Happy Cake

We have a few weeks of photos and stories to catch up on, so let's get started!

A few weeks ago Rachel spent a week and a half with her Grandparents in Evansville. Aunt Heather had her expensive camera ready and I was able to my hands on several of the photos from their visit! I know they went to the General Store, which is a must while down in E-ville:

They spent some time at Grandpa Howell's house...

And I hear they just played and played and played the whole time she was there!

We met up with her grandparents near Louisville and had some BBQ, then went over to a park not far away and let Rachel play herself out in hopes she'd sleep most of the way back. She slept for about an hour, then woke up and just kind of stared off into space without saying a word. She has a hard time sleeping sitting up, but at least she was pleasant!

A few weeks later, Rachel's Uncle Aaron, Aunt Arlene and cousin Alana moved back to Indiana! Aunt Arlene is only here for a short while for a visit before she heads off to Turkey for 15 months. Aaron and Alana will be staying here. But the first time they've seen each other in a long time went very well...

It was during this visit that GramE and GrampE unveiled Rachel's first Tricycle!

(Sadly, I can't find any of her playing with the tricycle at GramE and GrampE's!)

Not long after that, I came across this cute little coupe. I ALWAYS wanted one of these growing up. Even though they do have them at Day Care for the kids to play with, I wanted her to have one at home.

She loves to play with both of them! Sometimes when I bring her home she'll see the garage and say, "I want my bicycle!" She can't quite use the  pedals by herself, but that's where the awesome handle comes in. I'm trying to teach her, but she's a toddler and really doesn't have much of an attention span. I don't have much patience. Let's just say, it's going to be a while before she gets the hang of it!

Last week I got a call on Wednesday afternoon that Rachel was running a slight fever. Since I'm home right now, I went ahead and got her so she could come home and rest. I'm glad I did. Thursday she woke up with a fever again so I took her into the doctor where they confirmed she had strep throat. Oh goodie! Guess what that means? Yeah. I got it too. Pretty much she ran a fever and I kept her home on Thursday as well. As soon as we started her on antibiotics, she was fine. No running nose, really no fussing....but me on the other hand? Well, it's been over a week and I'm still trying to get back to 100%!

That weekend we headed out for a birthday party for one of my friends. They had a petting zoo and pony rides. Rachel took full advantage of everything....

The following day was Mother's Day, and as luck would have it, I was still pretty fatigued from being sick. So I didn't want to do much other than just lay around, which was pretty nice.

We did go get Dairy Queen blizzards and played outside for a bit....

Then Monday I took Rachel in for a 30 month check up. I was trying to entertain her while we waited....

Ok, I was entertaining myself as she waited in the medical frock. It's kind of cute!

Her appointment went really well. She's a little bit ahead on development, which is fine. I found out she weighs about 27 pounds and is about 35 inches tall. Good to know, since I wasn't at the last few doctor's appointments and had no idea!

So here's a few stories....

Rachel's got this tiara that Jason brought back from London for her. Somehow she's decided to call it her "Happy Cake". We have absolutely no idea why, but that's what it's called.

She absolutely loves stickers. (What kid doesn't?)

She's speaking more in sentences....which is great! But it also means she's becoming more demanding. When we get home from day care she instantly goes to the fridge and helps herself to whatever she wants, but then refuses to eat dinner.

She can now put the straw into her own juice box and insists "I do it!" (And right now, sometimes she'll squeeze it and it goes everywhere).

She likes to buckle her own seat belt in the car seat (but she still needs a little help).

Today my friend Leslie and I went garage sailing and I found these adorable rain boots, which Rachel instantly wanted to wear all over. I told her I wanted to get her picture and she put herself against the wall and actually smiled!

They're a little big, but they are so cute! Look at that fro!!!

We did get some family photos taken this past week, however I don't have the disk to post them up here yet. Rachel was not cooperative, so we didn't try for photos with just mommy and daddy. We'll do that another time.

Also this evening, we officially retired the pig pajamas. They are a size 2T, but she began wearing them quite a while ago. However, Jason said it's hard to get them over her head, so thankfully today I found a new pair of pajamas that are pretty roomy. I'll get a photo of them soon. They're pink, button down and have Spongebob on them! (Spbob. That's what she calls him. "Spbob".)

Rachel really likes birds. Probably a little too much. No matter how many times or ways I try to explain she can't touch the birds, she still likes to run after them in the yard, normally falling completely flat on her face. Sometimes she'll run after them saying, "Birdie! Come back! Wait! Come back!" It's cute, but also kind of sad.

The other day there was this huge bunny in our yard and I thought she was talking to our neighbor who was mowing. She kept gently motioning with her hand for something/someone to "Come on! Come here!" When I got closer to her and saw her motioning and talking to the bunny my heart about melted. It was adorable.

Last night in the tub she was giving her baby a bath (we have one that's meant for the tub) and she kept singing this song I made up whenever I would rinse her hair. Her version came out "My baaaaaaaby.....my baaaaaaby" over and over. It was so sweet. Granted, most of the time she's trying to hold the baby under water or what appears to be choking it...but still. This moment was tender and sweet.

Everything is once again "mine". "That's mah ball!" "That's mah hahsey". "Mah Boots!"

She enjoys playing with playdo, which she calls "Pay-lo", and it sounds like pillow.

We have successfully transitioned her to only having her pacifier when she goes to bed. I've not yet figured out how we're going to tackle weening her of having the pacifier when she sleeps. She can go without it at day care during nap time, I'm hoping to tackle that during nap time at home as well.

She's also FINALLY taking an interest in the potty! Before bath time she insisted on sitting on the big potty. And again today she told me several times while we were out she needed to potty. I haven't actually seen her do anything yet, but she sure tries. She has no interest in the little potty we bought for her, but that's okay. We're using it as a step stool to the big potty. We're so close!