a great day with Thomas

Would you believe that I didn't take a SINGLE picture the whole day? My husband's not very happy with me about that, but he wanted me to take our giant SLR camera AND the video camera, which are both housed in a giant camera bag, which is a backpack. It's hard to get in and out of the bag, and the giant camera is too heavy to wear around your neck all day. So I gave my dad the video camera and put him in charge of that, and got these pictures from my mom (and hopefully some from my brother, too, when he gets a chance), and I was mostly in charge of the stroller and Rachel (who was usually out of the stroller running around to see something), and that was more than enough for me to handle. Plus I just got to watch her take it all in and enjoy it, which was the biggest thrill of the day.

Thomas came to a historical village about an hour from my parents' house. It's a neat place to go even when Thomas isn't there--lots to see and do and learn about what life was like back in the 1800s. They have their own train that goes all around the park. When Thomas is there they just use the cars from their train and Thomas pulls them. There were a zillion kids, parents, and grandparents there, and we were trying to figure out just how much their revenue goes up during the three days that Thomas comes to their little village!

We got there a little late, so we had to book it from the car to the back of the village where the train station was. The brochure said it was a 20 minute walk. We made it in 8 minutes, with plenty of time to spare.

Here are Rachel and her cousin Alex waiting at the station for Thomas to come back from his previous ride. We could hear his whistles all around, so the kids knew he was coming and couldn't wait to see him.

These are their first glimpses of Thomas coming down the track. You can see Rachel waving and waving. We could see the steam coming from the smokestack and then they saw his face. Even his eyes were moving! Rachel let out a squeal, "It's THOMAS!!!!!" That was the best moment of the day.

Here we all are on the train, waiting for it to pull out of the station. Alex is hiding between my brother and my mom. He didn't want his picture taken.

After the train ride we all stood for this picture, but Rachel wouldn't look at the camera and I was trying to tell her to, which is why neither of us are looking. You can barely see Thomas in the background, along with the station.

Rachel watched another little boy get a tattoo and then decided she'd sit and get one too. We thought she'd be afraid, but she sat still and was so patient. She had a few different trains to choose from, but she chose a Thomas tattoo.

She was so proud of it and walked around with her hand like this forever, just looking at it and showing it to anyone who would look. That night she was sad to wash it off in the bathtub. She told me that tomorrow she would get the Harold (the helicopter) tattoo when we went back to the Thomas place. I had to try to explain that we wouldn't be going back to the Thomas place tomorrow or getting another tattoo.

They had several tents set up with activites for the kids to do inside. This one was a gift shop with anything and everything with Thomas on it. Rachel enjoyed playing at the train table.

Grandma bought Rachel a new shirt at the gift shop. She was supposed to be posing to show her shirt, but she turned away just at the last second.So Mommy turned her around and tried to get her to look. She still didn't, and Grandma took this picture anyway, as I was trying to tell Rachel to look.One of the activities was watching a Thomas video, which they were showing on a big TV screen. Rachel found a chair and sat mesmerized. She would've stayed for more if we would've let her.Since it's a historical village, they had a lawn with lots of old fashioned types of games and activities set up. One was hula hoops. Rachel loved trying, but her version of hula hooping is holding onto the hoop and spinning herself around in circles. It was pretty funny to watch, but she had a ball.We were going to be leaving soon, so we went back to the station one last time to tell Thomas goodbye. You had to pay for photographers to take your picture right in front of Thomas (where those people are out to the left of us in this picture). We did the best we could and got this picture instead.

Before we left, Rachel wanted to see Sir Topham Hatt, "The Fat Controller," (that's what they call him in the books and on the videos!). She had been talking about it all morning, that she wanted to see him. So we waited in line for a bit and then it was Rachel's turn. I asked her what she was going to say to Sir Topham Hatt. She said, "I say that I pee pee in my pants." (She had just gone in her pull up and I was going to go change her as soon as we finished standing in line!) I told her she didn't need to tell him that. So all she did was go up and give him a big hug and pose for this picture. She was so excited to see him.

We left soon after that. It was a full, fun morning. The weather was perfect and watching Rachel glow from excitement of seeing Thomas and being with some of her favorite people was a joy. Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa, for a fun day.

a day out with Thomas

We're at my parents' house for the weekend. A very special weekend. A couple of months ago my mom bought tickets for Rachel and me, her and my dad, and my brother and his youngest son, Alex, to go to the Day Out with Thomas, where you get to see a replica of Thomas the Tank Engine and take a train ride with Thomas pulling the train. Since she and Alex both are Thomas fanatics, they are thrilled.

Our tickets are for tomorrow morning. I'll write again after we get back home on Sunday, since I didn't bring my card reader with me, and I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures to share.

