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.