Hot Hot Hot!

Many of you will always remember this past Memorial's Day Weekend as one of the hottest on record. We were desperately hoping to have some outdoor time this weekend to help entertain Rachel. ALL kids love to play outdoors! So we did our best to combat the heat and also allow our little bundle of energy to keep busy.

We started on Friday evening by playing outside with some of Rachel's new toys:

She can climb up there all by herself and slide down! She also likes to walk up the slide and down the stairs. Can't blame her.

We also got her this "tunnel" to climb through:

Look at that face!! That looks JUST like Jason when he was her age.
You'll notice she's got a "lemon" in her hands. I was cooking and made something with lemon juice. She saw the bottle and insisted on having the "bubble" as she called it. It was mostly empty, so why not? Notice it's in all of the above pictures. Goofy kid.

Saturday we spent the afternoon/evening with my parents. They watched Rachel in the morning while I went and helped my Aunt Gail out in her classroom. And while we were gone.....

She got into GramE's fountain....

into GramE's garden....

and ate the strawberries.....all on her own. This girl LOVES stawberries!

And a big shout out to Aunt Heather for the adorable dress!!!! (which was completely filthy by the end of the day).


Sunday we stayed at home just the three of us all day. Daddy set up the pool I'd apparently purchased last summer at a garage sale and completely forgot.

Swim suit? Check! Water shoes? Check! Suntan lotion?.....

CHECK!
And for the pool.....

ADORABLE! Sadly, I enjoyed it more than she did....granted when she got in the water was still a little chilly. By about 2 - 3pm, it was PERFECT! But we played outside for a while....then she decided that sitting inside and watching her Baby Einstein DVDs was more fun.

Monday Rachel and I hopped in the car and headed to East Elementary to have Rachel's hands painted. While we were waiting on Aunt Gail to arrive, we played on their playground equipment.

Argh....she was smiling before she blinked.

Dare we call her a spidermonkey? Nah.....

She and I went back to the car to wait in the air conditioning and get a drink and her apple juice spilled all down the front of that cute peach outfit she's wearing. I was disappointed because it matches her shoes so well! Thankfully, I had a back up dress. I love that this weather is warm enough I can finally put her in to dresses!

We got her hands painted and I am so excited for the final art work that Aunt Gail is going to put together! Once we were done there, we headed to my Grandma and Papa Johnson's for a long overdue visit. She wore herself out and they had a great time with her!!!

While there, she took a big nap and continued her adventures....

Grandma and Papa have a lot of wind chimes on the porch where we hung out and Rachel would bounce and "Dance" excitedly when the wind would move them. They were so relaxing and peaceful. I'm thrilled she enjoyed them as much as she did!
We got home last night and that kid fell asleep before 6:30 and slept for 12 whole hours!!! Needless to say, both mommy and daughter were able to get caught up from the long weekend by sleeping a LOT. We had such fun despite the heat.

Would you believe Rachel has 4 more teeth coming in at the same time? That makes 18 total! Good grief that's a lot of teeth!

This morning as I was packing up her stuff to leave for the day she was once again in her little chair watching tv and eating her breakfast when I heard a very determined, "Nnnnnnnno!" repeatedly. Monty got in trouble this past weekend for taking her waffle and making her cry, so now if he comes near her she'll point her finger and say, "Nnnnnnno!"

She's so animated! When she hears a train, siren, or loud noise she'll look at me with her eyes really big and her mouth in a big "O". It's as if she's so excited and surprised at the same time.

She loves to wave bye bye whenever we pass a cyclist or motorcyclist. (Thank you Heather and Cindy?) :o)

She is still very headstrong and definitely wants her way, but there are times when she's obnoxious about it and times when she isn't.

Whenever she gets really excited and is laughing really hard, she'll cover her mouth, as if she's being polite. Or she's afraid that her tummy has been tickled so hard it might come out her mouth....I'm not sure which it is. Regardless, I love it!

She is doing VERY well with her toddler bed! It was very much time to move her up. Each morning or during naptime when she wakes up she'll say, "Mommy? Mommy!" but she won't get out of the bed until someone opens her door. I love that she does that.

We are still fighting the need to carry her special blanket with her everywhere, however yesterday we spent the day with a different blanket and did just fine. Pacifier, however, is still always sought out and used as much as possible.

I have noticed she'll get annoyed if she thinks there's apple juice in her sippy cup and she finds out it's water.

Ice cube pieces are now a definite must. She LOVES ice, even though she gets upset when her fingers get too cold or she gets "brain freeze". Regardless, she'll chase ice cubes out of a cup if it doesn't have a lid. So Grandma taught me to give her ice chips as a snack. Not only does she love it, but it hydrates her AND if she drops them they just melt and dry. Perfection! I love it when people show me neat little tricks like that.

Full Hands

We have a busy girl. She's in to EVERYTHING and she's EVERYWHERE! The weekend before last she stayed with Grandma and Granddad Terry and then stayed for an entire week. Here she is at Wendy's before we left to head down there. She likes to stick her fingers in the ketchup.

When we got there Grandma instantly calmed her down after one of the worst road trips I have ever had with fruit:

We won't dwell on the fact that Rachel just doesn't travel well in the car. When we picked her up, she threw up 20 minutes from the house. Needless to say, if we have to travel with her again, I think we're going to invest in one of those over the seat DVD players to help entertain her. And until she can talk, I will not be driving with her long distance alone.

But....she had a GREAT time with her grandparents while she was down there:

While she was gone, I went ahead and converted her bed to a toddler bed:

The first few nights were really tough to keep her in the bed as she was so excited with her new found freedom that she kept crawling out of bed. We have since learned that we need to have the stairs on the left side of the bed instead of the right, because if we don't, she'll pull down all of he books that we put up on top of her changing table.  One we did that, she seems to do really well. This morning she woke up before I was in there to wake her up and she just sits up and says, "Mommy? Mommy! Mommy?" until I come in and get her. She does get out of bed and wander around sometimes if we put her to bed before she's good and tired, so Jason and I have been working to play with her real big before bedtime to help wear her out.

