The MOJO Family: Hair, words, tongues, arches

I thought our next blog would be about finishing the shed in our backyard and finally unpacking our last boxes and showing a clean and organized house. Well, we're not there yet.

But Rachel is doing some fun things. Her one little tooth is about half way up and seems to want to stay there. She wants to hold your hand and walk everywhere, but she doesn't seem to understand that people do this without holding on to your hands for support just yet.

Her hair continues to grow so we started playing with hair clips and pigtails. She is not interested in these contraptions and tugs at them and complains. So, I cut her hair again for the 4th time and now her bangs are short again. Still I'm hoping for winter pigtails under her hat so she doesn't get a tangled rat's nest like she did last time we went camping.

She is starting to communicate more. She can sign for 'more' and wave and clap a little bit better all the time. She will copy your gestures also - if you sing 'If you're happy and you know it shout hooray!' and put your arms up overhead, she will also put her arms up overhead. During 'itsy bitsy spider' she tries to gesture for the rain and the spider a little bit.

She thinks tongues are very funny. I'm not sure where this has come from but they make her giggle.

Emptying the bathroom drawers

Emptying videos and papers from an office box

She knows the meaning of the word 'no' and sometimes follows these instructions. Other times, she doesn't, and continues to empty the drawer or box that she is exploring!

We think she has said her first few words, although this wasn't the historical moment we thought it would be. She has said 'dadada' and 'mamama' for months but we don't think she has really known it to mean people. However, she does say 'dada' after he leaves out the door and she does say 'mama' when she's sad and I come over to pick her up. But her first official word we are going to count as 'dog'. She loves dogs! She kicks and squeals with delight if she sees one down the street. She has books and songs and clothes about dogs and the other day she consistently pointed to a dog and said 'DA!' several times.

She hasn't done this since, however, so it's not a mastered skill. But we've written it in her baby book anyway.

Last weekend we hiked up the local favorite hike called 'Royal Arch'. Jason did the hard work of carrying Rachel in the backpack for the steeper ascent and the more technical work. It was a nice day, a good workout for us all, and a good break from school work for Jason. Rachel stayed awake the whole time because we saw 22 dogs while we were out for less than 3 hours so she spent half the time panting and shrieking with excitement!