Reading scriptures

Last night we were having family scriptures and reading out of the Book of Mormon reader about when Alma is talking to his sons. Rachel was having a really hard time focusing for more than 2 seconds. Or for even 2 seconds. Usually asking her to point to someone in the pictures helps to get her to at least look at the book, so Jake said, "Where's Alma?" She pointed to him. Then he asked "Who's that?", pointing to Helaman (having just said Helaman's name 3 times while she was not paying attention).
Her response: Cortizone. (I'm not sure if she was trying to say Corianton, or Hydrocortizone, which we put on her eczema when she has it)
Jake: No that's Helaman. Can you say Helaman?
Rachel: No. I can't. I can only say Taco and Hammer!
Jake (trying to resume reading since she was looking at the page): Alma told Helaman...
Rachel: That's not Helaman! That's Taco!
Oh, the joys of scripture reading with a 2-year-old. :)

Our week

Earlier this week I heard Rachel call out one of her favorite phrases: "Mom! Come find me!" She loves hide and seek. This is where I found her this time:

She's getting more creative with her hiding spots these days, I guess.

We actually got monsoon storms that rained enough to produce puddles twice this week. The monsoons so far this year have been a real disappointment, but we hold on to the hope that they'll pick up real soon. Thursday it was actually raining with no lightning nearby, so I let Rachel go out and play in it. She told me she needed her rain hood. I dont know where she came up with that, but she certainly doesn't have any type of rain gear. She loved the rain. Especially the walk afterwards where she got to go puddle jumping.

The first time we went puddle jumping this week she insisted on wearing her tennis shoes. The second time we were able to convince her that her clogs were much more puddle-appropriate.

This week I finally got inspired by a friend of mine starting to work on a quiet book, and started to make one of my own, two years late. Rachel could have been entertained for many a sacrament meeting if I had started a couple of years ago. But she'll enjoy it now, at least. And maybe learn how to do some buttons and snaps. I've gotten 4 pages done this week:

There's also a double page with 26 velcro spots on it and felt letters to put the alphabet on it, or to spell words. I have quickly come to love WonderUnder-it fuses two fabrics with no sewing. I have too many pages planned, but this should keep me busy until the baby comes. I had started cleaning up what is going to be the baby's room, organizing all the craft junk that is in there and such, but this has mostly undone all of that. But hey, there's plenty of time, right? :)

Swimming Lessons

Rachel just finished her last session of swimming lessons for the summer today. There's one more two week session, but I decided we'd opt out this time. The first session of the summer we did a parent/child class where I was in the pool with her. Rachel LOVES the water, and especially the big pool (or the big pond, as she sometimes calls it). But she HATES getting her face wet. If it gets splashed she'll freak out. Or if she jumps in to me and I "accidentally" let her go under a little bit she gets mad. Other than that she does okay, except that she's a 2-year-old, and sometimes won't do what I ask her to just because I asked her. The teacher suggested that she'd be ready for a level 1 preschool class the next session, which I thought were only for kids 3 and up, but I was wrong. So that's what I ended up signing her up for this time (we skipped a session during girls camp and all that excitement).

Rachel was THRILLED with her newfound freedom of not having one-on-one attention from an adult and had a ball. She was the youngest in the class and obviously had the shortest attention span. She would wander off on her own to jump around and play by herself multiple times during the 30 minute lesson. Some days the teacher would have to call out, "Come back, Rachel!" 10 or 15 times. Or "Get back in the pool, Rachel."

At least she was having fun. And she didn't throw fits (as often) when her teacher would ask her to do something she wasn't particularly thrilled about, like she does when it's me in the pool with her. What made me nervous was that Rachel would walk towards the deeper water until she was obviously barely touching, all while the teacher was helping another kid float or something, and wasn't completely aware of where Rachel was. There were several times I was on the edge of my seat ready to rescue my child when her head went under. Luckily that never happened, and I've learned that I can give Rachel a little more freedom and she'll probably not drown herself. :)

Today, being the last day of the session, they got a special treat and got to ride on the water slide.

