Some Gems in the Dirt

Reading on the couch

The photographer has been spotted! "Cheeeeese!" says Rachel.

Who's the girl with the silly hat?

OK....So today has been kind of a crappy day here, so in an effort to put a good spin on the day, I'm going to write about some fun moments that happened. Why crappy, you ask? I spent 3 hours this morning on the phone with our pediatrician's office, Blue Care Network, the Feeding Clinic, and Bill, trying to get the mess surrounding the authorization for Rachel's feeding clinic evaluation straightened out. I tell you, though, I have two great kids! Through all that time, while I was distracted and frustrated on the phone, they were so good, playing together, and entertaining themselves so well! The only minor mishap was when Rachel somehow fell backwards and hit her head on the end table. After a few minutes of screaming on her part, with me all the while comforting her while trying to maintain a conversation with the 6th or 7th Blue Care Network rep today, she was just fine :)

First, some stories about our precocious little 3 year old. Yesterday at dinner Megan found a crumb remnant on the kitchen table, left over from breakfast (bad mommy...obviously not doing a great job of cleaning off the table after meals!). Her exasperated comment was, and I quote exactly: "Please tell me this is NOT from breakfast!" She said this several times over the course of about 2 minutes. Bill and I were chuckling about it, and after hearing it several times, I remarked to Bill, "She's said that two times now." To which Megan, apparently having heard my comment, replied smartly, "No, THREE times." Can anyone say smart-a**? Then this afternoon, after a looooong day of playing in the house without going anywhere, Megan said to me, "I'm bored." When I told her, "You need to find something to do," she said to me, "I need an option." An OPTION??? Where does she learn these words? I know this is not a word I use regularly with her!

Rachel has been busy the past few days, too...Over the past week or so she has really begun to enjoy singing. Every time she sees a picture of a star, she will start singing the part of "Twinkle Twinkle" that goes, "Up above the world so high...", except when she sings it, it sounds like, "Up-ah, up-ah, up-ah high." Yesterday in the car, Megan was singing one of the thousands of lyrics our family has for the tune of "Frere Jacques": "Where's our house, where's our house? There it is! There it is! We are home, we are home, yes we are, yes we are" (or something like that). Rachel joined in during the part of the tune where Megan was singing "We are home, we are home...", and although her words were unintelligible, she had the tune pretty spot on!

She's been acquiring some new phrases lately, too....the other day she came around the corner pushing her shopping cart, and clear as day, she said to me, "Hi, Mama!" She likes to say "hi" quite often now. She also has recently started to enjoy going in the bathroom, closing the door behind her, and standing up at the door and knocking on it, saying, "Knock, knock." I also noticed today that when I say, "One..." she will respond, "two, TEE!!!" like she's counting. Rachel loves playing with baby dolls, and today, when she was playing with Megan's doll Chrissy ("Tissy," as Rachel calls her), Rachel unfastened the doll's diaper, and I swear to you, she said, "No poopy."

Here's a funny testament to Rachel's observational skills at present: When I got her up from her nap today, we were sitting on the rocker in her room, and Rachel was looking out the window and said, "Foof, foof" (her word for a dog). Sure enough, I looked out the window, and across the street, our neighbor was walking her dog!

OK, so she's smart, and she can see well...but can she walk, you're asking? Well, not quite on her own yet, but her favorite game of the past week or so has been to hold our hand and walk the big circle from the dining room, to the living room, to the foyer, to the hallway, to the kitchen....over and over and over and OVER! She'll even do this holding Megan's hand, so it's obvious she doesn't really need to hold on for the support, yet when we let go, she immediately sits down. She NEVER tires of this game, and gets quite angry when we stop. She loves it when Megan runs around in the opposite direction, and when she sees Megan coming, she will say, "Boo!" She gets the biggest kick out of this every single time. It's really so cute...how can I get tired of doing this? And besides, I guess I'm getting my exercise at the same time! I think it will be SOON that Rachel trades in this game for the real deal, walking by herself. I know I will miss that little hand sweatily clasping my finger, thumb, or hand for dear life. She's getting more confident, without even realizing it. Several times today she stood without holding onto anything. She's always close to something, like a chair or the table, but it's like she forgets to be scared, and lets go. Today her moments of standing freely seemed longer than ever before (long enough for me to clap joyfully and say, "Good job Rachel!" several times before she decided to sit back down).

There's one more note on my scrap of paper I've been jotting on all day, but I cannot decipher my own handwriting for the life of me. So I guess I'll end this post here. Thanks for sticking with me through a long and poorly strung together rambling! Until next time... :)