o christmas tree

Last year for Christmas I received an advent calendar with little doors for each day of December. My plan was to start using it this year with Rachel to help her count down the days until Christmas. So we started on Tuesday. She opens up a little door in the morning (she wakes up each morning immediately asking to open the next door--she's so excited about it!) and there's a little piece of paper inside with a different activity for the two of us, or sometimes all three of us, to enjoy that day.

So far.....

Dec 1: Put up Christmas decorations

Dec 2: Watch Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer

Dec 3: Paint in a special new book (a Rudolf paint with water book--she painted every single picture in the book that day!)

Dec 4: Make a snowman craft (which we had to do immediately, which means by 7:30 in the morning we had already done a craft!)

Dec 5: Go Christmas shopping with Daddy

Dec 6: Put up the Christmas Tree

Dec 7: Play with a new Christmas sticker book (she opened it at 6:40 this morning and by 7:00 AM she'd put all the stickers in the whole book--all 16 pages were done!)

So yesterday was Christmas Tree day. She's been looking forward to it for well over a month....ever since she started seeing Christmas trees in the stores.

And it didn't disappoint. She's been ooohing and aaaahing over it ever since.

(Yes, she was playing dress up while simultaneously decorating the tree, and yes, she had on a different dress up outfit a little bit later when I took the other pictures!)

This morning she was so excited to come downstairs and see the tree. She tells me over and over again throughout the day, "I LOVE Christmas, Mommy!" It's so fun to watch her enjoy everything so much.

not at all shy

We were out running errands this morning, but part of the time I decided to let Rachel do what she wanted to do for a little while. As we walked into a department store at the mall a worker said hello to us. Rachel looked at him and said, without any prompting from me, "Hi, I'm Rachel!" He said, "Hi, I'm George, how are you today?" It was so funny, and I couldn't believe how NOT shy she was!

We walked through the store and she saw all of the Christmas things on display and went crazy. We went out into the mall and she played at the indoor playground a bit. Then we went to the Disney Store because she asked to go to "The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!" (That's what she calls the store because it has Mickey ears on the outside around the store front). We just looked around and she was in heaven, playing with all of her favorite stuffed animals, touching all of the beautiful, sparkly princess dresses, and dancing with the princess dolls.

As we were leaving there we saw Santa down below on the first floor of the mall (we were upstairs). He was leaving his little area and he came up the escalator right by us. Rachel was SO excited and just kept walking over toward him, staring. He waved at her and then as she continued to walk toward him in awe, he opened up his arms and she went right into them and gave him a huge hug. He said, "Ho Ho Ho!" She continued to watch him (as he walked into Starbucks--he was on a break, I guess!). She wanted to know what he was doing. I said he was thirsty and was getting a drink. As we walked away she said, "I LOVED seeing Santa, Mommy!" I don't know where she gets her boldness (certainly not from me, and not really from her Daddy, either!), but it sure is sweet!

the diplomat

Last night Rachel evidently told Daddy that he gives the best hugs. When they told me this I asked her, "Daddy gives better hugs than ME?"

She paused for quite awhile, looked at Daddy and back at me, and finally said, "Daddy AND Mommy give the best hugs!"

family resemblance

So does she look like me, or what??? Our mouths are a little different, but if you cover that up, we could be twins.



Weed, age 3

over the river and through the woods

We're home from our Thanksgiving at Grandma's house. Rachel had great fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa and her cousins. Every time her cousins would come over from their other grandma's house where they were staying, Rachel would smile a big smile and say, "Mommy, my cousins came back!"

We didn't take any pictures, but my mom sent me a few.

A few people either didn't look at the camera or didn't realize they were in the picture, so these aren't the greatest pictures ever, but at least we can see who was there! In attendance besides our little family, is my parents, my brother, his wife and three kids (Rachel's beloved COUSINS!), both of my aunts and uncles (one set on my mom's side and one set on my dad's side), my grandpa, and my cousin.

Rachel and Alex, the two closest in age cousins, played together quite a bit. Here they are listening to Grandma's record player, and watching it go 'round and 'round. She has all of our old records from when we were little, including all kinds of Disney stories, on LP. Rachel loves listening to them, and Alex joined in on the fun, too.

Rachel is wearing one of my old dresses over her clothes--it's her dress up dress whenever she's at Grandma's house. I showed her a picture of me wearing the same dress when I was her age. I said, "Who is this?" She thought it was her! That's how much alike we look (I'll post a picture to show the resemblance in a few days).

She decided last night that she wanted to play football. So here is Princess Cinderella Rachel (what she calls herself when she's wearing the blue dress) playing football!

flag holder

It's like pulling teeth getting Rachel to tell me what happened at school each day, but now and then, out of nowhere, she'll spout off about something random that happened at school. Today after her nap was one of these times. She was still sitting on the edge of her bed when she said, "I was fwag howlder today, Mommy!"

I said, "Oh, really? And what does everyone say when you hold the flag?" (I knew they had practiced the Pledge of Allegiance, but I hadn't ever heard her talk about it or recite it.)

