A new feature: Quotes From Our Daughter

Introducing a new item her at our life with ducks: Quotes From Our Daughter.

Today at church in a loud rather surprised voice, Rachel said,
"Daddy, your shirt doesn't have any spit-up on it."
Score one for Dad's fashion sense.

Our baby boy

He's three and a half weeks into life on Earth, and Nathan is quite a delight. He loves to eat and sleep and poop and get kisses from his big sister. (Lucky on that last one, because he'd find them awfully hard to avoid!) He's been threatening to get his nights and days switched back to wrong, which his parents do not think is funny, so we'll see what we can to do prevent that. Otherwise, he's really a lot of fun. He has a good sense of humor--or is this just the embodiment of "any port in a storm?"

Nathan has already rolled over several times. We're pretty sure that this means either (a) he is incredibly gifted, and all developmental milestones from here on will be a joke, or (b) his head--which he can lift quite impressively--is so heavy that it just carries him over onto his back! Get a load of his strong neck muscles!


Rachel is doing a great job of adjusting to her new role as big sister. As mentioned, there is no shortage of kisses around here. In fact, sometimes the promise of being able to kiss Baby Nathan goodnight makes bedtime more palatable for her--quite a feat! In the last week or so, Rachel has taken Baby Nathan camping with her in the living room,

plied him with toys when he looked bored in his car seat (or perhaps I should say piled),

and savored some time during his nap to bake raisin bread with Mom. Check out her cool apron! (Thanks, Aunt Mary!)

Nathan joins the show!

Well, last Monday Magellan finally got himself borned, so we celebrated by changing his name to Nathan. He's quite a champion at all of his jobs--he eats, sleeps, poops, and entertains his sister, all with gusto. And he's a multi-tasker--he can entertain Rachel while doing any of his other jobs! (He can poop while doing just about anything else, too.) Our biggest challenge thus far has perhaps been to get her to give him some space while he's eating or sleeping. (Read: all the time!) She adores her baby brother and calls him "dis little guy" and showers him all day long with "nice little kisses on his very soft head."

Here's the first time Rachel asked to hold Nathan:

And one of the many, many kisses:

And us--a family of four!

Life is good. We are truly blessed. Welcome to our life with ducks, Baby Nathan! (New baby means more ducks, of course! More came in the mail just the other day--and you thought we were being whimsical when we named this blog!)

Big sister-to-be

New photos at our Shutterfly site--check out the link at right! Rachel is enjoying being the star for just as long as she can! Actually, she's very excited about meeting Magellan. She talks to the baby all day, showing it things, asking, "How er you doin', Migellan?" and saying things like, "You a fweetie pie, Migellan!" as she kisses my belly. Quite darling. She's going to be an excellent big sister, once she gets over the fact that Magellan will be a little more demanding of her parents' attention once s/he is less belly-shaped.

A good time to be an American

These kids will grow up in a country where things like this can and do happen...

Boo!

Rachel totally got into Halloween this year, much to our surprise. She woke up from her nap, put on her giant Elmo costume (Shout-out to our neighbor, Mia, who passed it along to us! It was absolutely perfect!), handed out candy from the door like she'd been doing it for a million years, and then went trick-or-treating with gusto. She asked to go back out three times and ended up covering three whole blocks! She marched up those porch steps, said "Trick or treat" loudly and clearly, peered into her severed-head Elmo basket (There was something a little Muppets-meets-Sleepy-Hollow in the way she carried an Elmo-head basket and mostly refused to wear the Elmo hood. Way to bring a little more traditional Halloween gore to the Elmo costume, Rachel!) and then said "Thank you!" at every single house. It was lots of fun to see.

PINK!

Well, now that she's two, Rachel has a real big-girl room. We spent evenings the last week painting it pink and white (She's been lobbying hard for a pink room. I said, "We can get you a big-girl rug and paint the walls to match, maybe green or purple." Her reply: "Or maybe pink!"). She has the promised big-girl rug. She has a big-girl dresser "wit' mirror"--my old one. And she even lost the crib. Yes, she started climbing out this week, and once I got over feeling like my life was over, we moved the crib out of the room to prevent her from trying to climb back in. (This, she learned the hard way, is harder and more likely to cause a big fall than climbing out in the first place.) For now, she has a mattress on the floor, and let me tell you, she loves her new room. When she wears her pink pj's, we have to look pretty hard to find her in there. And when we read stories and say bedtime prayers, she loves to pick what color flower she'll sit on on the rug.

