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. :-)

Christmas!

Here are some pictures from Christmas! Hope your holidays are merry and bright!

Speaking of bright...Here's a picture of our house after the big snowstorm the weekend before Christmas:

Glowing under the snow!

Rachael checking out the Christmas tree

Christmas Eve in the play fort (hmmm...looks like a prison!) that Grandma and Grandpa got her

Rach with momma on Christmas Eve

Playing on her new car from Auntie Shannon

Rachael's FIRST Christmas, 2006

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving (a week late...). Here are a few Thanksgiving pics, including one (snif snif) of Rachael's FIRST Thanksgiving last year! Our plush turkey was bigger than she was last year! OK, enough with the nostalgia....

Rachael had her very own spot at the table at her Grandma's this year and ate turkey (and everything else!) with us. I know I am enjoying not having to pack food for her everytime we go out now--being able to give her "real" food is very convenient!

Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday!

Rachael and daddy, 2007

Rachael and the turkey, 2006

Rachael and Grandma, 2007

Let's Hear Those Sleigh Bells....

Major ordeal: we went and had family photos taken last weekend. There is nothing easy or convenient about trying to keep your toddler looking nice in her Christmas finery while waiting for your turn (the turn that was scheduled to be over an hour ago, but the family in front of you needed 20 minutes to get their 3-year old to smile so... It's awesome).

Don't mind my sarcasm. It really was quite an ordeal, but it was worth it. :)

Rachael did well in spite of the wait, and with the help of Pooh Bear and a very patient, baby-friendly photographer, we ended up with several nice photos. Here are a few!

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Enjoying Fall

There won't be too many more nice days outside so Rachael's been trying to get outside to play as much as she can! She was especially intrigued by the huge leaf pile that her daddy and grandpa made in her front lawn. She couldn't help but explore.... ;-)
Is there a baby in that leaf pile somewhere??