And all of a sudden out of my three year old's mouth came, "I pwedge awegiance, to the fwag, of da 'nited States of 'mahwica." She stopped after that much, but as her daddy and I said a couple more words, she continued. She needed a few promptings, but she basically knew the whole thing by herself, including "wif wiberty and justice for awl!" We couldn't believe it.

We asked her what the flag looked like. "It's wed and white and bwue," she told us. She knew it had stripes on it and stars. Who knew she knew so much!?

Oh how I wish I could be a fly on the wall at school each day and find out what else she says and does that we don't know about!!

my silly girl

Just a couple of Rachel stories....

*Last week was school picture retake day. She was sick on picture day, so we only had this one chance to get a decent picture. I didn't have very high hopes, because I know the struggle we have with getting her to actually look AT the camera and smile a decent smile, but we took our chances and ordered some anyway. Her eyes are always looking off to the side and she does a cheesy grin until you get her to stop thinking about posing and laughing about something else. But it's definitely a struggle. So it was no surprise to me that when I picked her up from school her teacher immediately started laughing and telling me how hilarious it was to watch Rachel get her picture taken. Thank goodness for digital photography, because they never would've done this when I was a kid, but the photographers apparently took twenty-some shots of my silly girl, trying desperately to get her to sit up straight, look at the camera, and smile a decent smile. Her teacher said she was leaning all over the place, saying, "PUPPIES!!" (which they evidently told her to say instead of "cheese") and contorting her face into all sorts of strange, cheesy smiles. I'll be very interested to see what they finally ended up with--she said they finally had two decent ones, so we'll see!

*My husband hypothetically asked Rachel a few weeks ago,

"Do you think Mommy should have a baby sometime?"

"No," Rachel declared, quite emphatically.

Daddy answered, "You don't think it would be fun to be a big sister sometime and have a little brother or sister to play with?"

"No, I play with my friends," she decided.



A week or two later, I was relaying this story to a friend of mine and Rachel overheard. She turned to me and said,

"Yes, I do want a baby. Can I have a baby, Mommy?"

I answered, "We'll see," (we hadn't told her our news yet, and still haven't--probably not until Christmas).

She excitedly replied, "I can't wait to have a baby in my tummy!"



Well, it's not quite what I had in mind, but at least she's a little more into the idea.....

the backstory

Things I haven't been able to write about for the last few months....



*In June we found out we were expecting again (just a month after the miscarriage). I was thriled and so convinced that this time everything would be okay. But in July we lost that pregnancy, too. It was a very, very hard time, but I didn't feel up to writing about it.



*In September we got another positive pregnancy test. We couldn't believe it, but were very, very cautious. I hardly told anybody. I couldn't get excited about it. I just couldn't bring myself to get my hopes up again like I did the last time. It's been a rough couple of months; very down because I couldn't be excited about possibly having another baby, and also feeling sicker than I've ever felt for a very extended period of time. I've had morning sickness almost 24/7 since the end of September. October was a very, VERY long month. I couldn't cook (smells and food have been completely unbearable, so my poor husband has been fending for himself for a long time, and Rachel's been eating lots of PB&J, mac and cheese, and turkey, cheese, and crackers!), couldn't sleep, couldn't do much of anything but think and worry.



*November 5th couldn't have come soon enough. In April we went in for the ultrasound thinking everything was okay, but were completely surprised to learn that there was no baby in the sac. I was so afraid that the same thing would happen this time. When we got to the doctor's office last Thursday morning we found out that the doctor had just been called to do a c-section, so we had to wait about an hour! Here I had waited all of this time, and I had wait another whole hour! It was the longest hour ever. My doctor's office is attached to the hospital, so we left the office and took a walk around the hospital grounds and through the halls--it brought back so many memories of the night Rachel was born and we had to walk the halls for two hours, waiting for my labor to progress!



So finally we went back to the office and the doctor had just returned. They took me right back and when the doctor came in she said, "I'm sure you must be on pins and needles and thought this day would never come, so let's take a look." I was so thankful that she understood and got right down to business! As soon as the picture showed up on the screen we saw the most beautiful sight in the world.....our little baby moving ALL over the place! It was so wiggly and active and wonderful! I started crying immediately, SOOOOOO thankful and relieved to finally, after all of those unsuccessful ultrasounds since April, see an active, healthy baby on the screen! I don't think I've ever been so thankful, so relieved, and so excited (well, except for April 9, 2006 when Rachel was placed in my arms for the first time....but this was pretty close!).



*The baby measured bigger than my original due date indicated it should have, so she moved my due date up by 8 days. I had been due June 7th, but now I'm due May 30th. In just a moment's time she skipped a week of my pregnancy, and I'm now one week closer to being out of this horrible first trimester! I'm 11 weeks today. And hopefully my morning sickness (which actually isn't too bad in the morning, but is worst in the afternoon and early evening) will go away soon.



*I've been on cloud 9 pretty much ever since Thursday. I feel like a 100 ton weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. I know the journey isn't over, and there are plenty of other concerns between now and the day I get to hold this baby in my arms for the first time (and then a whole new list of concerns take over), but I feel like we've made it over the biggest, hardest hurdle, and I can relax and breathe a little now.