Funny aside about the great crib escape--I was downstairs, listening to her wail that she was "not sleepy!" and "not need a 'nooze!" (snooze), when it got quiet for a few minutes. Then there was a big crash and I heard, "I'm did it!" Yes, indeed, she had done it. I was torn between laughing at her triumphant proclamation and melting into a puddle, dreading napless days ahead. Turns out, so far at least, that she can still nap, as long as there's no exciting challenge like climbing out of the crib. Thank goodness!

Here's a cute photo of Rachel with her pink-frosted, pink-sprinkled cupcake at her party. She's still talking about how great it was that Nphurbert came to the party. (Thanks for bringing the hamster to visit, Aunt Beth!)

Diva

Rachel loves to stand on a chair and help me in the kitchen. She's great at stirring, dumping in ingredients, and adding sprinkles. (We add sprinkles whenever possible.) She has recently discovered that she can reach the sink when she stands like this, and I captured an absolutely hilarious moment the other day. Observe:

For those not fluent in "Rachel" but who want to add this one to your repertoire, the lyrics are: Da, da, singin' a mommy song...on da tee-veeeeee...da, da...mommy song! (Slurp.)

I'm not sure when she's seen someone singing into a microphone "on da tee-vee," but with the memory this girl has, one such experience would be enough. Don't you love how she slurps off the mike when she's done?

ABC

We sing about everything these days. "Sing a song 'bout goin' to the gwo-cy store." "Sing a song 'bout findin' the broccoli." "Sing a song 'bout baby Katie and baby Michael." (Two darling new additions to our playgroup.) "Sing a song 'bout Daddy comin' home fer dinner." But there is one song that Rachel regularly busts out with, all on her own--sometimes in the middle of breakfast, as you'll see here...

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo!

Daddy stayed home from work yesterday so we could take advantage of the zoo's new free day, and we had a terrific time! Rachel was especially excited to see elephants and giraffes. And we were there early enough that the animals were still pretty active--we enjoyed seeing the polar bear toss its ball into the water, then jump in after it! Here are Rachel and I doing our best giraffe impersonations. (I think Rachel was trying to stretch out her neck, but her jaw got in the way.)

And later, Rachel and Daddy got to brush a goat! The goat really enjoyed its new coiffure and gave Rachel some nuzzles to say thank you.

In other news, it has suddenly turned into fall here (80 last week, 60 this week!), but we got a photo of Rachel with the sunflowers she planted way back last spring (at the "orange house") just in time. They were amazingly tall, and it was loads of fun to watch them grow.

As the weather has undergone its rapid changes, so has Rachel's speech development. She speaks in full sentences, with articles and everything. She has come a long way toward using the correct pronouns--the other day she said, "Daddy, you have a button on your jacket," and meant exactly what it sounds like she meant. She enunciates words very carefully and em-PHA-siz-ES every syllable, which makes for some amusing sounds. And she's begun to communicate what she imagines. We were getting ready to go to the store last week, and I asked her to hold the grocery bags. She took them all out of the bag they were stuffed in and proceeded to adorn herself with them. Then she looked up at me and said, "Have two bags around neck. Looks like necklace." And, as you can see, that is exactly how it looked!

Update: When I showed Rachel this post, she identified each photo: "Giraffe face," "Brushing goat," "Sun-fow-lers," and "Necklace." Not only does she imagine, she remembers!

Baker extraordinaire

Here's a picture of Rachel with her purse. (We were doing so well, for a few days, of taking photos on the non-Elmo shirt days, but here we go again!)

If it occurs to you that she looks a little pale, fret not for her health. Our rosy little girl was just helping me bake bread. In this case, helping meant scooping out a teaspoon of flour, then eating it out of the measuring spoon. She exhaled into the flour at one point, and it all blew back into her face. Pretty funny, actually. She's also good at shaking the pan to coat it with flour, pouring the measured ingredients into the bowl, and licking the spoons. Quite an aspiring baker we have!

