just a little news

We've been busy getting ready for the big day tomorrow, but I just thought I'd write a few things that have happened over the last few days. It'll probably be another few days before I post again....and then it will be all about Christmas Day, I'm sure, and I didn't want these things to be forgotten.

*Sometime last summer Rachel first saw Princess Tiana in the stores and kept asking who it was. I told her that it was a princess from a new movie, The Princess and The Frog, that would come out at Christmastime. I told her that maybe we could go see it on the big screen when it was all done. She was so excited, and ever since, whenever we've seen Tiana in the store (which is a lot, since we're always looking at princess things in the store!), she's told me that we're going to go see it on the big screen at Christmastime. But as I started hearing more about the movie, I started having second thoughts, since I thought she would be pretty scared by the voodoo "Shadowman" I kept seeing in the previews. But she kept talking about going. So we read reviews, it was rated G, and I talked to some friends who had seen it with their little girls, and was fairly convinced that it would be okay, so we decided to take her. Daddy was off of work yesterday, and we found out that a nearby theater had movies in the morning for $5, and mornings are perfect for us, since she naps in the afternoons and goes to bed pretty early in the evenings. So we went.

Remember when we went to see this? I was worried that this experience would be much the same. Thankfully, I was wrong! She did GREAT! She stayed in her seat (almost the whole time), was mesmerized from the first moment, and loved eating popcorn and drinking lemonade throughout the movie. And she wasn't scared at all! A couple of times she said, "I don't like this part!" but they weren't even the scary parts. She just didn't like that Tiana was turned into a frog! A couple of times she clapped her hands in sheer delight, and lots of times she was bouncing up and down in her seat in time to the music with the biggest smile on her face. I think I watched her more than I watched the movie....and I enjoyed every minute of it. So did she!

Afterwards we walked around the shopping center where the movie theater is, and they had a huge Christmas tree in the courtyard, a big nativity display, and a pretty large display of electric trains, which she loved! Then we went out to lunch, where she ate her entire meal, something she never does. I finally got my onion rings, which I'd been craving for about a week (the other thing I've been craving is salad....so at least I'm balancing my crazy pregnancy diet a bit!!). It was a nearly perfect outing, and lots of fun for all of us.

*This morning Rachel told us she can't wait to be a woman so she can do "grown up stuff." We asked her what kind of grown up stuff she wanted to do: "I can get married!"

*Also this morning, I burped (don't really want to write about that, but it's an important part of the story!). I usually do my best to hide it, but Rachel heard me and said, "Mommy, what do you say?" Guess she's been listening to her mother's instructions about manners!

*Last week when we were leaving school on her last day, she saw another little girl leaving with her big sister, little brother, and their dad. She watched them for a minute and then said, "Mommy, look!" and pointed to them. I didn't know what she wanted me to notice, so I said, "What do you see?" After a moment she said, "I want brothers and sisters, too." It's the first time she's ever really expressed an interest. I said, "In order for you to have brothers and sisters, Mommy has to have a baby." She immediately turned her face into a look of disgust and said, "Nooooooo. I don't want you to have a baby!" Oops! Guess she'll be in for a rude awakening tomorrow morning when she unwraps that 'Big Sister' shirt and finds out that there is, indeed, a baby inside Mommy's tummy!

*Rachel's walking around in circles in the kitchen in her ballet costume (clomping, is a better word for it, because she's wearing her plastic dress up shoes!) singing, "Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve, it's Christmas Eve!"