So when I said that a picture is worth 1000 words in the last post, I meant it....1000 words of thanksgiving and relief are all wrapped up in that one little picture. I think it's now my favorite picture ever...well, until the next one in January (when we can hopefully find out if it's a boy or a girl!).

a picture is worth 1000 words

Baby #2 due May 30th!

(look--the baby can already stand on its head!)

Happy Halloween

Here's Rachel modeling her halloween outfit from Grandma. She won't leave the headband in, even though it looks really cute.

Also notice her big girl bed. It's finally popped up in the "up" position. She loves it and feels like such a big girl with it like this.

One of these days we'll finally get her in her big girl room (a much bigger room with room for toys in it, now that she's old enough to play in her room). But there are many steps to that process (one that involves stripping wallpaper--probably our very least favorite thing to do!). We'll get there sometime. In the meantime, she doesn't know the difference, loves her room, and loves her big girl bed.

And here are some pictures from yesterday, playing outside in the SEVENTY SEVEN degree weather! Now it's 48 degrees. Crazy. At any rate, she loved jumping in the leaves.

trick or treat

Around here we have "Beggar's Night," which is often on a different day than Halloween. If Halloween is on a weekend, as it is this year, then Beggar's Night, when the kids go trick or treating, is the Thursday before Halloween. Strange, I know, but it has to do with trying to keep kids off the street on the weekends, apparently.

So trick or treating was last night. Rachel couldn't wait.

Here she is with our neighbor, Batman (and his little brother in the background, Robin, of course--and their mom was Batgirl and their dad was the Joker--even Batman was scared of his own dad's costume and wouldn't go near him if he had his mask on!).

She was more excited about seeing everyone else's costume, though, than she was about actually getting candy. She would've been perfectly happy to just sit and watch everyone and talk about what they were wearing. Her favorites were Spiderman, Thomas the Tank Engine, Woody (actually just a cowboy but she thought it looked like Woody from Toy Story), and all of the princesses (especially Belle). She and Daddy started off the night together and went around our cul de sac. When they came back he asked if I wanted to switch places, so then I took her and we walked around the neighborhood for awhile, going to some other houses. We made it further than we made it last year, but still not all that far. She said she wanted to go home and "west" because her "wings were tired!!!!"

When we got back to our house she sat out with us and ate some m&ms, but didn't want to stay out very long because the house across the street from us was playing "loud, scary music," and she didn't like it. It was a CD of haunted house type music, and it was fairly loud, but it wasn't bad. She didn't like it one bit, though, so she and I only stayed out a little while and then Daddy finished up passing out our candy.

She said she had a great time (except for the scary music).

jack-o-lantern

Last night Daddy and Rachel carved a pumpkin.

I guess I should say Daddy carved a pumpkin. Rachel "helped."

After putting her hands in to get the gunk out, she declared it "isgusting" and wanted her hands washed and nothing else to do with it. So there was lots of watching and question-asking instead.

I took pictures (thankful to have gotten out of the carving process this year! It's not my favorite thing to do, and I'm not very good at it).

Rachel loved it, and couldn't wait to put the candle inside and see it in the dark.

Chuck-e-Cheese

Here are some pictures from yesterday's adventure. A little blurry, but you get the idea.

good news, bad news

Haven't done one of these in awhile...

Good news: We had a fun adventure today--our first visit with Rachel to Chuck-e-cheese. My brother was taking his kids with my mom as a special treat, and asked us to join them there, so we did. It was a little crazy, loud, and overwhelming, but Rachel LOVED it, and it was fun watching her have so much fun--she rode the same rides over and over, and didn't quite understand most of the games, but had a great time. She loved collecting tickets, though she didn't get many, and choosing her prizes at the end. Her favorites were her pink plastic butterfly ring and her grape tootsie roll sucker. My mom took quite a few pictures, and as soon as I get them from her, I'll post them.

Bad news: I'm sure the place was saturated in germs. I used half my bottle of hand sanitizer in my purse on myself and her.

Good news: We had our fireplace fixed this week! After six years of living in this house, we can finally have a cozy fire!

Bad news: We don't have a screen or fireplace doors, and until we do, we can't actually have a fire. We went shopping for them today, but didn't make a decision, so it'll still be awhile before we actually enjoy it.

Good news: We had nice, warm weather most of the week this week. The winter-like weather disappeared for awhile.

Bad news: Rachel was sick AGAIN all week, and we didn't get to enjoy it much. She got better for a few days and then came down a few days later with a terrible cough and stuffy nose. The nose is better. The cough just won't go away. Thankfully, no fever this time. I'm not excited about this winter, and all the germs she's encountering at preschool. Hopefully I can avoid them. (Better use the other half of the bottle of hand sanitizer.)

the power of choice

Rachel generally eats like a bird, especially at dinner time. Breakfast she does okay. Lunch is almost always a peanut butter sandwich (her choice), which she usually eats just fine.

But dinner is Mommy's choice, and it's not usually one she likes, so she doesn't eat much. Almost every dinner has the potential for being a battle.

Unless she gets to choose.

If we go to a restaurant, and she gets to choose off the menu, she eats a ton.

If we're having a free for all/leftover night at home, and she gets to choose, she eats a ton.