Rachel's purse

Rachel has a darling straw purse (Thanks, Mrs. O!) that she likes to carry around. Sometimes she brings it with her to church, where invariably someone asks her what she has in it. Then comes the amusement when she opens up the purse and starts taking out rubber ducks. There are four of them who normally inhabit the purse--the Mom, the Dad, the Yellow Baby, and the Purple Baby. (There are several other rubber ducks, but they don't usually live in the purse. Not sure if they're unrelated or just don't fit.) Really, though, the contents of Rachel's purse should not come as any surprise--what else would be in a little straw purse? The duck family "fits nicely" (as Rachel is fond of saying), and you never know when you'll need your rubber ducks at a moment's notice! One morning, not long ago, the ducks spent some time outside the purse, and each of them received a special party hat. It was quite a rollicking good time.

In other news, Rachel has been practicing lately for her upcoming role of "Big Sister." She visited Cousin Jack last week and got a chance to bounce his chair. (We're all lucky he didn't get catapulted across the room as she experimented with just how much force was needed.) Jack seemed to enjoy the kisses Rachel bestowed on him.


Rachel is also learning a great deal of independence, which will be a big help in the months to come. For example, when I told her the other day that we'd be leaving in a few minutes to meet our friends Christy and Gigi at the market, Rachel got ready all by herself. I laugh every time I look at this picture, but she was indeed ready to go! She must have learned the overpacking from her father--I don't usually bring a bucket, a backpack, and an insulated bag with me to the market!


An update on the pronoun situation: The other day when I laid Rachel on a counter to change her diaper, I asked whom she saw in the mirror. She looked at it for a moment, then proclaimed, "It's me!" She's got the first person! (Next stop: linking verbs.)

Pronouns and belly shots

Rachel is really coming along in her understanding of the parts of speech. (Our practice of diagramming sentences in chalk on the patio is really helping, I think. Really, is there any medium besides chalk appropriate for diagramming sentences?) She's great with nouns, verbs (playing fast and loose with conjugation, but all things in time), adjectives, even adverbs. (I asked today if a magnet would stick to the storm door and she tested it and informed me that it "stick nicely.") She's recently begun using articles, though only when they are necessary to make her point. Yesterday she told me, "Like chip." I said, "You like chips?" She said, "No, Rachel like a chip." (She's so dainty--instead of saying she wants something, she tells me she would like it. I guess that's how I usually phrase it, too. Nothing like seeing your own behavior in a mirror to make you more aware of it!) Prepositions appear, too, from time to time.

But pronouns, pronouns, ah, pronouns. They are tricky, partly because they keep switching meanings on you! on me! on you? Rachel does use pronouns--she'll occasionally tell me "I see..." whatever she sees. (The I sounds more like "uh" when she says it, but she enunciates it very distinctly.) But she thinks you is her own personal pronoun--she uses it to refer to herself. And me is Mommy's own personal pronoun, except when it's Daddy's. She fell on the floor the other day and announced, "You okay!" She tells me she's "puttin' ponytail in my hair" as she gathers my hair in her hands, or says "I eat" when she sticks a spoonful of cereal in my face. Developing a sense of identity and comprehending English syntax at the same time--no easy task!

Several people have asked how I'm carrying this baby compared to the abdominal torpedo that Rachel was. Here's a side-by-side, 30 weeks both times: (Black shirt is Magellan, pink shirt is Rachel.)

Looks pretty much the same to me. Feels pretty similar, too, except that I think I'm tireder and a little achier this time, which could have something to do with the amount of time I spend getting onto or off of the floor or pushing a stroller these days, compared with two years ago. Still loving it!

One more morsel of cuteness: Rachel and Daddy made blueberry pancakes on Saturday--and brought me one in bed, so I would know what I was missing! When I came downstairs, this is the sight that met my well-rested eyes:

Aren't they adorable? (Note also the absence of visible boxes! We are making progress in getting settled in--hooray!)

Dancin' in the street

Yesterday was our block party. Great timing for us--we got to meet lots of neighbors and see just how many kids live in our new neighborhood. A couple of times, they kicked the big kids out of the bouncy-house so Rachel and some other little ones could go in. Once, when it was just Rachel, Daddy got in with her and helped her bounce around a bit. They had a good time. Rachel also won a bobbing-for-apples race! (Somewhat unclear on the concept, she stuck her hand in and grabbed an apple. Amazing that she beat all the kids with their faces in the water, trying to use their teeth!)

