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.

More Big Girl Gear

It all started with blocks...then Legos. Rachael was desperate for a decent work surface. At school (ok, daycare) they have toddler-sized tables and chairs, and Rach has grown accustomed to sitting at the table with her friends for crafts and snacks. So she was not going to put up with coloring in her high chair (that's for BABIES, momma...) or just building cities with her blocks on the bumpy carpet. So we found this neat, sorta-affordable table and chair set on Amazon.com.

She. Digs. It.

Each day, when we get home, I give her a sippy cup of milk and a little bowl of puffs or Cheerios, and she walks them over to her "lil office"...arranges her snack on the table, gets a handful of Legos, and sits down. It's so neat to watch. She doesn't say many words yet (though she's very chatty!) but, watching her, I can see her figuring things out. She babbles a mile a minute as she deconstructs the colorful Lego towers we build. Her playing is becoming more sophisticated...I'm seeing her use the same toys in new ways and it amazes me how fast she is changing.

Also fun this week, my brother and sister-in-law sent us a box of Easter treats! Always looking to spoil Rachael, Jim and Jen sent her lots of fun things (including a super-cute lobster T-shirt from Jim's trip to New Orleans!) But I admit that I was most smitten with the bunny ears that were among the surprises in the box. I got Rachael to try them on, but as you can tell, they didn't last very long....

Hmm...What's on my head?

Something is most certainly on my head!

No, Momma you take this.

Thanks Jim and Jen for all the cool stuff! We'll miss you at Easter!

Visit to the Easter Bunny

Rachael went to see the Easter Bunny this afternoon. This was more of an experiment than anything else....see if child goes insane at the sight of an eight-foot rabbit. She did really well, which confirmed our belief (and fear?) that Rachael has very little fear of strangers. It took some doing to get Rachael to stop staring at the bunny and look at the camera, but we ended up with this decent pic. She even gave Bunny a high-five before we left! I think David's folks, who came with us, were as surprised as we were over how relaxed Rach was during the whole "intro to being photographed on super-sized wildlife" experience. ;)

Maybe next Christmas we'll try a visit to Santa!

Yeah Baby!

Our friends Audrey and Andy's son was born on January 13. Alexander is, of course, gorgeous and I was so excited to get to hold him myself. Can't help but post some baby pics of my new friend Alex and his beautiful mom.

Keep it up, Audrey--you're doing great! Now do you believe me... you *really* don't need to sleep more than once or twice a week... ;-)

Mom and Alex

Alex gets snuggles from Auntie Kris...

Indoor Winter Fun

"Thank goodness," says Rachael. A replacement bucket has arrived, courtesy of Uncle Jim and Aunt Jen. She can continue to run around, bucket on head, flailing about, giggling the whole time. The delight on her face upon seeing a new bucket was priceless.

She has also taken to filling the bucket with her wooden blocks. I was excited the first time I saw her fill the bucket with blocks as it looked like she was cleaning the room. My excitement faded as I relized that she was only filling the bucket so as to more effectively dump the blocks all over the room.

One of Rachael's favorite pre-bedtime activities involves climbing into her toybox, looking at each toy for exactly three seconds, then tossing that toy behind her. I'm pretty sure she is irriated that all the toys are back in the toybox after she so lovingly distributed them. I'm sure she wonders how we expect her to find the toy she wants when they are all in the toybox.

Rachael also enjoys a good book. She is especially fond of several of the books by her favorite author Leslie Patricelli and especially the book Binky. I'm not sure she how much of the story she understands, but she likes the pictures and she DIGS turning the pages. She often will pick up a book, walk over and hand it to me, sit down on my lap for story time.

And when she wants to liven things up she "investigates." This investigation often involves something with WAY too many pieces. Boxes of Q-tips, neatly stacked sheets of paper, books on shelves or as she demonstrates, a box of Kleenex. In the space of about one minute, she climbed on the couch, grabbed the Kleenex and proceeded to pull each and every tissue of the box. I guess when she can't go outside to explore, she finds things inside that can be studied.

Why is this bucket....laughing???

Meet our pride and joy....bucket with arms. Ha. Rachael loves nothing more than putting this bucket on her head and walking around like a zombie. We have no idea when/how she learned about the magic of walking around with a bucket on her head, but she did, and she DIGS it. She grabs bucket, plops bucket on head, then stumbles around, arms out, bumping into stuff, just cracking herself up. It's a riot to watch!

Unfortunately, bucket was apparently not designed to be worn regularly as headgear and has recently developed a crack in the side. To Rachael's horror, we had to throw magic bucket away. It's not too easy to find a kid's sand bucket in the middle of winter in Michigan. So if you happen to live in a sunny state where stores are still selling kiddie sand castle buckets, pick one up for us. Please. :-)

Rachael's other pasttime includes mercilessly chasing Phoebe, one of our three cats. We cannot understand why Phoebe puts up with Rachael...she could hide upstairs with her two sister kitties. But Phoebe seems to love (read: tolerate) Rachael and keeps coming back for more. She's never growled or tried to bite--she just runs away when Rachael's version of 'gentle' gets too rough. I am so grateful for Phoebe's patience! Rachael is slowly catching on to what "gentle" means...when Kitty squawks, she's realizing that's NOT gentle, and she backs off. It's neat to see her developing what I'm hoping is an early respect for animals.

Rachael is now tall enough to reach Phoebe in her 'safe' place, on the back of the sofa--here's evidence. :-)