May Showers

Yesterday morning Rachel and I got up long before daddy. We played quietly in the living room, read a few stories, and made a really big mess before we decided that it was time he got up. He worked mostly evening hours yesterday but he did need to go in for a few hours during the day to get some administrative things done (like get an A-lot parking pass).

So we went in to wake him up, but I guess he was already awake because he was hiding under the sheets when we walked into the bedroom and scared us both half to death when he yelled "Boo!"

He realized that we had let him sleep in a little too long so he started rushing around to get ready while Rachel and I tided up the bedroom a (very little) bit. We were just about to stop throwing the pillows at each other and actually make the bed when Rachel heard the shower turn on.

Before I could even say her name, Rachel was out of the bedroom and banging on the bathroom door, crying. That girl is so fast! And she really, really loves bath time. She thought it was unjust that Daddy should get to have a shower while she stayed dry and she was wailing away, telling the world about her plight.

Andrew wanted to tease her so he opened the bathroom door, waved at Rachel, and then closed it again.

That's about when I decided to follow her into the bathroom.

When the door closed on her she howled in agony and looked at me with her biggest pouty face on and tears welling up in her eyes. Then she took a deep breath, to help compose herself, balled up her fists and started banging on the door yelling,

"Ahhhh! Ya, ya, yaahh, ya, ya! Da dja! Ya, ya, ya!"

I picked her up and she continued to wave her fists and kick her legs while screaming her expletive "yas."

She quieted down soon after I had picked her up, but continued to point and grunt at the bathroom door. She needed a bath anyway but I waited until she had calmed down enough to reason with before I started undressing her. I wouldn't want her to think that all her yelling helped her to get her own way, when in fact it was her messy face and dirty feet.

Today we got to have a different type of shower. It was a rainy day today but we had to meet someone at the library to purchase their jogging stroller (our friends in Cairo advised us against bringing any other kind of stroller since the sidewalks are essentially non-existent). I strapped Rachel in the front carrier and we set off for the library. It was rather blustery and a little bit wet, but it hadn't really started to storm yet.

Rachel loves the wind. She loves water. And she loves people. So it really should come as no surprise that she was very happy while we were standing on the street corner waiting for the light to change. I was busy watching for the light to change and making sure that no cars came up on the sidewalk to hit us. But I could feel her kicking her legs and hear her giggling away, enjoying the breeze and the raindrops and the people walking by.

Then I began to notice that the people turning right were all very happy people. A lot of them turned the corner smiling broadly, if not outright laughing. A few of them pointed while laughing, so I would look behind me to see what they were laughing at, but I didn't see anything. The lamppost just didn't seem to crack me up, nor did the tree, or the street sign...

I watched car after car turn in front of us and point and laugh. It was really starting to puzzle me. Not that people shouldn't be happy, but I just wasn't used to seeing people that happy. Then one car drove by with a little girl in the front seat.

She waved at me. I awkwardly waved back. I didn't know who she was or why she was waving at me. Then she made a silly face through the glass...and Rachel burst out laughing. It was obvious the little girl was waving at Rachel, and not to me.

I had been completely ignoring her because I was so busy trying to figure out what everyone was looking at. When the next car came to turn, I paid attention to Rachel instead. She displayed as many tricks as she could while being stuck in the front carrier: smiling, waving, shaking her head, pointing, and clapping.

She probably charmed half the population of Orem today just at that one street corner.

In the end, I was glad when the light changed and we could cross the street and go to story time where we were no longer part of the show. I was also glad that we had found the lady we were buying the stroller from because it was raining quite hard by the time we got out of the library and it was nice to have a little cover for Rachel, who of course leaned out over the side of the stroller, catching the raindrops in her hand until she fell asleep with her head bobbing over the side of the stroller. What a silly, silly, busy girl!

First Steps

Rachel took three steps today. Not consecutively, but each one very deliberate.

The first she took at home. Daddy was teasing her with a toy and she wanted to go get it, so she stood up and started to reach for my finger. Before she grabbed onto my finger she took a little step. Then she chickened out and grabbed my hand to walk the rest of the way.