Rachel loved it and decided to go again. She ended up waiting for quite a while the second time around. It's a good thing she's not afraid of heights because it's way up there.

My fear of heights was kicking in watching her, and I was on the ground. :)

That is a fun slide!

Rachel and her teacher:

Such fun times. I'm glad we have a little fish on our hands who loves the pool. Hopefully by next summer we'll have a fish who will actually put her face in the water. :)

Drivin' around in my automobile

Last week sometime I cleaned/rearranged some stuff and came up with an extra box I had been using for storage. Rachel promptly climbed in and had some fun hiding in there and being pushed around a little. I decided to help her make it into her own car.

It has a steering wheel that moves, a window, and is a convertible on top of it all (though putting the roof on involves laying down in the box in the way only someone with a child's flexiblity can manage).

In the middle of the fun I snapped a picture of one of Rachel's favorite friends, Maryanne, and her sister Evelyn who were over at our house while thier mom had an appointment. There are so many cute little blond girls around these parts. :)

And here's one last picture of the stylish gal cruisin' around in her convertible. :)

Recent Rachel conversations

Rachel's commentary on drinks:
"When I was a little sister I just drank milk and water. But when I was a baby brother I just drank milk. But now I'm a big girl and I drink milk and water and juice." (I think she's still a little confused about the whole brother/sister thing and what it all means.)

After I turned the radio from Rush Limbaugh to music:
Rachel: "Are you done listening to Russ Umbrella?"

A little while after bedtime we hear a distressed voice calling out:
"My eyes! Mommy! {crying/whining} My eyes!"
Me: "What's wrong with your eyes?"
R: "They're so sleepy!"
Me: "Maybe if you lay down and close them and go to sleep it will help them feel better."
R: "I don't sink so!"
(Surprisingly, my suggestion did seem to solve her problem.)

4th of July Weekend

We had a fun-filled weekend. Unfortunately I forgot to pull out the camera until half of the weekend was over.

Saturday we had a BBQ and had some neighbors and a few families from church over to join in the fun. It was good getting to know our neighbors a little better, and getting to know a new family in the ward. The kids had a blast in the kiddie pool, Jake grilled up a storm on his new grill, and we all enjoyed some tasty food and good times. Rachel was very excited to finally get to eat the popcorn balls she had been eyeing for a day and a half.

Saturday night we tried driving across town to catch some fireworks we had heard began at 9:00. Apparently they ended at 9:00. Rachel was very disappointed when we turned around to head home after she got just a little sampling of how cool fireworks were. So Sunday night we headed down the road to watch the fireworks that were at the fairgrounds close to us and Rachel LOVED them. It was fun watching fireworks in the company of such exuberance. :)

My parents were out of town visiting my new niece, so we've been taking care of their dog, Reese, and Sunday we decided to bring him out to our house since he's such a chicken dog. Not that he chases or herds chickens (it would be kind of cool to see a chicken herd, though), but he is just a big chicken. We came home from the fireworks and he wasn't where we had left him. After looking around we found him in Rachel's dark bedroom hiding from the noise of the fireworks, making himself comfortable:

We had to drag him off the bed. We tried to get him to sleep outside, but we had to drag him out the back door then listen to him scratching to get back in. So we let him stay in the garage for the night. Wimp. :)

Monday, since Jake had the day off, we decided to head up the mountain to have a picnic where it was a little cooler. We didn't go too far up, but the temperature was about 15 degrees cooler than the valley, so it was nice. And being among pine trees is always relaxing. After lunch Rachel got busy being a kid:

Notice her face is nicely decorated with the dirt:

If not for the dirty face this would be a real nice family picture:

Rachel had a blast collecting pinecones.

And sticks.

It was a lovely little getaway up the mountain for a little while. After we came home and took our naps we had a movie night to top off the weekend of fun.
Hope everyone else had a great 4th of July weekend, too. We sure did. Now it's back to real life. And the mess that our fun weekend wrought in our home. :)