Rachel

Rachel will turn 3 at the end of this month. She is such a character. She is still as dramatic as ever, and a little precocious, I think – she is an exceptionally good talker for her age, talking often and using a grown-up vocabulary. Her new favorite word (it fits her dramatic nature perfectly) is “definitely”. She says it all the time – “Oh, Mom, you definitely will have to clean me up after lunch”, “I definitely will want to have banana splits on Sunday”, “We’ll definitely have to go to Schlitterbahn again", "You definitely will need to spray me off with the hose when we get home from our walk." I can’t even keep track of how many times she uses that word daily.

Another favorite of hers, which I know she stole from Ollie, is "for the rest of my life?" As in, "Whaaaaaaaaaaat? I can't wear that shirt ever again for the rest of my life?!!!!" She uses it for things that don't even HAVE lives, like her sheets when I have to wash them - "Now that pink blanket can't ever be on my bed for the rest of its life?" She also uses it in a very teenager-y way: "Mom, don't worry, it's, like, okay that we had to come home from the pool. It's not like I can't go back for the rest of my life."

Other dramatic phrases she uses: “oh, my heck!”, “holy shnikeys!”, and “totally!”. She is really funny to listen to.

She’s a pretty good girl, and has recently become my “okay girl” – she loves to shout “okay” after I ask her to do anything.

She loves horses, the color red, Schlitterbahn, anything girly, dancing, princesses, going on Special Days, snack time, swimming, pizza, banana splits, hot dogs, craisins, planning her birthday cake (right now she wants a red jello cake with strawberry sauce, caramel, and craisins on it – but it changes daily), planning her wedding cake (so far it will have chocolate sauce, caramel, strawberry sauce, strawberries, and peaches on it), parties, pretending to go to parties, playing with toy food, talking about any kind of dessert, and looking at picture slideshows on the computer. She also likes playing with the boys, and pretending she’s Arwen from Lord of the Rings. She loves to be a “fighter-girl”.

She is the one child in our family that nobody believes belongs to us – she looks so different from everybody else. I think she looks like Anita. She has really fair skin, great big blue eyes, and curly blond hair.