Outside! Outside!

Drew reports that after breakfast this morning Rachel toddled to the living room, picked up his heavy, clunky shoes, brought them into the kitchen and set them down with an expectant look on her face.

Drew started laughing. "Do you want to go outside, sweetie?" he said.

"Ow-side! Ow-side!" she exclaimed.

He put on her shoes and coat, and then his shoes and his coat. By the time he got to the living room she was waiting by the door, pink inflatable soccer ball in hand, ready for play.

Rachel does more cool stuff!

Last night, Rachel said her first three-word phrase: "Moe cha-cha, pease!" (this is Rachel-ese for, "more challah, please!")

I was so delighted that I called Drew right away. I put Rachel on the phone and she said, "hi!" When it was time to hang up she said very sweetly with a smile on her face, "bye, Daddy!"

"Oh, my little heart just BROKE!" he exclaimed to me before hanging up.

Then as the bus was going by, she waved her hand and said, "bye-bye, bus!" Never thought I'd be so glad to be living on a bus line!

Taking a walk with Rachel...

is never simple. We set off at around 5 p.m. yesterday for a family walk, and Rachel was fascinated with the curbs on each block. She kept stepping down, then running forward, then running back, then stepping UP on the curb...and so on. Drew bought her a little pink soccer ball and she discovered how to KICK yesterday.

"I have a funny feeling that she's going to end up being a jock," he said to me last night when we were about to go to sleep.

"How can you tell?" I asked.

"I don't know...maybe it's because she's so active," he said.

Her newest words are "mole" for Mommy's mole on her left hand; "coat," and "yeah." She says "yeah" a lot, and over the past week or so she's actually been able to answer us. Like, yesterday I took her out of her crib after her nap and she pointed to her crotch and said, "pee!"

"Oh, you peed," I said. "Would you like me to change your diaper?"

"Yeah," she said.

She's a person! A little PERSON!

She's adding more words!

--"dese" for "these" -- pointing at a pair of light purple pants she wanted to wear to daycare (Drew has taken to referring to daycare as "school")

--"yeah" or "yes" for "yes"

--"cer-al" for "cereal"

--"thank you," for "thank you." She can say it pretty clearly!

She also whined tonight when she saw me putting away dishes from the dishwasher. She calmed down when I gave her bowls and silverware to put on the table. She wanted to help!

Plus she's very generous about giving kisses. Everytime we ask for one, she gives us one. And occasionally, she'll purse her lips to indicate that she wants one herself!

New nighttime routine?

With a little reluctance and some prompting, Rachel picked up her shoes and toddled into her bedroom tonight. As she opened her shoe drawer, she spied a cute pair of pink and white slippers that we put on her feet over the weekend.

She sat down on the foor and tried to put them on! So, I helped her.

Then, as we were passing by the changing table, she pointed toward the basket and said what sounded an awful lot like "bib." So, I got one out and she put it on!

THEN she marched into the kitchen because she was ready for dinner.

Drew goes on a double date

While at the park yesterday, a little girl -- Drew says she was about 2 1/2 years old -- named Emma was on the slide next to Rachel. When they finished sliding, she said, "hi, Baby!" in a very friendly way. Drew said Rachel responded with her usual facial expression that said, "who the h--- are you?" But then Emma went to the low concrete wall where Drew was sitting and patted the space next to her. Rachel toddled over and sat down. Then she patted the space on the other side of her, and Drew slid over.

Then Rachel got up and gave Drew her hand as if she wanted to lead him somewhere. Emma did the same thing with his other hand. He called over his shoulder to Emma's mom, "Um, I think I'm on a double date!"

It ended when Emma indicated she wanted Drew to help her while she tried to use the monkey bars. He told her she should probably get her mommy to help her.

"Bye-bye cars! Bye-bye park!"

Drew called me while I was at the grocery store. He insisted that he heard Rachel say goodbye to the cars and the park as they were leaving Laurelhurt Park. (I had some writing projects I needed to finish up, so she hung out with Drew this afternoon).

Rachel slept quite late this morning, until 9 or so. Guess it's because of the return to Daylight Savings Time, which has left me really, really tired. Think I'll turn in early tonight.