Yesterday I ran out and picked up a few new yard toys I'd found on Craigslist (photos will follow another time). One is a little slide that's just her size and she LOVES it! She probably climbed up and went down it 25 times and just laughed and giggled. In addition, she wore herself out. After a bath she turned on her tv and plopped down in her new chair instead of running around like she normally does. It was hilarious:

In her lap is her cup with almond milk and in the little pouch are dried figs. She loves those! How odd!

Yes, that little tv over on her toy chest? It's got a Baby Einstein movie in it and she knows how to turn it on, then will go sit in her chair and watch it. It actually holds her attention much longer that I would have thought.

Rachel came home from Grandma's with some new outfits that I am super excited to put her in! Photos of those will be coming. However, check out this super cute outfit I picked up at some point earlier this spring:

It's completed with her new copper shoes. When you first look at them in the box you think, "Huh, those are different." But as you look at them a little longer and then see them on her feet, they are adorable!

This weekend we're planning on playing outside with our blow up pool, our new slide, and also visiting with GramE and GrampE.

Rachel has recently demonstrated a strong need to have something in one or both of her hands at all times. I don't completely understand why she feels "secure" when she's holding something, but she does. She's starting to whine and want to take her blankie in the car with us when we go to day care, even though it's normally left at home. Yesterday when I dropped her off she insisted on taking the pinwheel that GramE got her a while ago and I'd left in the car. She's not really shown an interested in that item for several weeks and it's always been in the car where she can see it. While it's not a huge concern, this development does have its draw backs. (For example, the pinwheel went in to day care, but didn't return home). And if anything happens to her blankie....we're going to be in trouble. Right now she has two, but I'm strongly considering getting a few more, only because she drags the blanket around like Linus from Charlie Brown and it get filthy FAST.

We are, however, trying to keep her pacifiers kept up during the day instead of in her crib like we've always done. My hope is that she'll only need the pacifier in the car and when she sleeps. If she spies them laying around, she will climb or whine until she gets it. And she's demonstrated that she doesn't need it, she just likes having it at all times. The blanket I can handle. But the pacifier? I'd rather that be a bedtime thing.

Zipped Up

Show and tell time!

This girl LOVES to eat with a spoon.....

However the end result isn't always pretty.....

I've called in the fashion police on my abilities to dress my daughter in clothing that matches. Not only that, but I've sacraficed fashion in the name of a good bargain. I am SO thankful that she's moved into the next round of clothing. Her previous outfits made me inwardly cringe because not only did they not fit/look nice/match, they were a bit "Tom Boy-ish". While I still find it cute to dress her in something other than frills, I've deduced that frills aren't horrible. So when I found this outfit.....I don't think I can put her in it enough:

(And can I brag that it is from a garage sale? Nah. I won't).

Although I know it's a bit early, I was desperate to find something to hold Rachel's interest in her food. So I opted to see if she was allergic to peanut butter. Only one way to find out, right? Let's just say.....

Not only is she not allergic to peanut butter.....

She would rather I server her peanut butter and hold the cracker.

Rachel is always enthused to play with something "new". By "new" I mean....something that she doesn't normally get to play with. Like......a sweet potato.

As I was peeling potatoes one night, she was insistent that she wanted the "Ball" (potato). I thought, "What the heck? Can't hurt" and gave it to her. Then chased her around the upstairs trying to get it back so I could slice it and bake it!

Sadly...the potato suffered a few minor injuries whilst in her hands.

A few other funny stories that don't have photos. Wednesday morning Rachel woke up before I'd even gotten out of bed, which does happen now and again. So I got her dressed and fed then began to get ready myself. While I get ready she typically will rummage through the cabinet under my sink or play in our closet. However, as I was finishing up I could hear her babbling away in full sentences from the other side of the house. As I went out to collect her for "Bye bye" I realized she was not only babbling, she was actually yelling. Not angrily, just really loud. I mean it almost sounded like she was preaching in her "Rachel Jargon". I realized I'd left the back door open for Monty (which we do often) and she'd wandered out to the deck. She was standing at the top of the steps just yollering with all her might at the houses behind us. Why? I have no idea. But it was adorable. Just pleasantly saying what she wanted to say in a loud voice so all of them could hear her. I'm sure our neighbors appreciated being woken up that way.

Then last night I was spending my weeknight out and about with my friend Sam and Jason sent me this photo:

Last week we bought a bubble machine because the wand bubbles are horribly messy (and Rachel likes to play with the wands which leads to their inevitable demise).

Apparently for daddy-daughter night they played with the bubble machine. This morning Rachel found it on the kitchen table and, while carrying a waffle in one hand, moved the kitchen chairs to climb up and bring me said bubble machine. She REALLY wanted to play with it again this morning. Sadly (thankfully) it was out of bubble formula so I was off the hook!

Jason also told me that my repeated lessons with Rachel on how to use the zipper for the toiletry bag I use for her items when we travel have paid off. She's finally mastered the ability to dive into the diaper bag and unzip the little pouch I keep in there that holds all the extra stuff I might possibly need when we leave the house. I like that bag because thus far she's been unable to get into it. So I can keep her spare pacifier, diaper creme, tylenol, thermometer, vaseline, etc in it. Jason said she managed to get it out, unzip it, and use a crayon as a spoon in the vaseline. Thankfully, he got to her in time. Now we can't use zippers as a deterent to keep her out of stuff we don't want her in. She's getting more and more clever!!