Recent examples:

-Tonight my husband and I had Subway for dinner. She doesn't like anything from there, so I asked her what she wanted to eat. She said pizza. I had a frozen pizza in the freezer, so I made it for her. She ate nearly three pieces! Usually, when we order pizza (which she likes!) she only eats one! THREE PIECES!?

-A few nights ago we went out to dinner and used a gift card a neighbor had given us (thanking my husband for his help with some things--isn't that so nice??). She chose mac and cheese off of the children's menu. She ate nearly half of it. And those portions are HUGE, by her standards. The next day she finished the rest of it for lunch. She always likes mac and cheese, but she usually only eats a small dish of it. We couldn't believe how much she ate.

-Sometime recently we had a leftover night, and there wasn't anything I knew she would like to eat leftover. So my husband asked her what she'd like. She thought about it awhile and finally said, "A waffle." We had some Kashi frozen waffles, and she ate the whole thing. She rarely eats the whole thing of ANYTHING.

-Last night I didn't know what to make for dinner. I asked her what she thought I should make. "Pasta," she said. So I did. And what do you know, she ate an entire bowl of it (With sauce! She almost always eats it plain, but decided last night that she wanted sauce, after I put it in front of her plain! Go figure!). Now, if I had made pasta on my own some night, without her getting to choose it, she would've eaten a few bites, but never a whole bowl.

I realize that I can't ask her opinion for dinner every night, but it sure seems to be successful when she gets the chance. I guess she's a girl who knows what she wants!

fall?

Fall, where are you? Where did you go? All of a sudden it feels like winter! They're even talking snow. I'm not ready for that.

Despite the cold weather, Rachel asked to play outside today. Since we've been cooped up a lot lately, I agreed for a little while, until I was freezing and insisted we go back inside.

She was excited to wear her "new" coat (a hand me down from her cousin, Emma), hat, and gloves (the hat and gloves are new) and wanted me to take her picture. Since she is usually rather camera shy, I was excited to hear her say, "Mommy, take another picture of me doing this!"

So here's a sample of our fall (or is it winter!?) playtime outside.

sick

It's been a very long week. Last Saturday night while Rachel was taking a bath she asked me for medicine. She hadn't been sick, so I didn't see any need to give her medicine, but she must've felt the sickness coming on, because she woke up in the middle of the night, sick. This started several days of fever, a hacking cough, and fear of the flu (it wasn't, according to the doctor). Her fever went away and I thought she was better, but then her cough got even worse. She missed school (and school picture day!) and several other activities last week. The nights were long, as she was up coughing an awful lot. A very long week.

Thursday night we went to Grandma's house. Slowly over the course of the weekend her cough got better. And Daddy got up with her so I could sleep. It was heaven.

Friday my husband and I spent the day out while Rachel stayed at Grandma's house, also in heaven. It was a fun day, browsing around IKEA and helping my husband shop for a new sleeping bag at REI. My favorite part of the day was a stop at Starbucks--I hadn't been in months and months, and it was fantastic.

Now we're back home and last night Rachel slept almost the whole night without coughing. She only woke up once, at 5:30, which was so much better than she's been doing. I'll gladly take that over last week's sleep.

Hopefully this week will be better, and hopefully I'll have something more exciting to write about sometime later in the week.

a busy week

It's been a full week and I haven't had a chance to update this blog. My husband was out of town for work for the week and Grandma was here. Sorry to those of you who check often, hoping to hear something. There's not a lot to share, but here's a run down of our week for anyone interested....

Monday's playdate was fine, though I was exhausted. I tried to nap in the afternoon, but didn't have much success. I slept better the rest of the week. Rachel's napping has improved, and has been from about 1:45-3:30 or 4:00 this week.

Tuesday Rachel had school and Grandma surprised her by coming with me to pick her up. I hadn't told her Grandma was coming to visit, and she was THRILLED to see her at the door. Poor Grandma had a cold, though, which kept getting worse and worse as the visit went on. I also found out that day that Rachel is the youngest in her class at school (I wondered because at her field trip last week I noticed that she was the shortest, so I asked her teacher). In fact, the day after her birthday, when she'll turn four, there is another student turning five! A whole year older! I'm hoping the other students' maturity is rubbing off on Rachel!

Wednesday Rachel and I went to Rachel's music class she's been taking at the library while Grandma stayed home, not feeling good. It's a four week class and this was the third week. She enjoys it, but the first couple of weeks she was rather shy and had trouble participating in the activities. This time I reminded her several times beforehand that she needed to do what the teacher did and for whatever reason she did a much better job of participating. Grandma went to urgent care after we got home and they said she had some sort of infection (sinus?) and gave her an antibiotic. Rachel was sad not to get to play with Grandma as much as usual, but I was still happy for the company, though I felt bad that she had to be sick at my house--it's no fun being sick, especially away from home.

Thursday morning Grandma was feeling a little better, and left for home when Rachel went to school. When I picked Rachel up she told me she didn't have a great day at school because Miss Jessie told her she had to walk. I couldn't figure out the whole story from what Rachel told me, but she was obviously very upset about getting scolded and she told me over and over. Hopefully on Tuesday I can talk to her teacher and find out more to the story, though it's probably no big deal. Thursday night Daddy came home. We were happy to see him.

