Rachel's Routines

Any child development book you read will tell you how important routines are for little ones. Routines are not only beneficial for little ones, but for everyone. Rachel has some really cute, funny, and ridiculous routines. Here are some of her current routines:

• Even though she's been sleeping in a big girl bed for almost 2 months now, she still calls and waits for Mommy or Daddy to come get her when she wakes up. Once we go in to her room she then climbs out of bed by herself. It's really quite odd, but we like it. We don't have to worry about a middle of the night unwanted visitor! :) I don't know if it's because her room is really quite dark or if it's just part of her routine.
• Every morning when she wakes up she quickly states, "I need to take my vitamin". She has to select what color she wants, she chews it up, and then has to show everybody (including herself) what color her tongue has turned. Rachel also has to help me put my vitamin in my mouth. If I forget to let her help me - let's just say it isn't a pretty picture.
• Whenever we go grocery shopping Rachel has to sit in the toy car and pretend to drive. She doesn't want money deposited into it to make it move. Luckily she is pretty easy to get out of the car as long as I give her a few seconds to find a "parking spot". Sometimes (when she's not quite ready to get out) she finds one parking spot, but then has to find a "better one".
• If Andy happens to be climbing up the stairs with Rachel, he has to make a tunnel for her to climb through. If I happen to be coming up the stairs as well, I'm required to climb through the tunnel as well. I'm amazed that I can still fit through the tunnel. :)
• There's a bush on our walk back from the park that has really soft leaves. Every time we pass it Rachel has to pick one of the leaves and carry it all the way home.
• If both of us are around to put Rachel to bed, one of us has to be tucked into bed by Rachel. Whoever is going to read her stories stays in her room, while she follows one of us to our bedroom. She then has to tuck one of us into bed, make sure the covers are covering our arms, help us close our eyes, and then she tells us not to wake up until the sun comes up. I guess she's heard that line one too many times! :)

Rachel's routines have changed over the past two years and I'm sure they will continue to change. I'm sure it will continue to be quite the adventure as her routines change...