Rachel at 10 months

Happy 10 month 'birthday' to our Rachie-bear today! Here's what she's up to at this age:

• Weighs right around 20lbs...she's still in her infant carseat (carrier) but we really need to switch her to the other carseat since the weight limit on the carrier is 20lbs. It's just been so convenient to have her in the carrier so we can just set it down on the ground and still have a hand for each of the other kids!

• Sleeping really well - she's (finally - I know some of you thought it would never happen) down to two naps a day, usually about 10-12 and 2-4. She goes to bed around 7 and wakes up at 8 (she's usually up once in between to eat, around 5:00, although the last two nights I haven't fed her at all at night...) She sleeps all nice and cozy in her zipper sleeping bag, with her soother (the only one of our kids who has taken a soother!) and a little fuzzy blanket. She generally sleeps on her stomach.

• Sits on her own well (except when one of her siblings gets right in her face and she leans backwards to try to get away from them!), rolls all over the living room and sometimes the kitchen and hallway, but no crawling yet! She can stand for a couple seconds if I set her up hanging on to the couch, but not for long. We're definitely enjoying her not being quite mobile yet!

• She's still nursing, and usually eats two 'solid' meals a day. She'll eat some things off of our plates if we give her a tiny or mushed up piece, but strangely she doesn't like Cheerios! Gavin and Abby would sit for practically hours eating Cheerios at this age! Rach just sort of looks at them and will occasionally get one in her mouth but doesn't seem that impressed.

• I think 'da-da' is her first word...she says it (sort of) on command. :) Other than that she babbles a bit and is into SCREECHING - I think she' s trying to get her opinion noticed amongst all the other noise here!

• She's starting to wave bye-bye if you ask her to, but doesn't seem to be doing any other signs yet. Well, I've definitely seen her signing 'milk' a couple of times, but not in conjunction with any actual milk, lol!

• She STILL just has those bottom two teeth that came in FIVE months ago! I'd have to look at their baby books to be sure, but I was looking at pictures of Abby the other day, and forsure she had six teeth at this age. Probably Rachel will have a whole bunch of teeth come in at once here soon...

• And the biggest news, ha ha, is that I think she might have curly hair!! No, I'm not imagining it (like I might have been when I thought she had dark hair coming in...). This time other people have even commented on it. :) I took a couple of pictures, but it doesn't quite seem to show it very well. Just take my word for it, her hair definitely has curl in the back!

Picture time!

Abby and Gavin playing 'Spy Kids' (or that's what they told me they were doing!)

Gavin getting his 'Mr. Independent' award at school on Thursday (for 'taking responsibility to advance his own learning') - he was so proud!

Gavin's idea for snack yesterday - it's an Easter bunny!

Gavin's elephant project he did at school (they worked together with their grade six reading buddies)

This is the picture we have on our desktop right now - her eyes follow you! It's actually kind of freaky at night because it looks like you could reach out and touch her...

TWO YEARS!

Happy 'blogiversary' to us! It's been two years today since we started this blog! I have to say I'm kind of impressed with myself that I've remembered to keep it (more or less) updated since then. :) I hope everyone enjoys reading and seeing the occasional pictures - it sure makes us feel like we're closer to some of our far-away family and friends!

Just a quick look back...This was our very first post. Look how little Gavin was - and he's going to be SIX in a few weeks! Remember Abby's crazy hair when she was about the age Rachel is now? Oh, and was it really almost two years ago Greg became a Canadian citizen? (Which reminds me, I still need to post about the kids becoming American citizens!) This is one of my favorite Gavin stories.

And a little comparison...

Here's Abby at about the same age as Rachel is in the pictures below:

Definitely part of the same family. :)

Just a few Rachel pictures...

I've been chastised for not posting for a while, so here's a few pictures to give you your Clark blog fix, ha ha!

Rachel's not crawling yet (thankfully) but she sure rolls quickly - I don't think crawling is too far off!

There's the blur of her brother's foot running by her...

She thinks it's very funny! (Mommy, meanwhile, has a heart attack fearing he's going to step on her head!)

Just in case the whole election thing doesn't work out

(Today is election day in Alberta, for those who don't know.)

I just reminded Greg that we need to go vote on our way into Grande Prairie this afternoon. Gavin asked what 'vote' meant, so I started to explain why we need government:

Me: Well, in a country like Canada with so many people you need somebody to be in charge of things like making roads and hospitals and stuff. Each person can't just make their own road because that would just be a big mess! So the way they decide who gets to be in charge is...

Gavin: Eeny meeny miney mo? That's how we do it at my school.

You know, sometimes I wonder if eeny meeny miney mo might be just as effective. ;)