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!