18 months!

18 months ago today, I was laying in bed at Duke Univ Hospital denying that my regular contractions were going to bring the delivery of our precious baby girl! Boy, how wrong I was! As the doctors watched my contractions get closer together and Rachael's heart rate dip along with those contractions, they decided it was go-time.

At 3:40pm Rachael came in to the world and I cried with thanksgiving for a baby who beat the odds and for the end of a terrifying pregnancy. I can't tell you how much "easier" these 18 months have been in comparison to the 4 months of bedrest. While, yes, there are some days that I wish someone would make me stay in bed, I spend many more days laughing with, singing to, talking to and cheering on and being amazed (and, ok, sometimes frustrated by) our little girl.

She is: independent, determined, funny, dramatic, sweet, and oh-so-devilish as she runs away when you're trying to retrieve the TV remote that she 'stole' from it's right place. She's really beginning to use many two or three word phrases and is starting to understand the relationship/concept of please and thank you; hello and goodbye. She's had the words for a while, but, now she recognizes when they should be used.
She loves to help you put your shoes on, wash her own hands at the sink, play outside (with or without water), have tea parties, play in the gym at school and hug her baby brother, much to mama's panic.

We'll get her stats recorded on Friday at the doctor, I'll be back to update for our 'records'.