The second step she took at Grandma's house. We went to drop some boxes off at Andrew's parents' house. Rachel was playing with Grandma in the front room when she decided that she wanted to walk over to a little display cabinet. So she let go of Grandma and took a step forward. And then she chickened out and convinced Grandma to help her walk over to it.

The third step she took at home; again she just stood up and decided she wanted to go somewhere so she picked up her little foot and put it in front of her. And then she chickened out and grabbed onto the table beside her for support.

Truthfully her balance is good enough that she could just take off and walk any day now. Although in her case she may just skip walking and go straight to running. She's just learning things so quickly.

Last week when Sawyer was over she'd get up on her feet and watch him walk in circles around her. She really wanted to follow his lead and tried to move her feet but ended up looking like she was about to jump off a cliff.

I haven't jumped off too many cliffs in my life, but she looked how I felt as I crept up to the ledge and looked over. At Calf Creek it took me forever to get the nerve to jump. I would stand on the edge of the cliff and count to myself, "1, 2, 3!" and I would kind of lurch forward but my feet wouldn't budge...because I kept chickening out. I did the same thing at Wadi Mujib and had to jump from the lower level.

Rachel hasn't lurched like that as much these past few days. She took these steps without really trying to. They just came naturally. I'm sure she'll be walking very soon.

Is it strange that that makes me feel very, very nervous?

Responsibility, what's that?

We let Rachel eat most of her dinner while sitting on the floor today. It was a MYOLO* day so Andrew and I had leftovers and ate while wandering between the microwave and kitchen table. Rachel got to eat on the floor because we're responsible parents like that.

"Don't spill," I cautioned her before setting the bowl in front of her.

Two seconds later she picked up the bowl and purposely dumped it all over the floor. Truthfully I knew it would happen but I was a little disappointed that it happened so soon.

"Hey!" I chided, "I told you not to..."

"Oh...you said to not dump them out?"

"Technically she didn't spill. She dumped." Andrew interjected, making me wonder whose side he was on. I shot him a hey-back-me-up look and he quickly cleared up what he meant by tacking on, "She clearly did that on purpose. Spilling is accidental. Don't dump, Rachel."

We picked up her cereal and put it back in her bowl.

"Only one at a time, please, baby," I told her.

"Okay, mom!"

She picked up the bowl and put it up to her mouth. I can only assume she was trying to drink the Cheerios, which was a very effective way to spill them all over herself. She only tried that method once, thankfully.

We picked all the cereal up again.

"Seriously, baby...just take one at a time!"

"But one-at-a-time is so tricky!"

After dumping them out probably fifty times more, and kicking them over once, she finally got the hang of taking only one (or two, or three) and thoroughly chewing before attempting another mouthful.


She was so proud of herself when she had eaten them all. She showed me her bowl.

"Yay!" I cheered, "You ate them all gone!"

She clapped her hands for herself so I clapped with her. She claps every time I say "all gone," "all done," "good job," "yay," and a number of other phrases. It's like she knows what comes next.

"See? All gone!"

After she was finished eating I walked into the living room where Andrew was sitting on the couch and I expected Rachel to follow me but instead she started heading the opposite direction.

She pulled herself up on her chair and grabbed the lid to her bowl. Then she sat down and, holding the lid with one hand, picked up her bowl with her other hand. She looked at the lid. She looked at the bowl. She held them really close to each other, scrutinizing them.

Upon deciding that they did indeed fit together she put the lid on the bowl and then put them on the ground and pressed them together.


I thought I filmed it, but apparently I was too enthralled to push the record button. We were both so impressed; not only had she remembered where I had left the lid but, she put the lid on the bowl! Quite successfully, too.

Andrew examined her work and found the lid to be securely sealed almost the whole way around the bowl. She's so responsible! Learning how to take Cheerios one at a time and put lids on bowls in the same day! Soon she'll be washing the dishes!

I think it's cute that she put it on the floor and then pressed on it with all of her upper body strength. Apparently someone's been watching Mommy fight with the tupperware because I usually end up having to put the container on the counter and use all my concentration (and upper body) to get those dratted lids back on!

