Life with Rachel Claire: Why Mamma?

Here are the photos from the Halloween/Birthday party. The girls kept their costumes on all night and nary a one got ruined I don't think. They were adorable!

So, here are some of the cool and funny things that have been happening lately.

One day a week or so ago, out of the clear blue sky, Rachel Claire announced that she did not have a dad. I was actually on the phone at the time, so I couldn't really capitalize on the moment and it did kind of take me by surprise. So I just kind of let it go.

So then, on a wild hair, two days before Thanksgiving, we/I decided to get a Christmas tree. As I was pondering this adventure, I murmured, "we need a guy". Rachel Claire said, "huh" and I said, "you know, we need a dad to help us." Rachel Claire promptly said, "we don't need a dad!" Which again, took me totally by surprise, so I just went on and didn't dwell on it. Sometimes the strangest things will come out of her mouth.

So we ended up with a lovely Fraser Fir from Sullivan's Hardware at 71st & Keystone. It is just my height and smells delicious! I actually had kind of a nice time decorating it, even though Rachel Claire only put on 4 ornaments...photos will be forthcoming in a future post.

Since the Christmas decorations have been more prevalent, Rachel Claire has been talking a lot about Santa. She asks where he lives over and over again (even after I've answered the North Pole). She also asks about his reindeer (as she saw one at Grandma and Grandma Carol's house).

Several other recent phenomena include:

1. Cheers! Rachel Claire wants to cheers all through out our meals. Let's cheers our: forks, bagels, napkins, drinks, etc. Over and over...its kind of funny but after one or two times I am ready to be done.

2. Everything princess. We've moved from the Dora phase of life to the Princess phase of life. Rachel Claire has graduated from diapers to pull ups these days, in the hopes that perhaps some day she will be potty trained. I must admit that I am partly at fault because I have not trained myself to ask her if she has to go to the potty every so often. But we got some pull-ups that have princesses on them. The container of pull-ups has two different princess designs in it, one has three princesses on it (Cinderella, Belle and Ariel) and the other just has Ariel the mermaid. You would not believe the obsession about a "Three Princess Pull-up" that happens when there are some in the house. We can't wear Ariel-only pull-ups until all Three Princess Pull-ups are gone...and even when they are gone, RC will still talk about them longingly....

3. Why Mamma? Everything is why why why? I think its because it just gets me talking about things that she can listen to. But she also knows it is an annoyance at times and sometimes I have to say "no more whys" because there are no more things to answer! Oh my goodness, the whys can be oh so persisent.

4. Nicknames. For a while now, Rachel Claire will occasionally call Carson by her nickname for him, Car. She wonders why he doesn't respond quite as well than when she calls him Carson. Well now the latest item to receive a nickname is her puppy who is now affectionally called Pup-pup. I tried to help her understand that her shortening those names is also why Carmen calls her RC, because I don't really think she undertands why Carmen calls her RC and right now, Carmen is the only one who calls her that...although of course she loves Carmen so she doesn't care what Carmen calls her!

5. Imaginary friends. She has at least one imaginary friend called Sissy and perhaps others that I haven't sorte out yet. I am trying to observe and listen until I can understand more and maybe Rachel Claire will tell me a little about Sissy. She's kind of in her own world when she's talking about/to Sissy and doesn't really want to interact with me during this time....very interesting developments!

6. What's that? I don't know. Rachel Claire will often ask me: what's that? And I'll say (particularly if I know she knows what it is), what do you think it is? And she'll say: I don't know. Often I will say: do you think its a (whatever it is)? And she'll say yeah. Well now I'm answering: I don't know and then she will usually tell me what it is...kind of weird. She knows what it is, wants to see if I'll say it and then if I don't (I don't really like saying I don't know because its not really true) then she'll say what it is. What's up with that????

Goodness, it has been so long since I've written and I finally wrote myself a note about all of these things because I often can't remember the current interesting tidbits when I'm sitting down to update the blog. Now if I can get the photos posted for the entire month of November before I leave on a business trip on Sunday afternoon, I'll be thrilled.

I'll try to get back on a regular schedule, this work thing really gets in the way of the rest of my life (of course it helps pay for the rest of my life too!). Thanks for reading all you loyal readers who have stuck around this long.