Five and Counting

Rachel put her pajamas on early on Saturday night and when we were reading before bed decided not to put on a diaper for the night. Went to the bathroom before bed, and made it through the night without wetting herself. Sunday morning she was moving around so I went to get her and make sure she went to the bathroom and she seemed to think it was coming, so I carried her down. But she made it and hasn't had a diaper at night since! This is big. It's been great not having to change diapers most of the time, and never for 'poopies' as she calls them, but now if she is really finished with them, well... hallelujah!

She's been making strides in other areas too. She's a wonderful climber and now has stopped needing to hold both my hands when jumping off the top of her little outdoor climbing structure. It's about 4' high and it's still too much for her to do by herself, though I'm sure the days are numbered for that. It's just a matter of her being able to climb onto the top of the wall by herself rather than needing someone to balance her. I don't think she actually needs the support for the jump itself. She's also started jumping off the wall of our neighbor's driveway by herself from higher and higher points on the drive.

And then there's the music and singing. We've been taking her to Music Together (www.musictogether.com) for about 2 years now, maybe longer. She's always loved it, but recently she's finally started to sing in class, not just at home or in the car. And sometime last week I was actually able to whistle some of the songs and have her recognize them - name that tune!

Dawn and I took her to school on our bikes today. She's really getting into biking lately. She's in love with the cleats on my bike shoes. Almost any time I am around the bike she wants to see them. "Does it go here? Is it for the pedal?" I was planning on just taking her in the truck today because I didn't want to have any problems, but when I said something about getting ready to go she announced that she wanted to go on my bike. We occasionally call it her big black bike to help it be more hers. Yesterday afternoon she got back on her bike to show it to her grandparents in spite of having taken a little bit of a spill a day or so before. Very cool.

Dawn's bike still needs some work. We discovered today that one of the derailers is misadjusted so that it doesn't let her use the largest gear in front. And we still need to do something about the length and/or angle of the neck. And I think I'm going to get her some platform clip-less pedals so that she can use real bike shoes when she wants but can also ride with regular shoes when she wants, too. Might do something with the brakes while I'm at it... the rear is a bit of a kludge. I put V-brakes on sometime back and the rear of the bike doesn't have the right stop for it, so I had to put one on myself... ideally one would weld it on, but that would have been expensive and a pain, so I put a special clamp on. It's just not the most super secure thing in the world. And Dawn does not need the power of V-brakes as I did.