Perhaps the most fun, though, was dinnertime. There was a giant potluck, with long tables set up in the street. (It's interesting how puny long tables look when they're set up down the middle of even a small street!) And there was a band, which set up right in front of our house! It was two guys--one on guitar, and one on drums--and Rachel was very impressed. She couldn't take her eyes off them. She also did a little dancing, which was adorable (says her mother). She couldn't go all-out with the dancing, though, because that might have required taking her eyes off the band. (It's also possible that she was watching so carefully in order to mimic the movements of the guitarist, who was walking and bopping around a bit in front of the drum kit. Her dance steps look like that might have been her inspiration, but I was watching her, not the band, so I can't be sure.) They were still playing when we came inside, so Rachel got to take her bath accompanied by the sweet strains of the block party music. Very cool stuff.

She communicates too well!

Rachel is such a great communicator--today when we were having our ice cream treat in the backyard after dinner, shelooked around and said, "You both have green bowls." (Hers was purple.) Did I mention that she forms sophisticated sentences? Geez! Such a great communicator that she's perhaps shooting herself in the foot in some ways. (Or maybe she's shooting me in the foot. I'm not quite sure how to carry that metaphor through.) Anyway, she's such a great communicator that it's easy to forget that she's only one and not eleven. She's not quite developmentally able to (1) pay attention to what I'm saying (in the midst of doing something really exciting like sorting through pebbles looking for a red one), (2) tear herself away from what she's doing (pebbles are awesome, after all!), (3) decide to follow my instruction, and then (4) do so. I mean, I'm sure in a couple of months when she's two, all of this will come naturally, but right now she's still only one. Still, because she talks so well and understands us so well (when there are no distracting pebbles at hand), it's hard to remember that talking and understanding are different skills than attending and following directions. Are you guessing that we've had some frustrating days? Yesterday at the beach (which was super-duper fun--thanks to all the friends and pals who joined us!) she wanted to stop and sort pebbles on the path when I wanted to walk toward the beach, and once I'd sat down in the sand (so much less cool than pebbles, apparently) she decided she needed to walk away from me at a rapid pace. And this mother is getting rather large and rather tired. Okay, yes, and rather cranky. But I'm sure that once she's two...

We're home!

I always felt funny talking to people about this, our yeddow house (pronunciation has evolved from yeyyow), before we moved in. I was afraid of jinxing yet another deal. Sometimes I still don't feel like we really live here, but the signed contract and the change of address stickers and the parade of repairmen and the mountain of boxes conspire to make it more real. We live in the yeddow house! And Rachel loves it. She loves the straight stairs, she loves the backyard, she loves the nearby park, she loves walking with Daddy to the train in the morning. It is good that we are here.

We're slowly plowing through the mountains of boxes. This morning we found a number of hats

and aprons.

We're running out of places to put things, so we just have to put on anything that's wearable. Maybe we should have waited to move until winter--this could get a bit warm!

We also declared several boxes "henhouses," as Rachel and Daddy had read this morning The Sly Fox and the Little Red Hen. Rachel is getting good at imagining things--she told me her henhouse was red and had a little blue door, just like in the book. Here's her little red henhouse with its little blue door. Isn't she a cute little red hen?


Rachel's speech has really taken off lately. She's added mimicry to her repertoire--she mimics us whenever we make a nonverbal sound. My grunts while pulling weeds, David's "Baah!" to scare a squirrel, and every noise produced by every tool wielded by the plumber who sawed, drilled, plugged, joined, and vented in and around our pipes this morning. And of course she thinks she is quite hilarious every time she makes one of these sounds. Perhaps there is a career in Wall-E-type voiceovers in her future. Even cooler, though, is her ability to form sentences. Really sophisticated ones. (A skill she did not learn from her mother, judging by that lovely fragment.) "Nana wear red jacket." "Daddy come home for dinner." "Libby go in henhouse wi' Rachel." It's really fun to be able to communicate with her--more fun all the time, as she gets better and better at it.

Walking entropy

Fair warning: Those who thought the Magellan post was a little science-y should feel free to roll their eyes at me and scroll right on down to the photo below. Those who enjoyed it are invited to indulge me again briefly. Hey, you can take the chemist out of the lab, but...

