All American Girl

I love this picture from Memorial Day and just wanted to share it. Gotta love girly camo shorts (the camo is made up of butterflies. So cool.) :-)

Getting Caught Up!

It's been quite a while since our last post--over a month! Time flies...I was out of town for work for a while (yuck) so no time for blogging...or much else! I'll stop whining now. ;-)

We're really looking forward to this weekend, since my brother and Jen are flying in on Saturday and will be staying with us until next Tuesday. Yay!

Anyhoo, here are photos of highlights from the past few weeks:

1) Rachael's New Sandbox

Crabby the Sandbox

Getting nice and sandy

2) Mother's Day! Rachael got me these cool TiVo slippers (and a cool new pair of earrings!)

3) More visits to Jungle Java in Ann Arbor (awesome indoor play place with a special section for kids under 3 years old. It's fabulous to take her someplace where I know she won't be trampled by kids twice her size.):

Hold on tight!

Climbing up to the slide

Woooo! Down I go!

4) Visit from Audrey and Alex!

Audrey and her lil boy

This baby is a lot lighter than mine (ok, he's also 16 months younger...)

No babies looking at the camera, but both relatively happy at the same moment...

Spring Fashion Show

My brother and sister-in-law are addicted to Gymboree. Yes, addicted. In case you haven't shopped at Gymboree, it's a clothing store with the cutest little kid gear *ever*. And the best part is, since they turn over their various product lines so quickly, they typically have very good sales on last month's styles. Call me backward, but I can usually wait a month to pay half-price for that must-have toddler sweater. (Although I admit to splurging a few times on full-price outfits around the holidays...)

So get this: brother and sis-in-law (Jim and Jen), the aforementioned Gymboree addicts, stumbled across a Gymboree outlet while spending the weekend in Maine. It is not good for Gymboree addicts to be left alone in a Gymboree outlet, unsupervised. The result of this unsupervised shopping frenzy was shipped to Rachael in a large box...so we've been playing 'fashion show' with her new spring and summer fashions. :) Jim and Jen are excellent shoppers and picked out adorable things! Featured in this post is Rachael's new Honey Bee outfit (she only agreed to model if I gave her some Cheerios. Fair deal.)

Rachael says, "THANK YOU, Aunt Jen and Uncle Jim, for the cool new clothes! Now we just need it to warm up around here so I can start wearing short sleeves! Love you and can't wait to see you in May!"

Swimming!

Last week, my aunt asked me, "is Rachael afraid of ANYTHING?" I shrugged, unable to think of an answer quickly. Rach doesn't like the vacuum, but she certainly isn't afraid of it. Ditto on thunder, strangers, dogs, and the crazy-loud motorcycle noise from the people across the street. I suspect daycare has made her brave. :)

In any case, you'll probably be shocked to know that Rachael is not afraid of water. She's tentative at first, takes her time, but ultimately, she digs it.

Here are some fun swimming pics.

New Car

Rachael received several new cars for Christmas, but this one (from mom and dad) had to sit in the basement until spring. We finally had a blistering 65 degree day on Monday so we pulled the Toddler Coupe out of the basement and put her together. While Dave was assembling Rach's new ride, he discovered that we were missing the Coupe's hubcaps. So Rachael's car has an "urban" flare to it, as you can see. ;-)

Rachael loved exploring her car! She kept getting in and out, experimenting with the doors, twisting the steering wheel. She quickly discovered the horn, much to our, uh, delight...
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Here are a few more pics of her fresh new wheels:
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Riding along with the windows down....

Backing in (with some help from Daddy)

Girls at the Mall

A few weekends ago, my friend Melissa and I met up at the mall with our girls (Melissa's daughter, Sophie, will be three years old this May). One of the malls nearby has a neat play area so we figured we'd let the girls run around and exhaust themselves while we chatted. (note: I'm typically very opposed to these play areas because they are breeding grounds for germs. But I will let her play in these petri dishes from time to time).

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Anyway, my brave, curious 18 month old did not have a reasonable fear of the four and five year old kids who were also racing around...and who were not carefully watching out for little ones. So there was very little chatting between Melissa and me; rather, there was a lot of protecting Rachael from herself as she casually took on kids twice her size for access to the toys. She seemed to genuinely want to play with the other kids, which was neat but also a little scary. I mean, show me a four year old who really knows what "gentle" means....c'mon....

Both girls had a great time and emerged from their play date un-injured and pleasantly sleepy. Here are a few pics from our afternoon:

Rachael on a big alphabet block (for which she beat up a few six-year-olds and claimed as hers. Ha.)

Girlfriends at the mall! I thought it was cute that they were both wearing striped pants, too.

A Tribute to Frankie

On March 9, we had the heartbreaking task of putting Frankie to sleep. She was getting so sick, so uncomfortable. Knowing that, it was still devastating.

Frankie was MY cat, no question. She was a stray, and she found me in 1999 when I had just moved out of my parents' house. I couldn't believe anyone could abandon a cat so beautiful--she was Siamese and had the most striking blue eyes. I'd show people photos of Frankie and they'd swear I had "photoshopped" her eyes. Frankie and I became our own little family at a time when my human family was in rough shape--I don't think it's a coincidence that God sent me such a loyal, loving companion.

So, for Frankie, I offer a passage from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, where he speaks On Friendship:

"And a youth said, Speak to us of Friendship.
And he answered, saying:
Your friend is your needs answered."

Thank you, Frankie, for being the furry, loving friend I needed back then and always. You will be missed.