Friday was our only day of the week with no plans. And it was pouring down rain all morning. We went grocery shopping. Play doh and painting were also on the agenda for the day. Sounds dull, but it was really nice to have a relaxing day. Friday night we started The Bathroom Project. My birthday present (back in March!) was to have our downstairs bathroom redone because we don't have any sort of cabinet in there, and I've been wanting one forever. So we finally got our act together and got started. More on that in another post, when it's finished.

insomnia

Me.....not Rachel.

I've been awake since 1:50 this morning. At 4:30 this morning I cleaned the bathroom and mopped the kitchen floor. At 6:30 I was vacuuming. Yes, I know, I'm crazy.

Of course, I did go to bed at 9:00 because I couldn't keep my eyes open (and because we had no power all evening), but still, that's not even 5 hours of sleep.

I am hosting a playdate at my house this morning for the mom's club I'm in, and since the power went out at 5:30 last night, and I wasn't done cleaning, I had a ton to do. The power didn't come back on until sometime between 9 PM and 1:50 AM when I woke up. Part of why I couldn't go back to sleep was because I was stressing about everything I had to do this morning to get ready for the playdate. So I finally decided to get up and do something about it instead of stressing about it.

I'm glad it's done, but man, I'm exhausted.

In napping news, things have improved a bit. We've been putting her to bed closer to 2:00 for the last few days. She's gone right to sleep each time, and I've been getting her up at 4:30, and she has been cheerful, not grumpy, like I had feared would happen, waking her up before she was ready. 4:30 is still a little later than I would like her to get up, but she's still going to bed fine at 8:00 pm, so I guess if it's not affecting that, it's not a huge problem. We'll see if things continue this way.

Hopefully I'll also be getting a good nap today!

the naptime blues

Rachel didn't start out as a good napper. In fact, she was a terrible napper for a good nine months after she was born. But somewhere along the way she became a really good napper, and in the last several months, she's become a champion napper--sleeping from a little after 1:00 pm often until 4:00 pm, when I finally go wake her up!

But the last three days, this has not been the case. And I'm singing the naptime blues, because, I'm fearful that my wonderful three hours of peace are nearing an end. I knew it would happen. I just didn't want it to until she went to school all day and needed to give up a nap.

For the last three days I take her upstairs at 1:00, like normal. We read a story and she gets in bed, just like always. She talks and sings a bit after I leave....also normal. But for three days now she keeps talking....and talking....and singing....and playing....and talking....and at 2:30 she is still awake! I've gone up and told her to be quiet, stop talking, and go to sleep. "But I'm not tired," she tells me. Within five minutes of my leaving, she's fallen asleep. Yesterday I let her sleep until 5:00, which I never do, because she had taken so long to fall asleep. Today it was closer to 3:00 when she finally fell asleep and now it's 3:30 and she's awake again, crying. Do I go help her get back to sleep and let her sleep until 5:00 again? I don't like it--I think 5:00 is too late to get up from a nap, because her bedtime is 8:00, and I don't want to push her bedtime back. But I don't know what to do.

So my question for all of you seasoned moms is this....would you keep trying to put her down at 1:00 and hope this is a phase that she'll get over, or should I keep her up until 2:00 or so, and let her sleep until 5:00? Or should I still get her up at 4:00, even if she doesn't fall asleep until 2:30 or 3? Cranky and all??? Or do I resign myself to the fact that the days of champion napping are over, and we might have to start transitioning to "rest time" instead?

Help!

pony ride

Yesterday afternoon was our church's fall picnic. We've gone a couple of times, and each year it's been held somewhere different, as the church continues to grow and we keep outgrowing the venues. This year it was held at a farm. I was not feeling well most of the weekend with an end-of-the-summer cold, and it was raining most of the afternoon. I decided not to go to the picnic because I didn't want to be out in the rain with my cold, and I still wasn't feeling great. But they were supposed to have quite a few things for kids to do, so my husband wanted to take Rachel, knowing she would probably have a great time.

And she did!

But he didn't have the camera!

When they got home she quite literally burst through the front door and sprinted through the house looking for me yelling, "Mommy! Mommy!" I came downstairs as soon as I heard her come in and said, "What! Did you have fun?"

Daddy said, "Tell Mommy what you did!"

"I rode a PONY!" she declared. My husband said she had the hugest smile on her face, when, after waiting in line for over a half an hour for a turn, she finally got to sit on that pony. He said over and over last night, "I wish I would've had my camera." And I wish I could've seen it. She was thrilled.

She also told me that she ate cotton candy, fed a pig and some other animals, made a pumpkin, but not a jack-o-lantern (because jack-o-lanterns you have to cut and this pumpkin you just put face stickers on, according to Rachel), went on two hayrides (one with the blue tractor and one with the orange tractor), and played by the pond. It sounds like she had the time of her life. And my husband said the rain stopped as soon as they got there and started again just as they left.

I'm hoping for the same this morning, since it's Rachel's first field trip for school today, to the apple orchard, and it's raining this morning. I'm wondering if we'll get to go or not.

camping

Remember how much I love camping? Well, my husband has been asking ever since that night to go camping. I kept saying I was willing to give it a try, but I kept having trouble actually committing to it. Well, we finally went last weekend.