I thought I understood the Second Law of Thermodynamics pretty well before. It's always been my favorite one. In Chem 112, there was nobody wishing harder than I that the ball Professor Jean dropped on the table would fly back into the air. Living with a toddler, though, has brought me to a new understanding of entropy. (For the less science-inclined who decided to brave it anyway, entropy is really just disorder. Spontaneous changes tend toward an increase in entropy--a decrease in organization.) I always understood entropy as something that just happened. Disorder reigns supreme. Well, in this house, disorder definitely reigns supreme, but entropy doesn't just happen. It lives here. In fact, a little bundle of it is sleeping right now in a crib upstairs. A bundle of entropy seems like a contradiction in terms, but I really think that's exactly what a toddler is. Wherever she goes, entropy just explodes out of her. If you had been here to look around this house right after bedtime, you'd have found rice under the table (fine), shoes on the stairs (okay), a spatula on the stairs (hmmm...), return address labels on the back of my shorts (in case of amnesia, I suppose), a contact lens case in the pantry (duh), a bowl of cereal in the bathroom (you never know), the contents of my wallet in a plastic bowl under the dining room table (very handy) and, let's see, yes, photos of Rachel's grandparents under the coffee table (of course). This list doesn't include the toys and books scattered about, but that seems more to be expected, somehow. This is as nothing compared with the time my friend Carey found twenty pieces of silverware in her bed, but, still, I find it fascinating. Each day brings a new sense of wonder at where she'll think to put things next. And once we're living in "yeyyow house" (still her requested destination every time we get in the car--we think she's as excited to move as we are!) there will be a wealth of new places to put and find things. So fun.

Okay, I said there would be a photo. Here's Rachel, sharing both her new chair and her O's with Elmo. She's really taken to personifying her toys and dolls lately--feeding and changing them, mostly. She fed an O to a photo of herself as a newborn today. Very cute.

Old lady--no pants!

Rachel is a very observant little girl. Frequently, as we're driving along, she'll announce something like "Mail truck!" when clearly there is no mail truck anywhere to be seen. Then, sure enough, one will appear from behind a truck or something. She notices everything. (Partly, I suppose, because it's all still fascinating to her, and partly because she's not having to focus on things like driving!) So I've come to believe that everything she announces really is there somewhere, even if I haven't seen it. This philosophy and standard response of, "I don't see one, but I don't doubt that you did--I must have missed it!" usually serves us well. One day last week, however, we were driving along a quiet street when our back-seat passenger cried out: "Old lady. No pants!" Now, there were no half-naked women to be seen, thank goodness, but what on earth was the child talking about? She doesn't have a history of making up stories, so we're not quite sure what to think. We have gotten quite a few laughs out of it, though.

Rachel's hair is getting long fast. We've found that pigtails tend to stay in a little better than a single ponytail. Well, until she pulls them out. But I have to say, I almost hate to put them in because I think she's so darn cute it nearly hurts to look at her!


Rachel was introduced to the joys of the backyard sprinkler yesterday. It's harder than you'd think to fill up a bucket this way, but she enjoyed herself thoroughly.

Our Little Portuguese Explorer

So there was a little quiz hidden in last week's post about the house. Some of you may be wondering who Magellan is. Others may recall that Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan led the first European attempt to circumnavigate the globe. (It didn't turn out so well for Magellan, but some of his crew finished the trip, and he ended up with a strait named after him, so maybe it wasn't all bad, either.) Even those probably wonder why there is a room set aside for him in our new house. Well, if you belong to either of these two groups, kudos to you for reading all the captions and/or remembering sixth-grade social studies! But the Magellan in question is not the famed explorer. Rather, the Magellan who will be moving into the blue bedroom sometime in November is Rachel's little brother-or-sister-to-be. Yet another reason that we're glad to have the house thing finally coming to fruition! We'll have a few months to live in what Rachel has taken to calling "yeyyow house" and get settled in before we become a foursome.

"Why Magellan?" you ask? "Why not?!" we say! Actually, Magellan was Rachel's first word. She was about three months old when David carried her out from a diaper change saying, "Rachel has a favorite explorer. I could swear she just said, 'Magellan.'" Rachel's fetal name was Avogadro, a chemical nod to her due date's proximity to mole day. We couldn't find any such connection for Magellan's due date, so we chose this other significant word instead. (Fear not--Rachel will not be the one to choose what we playfully refer to Magellan's after-birth name. (Quick aside: Do you know anyone who names their placenta?) That role rests squarely with the parents in this house--er, family.)

