Rachel as an arcade game

When I was growing up my grandparents had a pinball machine. I'm not sure what happened to it--I don't think they have it anymore. At least, I haven't seen it in quite some time. Anyway, whenever we'd go visit them we would play on the pinball machine for hours. I wasn't very good at it, but sometimes David would help me by taking one of the flippers. That way I would only have to worry about the ball if it came to my side.

I liked to watch the ball bounce around and light everything up. Rachel has since taken the place of pinball in my life. I now enjoy watching her bounce around all day...and she certainly lights up my life.

Getting her up in the morning is very much like releasing the spring-loaded plunger, sending the ball ricocheting around the playing field. Much like pinball, there are certain targets that Rachel goes for everyday: the toilet, the magnets on the fridge, her toy boxes, books, magazines, anything small enough to choke on. I believe that she is under the impression that the bigger mess she makes, the more points she scores. And all the while, Rachel sings her own little theme song, which involves a whole lot of squealing.

You might think that nap time would bring some peace and quiet, but Rachel's naps are so sporadic, I find myself waiting to see when she'll pop back up again, as if she had disappeared in a hole in the playing field only to shoot back out on the opposite side, catching me off guard.

Things slow down a little at night, after my little pinball has been out in the play field so long that she has lost most of her momentum, but Rachel still bounces around well after bedtime.

In fact, I'm not convinced that she ever stops moving, which is the very reason she no longer sleeps in our bed. Here she is last night using her crib bumper as exactly that: a bumper.

12:19 AM

12:43 PM

When I put her to bed, I tucked her in nice and tight on the other side of her crib, but it looks like she got up to play, taking her favorite blanket with her. She kind of looks like she fell asleep while she was sitting up again, something she does frequently. I put her to bed around 9:00 but I really have no idea when she actually fell asleep.

I was a little bit worried about her sleeping in that position all night long because her face was buried in her blanket, but Andrew told me that I needn't worry because she moves a lot, all night long. We hear her banging around in her crib approximately every twenty minutes during the night--of course, I hear her more often than Andrew, who can sleep through anything--so twenty minutes later when I heard her move I went to check and see if her sleeping position was better or worse.

Satisfied that it was better, I was finally able to fall asleep. When I went in to get her this morning she was squished up in another corner of her crib, whimpering. The minute she saw me she got a huge grin on her face and started bouncing up and down. I reached in and lifted her out, releasing all the potential energy in that spring loaded plunger--she has been bouncing off the walls ever since!