Rachel can't wait!

butterflies

This is my 400th post! Just thought it sounded significant enough to mention....

Anyway, on Saturday we went to the conservatory to see the butterfly exhibit. I've had free tickets for about a year and we just haven't used them, but it was a beautiful day and I needed to get out, so we went.

Rachel loved exploring all of the exhibits and the flowers and butterflies were beautiful.

Afterward we ate lunch at the playground, which is on the grounds of the conservatory, and Rachel played. It was a fun morning. Enjoy the pictures.

first words

She's reading! Well, sort of.

We've been working with three letter words, mostly in the bathtub with her foam letters. I haven't pushed it at all. She's just interested a lot, so we have a little lesson when she's into it, and back off when she's not into it, which happens plenty, too. She likes to spell the word CAT. Tonight she spelled it and we sounded it out together. Then I switched the C and put an H there instead. She sounded it out....H....A....T.....HAT! She did it all by herself!

Then I switched the H and put a B in its place. She became distracted and needed some help sounding that one out. But we did and she said, "Bat....oh no! A bat! Scary bat!" I said, "No, it's like a baseball bat!" Immediately her pretend fear changed to a smile and she said, "Ohhhh.....that's not scary!" It was so funny, that just the context of the word made such a huge difference in her reaction. Bats (of the baseball variety) are okay....but bats (of the animal variety) aren't, apparently!

Anyway, we have a little emerging reader on our hands. How exciting! She still has a long way to go, but the wheels are turning and it'll click sometime soon. What a thrill to get to be her teacher.

three year stats

Rachel had her three year check up today. She hadn't been to the doctor since last year's two year check up. How's that for a healthy year!?

For the first time she has a respectable weight and is now in the 25th percentile. The doctor was thrilled. Her height is also in the 25th percentile.....guess maybe she won't be that basketball star that Daddy was hoping for. Oh well.

Despite my hoping otherwise, she did have to get a shot, but she did GREAT and didn't even cry! She said, "OW!" and grabbed her arm where they stuck the needle, but that was it! I was so proud.

She loved it....we were walking out and she said, "I had fun at the doctor." Bet they don't get that comment too often! She chattered away to the nurse, the doctor, and anyone in the waiting room who would listen. That's my little social girl.

laying low

After a way too exciting and busy week and weekend last week, Rachel and I have been enjoying doing NOTHING this week. It's been rainy and gloomy and just perfect weather for hanging out at home, playing with new toys, which is just what we've been doing all week. Anytime we have gone somewhere she's said she'd rather stay home. She's really loving all of her new toys.

Potty training continues to go well. We haven't had an accident in about a week! My next step is to figure out how to get her to go on the toilet instead of her little potty chair. I was going to work on that this week, but it hasn't happened. She's been doing so well on her potty, doing everything by herself that I haven't wanted to spoil things, but I know I need to, or she'll never be able to go potty when we're out somewhere. Anyone made this transition successfully and have some tips?

I'm very happy to see the sun today, and I know we'll enjoy going out and enjoying it later. Though one of the first things she asked me this morning (completely out of the blue) after she woke up was, "Mommy, can I help you make cookies?" So maybe we'll be making cookies today.

celebrations

We'll see if I can condense the last five days into one blog post. It's been eventful.

Thursday

Daddy took the day off to enjoy Rachel's birthday with us. We started the day with a present. She chose the big one in the stack, which was five presents all wrapped together--five of these princess sets, kind of like Polly Pockets.

Oh. my. goodness. She was in princess heaven. We wouldn't have had to give her anything else. She would've been completely satisfied with these. And now there are teeny tiny little pieces of things laying all over the place (and some are already lost). And she cant get the clothes on and off herself, which means I have to do it. I'm rethinking this whole idea, but she loves them.

Next we had birthday donuts for breakfast. Rachel was thrilled. She picked off some sprinkles, then licked as much chocolate off the top as possible. She didn't take more than one bite of the donut. She just wanted the chocolate. Healthy start, huh? Oh well, her birthday only comes once a year!

Then we were off to the zoo. Without going into details about her behavior, it wasn't the best visit we've ever had, but it was a nice day, and she had a good time for the most part. It was just fun to spend the morning together. This is waiting to see the baby elephant, who was two weeks old.

After she woke up from her nap we gave her her next present:

We gave her a choice about where we should go to eat dinner. She chose pancakes, so we went to Bob Evans. She ordered her own dinner off the kids menu and ate all five of the little pancakes on her plate! We couldn't believe it. I guess she really DID want pancakes!

We came home and had ice cream and cake. She loved having us sing to her. I made her a little cake just for that day. The big cake was coming at the party. What a sugar high--five pancakes, cake, and ice cream....