*MYOLO stands for "Make Your Own/Leftovers Day." In Andrew's house growing up it was YOYO, which stood for "You're On Your Own," which is cute but he couldn't remember it when we were making up a name for such a day. Who knows whether MYOLO or YOYO will win out?

Rachel-sized FHE lesson

We had a bite-sized lesson during FHE today, just for Rachel, before we had the real lesson for us. She just can't handle anything more than thirty seconds right now.

So we sang one of her favorite primary songs:

I am like a star shining brightly,
Smiling for the whole world to see.
I can do and say happy things each day,
For I know Heavenly Father loves me.

After we were finished singing (and Rachel had stopped jumping up and down, laughing, shrieking, and clapping her hands) I looked at Rachel and asked her,

"Can you do and say happy things each day?"

The biggest, most goofy grin I have ever seen spread across her face.

I'm not sure whether it meant, "Of course I will," or if it was more along the lines of, "Who are you kidding?"

Hopefully it meant "Of course I will!" We pray everyday that Rachel will be a good, obedient child with the desire to choose the right--everyday since we found out she'd be joining our family. She's a very good baby most of the time, and definitely does and says things that are happy each day (just not every moment of every day).

(the sky is weird-looking because there's a thunderstorm a brewin')

She was very happy today when we did our FHE activity! We walked to Coney's to get some yummy, yummy custard. Rachel wanted some so we gave her some packets of ketchup instead. She held onto them the whole time we were eating (we did share a little with her) and the whole way home. They kept her little hands busy and out of our ice cream!

We're currently taking our real lessons from the Book of Mormon study guide, so today we talked about prophets while Rachel nursed. She finished nursing just as we finished talking so we finished up the lesson with a thrilling rendition of "Follow the Prophet" in Italian.

Sit back, relax

Rachel has this thing about sitting down: she doesn't like to do it.

So if she's sitting in her high chair she'll lean over the sides. If she's sitting in someone's arms she'll try to climb up to their shoulders. And if she's sitting in her umbrella stroller she leans over and touches the wheels, making her hands very dirty.

Today when we went out to run errands we took her big stroller instead of the umbrella stroller because we had to carry all of our library books.

She didn't lean back in her stroller the whole way to the library. Instead she kept leaning over the edge of the stroller, seeing how far she could reach and what she could grab a hold of. I gave her a pine cone to keep her occupied and she held onto that for the rest of the way to the library, still sitting up, never resting her back.

Once we got to the library, Rachel wanted to get out and help choose books. She crawled up and down the aisles and made friends with the librarians and some little kids. She looked at a lot of books but only loved a few.

When she got sick of crawling she pulled herself up on the basket of the stroller and used it as a walker. We walked around and around and around, taking a few breaks to look at more books.

We ended up checking out more books than we returned.

Then we headed to the fabric store. Rachel had re-found the pine cone that she left in the stroller so she was content the whole way. She was happy inside the store as well because she could reach out and touch all the different bolts of fabric. Itchy fabrics, soft fabrics, see-through fabrics, stretchy fabrics. She put her hand out while we perused the aisles, touching each bolt of fabric in turn.

We finally settled on some fabric, purchased it, and headed for home.

This is when Rachel decided she was finished. She started screaming and struggling against her seat belt, so I let her get out and we played in the grass in front of the library for a little while.



Eventually I decided that it really was time to go home, so I picked Rachel up and fought her into the stroller. She screamed for about five minutes and then accepted her fate and played with the toys on her little tray, still, of course, leaning as far forward as possible.

When we were about ten minutes from home, I noticed that she was looking down at something in her hands. I couldn't tell what it was because her sunhat was covering it, but whatever it was it was really interesting because it had her really quite captivated. She stared at it, completely still, for two or three minutes. I was curious about what it was, but I wanted to get home, so I figured that if she was happy and still alive it was probably okay to play with.

Then we crossed a street, and it was a little bit of a bumpy ride. I noticed her head kind of jiggle and bounce a more than it would normally do. We came up the curb on the other side of the street her head swayed from side to side, looking very much like a bobble head doll.

