The Bub in the Belly: Updates on Rachel

Rachel is 15 months today and I thought it would be perfect for an update to show you some old photos of her. These were taken back in March this year, about six months back. You can see the same cheeky girl, with shorter hair - already the babydoll. She's a little taller now of course, but not by much.

At that stage, babydoll was putting everything into her mouth and it was not often that I managed to get photos of her without a mouth accessory. These days she still tries, off and on, to taste stuff with her mouth, but in general, she only does it if the item looks (or feels) edible. Another hobby that she has put aside is rummaging through drawers - there isn't much rummaging action nowadays.

At that time in March also, babydoll was not yet walking. Now she brings her shoes to us when she wants to go out and bangs on the door so that we'll hurry up and open it. She enjoys being on her feet and she loves the independence that walking brings.

Babydoll was not quite sleeping through the night at that time in March because she was still night-latching. Now she no longer latches at night and we have had many nights of rest. The training was tough - on both Richard and babydoll. Richard used to carry her in the Beco Gemini carrier till she fell asleep. She would be crying her guts out sometimes so Richard really had his work cut out for him. I asked him to lay her down once she got sleepy enough and let her fall asleep on the bed but he preferred to keep carrying her until she was in deep slumber and, sometimes, that could take a very, very long time.

Well, Richard persevered. He did manage to change his methods here and there, as babydoll got more and more used to going to bed without me. Now, he just has to switch the lights off and babydoll knows that it's bedtime. She will lay down herself and go to sleep. There were a couple of times, she was still playing after lights out and, after waiting for her to settle down without success, Richard snapped the Beco on and came over to get her. She immediately threw herself down on the pillow and pretended to be asleep! Richard picked her up anyway and put her in the carrier. Within a few minutes (accompanied by a lot of crying in protest), she was fast asleep.

Babydoll is quite the feisty one - her nanny keeps warning her older brother that he'd better be nice to her because when babydoll grows up a little more, he won't stand a chance if he wants to pick a fight with her. What she lacks in might and muscle, she more than makes up in determination and fearlessness.

Her nanny also joked that, in the future, while Ryan will be ever the perfectionist, labouring lovingly over his school homework, Rachel will rush through her homework and get it over with, because she has a lot of other adventures to get to. That's a nod to how inquisitive and fearless Rachel is - she always wants to be part of the action, no matter what it is.