Do you miss us?

Well, we miss you! We've been on a bit of a roller-coaster, housing-wise, the last few months. That is the reason for our blogging absence. And now we are having trouble uploading photos to the computer. It's always something. So you'll have to settle for a verbal update for now, with photos to follow soon (we hope!).

Rachel is doing great. She has adjusted well to her new (temporary) home and enjoys sitting in the (decorative) fireplace, watching airplanes come in to land, watching teenaged neighbors skateboard in the street, waving to squirrels, and exploring all sorts of nooks and crannies in this old house. It's lots of fun to watch her sitting in the fireplace and playing with the coasters, two pastimes that each of my cousins and siblings and I engaged in in our turn. In the fireplace or not, Rachel is rarely quiet these days--she fills her moments with chatter and commentary, which is delightful. David and I counted the other day, and we think she says about fifty words. (Note that "saying" words means making the same sound, which resembles at least part of the accepted word, each time she means whatever word it is. Examples are "wawa" for water, "chee" for cheese, and "play" for plane.) This is not to say that communication is always successful or deep (she is, after all, one year old!) but it is usually at least attempted and often fun.

Rachel loooooves transportation. She adores "play" (planes), "tuh! tuh!" (trains), and "buh!" (buses) and lights up and waves whenever she sees one. (This house is awesome--we can see all three regularly--as regularly as can be expected from the CTA, anyway--from the living room windows!) If she's in the back seat of the car and we're not paying enough attention to her, she will holler about the "buh" until we acknowledge it. Especially exciting right now are "coo" (school buses, of course!). It will likely be a bummer for Rachel the day she learns that our new house (cross fingers!) is so close to school that she will walk instead of taking a "coo."