While we were at Yellowstone, Rebecca had a neat idea for an activity while waiting for Old Faithful:
Yeeeah. Not recommended. (The dancing, not the watching.)
In other news, over the weekend I refinished the cabinets while Ryan was out of town. What did he think?
While my parents were here, we drove up and picked up my sister, and then we all went to see Yellowstone.
Yep, Old Faithful!
Oh, transcription for those who can’t make it out:
HAYDEN ONLY.
REBCCA ONLY TOO.
RACHEL ONLY TOO.
DADY ONLY TOO.
MOMY ONLY TOO.
HAYDEN’S ROOM ONLY.
.A.N.T. JASMINE TOO ONLY!
NANA AND RARA P POPO PO [Papa/Poppa]
I made the mistake of telling Rebecca her birthday was after Rachel’s. In the sense that she is the next person in this house to have a birthday, I was right.
But that’s not how a soon-to-be-four-year-old thinks.
Starting on Rachel’s birthday and every day thereafter, she has asked. “Is my biwtday tomoyyow?”
“No.”
“Is my biwtday aftay tomoyyow?”
“. . . Strictly speaking, yes.”
She’s laid off the calendar questioning once I showed her how many weeks until her birthday, but today she sat me down for some in-depth discussion of the big day.
“Foy my biwtday, you an me an Wachew wiww go to de jumping p’ace and Hayden and Daddy wiww go to de stowe to get p’esents, an’ dey wiww make me a big! cake! And dey wiww get bLLoons . . .”
[For my birthday, you and me and Rachel will go to the jumping place and Hayden and Daddy will go to the store to get presents, and they will make me a big cake and they will get balloons.]
But it’s not just her immediate family she’s concerned with.
“An’ Nana wiww send me some p’esents. An’ we—me an’ Daddy—wiww make a bideo to teww hey it’s my biwtday so s’e can send me p’esents.”
[And Nana will send me some presents. And we—me and Daddy—will make a video to tell her it’s my birthday so she can send me some presents.]
I’m already worried about her wedding.
Worse still, so’s she. This week, she asked me, “When wiww de maiw [mail] be hewe, and when wiww I get mawwied?”
Straight answers: I don’t know and I don’t know.
My Aunt Janie pointed out that maybe in light of the second question, it wasn’t M-A-I-L in the first. I agree 😉 .
Today was Rachel’s birthday. She got some very fun gifts and some cute outfits. Best of all, I let her eat all kinds of treats–chocolate cookies, chocolate chips, peanut butter cups . . . even two tiny handfuls of straight sugar tat I couldn’t wrest away from her after she ripped open a ten-pound sack. She was pretty thrilled (even if she decided to use her special birthday dinner [pizza] as lotion).
I needed to follow up that mother of the year act with something even awesomer, so I shot for the elusive highly-breakable-and-zero-fun-to-play-with gift category.
The winner? A piggy bank. I was hoping to find a purple one for her (I consider it “her” color, and Rebecca already has a pink piggy bank), but all I found was an interesting alternative:
Did she like it?
Um, yes. (Okay, really she’s trying to peer into the slot.)
It seemed like the older kids were most excited about Rachel’s birthday. Hayden and I were talking when he abruptly announced, “I’m gonna go give Rachel a double hug, because I love her so much–and she’s two years old!”
Rebecca even composed a song for her sister: “Oh, Wachew, I’m so g’ad you came into our famiwy. Today’s you biwtday. Today’s you SPECIAW! DAY! I awways wanted a sistay wike you!”
Rachel loves songs. She wasn’t singing when I snapped this, but this is how she sings (note her hand positions, especially her left) (and imagine a small child singing as loud and low as she can).
Rachel isn’t the only one growing up. Hayden finished kindergarten last week. Yesterday, he announced, “I’m a first grader now.”
“I know!” I said. “That’s crazy.”
[Biggest grin all day] “It’s not crazy! It’s fun!” [pause] “It’s funner than fun.”
Yes. Yes, it is.
Rebecca is pretty dang cute—and she’s the reigning Princess of Precociousness around here. Her latest cute saying:
“Mommy, can I p’ay a game with you? Wike ‘Who Can Hide Da Most’?”
“Ah, my c’ean, wef’essing waday.” [Water]
We visited the St. George LDS Temple this week, and Rebecca was talking with one of the missionaries. He asked her why she thought the Christus statue had his hands outstretched. She replied, “I dunno. Mayme he’s a angel or sumping?”
Her first talk in the children’s Sunday School (“Primary”) was this week—she did great!
(Okay, this is from Easter, but she mentioned it in her talk!)
The Easter Bunny remembered how in years past, Peeps have not been very popular with my kids. Fortunately, the Easter Bunny (well, the EB’s mom) erred on the side of caution, and pink Peeps garnished their baskets Easter morning. Rebecca promptly bit their heads off:
Ate them, and then asked for “Mowe ‘mingos?”
“Mingos?”
“F’amingos.”
Flamingos, folks. And last night, she proclaimed “Fuh-fuh-f’amingos stawt de same aw Fuh-fuh-F’ancesco!”
True.
Christus statue photo by arbyreed