Rachel Turns 3

Rachie trying to warm up by sipping hot cocoa at the zoo.

 This week when I tried to clean Rachie's ears with a q-tip and she screamed, "Don't floss my ears!"  I liked that use of the word floss.  Floss-when Mom takes away your personal space to do something intrusive and uncomfortable.






Rachel turned three!  On the day of her birthday we celebrated at home. 

 Breakfast was pancakes in the shape of threes and a miniature cake.  We sang Happy Birthday and unwrapped presents.   She was absolutely enthralled with a little toy house with furnishings and people.  We literally played with that all day long with that toy.

On Friday we celebrated with a tea party with her cousins.  It was so fun.  It was Aunt Kristen that made it truly wonderful with all of  her entertaining flair.  I love that woman.  I love her generosity, her sincerity, and all of her cute dishes. 


I had been saving this dress for months for this party.  Of course this week she fell on the sidewalk and skinned her nose. 

After the party we played games at the park.  We were driving home from the park after a fun and full day, but Isaiah was devastated that he didn't have a chance to play Skylanders.  We turned back to Kristen to play for another 3 hours.

I love Rachel so much.  I thought of that today when I had to take her out of Sacrament Meeting for her naughty behavior.  She was mad at me for something. She was crying and saying in a loud voice that I was being mean.  I kept trying to hush her to no avail.  Finally, in her fury she cocked her arm, threatening to throw her My Little Pony.  Unfortunately it wasn't just an idle threat and the pink pony went sailing.  Up to that point I put off taking her outside because I was alone with the kids on the pew and didn't want to do it.  ( Mark was just released from the Bishopric so he would have been sitting with me, but because he was speaking he was on the stand.) The flying pony motivated me. I left Isaiah, put William on my hip, and with the free hand took her by the hand to sit on her own chair in the foyer.   Trying to show her that I meant business, I sat her on her own chair in the foyer while I sat on the couch.  She was fuming at first, but eventually she wanted to sit on my lap.  I sat looking at her in the foyer and thought to myself, "You are exactly what I wanted."  I felt two emotions simultaneously:  firmness and determination to teach her and amusement and love.  I didn't want a girl that didn't need a mother. I wanted a normal girl that would be amazingly sweet as well as demanding the best of me. I wanted a real child that needed a real mother.   A real mother to me is someone that yes bakes delicious things, reads inspiring books, plays fun games, but who also loves enough to teach the hard lessons.

I wish that I would have felt that love and amusement on Saturday when I was making her clean up her board books.  She threw a book not thinking where it would go and it hit me in the eye.  I was livid.  I was outraged.  It hurt so bad I cried.  She didn't mean to do it and didn't understand. What could I do but explain to her what happened?  It didn't seem fair.  I was sure I would get a black eye.  I wanted a black eye so that I could tell Mark and my friends that love me, "Look what happened to me!"


Rachie fell asleep for her Sunday nap while she was watching her Sunday movie

Isaiah guarding his opponent in Junior Jazz.

Isaiah thought that fast Sunday last week should actually be called slow Sunday.  By the end, he was moaning on the couch and eventually fell asleep.  I told him that he could break his fast with me (I broke my fast at 3:30 because I am nursing), but he didn't want anything to  do with that idea.  He wanted to go the full 24 hours.

William hasn't had any food reactions for a while.  I have even started to try to eat some of the foods that he is allergic to and I haven't noticed any reaction.  I wouldn't dare feed anything to him that he is allergic to, but it is nice to have some more freedom on my side.  Peanut butter and jelly never tasted so good.