Anyway, with no further ado, we would like to present Magellan's first blog photo. Well, I suppose it's more aptly called a sono, since there were no light waves involved in its capture, but it will do until Magellan meets the light.

For those unschooled in interpreting these skeletal heiroglyphs (Props to ultrasound techs. They see what we mere mortals cannot--it's really amazing what they can decipher from the fuzzy, moving images they see.), imagine that you see a wee infant lying on its back, with its head to the left of your screen. You'll note the ribs in cross section along the chest, an arm held above the chest, and a cute little face in profile. Very little--this creature is currently the length of a banana!--but we hope you'll agree that it's also very cute! As proud parents, we should also point out the nicely developing brain. That's what parents are supposed to do, right--talk up how smart their children are? This one actually waved at Big Sister during the first ultrasound. (Big Sister, by the way, would like everyone to know that she, too, is excited to meet the baby. What's more, she, too, has a baby in her belly, as does Daddy. We could have a very busy fall if all these babies are born at once!)

So there you go. Meet Magellan. His/her interests include sleeping, wiggling, kicking, and break-dancing. (Quite a mover and shaker, this one!) Oh, and she/he has recently added sucking, hearing, and peeing to his/her list of skills. We're very proud, and excited to introduce you to (ahem!) after-birth Magellan late this fall!

a quest ended

I know we've said this before only to have to eat our words, but after a few wrong turns, some detours, and misdirections, we are finally moving forward on purchasing a house.


More pictures are at our shutterfly site (link at the right).

Like many of the other options we had explored before, the house is in our favorite town, 2 blocks from an elementary school, 3 blocks from a middle school, 1 block from a park, with the L, two grocery stores and several restaurants in walking distance. The house is a 3-bedroom 1.5-bath rehabbed house that turns 100 years old this year. It fits us well, and we are very excited.

Our sense of relief is palpable as we get the last few details in order. I literally walk around feeling the desire to exhale deeply.

In the end, our nearly 12-month delay between accepting an offer on our condo and closing on the new house

• allowed us to live in a new part of Chicagoland (thanks so much to Grammy A and the whole family for letting us crash at her house for the last 4 months),
  
• allowed us to get into a much better house at a similar price, and
  
• definitely taught us patience as well as a great deal about the real estate industry.

Most of all, it taught us we don't want to go through this again any time soon, and fortunately we believe we have a place that will work for the long term.

Thanks to everyone for all of their thoughts, prayers, and words of encouragement through this process. We know what we have been through is nothing compared to the struggles that others go through with health and much more serious issues, but we are very glad that the process is coming to an end. We are slated to close and get moved in by the end of July.

Ra-chel

Today, for the first time, Rachel pronounced her first name with two syllables! She's been "Rae" for quite some time. Today, just when I was about to become fed up with her hollering in the back seat during a long ride home, she popped out a few good "Rachel"s. What a crafty one! I think she probably sits up in her crib at night practicing things like this to have handy for just such a moment. Whatever--it works! Once again, I'm so glad we gave her the name we did. It just works for her. We sure love our Ra-chel baby!

New photos at our shutterfly site--enjoy!

Fathers Day

On Sunday, completely unsolicited, Rachel said to her Daddy, "Happy Fathers Day!" It actually sounded more like "happy fah-ee day," but she enunciated so carefully to get that second syllable in fathers that it was just darling. She also said it to Papa on the phone and Grandpa on Skype. So yesterday we taped it to share. To all you fathers out there, happy fah-ee day!

Should we have named her Bear Grills?

We thought Uncle Tim, especially, would appreciate learning of Rachel's incredible survival skills. Yesterday, we went outside to play in the rain. (Great opportunity to make use of Rachel's new croc-knock-off shoes' water resistance!) The child, who has any number of cups and sippies available to her all day, knelt down on the ground at every divot-in-the-sidewalk puddle and took a big sip. "Let no water go to waste!" is apparently her new motto. And after each sip, she'd stand back up and say, "Cold--brrrrr!" She's a hoot. She adores playing with water in all its forms. I guess we should have suspected this, given her penchant for eating ice and snow last winter!