I stopped walking, got down on her level and peeked up under the brim of her hat. Her hands were folded in her lap and she was fast asleep--sitting up, unsupported. I lowered the back of her seat, and slowly eased her onto it. She looked up at me, whimpered, and grabbed her blanket. Then she was out again.

I realize that Rachel is an independent person and I can appreciate that she doesn't like to sit. But really, you would think she'd be much more comfortable if she'd just lean back and relax.

My 2nd worst nightmare come true

We had a rough night last night and were both too tired to deal with Rachel after dinner. She had more energy than both of us combined and needed to get it out, so we packed her up in the stroller and headed out to a park not too far from our house.

Our plan was to sit on the grass and study Arabic while she crawled around and ate dandelions, ants, twigs, and dirt. Then when she seemed as exhausted as we felt, we would take her home and put her to bed.

Our backup plan was that if she fell asleep in the stroller on the way to the park we'd just turn around and come home.

So we walked to the park, Andrew giving me an Arabic lesson on the way. We did the first lesson of Egyptian Arabic that BYU teaches and I pretty much knew everything. I was feeling pretty smart until I realized that there are more lessons to go through and since pretty much everything I knew was on that one little piece of paper I'm definitely going to be struggling down the road.

Rachel was asleep by the time we got to the park but just as we were preparing to turn around and go home a little boy with a big dog (or horse, I'm not sure which) came barreling down the sidewalk straight at us. I swear the dog was twice the size of me!

For anyone who knows me well, this [having a dog charge at me] is never a good thing to have happen to me. I closed my eyes tightly and gripped Andrew's arm.

"What do we do?" I asked, my voice getting shriller with each word.

Sure, the dog was on a leash, but I was still terrified.

"Nothing," Andrew said calmly, "We'll just turn around and go home."

The boy zoomed past us, his arm nearly being yanked off by the dog. We continued on the path only to be intercepted half a minute later by a man on a skateboard being pulled by yet another huge dog.

"We're going to die," I gasped, "This was not a good day to come to the park!"

As you might have guessed, being eaten alive by a dog is one of my greatest fears. That and having a dog in a 200 foot radius of me--all the worse if it breathes or drools on me, or if it jumps up on me or runs around in circles.

"We're not going to die," Andrew reassured me, "Just keep walking."

The second huge dog zipped by us, trailing its owner behind it. We walked on down the path, getting ready to turn around nonchalantly and head home. The sidewalk at the park is in a figure eight set up. Whoever thought that would be a good idea should be shot.

We approached the center point of the figure eight, ready to veer off and go home instead of completing the loop, when my dog-radar went wild!

To my left, the skateboard-toting dog is rushing towards us. To my right, the other dog is careening straight at us, the little boy flying behind hm. And here we are standing in the middle of the intersection. My heart was racing, my palms were sweating, and all I could think to do was to move off the sidewalk but I was frozen in place. The dogs were closing in on me. I could hear them panting and coming ever nearer!

After a moment's hesitation I forced my legs to move and pushed the stroller onto the grass, which for some reason seemed like a much better place to be.

The dogs had the same idea and each of them started heading onto the grass right in front of us.

I watched in horror as the little boy being walked by his dog was dragged onto the field. The man on the skateboard held his course while his dog tried to ran out and join us all standing stupidly on the field. The little boy tried to get his dog to move but the hulk of a creature wouldn't budge. The man on the skateboard pulled on his leash but the dog kept on running.

I was desperately looking for an exit when I heard a loud *SNAP!* My head whipped around to survey the scene. The leash had wrapped around a tree and broke in two. My heart skipped a beat as I saw the skateboarder slow to a crawl while his dog sprinted straight towards us.

Bracing for impact, and quite sure that I was about to become dog chow, I held my breath and tightened my grip on the handles of the stroller.

But wouldn't you know it, just before the dog bit my head off it was distracted by the other dog and went over to sniff its...uhhhh, well...we all know how dumb dogs can be.