She opened the rest of her presents--mostly dress up clothes of some sort.

It was a fun day to celebrate our sweet girl.

Friday

I started in bright and early at 7:30 AM on her castle cake for her party by baking the cakes, and then started in on the decorating.

What I thought would take me most of the morning ended up taking me until 3:00 PM! It was a long, tiring day of leaning over that silly cake. Over and over again I asked myself, "Why am I doing this???" But Rachel had known for weeks that she was having a castle cake and was so excited about it, so I couldn't change my mind.

I ran into some problems because my cake base wasn't as wide as the instructions said to make it. That meant some of the parts didn't fit where they were supposed to. My husband came to the rescue and cut some wood for me to fit under the front section

Finally I finished. I was pretty pleased with the results. But I'll never do it again! Then I had to worry that it wouldn't topple over before the party! It wasn't super sturdy.

The rest of the day we had to get the house ready for the party. I was already exhausted.

Saturday

We went up bright and early to my brother's house (they live an hour north of us) for their neighborhood's easter egg hunt. It was a cold but sunny morning. (That's the man that runs it, dressed in a pink bunny costume).Rachel didn't quite get it, and walked around looking at all of the eggs instead of picking them up and collecting them in her bucket, but she did collect some things and enjoyed herself. Mostly I think she liked playing with her cousin's toys after we went in to get warm at their house!

We came back home for lunch and a nap before the big birthday party. Family came and we got her up from her nap and the fun began.

We started the party with presents. We had saved some presents to give her at her party, and everyone else brought presents, too. She got so excited about every single thing....even when she'd open the present and it was an unmarked box she'd say, "Look! It's a BOX!" like it was the most exciting thing ever!

Then came cake and ice cream. The cake hadn't toppled, so I was happy about that.

I was so sad to take apart my hours of hard work, but everyone enjoyed the cake.

After that we headed outside. Rachel and her cousins had a blast. Rachel just loves being around people, especially people she adores as much as her family, so she was in heaven.

We ordered pizza for dinner (much, much easier than my cooking some elaborate dinner, which I've done in the past) and the kids played outside some more after that. Uncle Jack (my brother) arrived (he lives in NYC but was home for the home opener baseball game for his favorite team) and everyone was excited to see him. Rachel got to stay up extra late and play with some of her new toys (oh my, does she have some new toys.....just as many as if it was Christmas). It was a long, tiring, but fun day.

Sunday

Easter kind of got lost in the shuffle this year. I guess that's what happens when a birthday is so close to a holiday--either the birthday or the holiday gets slighted. This time it was the holiday. But we tried. Rachel was excited to find her Easter basket, which the Easter bunny had hidden in her new birthday princess tent.

She was thrilled to get dressed up. Not so thrilled to pose for the camera, however. The last few are the best ones we got, and they aren't that great of either of us.

She had fun at Sunday School but was excited to get home and play with her new toys some more.

My mom cooked us a delicious Easter dinner--it was so nice to finally not have fifty million things on my mind and not have to worry about it, and just enjoy it.

After Rachel went to bed my family left. I was sad the weekend was over, but also ready to get back to normal and rest. My mind has been working a mile a minute for weeks over all of this. I'm glad it all went well and our girl seemed to enjoy every single minute of it, which makes it all worth it.

to my birthday girl

Dear Rachel,


Three years ago today you made me the happiest person on earth when you entered our lives and made me a mother....my heart's greatest desire.

Every day since has been an adventure like none other.

Here is a glimpse of the fun year we've had this past year with you:

*Last spring you really learned the joys of the outdoors, and that love has only intensified with time. You love climbing on the playset, playing in your sandbox, and digging in the dirt. You've already told me that you want to help me plant flowers and make things grow. We'll give that a try in a month or so! Maybe you'll have the green thumb that I don't seem to have!

*Last summer we went on our first vacation as a family to the beach. You still talk about it: seeing the lighthouse, staying in the hotel, losing your purple shovel in the ocean, and collecting seashells. You play with these shells for hours when we're outside, counting them, and pretending they're all sorts of things.

*Your vocabulary has EXPLODED! Last year on your birthday you said some words here and there, but no real sentences to speak of. Now you don't stop talking from the moment you wake up until you go to sleep at night! Neither Daddy or I know where you get this chatterbox gene, but the things you say bring us lots and lots of laughs! (Just yesterday at dinner you told us you didn't want to eat your noodles because, "Princesses don't eat noodles!")

*You've learned to use the potty! It was a long process, and we still have a way to go, but this time you finally seem to have caught on! What a big, independent girl you are becoming!