So, about these shoes...we went shopping for sandals the other day. There was a disappointingly small selection in her size, and as it turned out, she was between sizes and none fit her well anyway. But that didn't really matter, once she found a pair of sparkly pink jelly shoes (four sizes too big for her) and fell shoes-over-head in love. She was not what one might call cooperative in trying on any sandals after that. We compromised with the pink croc-knocks, and she's barely stopped wearing them since--bedtime included! Here she is, fresh from a sip of "cold-brrr!" puddle-water--all ready to start fashioning dishes out of leaves and rope out of dandelion stems.

Daddy's Home!

One of the coolest things about living in a house (instead of a third-floor condo) (still the temporary house, alas. Maybe someday we'll have something to call "our house.") is getting to watch for Daddy to come home and running out to meet him. Aunt Beth captured one of these moments the other day...


It was a gorgeous day, with a visit from Aunt Beth, and Daddy came home early...what better day to wear the Beloved Pink Capris? Rachel's world was a very good place that day!

Rachel continues to talk up a storm. She's begun stringing words together. Our favorite is when, bored in her car seat, she grabs a handful of her hair and says loudly, "Ow! Let...go!" (Perhaps it's bad to laugh when our daughter is in pain, but the whole situation is just too funny.) Last night at dinner, she said, "Thanks, Daddy." (Talk about warming your heart!) And she has shown me how often I say "all right" and "okey-doke" by picking up those phrases herself. Too cute. It's delightful to have actual conversations with her now.

Rachel in the kitchen

Rachel is quite a good helper in the kitchen. She has progressed from just identifying whether we've got culkeeculkeeculkee or doh to peeling onions (Kind of odd, but she loves it! She'll spend over 5 minutes standing by the trash can, peeling the dry skin off an onion before I cut it. I do have to watch and catch her as soon as she's done peeling, lest she take a big bite!) and garlic and, now, to cooking tomatoes! I was cooking some tomatoes for a sauce the other day, and Rachel wanted to help. I set her up at her "stove" with a small pan, a spoon, and a few chunks of tomato. Look what a good job she did...

What a good job of eating all the tomatoes, I mean!

In other news, it was brought to my attention that some people have had trouble posting comments to our blog. I think we've corrected the problem, so if you feel moved to comment, have at it, folks!

Oh, and of course I should include a fashion update. Rachel received a box of fun summer clothes in the mail (from Grand-Merr--thanks!) on Wednesday and couldn't even wait until the next morning (let alone a warm day) to put some of them on, right over her other clothes. I think I've said it before, but it bears repeating--this child has class. Note again the hand-socks (which aren't pink but do have dots), as well as the coy looking-down-like-a-supermodel pose. I think French runways may be in in her future--whether as a pilot (planes seem the obvious next step in her city bus--school bus--commuter train trajectory) or as a model has yet to be determined.

The BPC make their debut!

At last! At last! The day has arrived when all of the BPC's stars are aligned! Mean Mommy agreed that Rachel could wear them, mainly because (getting nicer) Mother Nature agreed to let the sun shine on us, and the BPC magically emerged from their mysterious hibernation! (Amazing how condition #1 and condition #3 occurred in sequence like that.) Rachel is living her dream, folks. But, knowing Rachel as you do, you will understand that the outfit was not completed until the socks were carefully selected. The white socks that Mom foolishly chose and put on Rachel's feet (I thought the BPC-joy might override our usual sock thing. Silly me.) were unceremoniously stripped off and replaced with not two, but four pink socks--with dots!--that Rachel fished out of the hamper. This child doesn't just have style, she has class. High class. Do observe for yourselves. And do enjoy.

And just a quick observation of how Rachel's independence and insistence on doing things her own way do not end once she's dressed:

This sort of thing happens all day long. I love her independence and curiosity and want to foster them. (Do note, though, that rule-follower Mom did provide a more conventional vessel and utensil, both of which are sitting ignored.) I'm constantly working out where the line should be--what is exploring, and what is obstinately pouring out your milk? And this is just the beginning, I'm sure!

Rachel's "Helmo"

This weekend, David and I went to fetch a few items from our storage containers in Melrose Park--things we hadn't thought we'd need when we packed them up "for a few weeks" back in February. Things like bike helmets, garden tools, and Rachel's bike trailer. And yet here we are in May, needing these things. So now we have them.

