Pajamas

Dressing seems to be the big issue around here lately. Yesterday I sent Rachel into her room to get her pajamas on, which I had already laid out for her. I was doing something in the other room, so I just listened and when I couldn't hear her moving around I would call to her to hurry and finish. After about 10 minutes I went in her room to see how she had done, and was pleased that her pajamas were on and all her clothes were apparently in the hamper, since I couldn't see them anywhere. I sent her in to kiss Daddy goodnight, and started to turn her covers down so I could tuck her in. When she came back in I had to laugh when I realized that she had put her pajama bottoms on over her pants. While we were fixing that, I also realized that she had ripped her pajama top, sticking her arm through a new hole under the sleeve, so the sleeve was just hanging down over her arm. I guess she'll need new pajamas. We quickly fixed the problems and I tucked her in bed (after finding and taking her shoes out of the hamper, so we wouldn't be searching for them in the morning).

I have been trying to find ways to help her be more happy, and one of the things I have done is to make sure she looks at me more often, and that I show her a very happy face, and that I make sure she sees me laughing and smiling. I think it's helped. She doesn't always completely avoid making eye contact, but at times if I really want her to look at my face, I have to work at it a bit. A good share of the time if I can get her to see how happy I am, it kinda rubs off on her a bit. Which is awesome. Last night, with the pajama problems, I suddenly wasn't sure what to do. I laugh at those things because I choose to see humor in them. I can't go back in time and fix it, and being upset/annoyed doesn't do anyone any good, so I laugh. Lately I've been going out of my way to make sure Rachel sees me laugh, and it seems to help her (she'll laugh when she just hears people laughing, and seeing it does even more). The dilemma I faced last night, however, was a concern that she would feel that I was laughing at her, which is a totally different thing. I'm not too concerned that she'll start to dress oddly just to make me laugh, but I don't want her to have her feelings hurt. So, I just made sure she saw me smile and so she knew I was happy, but I didn't show her how funny I thought it was. She was smiling when I tucked her in bed, so that was great. I'll have to maybe experiment a bit to find out if I can laugh really obviously at her little problems without it hurting her feelings.

Another cool thing happened last night. After she eats her dinner she takes her plate to the sink, but last night she just kept holding it without putting it down. I finally asked her if she wanted more, and she said "yes." She ate another fairly large helping. I absolutely love it when she eats and I don't have to make her do it. Hopefully her appetite is picking back up a bit. I'm hoping she'll put a few more pounds back on.