The Bub in the Belly: Updates on Rachel

Rachel is, like any other child her age, simply amazing. All we have to do is stand back and watch the magic unfold.

Here she was, at Daiso. She is an expert shopper - she walks into a shop and picks out an item and brings it with her while she continues shopping for other goodies. Sometimes she even tests the item first. Here she was, having picked out a ball of yarn. She went into this corner with the plastic chairs and pails and tested the chairs - she sat on a few of them and chose other chairs from the stack of yellow chairs to test out. She actually un-stacked them one by one and, after she'd found one that met her standards, re-stacked them neatly.

She dragged her chair around the shop with one hand, holding her ball of yarn in the other. I didn't want to buy the chair so I tried to replace it by luring her to the bag aisle. She picked out a bag but didn't give up her chair or her yarn. She put the bag on the chair and continued to drag it around with the ball of yarn in the other hand! After a while of doing this, with the yarn slipping about, she realised that there must be a better way, so she stopped and... she opened the bag and put the yarn inside! I was very impressed with her problem-solving skills and determination.

Apart from food, Rachel absolutely loves books. She loves to hold them, flip through them, examine their contents, talk about them. Bring her to a bookstore and she doesn't want to leave. Here she was, at Books Actually. At home, she will regularly bring us books from the bookshelf for reading.

I am also impressed by babydoll's interest in people. I had mentioned, a few updates ago, that Rachel was exhibiting some stranger anxiety. That seems to have lessened a lot. Here she was at the bookstore, sitting close to an older girl who was deep in her book. Rachel does this all the time. She goes up to people and interacts with them on her own. She will sit close to them and participate in what they are doing.

Many times, the older children ignore her (and some have really bad manners!). On this occasion however, she came across this wonderful girl who happily played with her. After a while, Rachel actually ran off to another aisle but this little girl ran after her and brought her back to play some more. Such a lovely, warm and open-hearted girl.