A Very Rachel Post

On July 22, Rachel officially turned 18 months old, and so on July 28, she had a well-child appointment and got her last shots until kindergarten (I think). She weighed in at 19.44 lbs (10.13 percentile), and she was 30.5 inches tall (11.96 percentile). In typical Saville form, her head measured in the 52.51 percentile. That's because we have such incredible brains around here :) The only concern we had was her very small vocabulary. One of the questions on her questionnaire asked something like "Besides Mommy and Daddy, does she say more than 8 words?" I couldn't get up to 8 counting mommy and daddy. She babbles a ton--she ALWAYS has something to say. We just don't understand any of it. The doctor said she was probably okay, but referred me to Kids on the Move just in case she didn't improve before her 2 year appointment. A few weeks later, she started saying TONS of things. None are as articulate as Michael's words were at her age, but she is still adorable talking. She's started repeating simple prayers before bed--the words are gibberish but she matches the tone. We love it. She is a delight, and we're so grateful to have her fun little spirit in our home. 

Here are a few pictures:

 Eating a cupcake after Danny's swimming birthday party.  

 Sitting on Daddy during scripture study. If we sit/lay on the floor, she thinks we're her seat. This makes it hard to do my crunches or bridges, which is why I don't do them very often.  

 She's finally letting us read her books!!! This is HUGE! Michael always let us read to him, but Rachel hadn't let us until recently. Yay!

 She's getting to be quite an independent eater. She does a great job with her spoon and fork, but if we don't pay close enough attention, her plate ends up being a hat,

 which means she is occasionally using ranch dressing as leave-in conditioner. 

Her hair keeps getting longer, and I've even tried braiding it a couple of times! 

 And every time, I hear my mom's voice saying, "If you don't hold still, you're going to end up with a crooked braid." Yup, totally get it now, Mom! 

 If one of us has been a way from her for over an hour, when we return, she comes running as fast as her little legs can take her screaming, "Hiiiiiiiii!" Best welcome home ever. And she blows the sweetest kisses.

 And, like her brother, she loves yogurt! Good thing she's good at feeding herself!

One day, she was playing in Michael's room alone, and I was enjoying the extra time to work on a computer project. Finally, she came wandering back to find me: 

 Apparently she's going to audition for the sequel to Avatar. We never had this problem with Michael. I always put my markers where he couldn't reach. Michael on the other hand...

I love Sundays because we get to dress her up for church. I'm loving her curly hair and cute dresses. We just can't get enough! Speaking of church, she's now a legit nursery goer and is so good at helping clean up toys because of it. I hope it lasts!

 And when she wants to sleep, she can SLEEP! If her nap lasts less than 2 hours, something is wrong. 

  She plays hard, but she loves to go to bed when she's tired. Often, she'll bring me her blanket and say, "Night, Night!" This is her waiting for me to put her in bed. 

Remember how I said she lets us read to her now? Yeah, it's awesome. On this particular Sunday, she had just woken up. She insisted on having her blanket and her baby. She had pink eye, and I enjoyed every minute of reading her books and snuggling with her. We have yet to welcome a real snuggler into the family, so these moments are rare and, therefore, precious. 

 She loves baths. She loves dumping water  over her head. And I love wrapping her up in her towel and watching her waddle off to her room to get dressed with her towel carefully wrapped around her. 

In the mornings, Michael usually gets Rachel out of bed, but she knows where to find us. Usually they play for a little bit, but then she wanders over to our room, knocks on the door, and calls, "Mommy! Dadda!" Our hearts melt, and we HAVE to let her in. Yeah, I know, I need to get up earlier. 

 Last Sunday, after a bath, I realized her hair was long enough to go into a back ponytail. So, I HAD to try it out.

It made her look so much older. 

 And we did it again a few days later, trying out a twist for the top pieces.

 She loves her baby, and she loves pushing her baby in the stroller. So, I let her push her on over to Sam's for lunch on Thursday. She's going to be such a good mama someday.

As of right now, here are some of Rachel's words: Mommy and Dadda, Hi (said very enthusiastically), Bye-bye, Go!, cracker, mih (milk), cookie, Gichael (Michael), Night-night, baby, all done, all gone, 'Ere go! (Here you go), clean up, Papa, please, uh-oh, ba (ball), doggie, amen, mine (thanks a lot Michael), and an endless supply of baby babble.