who is she kidding?

Rachel was contentedly playing today when I said to her, per routine, "Rachel, I'm going to count to five, and then we need to go sit on the potty." I counted, expecting to be met with objection, but at the end of the count, she dutifully stood and headed toward the bathroom, where she cooperatively allowed me to sit her on the potty. "Wow," I thought to myself, "I didn't think she'd agree so easily"--she had been so focused on her task. Almost as I was having that thought, Rachel looked down and said, "Pssss, pssss, pssss, pssss. All done." She squirmed off the potty, and I rolled with laughter. It seemed as if this had been her plan all along, to somehow appease me so she could get back to her play.

Just an FYI, and because I haven't blogged about pottying in a while, Rachel does a pretty good job telling me when she needs to go, but she's not 100%, so I still try to preempt her when I can. She wears undies during the day (the kind with a little extra padding, just in case), but she does wear a diaper for sleeping, partly because I don't know when to believe her when she hollers "POTTY" from her crib--it's her favorite delay tactic. Sometimes I go to her, and she usually just grins, as if to say, "gotcha!" and then she says she does not, in fact, need to potty. It's been a long adventure, and still going!

love a freebie

Today was Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's, so, since there's a shop right down the street, I took Rachel at 11:55am and waited for them to open. My poor baby is currently suffering from Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease (don't be alarmed--it's just a virus), so I was glad to get to spoil her with some yummy strawberry ice cream. She didn't mind either...

sleep talker

A couple of nights ago, I had been asleep for a while, and Jarrad was just turning in, when we heard on the baby monitor, out of the silence of Rachel's room, "OKAAAAAAAAY!" followed by silence.

Rachel is apparently dreaming more now. We've caught her talking in her sleep on more than one occasion, but the "okay" incident was the funniest to date. Rachel uses this excited expression fairly often (ex. "Rachel, do you want to go outside?" "OKAAAAAAAAY!"). It is usually followed by dancing around in circles and trying to figure out which direction to go to make the suggestion a reality.

This afternoon, she took an unusually long nap. Forty minutes into it, she said "Elmo, Elmo, Elmo." She mumbled and grunted a bit more and stirred some before falling silent again.

She's getting funnier and funnier, that girl, and she talks so much now! She seems to narrate everything she does, even when no one is listening. She entertains herself well, so I find myself often forgetting to put her in her room for morning quiet time. I am able to get a lot done while she either follows me around, imitating everything I do or while she plays by herself with whatever toy interests her at the moment.

It is also most fun to see how she sees me. Last week, I was going through my closet and pulling out clothes to donate. Since then, Rachel sometimes goes into my closet, where she thumbs through my lower-hanging clothes, thoughtfully saying, "nooo...nooo...nooo..." She's so helpful. She copies my words, my inflection--everything. She even recreates our routines when playing alone with her stuffed animals and dolls, and I hear her tell her little friends things I say to her. As her vocabulary grows, life just gets more and more interesting...

boys and girls

Mommy: Maybe when Daddy gets home, Mommy will go to the grocery store!

(Rachel points to herself)

Mommy: You want to go to the grocery store?

Rachel: Mmm hmmm!

Mommy: What's at the grocery store?

Rachel (looking up toward the ceiling): Ummmm...boys!

This conversation had me in stitches. I don't know what made her say boys, except that she does seem to like the sound of the word. The funny thing is that she knows all her girlfriends' names, but boys, well, she just calls them "boys." In her world, the only boys who have names are her her daddy, her grandfathers, Uncle Trash (Travis), Cousin Tyler, and our good friends Chris, Bob, and Koeny. When she plays with a group of kids, like at church on Sunday, she always recounts the play time by naming all the girls, and then she just says, "boys."

I guess they are all the same, eh?

the emperor's wipes

Rachel is suddenly talking up a storm--even putting multiple words together to make primitive sentences. Since she's relatively intelligible [to us] now, it's fun to listen to her imitate us in her play. She's learning a lot about pretending, and has developed quite the sense of humor, believing herself to be the funniest kid on the block.

Rachel likes to play with wipes. I don't know if it's the crinkle of the package, or what, but she'll carry around a pack of wipes, opening and closing them. She is understanding plenty now, that I feel confident giving her complex instructions, like, "You may open the wipes, but do not get any wipes out," and she listens well. Tonight, she was playing with her new favorite friends, Ducky and Monkey. She brought over a pack of wipes, and I reminded her not to get any out. She opened the pack, glanced over, then reached down with her index finger and thumb pinched together. She poked at the wipes and then jerked her hand back up and patted Ducky on the bottom with the imaginary wipe she held. She looked at me, grinning, proud of her invention. Jarrad and I laughed, and we ooo'd and ahh'd at her game, so it continued. By bed time, Rachel had bathed herself, her daddy, and me completely with imaginary wipes, and she even ate a few, although she was laughing so hard I'm surprised she didn't choke.

