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.