Today was gorgeous. The kind of spring day that you dream about. The kind that, when it falls on a weekend, is pure bliss. So we were especially glad to have the bike gear. Rachel "discovered" her helmet this morning and fell in love. (It's pink, after all.) She wore it all over the house, and I was afraid of the explaining we'd have to do at church, but we did manage to get it off her before we left. She alternates between calling it a "Hehhhhh" and an "Elmo." Somehow, we understand her. So after her nap, we helmeted her up and buckled her into the trailer, and away we went. And she liked it! Rachel liked it! Last summer, she despised the thing. This summer, she climbed in by herself. Ah, yes. Summer on two wheels, here we come!

Here's our little cyclist. Does the helmet not make her just too adorable for words? Thanks to Nana for the apples--a great treat for on-the-go!

Rachel's 'Tail

This morning, I put my hair up, which intrigued Rachel a great deal. She wanted to try it herself. I thought, "Why not?" As it turns out, she has enough hair for a tiny ponytail, held in place with just one (!) barrette, and she left it there almost all morning. Also as it turns out, a ponytail makes my baby girl look just so old! Can this be the bald infant who needed constant motion and slept on a wedge just a few nights ago? Sigh. How quickly she's growing up!

An update for those of you amused by the tale of the pink capris...

Saturday, the very morning after my last post, I managed to get Rachel fully dressed--shirt, pants, pink socks, shoes, even a smile!--all while she held the beloved capris in her hands. I was very pleased with myself. I even convinced her to put the capris on Dude, her teddy bear, and thought that would be sufficient. Ha. Not long after we had dressed Dude in his very dudely pink pants, I came upon a naked bear and this scene:


The child will not be deterred! So here's what we ended up with:

Not a bad look, I guess. And do note the triumphant smile! She has won! I suppose she chose those pink socks knowing all along what she was planning. The capris disappeared at the next diaper change and have not surfaced again since then. Very mysterious... Stay tuned for what I'm sure will be future installments of the Saga of the Pink Capris! (I have to admit, they are pretty cute! I sort of wish I had a pair. Couldn't you just see us out on the town together?)

P.S. Now that I've posted a photo of the BPC (Beloved Pink Capris), I should acknowledge their provenance. If only I could quite remember it. I think they came from the McG girls, but it's possible that they're from Claire. Either way, a big shout out and many thanks to our dear hand-me-downers! (Handers-me-down?) We appreciate it all!

Rachel the Fashionista

Rachel has become something of a fashionista lately, and while it's cute, I have to admit that I was not expecting her to have such strong opinions about clothing quite so soon. Getting dressed is occasionally fraught with disagreements about what is appropriate to wear. (Example: there is this adorable pair of pink polka-dotted capris that Rachel adores. Any morning that she spies them in the drawer, she insists on wearing them and will submit to poke her legs into nothing else. The weather here so far this spring has not been, how shall we say, conducive to wearing capris. More like snow pants, but that's another discussion. This weather-clothing correlation is difficult for the 18-month-old mind to grasp, even one so brilliant as our shining star's, and suffice it to say that we have had some interesting mornings.) One morning during our recent visit to Texas, she spied her windbreaker and had to put it on first:

She wore it all day, warm weather be darned!

Rachel's main interest in clothing is focused on socks. If I try to put a pair of socks on her without her having specifically chosen those socks, they come right off. Her preference is for pink socks, but when all the pink socks are in the wash, another bright color will do. (You should see bright yellow socks with the pink capris. Quite a sight.) A big shout-out to Maia for the green socks with butterflies on them. She found those in a box this morning, and they absolutely completed her outfit. (Note that I didn't say they complemented it!) At playgroup the other day, Rachel found a pair of Emma's socks (pink and white striped) and promptly stripped off her shoes and purple socks in anticipation of help putting on the pink ones. For the rest of the day, whenever she spied her feet, she would announce: "Eminema." She was very proud of wearing Emma's socks. Hope Emma didn't have cold feet that day!

Her opinions do not end once she has all her clothes on. We're still working on the idea of how many barrettes are enough:

And she's quite an accessorizer. Can you see what she's wearing around her neck?