Who needs TV with this kind of entertainment??

Speaking of TV, but totally unrelated, here's a video of Rachel hunting pine cones a couple weeks ago...

buzzer beater

Rachel had a fun morning with some friends/neighbors of ours, and they absolutely ran her ragged with all the playing and snacking. So when we got home right at naptime this afternoon, she settled down to sleep pretty quickly, and I was sure we were in for a long one. Not so. My wonderful, sweet, beautiful baby girl will not take long naps! So, true to pattern, she woke up after sleeping only one hour, and was in a terribly cranky mood for the afternoon. We already had plans to meet Jarrad and some other friends for dinner, so, in spite of bad-mood Rachel, I loaded us up, and we headed out.

Although wiggly, Rachel was surprisingly cooperative and fun to have around at dinner. We went to a kids-eat-free-on-Mondays spot, and it was a zoo, which seemed to keep her adequately distracted. After eating, Jarrad had to go back to work (sad), so Rachel and I headed home to wind down for the evening. All the way home, she begged for a banana, and I appeased her with promises of such. When we walked in the door, she nearly jumped out of my arms with excitement, and insisted that she "get" the banana (she points to herself over and over, saying "get, get, get, get"). So we sat down at the table with said banana, and Rachel half-ate and half-played. She finally finished her snack, but not without a lot of silliness.

"It's time to go upstairs," I announced. "Night night," she replied. Acting silly the whole way, she slowly climbed the stairs. She pottied, and then was unusually cooperative (and giggly) during the pajama ceremony. I informed her that her cooperation had left us plenty of time to read books, and she dashed over to a book I recently returned to the floor from the closet, and we read. Then she wanted to read "Brown Bear," which we started, only to be interrupted by the distant sound of fireworks.

Rachel froze. She was sitting on her bear rug/pillow, and I was stretched out on the floor next to her. I told her someone was celebrating something with fireworks, but, as I continued to read the book, Rachel stayed very still. "Are you okay, Rachel? Are you scared?" Wide-eyed, she nodded. "Do you want Mommy to hold you?" Wide-eyed, still, she got up and came to me, arms out-stretched. I picked her up, and she curled around my torso, with her head resting on my shoulder.

I sat with her in the rocking chair, and she fell asleep without moving a muscle. She doesn't fall asleep on me often, and it was such a sweet end to a silly evening, a perfect end to a whiny afternoon, and a refreshing end to a strange day.

cute moment

All this said, as I left half-asleep Rachel in her crib, I realized my phone had exited my pocket. "Oh, well," thought I, knowing I could sneak in and retrieve it after she was sound asleep. I did sneak in, only to crawl all around her room and come out empty-handed. Hmmm--now what?? I had distinctly remembered putting the phone in my sweatshirt pocket just before sitting Rachel on the potty. It wasn't in the bathroom either. I knew I couldn't call, since I had failed to turn it to vibrate. Text message! I decided to email a text message to my phone, which would cause a brief but audible notification, which I would be able to hear over Rachel's monitor were my phone in her room. And it was. So I returned, this time armed with a small flashlight, but still unable to find the darn thing. Then I heard it. It vibrated as a reminder notification. I waited, and heard it again. And I located my phone.

It was in Rachel's crib, under Rachel's leg. How did she manage to pickpocket me through all of that sweetness?? Luckily, she was so sound asleep that she didn't even notice when I slipped the phone out. Strange...

on another note

Jarrad, Rachel and I are expecting another addition to the family in October. Yay for a sweet little brand new baby! We saw the teeny bebe on our first ultrasound this morning, which was amazing, even the second time around. I already can't wait to meet this little tater tot!

a few days later

I have been a completely uninspired blogger lately, but I'm sure I'll be back on track soon. Rachel stays so busy these days, and she's doing a pretty good job learning to entertain herself for short periods of time, which is a big relief. She also understands a lot now, which makes rules a lot easier too. All-in-all, the days aren't as long as they once seemed, and I'm having the most fun yet!

Here are a couple of pictures of Rachel in her Easter dress (which I made!). I was pretty exhausted on Easter Sunday because we were traveling the day before, so I didn't even get out the camera, but, thankfully, one of my friends snapped these shots at church that morning. This dress was really easy to make--and much less sophisticated than the smocking and ruffles many little girls were sporting that day--but we got a ton of compliments on it, and I am convinced that it's because the fabric is so so cute. Why don't they sell kids clothes made of fabric like this??

As you can see, Rachel was none-too-pleased about the photo op, but she was in a generally good mood that day, so I can't complain.

I am really looking forward to next year, when I think she'll be able to understand a lot more about Easter (beyond finding plastic eggs lying around everywhere). I can't wait to explain to her the sacrificial love of our GOD, displayed through His only begotten Son, Jesus, who died on the cross and then defeated death in His resurrection. What an amazing and humbling event to commemorate.