For the most part, it was better than I had expected. Rachel loved it and my husband had a good time, so I'm glad we went. My attitude was good (I was worried that I'd be grumpy and spoil it for everyone), and most of it went better than I had hoped. Rachel loved the campfire, loved cooking hotdogs, making s'mores, and just sitting watching the fire, and LOVED being in the tent. While she was eating her hotdog (which was peeled because there was too much black stuff on it!), she was grinning from ear to ear and declaring over and over, "This is a great camping trip!"

My biggest concern was for sleep--I haven't been sleeping well lately at all. I slept, but not great--Rachel didn't go to sleep until after 10 (we went in the tent and got ready for bed around 8:30--she was BEGGING us to go to bed! But then she was so excited about her sleeping bag and glow stick Daddy had bought her that it took her FOREVER to settle down. He and I went out and sat at the campfire for awhile thinking she'd settle down better if we weren't in there, but she continued to sing and talk in bed. Finally we went in around 10 and she went to sleep soon after.) I checked my watch at 11:30 and I was still awake, but fell asleep sometime soon after that. But Rachel woke up several times in the night, so it was very interrupted sleep. At 3:30 she got out of bed (she NEVER gets out of bed) and was cold and wanted to get in with us. I told her no--we've never done that and didn't want to start--but I moved her bed over right next to ours, got her in her sleeping bag (she didn't stay in it very well, which is why she was cold) and put an extra blanket on her and that seemed to do it. She slept for the rest of the night after that. I had taken two tylenol PMs, so I was able to go back to sleep easily each time, so that was good.

At 6:30 she woke up, so I left to get my shower and Daddy entertained her with her glow stick some more, which amazingly was still glowing! When I was coming back from my shower, he and she were on their way up to find me, so we switched and he went to take his shower and I took her back and got her dressed. By that time it was light. When Daddy got back we started making breakfast. Rachel had several meltdowns that morning--it was cold and she hadn't gotten enough sleep. After we got everything put away and the tent down and packed up around 10, we left and went for a short hike at a nearby cave. We hiked a little, had an early lunch, and drove back home. Got back just in time for naptime. We all took much needed naps.

All in all it was a successful trip. The weather was perfect (though a bit cold...I'd rather be cold in a tent than hot, though!) and it was so fun watching my two favorite people enjoy themselves so much.

Here are a few pictures from our adventure.

the name game

The other night as my husband gave Rachel a bath he gave her the foam letters in her name in the tub and asked her if she could use them to spell her name. She did! So last night I put all 26 letters in the tub and asked her to find the letters for her name and make it. Again, she did, without any trouble at all. Who knew! What really surprised me was that she asked, "Where's the little A, Mommy?" She knows the R is big and the rest of the letters are little, but the foam letters we have are only capital letters. She was looking for a lower case A to come after her R. I couldn't believe it.

She's also started writing her name by tracing dotted line letters. We noticed that the top of her school papers had this on each one, but we figured someone was holding her hand to help her trace the lines. Last night we watched her do it--all by herself!

I guess we've been underestimating our girl!

pixie dust

Driving home from the library this evening I looked in the rear view mirror and saw Rachel looking up with her hands in the air, waving them around, and a huge smile on her face. I asked her what she was doing.

"Putting pixie dust all over the car to make it pretty," she said, matter of factly. "See, doesn't it look so sparkly and pretty now?"

I continued to watch her, and she looked around at her imaginary handiwork, smiling.

I couldn't help but smile the rest of the way home, loving her imagination, her innocence, and her exhuberance.

Can I bottle up some of this "three-ness" and save it for when she's, oh, fourteen?

the nightgown

Several weeks ago I was at a children's resale shop in town and found a brand new with the tags on princess nightgown. It was two sizes too big for Rachel, but looked like it might fit, and besides, who cares if a nightgown is a little bit too big. She had never had a nightgown, and I knew she would love it, because it would look and feel like a dress, and she absolutely loves wearing dresses. I showed it to her and told her it was for sleeping in, like pajamas. She loved it.

She wanted to put it on as soon as we got home, but I told her I needed to wash it first, so that afternoon I washed it, and at bathtime that night, she took the quickest bath I've ever seen her take (usually she wants to play forever and I have to practically pry her out of the tub, wrinkly toes and all), so she could put on her new nightgown.

As soon as I put it on her she was laughing and laughing, just sooooooo excited about it. She couldn't wait to go downstairs to show Daddy. I grabbed the camera on the way down and took a picture.

That smile couldn't be wiped off her face. I don't know how she finally calmed down enough to sleep that night, but she eventually did.

The next morning she was all giggles again, as she danced around and around in her nightgown. That afternoon she begged to wear it for her nap. I told her no, that she could wear it again that night for bed. She took another record bath so she could jump into her nightgown.

The next night I told her I needed to wash it again so she had to wear pajamas to bed. She cried.

I've washed that nightgown about five times in the few weeks that we've had it--she looooooooves it and gets so excited every time she finds out it's clean again. Makes me want to sell all of the pajamas I have for her and go buy her all new nightgowns!

toes

Rachel's red toes have been "scrubbing off," as she puts it, so she's been wanting me to re-paint her toes. Finally today I let her get the basket of polish out. She carefully looked over her choices and chose a very pale pink.

