Dancing Queen

Rachel certainly has her own unique style of dancing. I was able to catch this on video the other day:

Honorable Mentions...

Of course Andy came home from work and reminded me of a few more things that happened this week.

• Rachel tinkled on the toilet for the first time! We aren't really into full potty training mode, but she does sit on the toilet as her bath water runs. On Sunday night she actually utilized the opportunity, which was probably just pure luck. It hasn't happened since, but it was pretty exciting nonetheless.
• Andy was reading Rachel stories at bedtime last night and she was trying to get him to read more books. She loves to be read to! At the end of one book, she stood up, made snorting sounds, and pointed to If You Give a Pig a Pancake...
• Remember bum wars on the trampoline? Well, Rachel likes to do bum wars on the wood floor. We cringe every time she does it, but she gets right up and acts like it doesn't hurt.
• Rachel loves to say "people". We had company over on Sunday night and I had to run upstairs with her to change her diaper. She turned around and told them "be back, people". We also played with "people" today at the park.
• Santa Claus lives next door to us. Okay, not really, but our neighbor is a nice old man with long white hair and a pretty decent beard. Every time we see him Rachel says Santa Claus in her language. Thank heavens we're probably the only ones that really understand what she's saying! We still aren't sure about the Dutch sense of humor...

A Trip Down Memory Lane

This past week Andy and I were looking at some old videos of Rachel and came across this one. I took this at lunchtime some time in the last week of October. It's crazy to think how much she has changed in the past 3 months. Her hair is so blonde in this video. I guess that's what happens when you spend the summer at the pool! We may come back to Texas with a brunette, because we will only be utilizing the indoor pools here. Anyhow, enjoy the video!

This Week's Highlights

I haven't felt much like blogging this week, so I'm going to summarize the happenings of this week into one blog entry. Andy and I don't know what we are going to do when we return to Texas and there won't be windmills, tunnels, and airplanes to entertain Rachel on drives. We live about 10 minutes away from the airport and drive right by it whenever we go on the freeway. We always see airplanes taking off or landing. Rachel gets pretty excited when she is the one to spot the airplane. We have discovered that there's no point in pointing them out to her, it's just not exciting enough for her that way. She loves to spot windmills as well - the traditional Dutch ones and even the more modern ones. And she gets pretty excited whenever we drive through a tunnel. It helps make our 30-minute drive to church a bit easier. She has also gotten into the CDs that Grandma Michaelson sent her. She requests "ABCDs" and "EIEIO". It's funny how quickly you memorize the track numbers of the songs... On Monday I went out to lunch with some friends. It reminded me of and made me miss Lunch Bunch back at home. This time we weren't outnumbered by little ones though! :) It was totally even - 4 women and 4 little girls. It was fun to get out with some friends. Andy has been home every night this week for dinner. I don't think that ever happened back home, so it has been nice. On Monday Rachel slept so late for her nap that Andy got to greet her when she woke up.

Rachel has decided that yellow is her favorite color. She requests her "yellow binky" when she goes to sleep. I guess when your toddler can identify the color of their binkies, it might be time to get rid of them??? But hey, she only takes it when she's sleeping! Rachel also chose the shirt I'm wearing today. I had to wear it, because she picked it out and told me to wear my "yellow shirt". Too cute! I was feeling like something from back home, so I bought some Oreo cookies at the store this past week. The box had 12 cookies in it and I believe I paid 2 euros ($3). Crazy! I don't even buy Oreos back in the U.S., but I felt like something familiar. And Rachel enjoyed her first taste of Oreo cookies. After I bought the Oreo cookies my Girl Scout cookies were delivered. Too bad I hadn't waited a couple of hours. The American school over here does Girls Scouts and they sell the cookies just like they do back in the U.S. I was pretty excited when I found out about it. Although I still think the mint cookies we had in New Zealand are better than the Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies.

Rachel has really gotten in to flipping through magazines and books. She especially loves to find horses, airplanes, and babies. We have learned to memorize the pages that these items are on in case she has a panic attack! Her favorite magazine to flip through is The Reader's Digest. I think it's the perfect size for her little hands. The other day I was busy on the computer and peeked over to see what Rachel was up to on the other side of the room... she was simply flipping through a magazine. We have a book about Europe that Rachel loves to flip through as well. It's one of the Eyewitness Travel Guides, so once again I think it's the perfect size. We know that the horses are pages 565 and 690. She certainly has us trained!

Today has been a beautiful day! I don't think there's a cloud in the sky and its right around 50 degrees. Perfect weather! So, we headed to the park down the street. We met another mom and her two toddler girls, who are originally from Australia. It was fun to watch the girls play with each other and talk with another adult! :) It brought back memories of Moms and Tots, which I miss! And I think Rachel does too. :) Rachel loved the slide and playing with the pebbles. She had fun playing with and even sharing her garden tools that Grandma Smith sent her. When we got home from the park we found lots of pebbles in Rachel's clothes - her jacket, onesie, and even her diaper. She loved the sound of the pebbles as she dumped them on the slide. Here are some pictures of our park adventure:

And the best part about our adventure to the park was as we were walking home Rachel reached up and grabbed my hand. She held my hand the whole way home as we walked and I enjoyed every minute of it. Rachel's not much of a hand-holder, so I cherished it while it lasted! It's been a good week and we're hoping for more sunny days like today! :)

You Know You're An American If...

