 2011

There are times when Allie runs to say hi to Rachel after she wakes up. Since it entertains both of them, I'll occasionally take a little time to finish whatever I am working on. Sometimes Allie will have given Rachel toys and/or books. Rachel loves it.

Nov 8, 2011

There are other times when Allie will decide to be helpful. One time she very proudly showed me all the nursing pads she had put into the pack-n-play. Apparently it is a better place for them.

It seemed like Rachel wanted to laugh for awhile before she finally did. Here's the first video in which we captured some of her laugh. It was pretty close to her first laugh, which was right around 3 months.

Oct 10, 2011

Though it isn't something most of us would celebrate, Rachel's thighs got to be about as thick as Allie's mid-October. It made us chuckle. We haven't measured them recently, but Rachel is thinning just a little, so they are probably about the same still.

We've mentioned it before, but Rachel really does love Allie. She would give most of her first smiles to Allie, and it was no different with her laughs. It seemed like they would have a daily laughing session for a few weeks. It was so cute and funny that I would usually join them, too. I was a little jealous at times, though, because I would try so hard to get Rachel to laugh and get a few little laughs, but then Allie would always manage to get Rachel to crack up. Oh well. More than anything it would just melt my heart. I sure love watching my two little girls enjoy each other.

Oct 25, 2011

Perhaps one reason why Rachel adores Allie is because she is always getting her toys, A LOT of toys.

Oct 20, 2011

Sometimes the girls like to watch Mommy while she folds clothes. Here's a cute picture of the girls with their blankets on Mommy and Daddy's bed while Mommy was folding clothes. 

Nov 1, 1011

Story time seems to be something that Rachel enjoys as much as Allie, although her attention span is obviously much shorter.

Rachel looked at Allie about as much as she looked at the book.

Nov 5, 2011

We borrowed a bumbo chair from some friends at church. Rachel loved it. Mommy liked it too because it meant that she could walk away for a little bit without worry of her getting hurt. It also meant that she could have her on the counter or table near her while cooking or having meals. Allie took advantage of one of the times Mommy was away to play dress up with Rachel and give her a hat. It is a nice cottage cheese bucket (that was clean). Rachel didn't mind one bit. I think she likes any positive attention from her sister.

Allie then read her a book.

Nov 9, 2011

Just another cute picture.

Nov 13, 2011

Here's another little video that we think is cute. Rachel had so much fun with this little stuffed Lady (from Lady and the Tramp).

Nov 14, 2012

Rachel was such a big baby that we moved her to the bath tub earlier than we did with Allie. Allie was long, but Rachel's extra weight just filled the baby tub up that much more. So Allie was very excited to take a bath with Rachel. Since Rachel wasn't sitting up, yet, we had to be extra careful with her. But she continued to love her baths. She is a water baby. She loves to splash and play with the water. I didn't realize that Daddy was recording when this was taken, so I was actually trying to get her to turn and smile for a picture. She was more interested in the water, though. (The splashing in this video is tame compared to what she likes to do now, both sitting up and lying down.)

Nov 16, 2011

First Bath in Big Tub with Sis

Although not a traditional "milestone," we thought it was pretty cute when Rachel first wanted take some swings at a ball. Perhaps we have a little volleyball player in the making. (It was a clean way, discovered by chance, for her to entertain herself in the bathroom when we were spending an endless amount of time in there with Allie.)

Dec 8, 2011

Allie was sitting by 5 months, and I remember telling Jared that I didn't think Rachel would meet that. And I would have been fine if she hadn't because then they just want to get mobile. Well, Rachel could sit fairly well at 5 months. The pictures below were taken on December 7th, one day after her 5 month mark. We had pillows around her, but she was able to sit for up to half an hour at times.

The next picture was taken the same day and obviously isn't of her sitting, but I thought it was cute.

Rachel has been a drool monster for quite some time. Allie was too, and we were certain that Allie was an early teether because of her drooling and putting everything in her mouth. However, Allie didn't get her first tooth until a little after nine months. So when Rachel started drooling like crazy, we figured, "yeah, she won't get teeth for awhile." But on December 10th, Rachel was putting my fingers in her mouth when I felt something, a tooth cutting through. And then the next day I could feel a second tooth. I couldn't believe it. And as is par for her personality and temperament, she seemed to weather it just fine. She now has her two bottom pearlies and is working on the top two. They aren't cutting through yet, but they are incredibly swollen.

Rachel seems to be saying certain consonant-vowel combinations earlier than Allie did, too. She started saying, "mama" and "baba" on January 7th, and then just started saying "dada" on January 19th. We love hearing her babble.

We went to Rachel's 6 month doctor's appointment on January 9th, and when the doctor saw that she could sit, she said that it wouldn't be long before she would go from tummy to sitting and then getting around. I think she gave Rachel ideas, because, that very afternoon, Rachel learned to go from tummy to sitting. In the next few days she started getting around by either slowly scooting on her bum or reaching, going to her tummy, changing directions, and then going back to sitting. It was amazing how much distance she could cover in a relatively short amount of time.

During the next week, she started trying to go forward and would get frustrated by going backward. And then only a little over a week later, she learned to crawl. She still is somewhat shaky at it, and she does it with a little hop in her crawl, but she can get to what she wants by going forward. I know she was going forward a little on January 18th. The videos below were taken on January 20th.

Also on January 18th, Rachel pulled herself to standing for the first time. I was watching her and just thought, "she is gonna do it." So I grabbed the video camera and captured her first time pulling herself up to standing at 6 and a half months. We could be in trouble. We definitely have to keep an eye on her because she is always wanting to pull herself up despite being wobbly and she could definitely bump her head.

Another non-traditional milestone: using a hammer. She has watched Allie play with this hammer and bench toy quite a bit. She got to it and wanted a try at it. Luckily, Allie was okay with it. Sometimes Allie is great about sharing, but other times she is very possessive over her toys. (The bench is actually upside-down, but Rachel didn't seem to mind.)

Stats


We haven't listed her 4-month or 6-month stats, yet. So without further ado...

4 Months: 25.5" long (90-95th percentile) and 16 lbs (75-90th percentile - quite the window)
6 Months: 27.5" long (95th percentile) and 17 lbs, 9 oz (75th percentile) - Allie still hadn't reached this weight by 9 months.

It seems we are going to have two girls who tower over their mother.