*You've developed a love for all things Princesses and Thomas. Since Christmas, not a day has gone by, that I know of, without you wearing a princess dress over your clothes while you play at your train table. You've developed quite an imagination and pretend all sorts of things while you're playing. It's so fun for me to just watch and listen to you play. (Yesterday you were building towers with blocks. Every time they'd fall down, instead of saying, "Oh, no!" you'd yell out, just like Thomas, "Cinders and Ashes!")

*You love letters and have had fun learning their sounds this year. You're just in the beginning stages of understanding that those sounds blend together to make words, and we've had several lessons sounding out three letter words, which you enjoy, even if you don't quite understand. You put letters together and tell me you're making a word and want me to read it to you. You've become interested in the fact that some letters are capitals and some are lowercase, so we've been discussing that a lot, also, as you play with your letter magnets. And after much time and effort, you're finally starting to learn your numbers, too. You recognize 1, 2, 3, 4, and sometimes 5, 7,and 10. We're still working on the rest! It's so fun to get to be your teacher everyday!


People talk about the terrible twos, but I can honestly say that I never, ever in the last year thought of your being two as terrible. It's been a year full of fun, as you are nearly always happy, loving, obedient, and full of excitement about everything and everyone you encounter--always dancing, singing, and playing your way through each day. You love being with other people and it doesn't take you long at all to warm up to strangers and say something charming to endear you to others!

Probably the only thing I wish I could change about you is your appetite. You eat like a bird and are very picky. Daddy calls you a camel because one day you'll eat and eat all day long, and then for a week you'll hardly eat anything. You are your father's daughter, and have the biggest sweet tooth ever. Ice cream is your favorite, and though we get you the "kid sized" scoop, you would happily eat a full sized portion (or more!) every time if we'd let you! You also love strawberries, yogurt, chicken nuggets and fries, mac and cheese, crackers of all types, mashed potatoes, and plain cheese pizza. And for some strange reason on some nights you'll down a serving of canned green beans in a couple of seconds (other nights you want nothing to do with them).

You are a little girl full of empathy and care for others. Whenever someone else is crying, it makes you very sad. You bring me a kleenex if I'm sad, and gently rub my cheek, telling me to cheer up. In the store if we hear a baby crying, you'll comment on it every time and tell me that his mommy needs to give him a kleenex to help make him feel better, since it's what makes you feel better! If only my giving you a kleenex would always take away all of the hurts you will unfortunately encounter in life....

Happy Birthday, my sweet three year old Rachel. You are such a big girl now, and time is going way too fast. I just want to freeze you in this stage and enjoy you like this forever. But I'm also looking forward to enjoying what the next year holds, and continuing to watch you learn and grow.

Your Daddy and I love you more than words could ever say, and we're so thankful that we have been given the gift of being your parents.

Love,
Mommy

also in big girl news....

Lots of growing up has been going on around here in the last 24 hours.

First the big girl bed.

Then, as we were getting ready for a bath last night, she decided to get herself undressed for the first time all by herself. It took awhile, and she almost asked for help, but she perservered and did it. I showed her her hamper and she put her clothes in it all by herself.

We went into the bathroom and I handed her her toothbrush. All of a sudden, without any prompting or reminders from me, she lifted up the lid of her potty seat, sat down, and went! That's the first time she's ever gone completely on her own without Daddy or me telling her to sit on the potty. She must've actually realized that she needed to go! Amazing! We've been potty training pretty seriously all week this week, with little progress, except when she happens to be on the potty at the right time because we've told her to try (I've been setting the timer for 20 minutes all day when we're home and she's been really good about sitting down for a few minutes every time she hears the timer, and sometimes we catch it at the right time). She's also been dry for long stretches of time, which is progress.

And the most amazing thing about the potty story took place just before that. Right before we had gone upstairs to take a bath, we had been downstairs cleaning up her toys. She was sitting on the floor cleaning up some beads. She was muttering kind of under her breath, "I no pee pee on the floor. I no pee pee on the floor." I figured out what she was saying and asked, "Do you need to pee pee?" She said no, she didn't. I didn't think much else about it, but after she did use the potty upstairs I thought, maybe she had actually known she had to go while she was downstairs cleaning up and managed to talk herself out of having an accident?!

Progress, eh? (Hope I didn't just jinx it by writing that!) Maybe things are finally starting to click in that little mind of hers.

look where she's sleeping....

We were going to wait until we moved her into her official "big girl room," (it's huge--the kind of room every girl would want to grow up in!) but it's going to be a few months before we can get the wallpaper stripped and get it painted and everything moved out (it's currently the guest room/catch-all room). So we decided just to put a twin bed in her small nursery-sized room for now. It's a trundle bed from under my old daybed. We decided to leave it in the down position for now, since she has a tendency to roll around a lot and this way if she falls out, she won't fall far.

She's thrilled.

I cried.