Rachael is at a fantastic age. She is exploring her world with great curiosity, which is a nice way to say that she’s getting into everything. But as she finds interest in everything, she is becoming more and more resourceful. No longer is she content to merely look at something from a distance, she now must taste, touch, and experience everything to the fullest. And her mobility is merely a green light in the process.

She has mastered crawling, pulling up to a stand, and furniture walking so as to use them for her greatest accomplishments – getting into all the little nooks and crannies that we thought things were safe in. And while “no” comes back with a squeak (talking back), she is responding well to the limit-setting. But again, she resorts to her resourceful self.

Like tonight, for example, I was sitting on the floor playing alongside the little trooper. Everything I touched was instantly Rachael’s. At one point, I held onto an object and refused to let her take it from me. I told her I was playing with that. She looked at me in amazement, could Mommy ever refuse to share in her world of instant satisfaction? She picked up a manger scene character and handed it to me. When I took it from her she grabbed my toy.

Later she found her bottle in her diaper bag – never fails, that kid always finds her bottle no matter how hard we try to hide that diaper bag from her. She grabbed her bottle out of the bag and crawled over and handed her bottle to me. I hid it behind my back. She squeaked. So I handed her a lint roller to play with. So she used the lint roller to knock the remote control (a “no no”) off the side table and grab it. Stinking resourceful. And as I type this she has utilized a toy to knock open the laundry door and try to climb in Dakota’s cage. While these behaviors could be seen as terroristic in nature, I find great enjoyment in her resourcefulness. For it merely takes a “no”, which is responded with a squeak, with an occasional smack of the hand and then obedience is mine.

How I love that little girl. Let the good times continue!