That little tongue thing

When Rachel can stand to be separated from mommy, one of her favorite perches is Andrew. She'll sit up on his shoulders with a big grin on her face, pounding his head, twisting his ears, gouging his eyes and pulling his hair. They both enjoy it a lot.

Rachel has also started this little "tongue thing" and she does it more and more frequently everyday, especially when she's enjoying herself. I think one of her secret goals in life is to get everything as wet as possible. She is really into tongues. She loves when people stick their tongues out at her--sometimes she'll mimic them and other times she'll try to grab at them. The majority of her time is spent chewing or spitting on objects.


One goal that I know she has on her list is to climb into the bottom of her exersaucer. She's been trying to do it for quite some time now and has been progressing nicely. I have a feeling that I'll walk into the living room in the next couple of days and she'll be sitting up right in the middle of her exersaucer.


It is difficult for me to get anything done with Rachel being such a mommy's girl. She rarely wants me out of her line of vision and if she had her way we'd be holding each other all day. That's almost impossible though, so she tries to keep me within arm's reach. It's her way of compromising, I guess. I don't have to hold her...she just has to be able to reach out and touch me whenever she feels the need.

Kitchen work, as you might imagine, became a difficult task. Sometimes I can get her to sit on the floor and watch me but if she decides to throw a tantrum then she'll fall over and hit her head. Or if she decides she wants me she'll end up pulling on my leg until I give in and pick her up.

The other day I decided to just to add her to my kitchen appliances. I unplugged the toaster, pushed the knives out of reach, and sat her up on the counter. I did the dishes with my hip in the corner of the counter, making it rather difficult to reach the sink, but I did it. Rachel was happy.

She helped herself to a few toys...


...and was a very good girl. That is, until she got bored. Then she knocked over the whole jar of utensils and pulled the dish towel out from under the drying dishes. Needless to say her life as a major kitchen appliance was short lived. What am I going to do with her? I'll never get anything done.

I'm just glad that Andrew has patience with us and when he gets home and it looks like nothing got done while he was slaving away at school or work he understands that it is because nothing got done. He knows Rachel is a handful--she's excited about everything and demands vigil attention, be it for her own entertainment or for personal safety. Busy, busy, busy baby!