"Come on, let's go home," Andrew prompted, pulling on my arm.

The little boy's mother helped him drag his dog away while the skateboarder tied his leash back together. I checked my pulse and gave myself a pat down to make sure I was still alive, willed myself to uproot my feet, and shakily started for home.

I'm sorry to say that Rachel will never have a pet dog. Ever. No tagsies.

And may I also proclaim to dog owners everywhere that if your dog weighs more than you they should most definitely be on a heavy duty chain of sorts, not a retractable leash. Your compliance is appreciated.

Escape Artist

It was way past Rachel's bedtime by the time we started driving home. We went over to Grandma and Grandpa's after the airport to help them unload their suitcases--all twelve of them! As it turns out we didn't have to because Uncle Rod was there and had already finished unloading the truck by the time we showed up.

Rachel was glad we stopped though because she got to squeeze a little nurse time in while we visited for a few minutes. Just long enough to get satisfied.

She still wasn't too thrilled about having to sit in the car though. She wanted to be out and in mom's lap (and eating, I presume).

She started whining and crying and pulling against the shoulder straps.

Then she stopped whining and leaned really far over the edge of her car seat. So far that her head was almost in my lap. I thought she was just being silly but, no. She was leaning over so far in order to pull her arm out of the strap. No wonder she was able to lean so far out of her seat--she was almost out of her seat belt!

She had a proud little grin on her face and looked at Andrew and me like we should be proud as well. Instead I forced her back into her restraints, which brought on a new bout of tears.

Amazingly enough she stayed awake the whole way up to the airport, the whole time at the airport, the whole way home to Andrew's parents' house, and half way home to our house!

It was about time she fell asleep! She woke up this morning shortly before 9:00 (we slept in because she was awake for about two hours in the middle of the night, howling). She didn't go down for a nap until after 1:00, woke up just before 2:00 and then was awake until around 9:30 PM! Hopefully she'll sleep all night tonight! She's one tired baby!

Willkommen

Grandpa Frank and Grandma Sharon just arrived home from their second mission. They aren't released yet though! They will still be working as full time missionaries until June but were sent home so that Grandpa Frank could get an operation and be able to recover in the comfort of his own home.


They've been serving in Frankfurt, Germany, for the past year and a half as humanitarian service missions. They were responsible for training and supervising the humanitarian efforts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, which means they got to do a lot of traveling: Romania, Lebanon (where they served their first mission), Egypt, Jordan, Albania, Croatia, Moldova, Serbia, Slovakia, Syria. They most recently went to Holland on a little vacation to see the tulips.


That's when Grandpa Frank really started to feel sick. They had been planning on stopping by Holland to see the tulips on their way home but then they extended their mission in order to continue serving until their "replacement" couple arrived. After they extended they still had permission to go ahead with their travel plans.

Little did they know, they'd end up coming home a week or so later!

We're happy to have them home safe and sound though, and hopefully Grandpa Frank* will start feeling better soon.

Andrew, Rachel and I drove up with Karen and Reid. We met up with Katharine, Todd, Kayl, Sarah, and Uncle Matt at the airport and waited and waited and waited for Grandma and Grandpa to make their appearance.

Rachel had a blast running around and making friends with people. She went up to visit a cop on a segway and he flashed his lights at her. She waved hello and goodbye to a multitude of passengers and flight attendants, many of whom wanted to know her name and how old she was. She ran around and around and around with her grandma, visiting the baggage carosels and sliding down banisters. She was making friends left and right and was as happy as could be.



And then her greatgrandparents showed up. Then she wasn't so brave. She didn't want them to touch her or hold her, but she did eventually give a few shy smiles. I suppose they were a little scarier than the other strangers because they didn't just wave and move on. They stopped and talked to her and tried to give her hugs and kisses and she just wasn't too sure about that at all!

She'll get to know who they are soon enough. Welcome home, Grandma and Grandpa!

Rachel shying away from Grandpa Frank

Grandma Sharon cuddling Kayl

Rachel's not afraid of Kayl!

Such a handsome boy!

