23 Months Old!

At the risk of sounding like a broken record every month...I cannot believe our baby girl is 23 months old! Seriously? :) She continues to be a complete and utter joy...every single day! She just amazes us and delights us with her sweetness. I thought it would be nice to celebrate her 23 months with a few "Rachel" stories from the past couple of days. I think perhaps I may be telling her what a good girl she is a bit often as she just nods her head and agrees with me now:). She understands so much more than I expect her too. We are out and about quite a bit. She goes everywhere with me. We run errands, attend appointments, go to her Gymboree Classes, go to the gym, go to lunch together at least once a week etc...you get the idea...lots of stuff together. She does very well. I try to be as conscious as I can of naptimes and mealtimes and such but sometimes it is not easy to make it all "fit", so we do our best. I have a habit of telling her where we are going, what we will be doing, and I ask her if she will be a good girl for Mommy. She always gives me a nod and her little "uh-huh" of affirmation. Well, today I felt as though I was pushing it...no nap...took her down to the mall early to run a few errand before her Art Class. (The bummer is I forgot my camera for the second week in a row of Art Class!) We ran a couple of frustrating, waste of my time errands we will have to repeat next week, grrr...then we had lunch at Red Robin, went to Art Class (1 hour long), then to Party City and finally to Fred Meyer. Whew! I was feeling tired and grouchy, but she was great! Prior to entering Party City I asked her about being a good girl and got my usual response. Well, later on at Fred Meyer's, I stopped in one of the aisles and looked at her and said "Rachel, you know what?" She looked at me. I said, "I love you so much. Thank you for being such a good girl for Mommy." Her response...she covered both my hands with hers on the cart handle and just rubbed them. It was so sweet. I kissed her head and asked her if she'd like to go home and see Sheena and play with some toys to which she responded, "uh-huh". (I hope I am writing that correctly...it is her affirmation:)) Since I keep forgetting to take my camera to Art Class, here are some photos from yesterday's Music Class...

My independent girl doing the "around the circle" dancing...solo:)...

Animal sounds in the microphone.

She loves making the elephant sound and is quite good at it thanks to Teacher Katherine:)...
Standing in the middle of the circle entertaining us all with her "singing" of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" complete with the hand motions:)...

So yesterday I was rushing around in the morning, as usual, getting everyone breakfast, packing the diaper bag with sippy, snacks etc...laying out clothes and coats and stuff. (I discovered that if I dress Rachel for class then give her breakfast...we need a clean outfit!) Well, I let Sheena outside and Rachel heard me putting a snack in her diaper bag and wanted some. I decided to give her two animal crackers...one for her and one for Sheena. I told her she could give it to Sheena when she came back into the house and she agreed. She kept holding it up for Sheena and I explained that she needed to wait until Sheena came back inside. I heard Sheena at the door and went over, let her in and wiped her paws. Then I turned around and told Rachel she could give her the treat. Rachel looked at me blankly. I said "Go ahead. Give Sheena her cookie." Still blank. Then I said "Rachel, did you eat your animal cracker AND Sheena's too?" her response, "Uh-huh!"...Yep, she ate both...for some reason it struck me as really funny and this Mommy could not stop laughing...she just looked at me so innocently:)...

Exploring the Music Box...
Um, this is how she chose to participate in the second circle dance...tired perhaps...
Bumming some of Bethia's snack...
Class wouldn't be complete without a Gymbo HUG!

I mentioned that we had lunch at Red Robin today? Well, it was a great time to be there as there were only about 5 or 6 other tables of people. The atmosphere was nice. We colored, drew pictures on her DoodlePro, talked etc...We shared a cheeseburger and french fries and even saved some to bring home to Sheena. While we were eating our food Rachel suddenly started bobbing her head up and down and doing the little high chair "dancing" she does when she hears music or a song she likes. She does the same thing in the stroller and it is so funny:). I then realized it was the very catchy tune of "Love Shack" playing on the radio and it was kind of loud. Well, she was LOVIN' it and just having a great time. I glanced around to see if anyone was watching as it was too funny and three tables away a young guy was watching, smiling AND bobbing HIS head and booth "dancing"! He noticed me looking and stopped, then started laughing and resumed his "dancing". I just laughed and joined them, of course...

She tries so hard to put her own shoes on...getting close to success but not quite there...

Going bye-byes...

We frequent our favorite restaurant, Romio's, which is very close to our house. They know us well and adore Rachel. They put her cheesy bread in the oven when we walk in the door and bring Diet Cokes for Mommy & Daddy and black olives for Rachel before we even look at the menus. They know us well:). We let Rachel walk in with a little freedom when we get there. She usually chooses our table. So yesterday, she was walking in with my lens cap in her hand and our friend/server Jennifer gave her a menu to carry in her other hand. Well, when we got to the three steps leading up to the dining room she had no free hand to place in mine for help up the stairs. I started to say "Mommy will hold that for you..." but there was no need. She had it all figured out and showed us all by placing the lens cap in between her teeth and reaching for my hand! When we got to the top, she simply let go of my hand and took hold of the cap once again. Everyone at the top of the steps thought it was hilarious! Um, well, I realized where she may have picked this little habit up today as I was digging for something in my purse at Starbuck's. You see, I suddenly discovered myself standing there with my credit card between my teeth and quickly took it out. I know "Ewwww", but apparently it happens...and apparently I have been observed by a little copycat:)...Oh, how I adore our little copycat.

Waiting for our check...

So funny!

This is what I get when I ask for a smile.

I really think she thinks she IS smiling:)...

Did I mention how sweet she is? Only every day, huh? :) Last night when my phone rang, she took one look at it and said, "Da-Da!" and it was. Frank said she probably thinks that it is him every time it rings, but I personally think she recognized his "Bon Jovi" ringtone. I could be wrong. She walks by cars in parking lots and points at them and says "Dirty, dirty, dirty!". Um, my fault as I didn't want her touching the tires on the Tahoe and told her that. All bathrooms and trash cans are "Dirty, dirty, dirty" too! Apparently I have told her repeatedly to "Stay" when she comes to the top of the stairs leading out into the garage. I am always afraid she'd fall down the two steps and land face-first on the concrete. Now she comes over to the door when I am grabbing something from the fridge in the garage and says, "Stayyyy"...Um, when she smells something bad such as a diapy she says, "Ewwww, stinky!"...yep, got that from me:). Last week, we were heading down to Music Class and she was in her carseat and I heard her saying "Ewwww, stinky." over and over. I said "Rachel, do I need to change your diapy already?" I glanced up in the mirror and she was shaking her head "No." I looked back and she had her shoes and socks off and was pulling her foot to her face and saying it! I asked her if her feet were stinky. She confirmed it:). They really didn't with the clean socks and shoes on, but she insisted they did. Today at Red Robin we ate a few of her grapes for dessert. I ate one and said, "Mmmm...tasty." I suddenly heard a little "Mmmm...tasty." :-) On a final note...she helped me carry some of the bags of groceries in this evening (she loves to help!) and I asked her to put them in the kitchen. I came in behind her but she wasn't in the kitchen? I looked over and she had taken them to her play kitchen and put the bread on the counter and was unloading the bag of pretzels! Maybe I'd better look in her fridge?!