She didn't realize that changing the color involved several other steps:

1) removing the old polish

and

2) cutting her toenails again

She hates having her nails cut, and today was no different. And she hated the polish remover--too cold and tickly, she said. She squirmed and squirmed. I finally told her she could finish herself, which helped, but she couldn't get it all off herself.

Finally we painted her toes pink. Then Mommy had to paint hers to match. Except Mommy only has 9 toenails, as of this morning. I was cleaning my room and ran my foot full force into my mirror stand. I first thought I broke my little toe, because of how badly it hurt, but upon inspection found lots of blood and discovered that the toenail ripped almost completely off. I'm now hobbling along, trying to clean the house. Ouch.

i don't know

Hooray! According to Rachel's teacher, today was another great day at school. So glad to hear....

It's like pulling teeth to get Rachel to tell me about her morning at school, though, and there's no time to stand and chat with the teacher to ask her. So here's a typical conversation we've had each of her three days at school:

M: What did you do at school today?

R: I don't know.

M: Did you play with some other boys and girls?

R: Yep. (one of her new favorite words...."nope" is the other favorite.)

M: Who did you play with?

R: I don't know.

M: Did you color?

R: Yep.

M: What did you color today?

R: I don't know.

M: Did you cut with scissors?

R: Nope.

M: Did you sing any songs?

R: Yep.

M: What songs did you sing?

R: I don't know. (Today I actually got an answer....she started singing the song for me!)

M: Did the teacher read a story?

R: Yep.

M: What was the story about?

R: I don't know. (Both Tuesday and today she eventually told me it was about porcupines. I don't know if that means she read the same story today as she did Tuesday, or if it was a different story but still about porcupines, or if it just meant Rachel remembered Tuesday's story today!)

M: What did you play outside?

R: In the house. (There's one of those Step 2 plastic houses out on the playground.)


Today I asked a new question....

M: What game did you play today? (Hoping she had actually played a game...)

R: Dominos!

M: What do you do with dominos?

R: Match them.

M: What is on the dominos that you have to match?

R: Dots.

Ahhhh, finally, I found out something! I also found out (after several more exchanges like the one above) that they talked about the letter F some more, they talked about their families, and she drew a picture of her family.

M: Who is in your family?

R: I don't know.

Hmmmm....I wonder how she drew a picture of us without knowing who we are?

It's so strange that there's this huge gap of time in my daughter's life twice a week that I am not a part of and I don't know what's going on in that time! I wish we'd get some sort of newsletter or something telling me what they're doing, because it's pretty impossible to get information out of this three year old. Some three year olds may go on and on about their days at school, but not mine. Open House is next week. Maybe I'll find out some answers then.

relief

Remember that old commercial where the narrator asked, "How do you spell relief?" and the person on camera held up a pack of antacids and said, "R-O-L-A-I-D-S!"

Well, I haven't taken any Rolaids, but I have had some major relief today. Rachel had a great day at school. If you recall, I briefly mentioned last time that I had already had to have a talk with the teacher on day one. Now that a few days have passed I can write a little more about that awful day, but at the time I was too traumatized to publicize it for the world to see.

I went to pick Rachel up on her first day, excited to hear about her day, and the teacher asked me to step aside and have the other parents pick up their children first because she needed to talk to me. Uh oh. I stood there in disbelief, dreading whatever it was she had to tell me.

Finally it was my turn and Rachel ran to the door--the first thing I noticed is that she had on the extra shorts I had packed in her backpack--so I knew she had had an accident. Ugh. The teacher then proceeded to tell me that Rachel told her "NO" several times, disobeyed, threw herself down on the floor, and also refused to go potty when they went. She then had an accident on the playground. She said she was very strict and Rachel tested every limit and finally after awhile got the picture that the teacher wasn't kidding, and did okay after that, but that she was very strong willed.

I was HORRIFIED. My jaw was on the floor. I've never ever gotten a report from anyone that she'd behaved this way. The only other similar setting she's been in like this is sunday school, and they've never told me anything but good things. She does great with babysitters and any other authority figures. Everyone's always told me how well behaved and sweet she is. Had they all been lying to me?? I know my child is far from perfect, but this just sounded like a completely different little girl!

I didn't know WHAT to do. I apologized profusely to the teacher (this wasn't even her real teacher--her real teacher just got hired the week before school started and had to finish out her old job last week, so it was a substitute). Then I started crying....felt like an idiot. I couldn't believe it. I was just completely blindsided.

When I got Rachel out to the car I gave her a stern "talking to" before we left and on the drive home I debated and debated about what to do when we got home. She was disciplined and quickly recovered and moved on with her day. I, however, took a LOT longer to recover (as in, this morning I was still a nervous wreck!!!) You'd think as a former teacher I'd have a better handle on this, but when it's your own child it's a completely different ball game.