• you wear tennis shoes.
• you wear sunglasses.
• you try to hail a taxi.
• you only speak one language fluently.
• you think it's legal to make a right turn on a red light.
• you ask for ketchup or ranch dressing.
• you expect bathrooms to be free of charge.
• you expect to get free refills of your soda.
• you don't expect to be charged for water.
• you expect someone to bag your groceries.
• you order Dr. Pepper.
• your toddler wears jeans.

I know there's more, so I'll add on as I think of them...

What?

I have been trying to get this on video for several days and I was finally able to today! Rachel loves saying this word and I have no idea what she's trying to say or if she's just having fun speaking gibberish. She says it over and over again as she climbs up the stairs, when I'm doing her hair, etc... We'd love to see what some of your interpretations are to what she's trying to say!

Little Miss Mischievous

Just the other night Andy and I were talking about how Rachel is pretty good about not getting into things. We've never had to put locks on cupboards, doors, etc... We really haven't had to do too much to keep Rachel out of stuff we don't want her into. Well, I guess we spoke too soon. This morning within a 5-minute time period she was able to accomplish quite a bit and be pretty proud of herself as well! I was busy trying to fill out FPCA forms to request absentee ballots. I had left a box with office supplies on the ground and here's what Rachel did:

She managed to break apart a lot of the staples and spread them around pretty good. Rachel was good about helping mom "mean up". After the staple incident I sat her in a chair across from me at the table. I was still busy filling out forms and addressing envelopes when I heard Rachel say "messy". She was concerned about the lip gloss she had gotten on her finger. She wasn't even worried about what she had done to her face! :) At least she had a general idea of where to put the lip gloss.

All I could do was laugh. Probably not the best thing to do, but how can I contain my laughter when she's such a cutie??? Needless to say, I'm going to be careful about what I think Rachel is good about doing or not doing because it will most likely change within days....

Our Little Chatterbox

Rachel is a very talkative toddler. I guess she takes after her mom. She loves to carry on conversations with herself. It's fun to watch and listen to her! Here are a few words that she is really into right now:

• Okay - Whenever we are changing from one activity to the next, she says "okay". In the past couple of days she's started saying okay at the end of prayers instead of amen. Oh dear...
• Sorry - Sometimes she uses it to apologize to other people, but most often she apologizes to herself. If she bumps her head or trips, she'll say "sorry" to herself. I guess it's good that she apologizes to the body parts she injures.
• Share - Her definition of share is a little different than the rest of us. She likes to share by reaching out her hand to give something to someone and then as soon as the other person tries to grab it, she pulls back and says "share". So basically share to her means that you need to share with her, but she doesn't have to share with you.
• Mom - Within the past week she has gotten into saying mom, instead of mommy. But she pretty much screams "Mom". I think she uses the word mom when she really wants my attention. She's much sweeter when she says "Mommy".

Rachel has started saying short 3-word sentences as well. Some of her favorites are "Sit down Mommy", "Fix it Mommy", and "Hold you Daddy"(which really means "hold me"). Some of the words Rachel can say are pretty amazing. She can say helicopter and it really sounds like helicopter. She also loves to tell you she's from Texas. Even though she's a pretty good talker, she still struggles with the hard c-sound. When you ask her to say cow, she says "moo-moo". For cat she says "meow". And kisses are "misses". Rachel can pretty much say anything she wants to. I have noticed that I need to be careful of what I say, because she can now repeat most words (good or bad). So, when things don't go right I'm trying to be better about saying "Oh my". For all the words Rachel can say, she still loves gibberish. She likes to talk gibberish when she's climbing up the stairs or when Andy and I are busy carrying on a conversation without her. It's so much fun to watch Rachel learn and grow each and every day.

Zaanse Schans

Yesterday we went to Zaanse Schans, an old hamlet on the banks of the river Zaan. It was only a 30-minute drive away, so it was a perfect expedition that we could fit in before nap time. The sun was actually out, so we wanted to enjoy it. However, the wind certainly kept things chilly! We saw some historical windmills. There was a cheese farm and clog factory we visited. We also browsed through several little shops. Rachel's favorite thing was seeing the animals we ran into - I believe we saw sheep, ducks, and a horse. Unfortunately a lot of things were closed. I guess it's not peak tourist season yet! But we did get to go in the first Albert Heijn grocery store, which is our grocery store of choice here in The Netherlands. Exciting stuff! Most of all we enjoyed spending the day together and being outdoors. We want to go back when the weather is warmer and go on a bike ride around the area.

Rachel enjoyed the many bridges we had to walk over. And we enjoyed torturing her by making her stand in a pair of huge wooden clogs! :) We should probably invest in a pair that actually fit her...

Just imagine...

Children's imaginations are so much fun! Rachel has really gotten in to using her imagination the past couple of months and it has been fun to watch. It's interesting how she automatically takes on roles that are specific to her gender. I still remember last summer when we were headed out the door and Rachel had to run back into the family room to get her own purse. Funny girl! She has really gotten into playing with her kitchen set of play food and kitchenware. She loves to feed herself, Mom or Dad, and even her babies. Rachel has also gotten into playing with her dolls, which makes her mom happy! :) I think I was still playing with dolls in the 6th grade. I guess I finally grew out of it when I was old enough to babysit and play with the real thing! :) This morning Rachel's baby needed a diaper change. So, she got the wipes and proceeded to clean her baby up. I wish the camera had been upstairs with us! The other night she noticed the Neosporin and was fixing her baby's "ouchie" and we were able to catch it on video. It is so much fun to watch her play. She carries on conversations with herself and has a good, old time. It's great to have a toddler that can entertain herself! :)