All smiles

*Man, I just typed Uncle Frank. I suppose I should openly apologize to Grandpa Frank for any time that I may call him Uncle. I can't tell you how many times I've prayed for "Uncle Frank and Grandma Sharon" while they were out in the mission field. It's just that I grew up associating the name Frank with uncle-ness and sometimes it still just slips out.

When Sawyer comes to play

On Thursday night we babysat Sawyer while his mom and dad went to the temple. Rachel adores Sawyer. First of all, he can walk, a talent Rachel is very envious of. Second, he has eyes, which is something Rachel likes to point out to people.


Sawyer wasn't very comfortable with Rachel at first; she was a little too aggressive for him. She's too aggressive for a lot of people, even big people. (Today we went out for dinner at California Pizza Kitchen and Rachel grabbed the face of some random passerby. Grandpa made the mistake of asking her where her nose was at just the wrong time and she thought she'd show the person walking by where his nose was. She also helped the waitress pour water all over the table. Sigh). So Sawyer spent the first little why crying and hiding behind my legs. It seemed that Rachel's main goal was to either pull herself up on him and then use him as a push-toy, or to cover him with kisses.


She did a lot of both before I eventually communicated to Sawyer that he could run away. Then they played a lot of chasing games with Rachel crawling after Sawyer as fast as she could while he ran around the living room. If she got too close she'd grab him and he'd trip and they'd end up crying in a big pile of baby.

Things got a lot easier after Andrew got home and we were able to divide our attention between the two kiddos.


They played with the juice lid bank for probably an hour. We filled it up and dumped it out more times than I could imagine counting. Sawyer was so good at putting the lids in the slot and Rachel tried so hard but just couldn't get it.

Rachel trying so hard!

"I will show you how it's done, Rachel!"

"Do I hold the lid like this?"

"No, let me show you again."

"Maybe if I touch him I'll be cool, too!"

Sawyer got to be the more aggressive one during dinner. He has more teeth and can chew his food faster than Rachel can. He kept trying to take cereal out of her hand (or mouth, whatever the case may be), which she didn't really appreciate.


It's so strange to think that both Sawyer and Rachel are so old already. It doesn't seem so long ago that Val and I were pregnant and now Sawyer is over a year old and Rachel is fast approaching the year mark! It's been fun to watch them grow up together though, Sawyer always a stage or two ahead of Rachel.

When he could roll over, she was just trying. When he could sit up, she was starting to practice that. When he started crawling, Rachel was jealous. And now that he can walk, she is green with envy. Don't worry little baby! You'll catch up soon enough!

Arf! Arf!

My friend gave Rachel a little stuffed dog, along with some cute dresses and some pyjamas, that her daughter was no longer interested in playing with. I thought it was a nice gesture, but since we're planning on moving and it's kind of large, I was planning on just passing it on to the next person. So I put it back in the plastic garbage bag ready to be given away.

Unfortunately when Rachel woke up from her nap she noticed the garbage bag tucked away in the corner and crawled straight for it. The first thing she pulled out was the dog and I knew we had to keep it when she gave it a big hug and kiss...and then played with it for the next fifteen minutes. It's now often one of the first toys she goes for in the morning. She loves it when we make it bark and jump up and down for her.

About a week ago we were sitting on the floor reading Let's go Walking. We were making the animal noises for each animal we found. First we saw a black cat: meow! Next we saw a brown horse: neigh! Then a red cow: moo! And since I don't want to give away the whole book, we'll skip to the part where we see a yellow dog.

I started to bark. My dog bark is more of a yip, really. It's rather high pitched and fast.

"Arf! Arf! Arf!" I yipped.

Rachel looked up at me and smiled. Then she climbed off my lap, crawled over to the bookshelf, grabbed her stuffed dog and lugged it back over to me and tenderly placed it in my lap.

She's so smart!

I picked up the dog and started yipping at her and making the dog give her kisses all over her face. Rachel laughed so hard that she got the hiccups. After she had a chance to catch her breath for a bit that silly dog started jumping all over her again, which she found just as hilarious as the first time.

I'm not sure we ever finished the story that morning.