All weekend we drilled it into Rachel that she needed to go sit on the potty and try to go when her teacher told her to, whether she thought she needed to go or not. We told her that she had to stop what she was doing and do what the teacher said, no matter what she wanted to do instead. We reminded her that she is not allowed to tell the teacher "no," or even, "no, thank you," which is her polite way of telling us no. She just needed to do it, whatever it was. We told her over and over and over, ad nauseum since last Thursday.

So today her regular teacher, Miss Jessie, was back. When I went to pick Rachel up, I was on pins and needles for the report, but Miss Jessie said, "She had a GREAT day!" Oh my......such relief has never flooded my soul like it did at that moment.

Evidently she had gone potty just after I left, so a bit later when the class had to go potty, Miss Jessie told Rachel that she didn't need to go, since she had just gone. Rachel said, "My mommy's going to be very angry!" So Miss Jessie told her okay, that she could go ahead and try. Hilarious! What a good girl!

Rachel remembered a bit more about her day this time....they had cinnamon crackers and milk for a snack, they read a story about porcupines, they went out to the duck pond and saw a baby duck with its Mommy and brothers and sisters, she played in the house out on the playground (but she couldn't remember the boys and girls names who she played with), she colored a picture of an apple, and they talked about the letter "F," which is for feather. In fact, Miss Jessie told me that Rachel was the only one to guess what the letter was that they were talking about today.

Today felt much more like I had expected to feel on the first day when I picked her up. But today it was even sweeter, because it was such a HUGE relief. I don't know what got in to her last week....my sister in law told me that clearly she had been abducted by aliens and put a changeling in her place.... But my daughter seemed to be back today, thankfully.

Ahhhh.....I can sleep again!

first day

Today was the big day!

I couldn't sleep last night, I had so many concerns swirling through my head--I thought first day of school jitters would be gone once I wasn't teaching anymore, but they were much worse when thinking about sending my child off to school!

Rachel, on the other hand, took it all in stride, but she was so excited all morning. I put her new outfit on her, and the skirt was too big. She started crying and said, "I can't go to school!" I told her Mommy would fix it, and I quickly sewed a couple of darts in the back so it would fit her (guess I should've tried it on her first, huh?) All morning she kept asking me, "Is it time? Is it time?" And when it finally was, she ran around the house singing, "It's time! It's time! It's time!"

As we drove down the road she said, "Are we almost there?" And when she saw the school she squealed with glee, "Schooooooooool!" and clapped her hands.

She couldn't wait to get inside. I helped her find her hook again and taught her how to hang up her backpack on it. She walked in, and didn't look back. I went out in the hall for a minute to put her supplies out there where they wanted you to drop them off, and she thought I was leaving. She gave me a wave and turned to play! I went back in and insisted on a hug and kiss, and then stood outside and peeked in on her a bit. She first went for the bongo drums, which she played with at Meet the Teacher night, and then for the magnetic letters, which she also played with that night. She was happy as can be, as I stood out in the hall with tears in my eyes (but I didn't cry!)

I came home and didn't know what to do with myself, alone in my house! That NEVER happens! I got a few things done, but mostly looked at the clock and wondered what she was doing.

Pick up wasn't at all what I expected and hoped for, though, as I had to have a talk with the teacher already. Suffice it to say that Rachel has a looooooong way to go and a lot to learn about being in a classroom, and I'm very thankful that she's learning those lessons now and not in kindergarten.

Hopefully she'll be just as excited to go back next week.

meet the teacher

The tide has turned.

For years and years I had to go to "Meet the Teacher" night before school started to meet my new students and their parents. Well, tonight, I went to my first "Meet the Teacher" night as a parent, not the teacher.

And it felt weird.

And sad.

Rachel was shy at first, but she warmed up before long, and began exploring the room. She met her teacher, Miss Jessie (I was so excited to find out that she actually has a teacher! A week ago they hadn't found one yet, and I was getting worried!), found her mailbox and hook, and played with toys around the room. We showed Daddy the playground (she and I had been there before, but Daddy hadn't) and I showed her the bathroom so she'd know where it was.

She didn't want to leave and on the way out she told us, "I like school!"

Let's hope she feels the same way on Thursday morning when we leave her there. I don't know if Daddy can handle two sets of tears that morning! (I'm already counting on mine....I just hope there aren't any from her!)

My baby is growing up, and I'm not ready for it!

"arctica"

This morning Rachel asked to watch one of her Baby Einstein DVDs. Why she still likes those is beyond me, but from time to time she watches one again and still loves them.

So this morning she chose Baby Noah, where they show animals from different regions of the world. When they got to penguins, and showed Antarctica, Rachel asked, "Mommy, can we go there pwease, tomorrow?"
I wasn't really watching so I said, "Go where?"
"To 'arctica to see the penguins."
I laughed. I told her you have to fly in an airplane or ride in a boat to get to Antarctica.
"Why?" she asked.
"Because it's far away and you have to go over the water to get there," I told her.
"Why can't we go in the car?" she wondered.
"There aren't any roads to drive on to get to Antarctica," I told her. Then I looked up a world map online and showed her where we live and where Antarctica is (she really likes looking at maps).
"That's where the penguins live, Mommy?" she asked, pointing down to Antarctica.
"Yes."
"We have to go there to see them," she said.
I answered, "Or we can just go to the zoo."

Seems a lot more feasible to me. It's just across town.