Rachel Loves Pink

After church Rachel came up to me in tears. "My teacher didn't let me choose the pink star. She usually lets me choose the pink star sticker, but she gave me a gold star. She gave everyone a gold star."
"You know," I said, "Some people think the gold star is best."
"But I don't. I wanted the pink star! Pink is my favorite color!"

NO!

YES!

My kids usually like going to the dentist. They like getting stickers, toys, their own mini toothpaste, and even a new toothbrush. As always when we arrived home, I told them to change toothbrushes and throw away the old ones. Four of my children obeyed without any complaints. Rachel came downstairs in tears, holding her old pink toothbrush in her hands. "I don't want to throw it away," she sobbed.

"But at the dentist's office you were excited about your new toothbrush," I pointed out.

"Yeah, but I forgot that I had to throw away my pink one. Can I please keep it?" she begged.

"No, Honey, you need to use the new toothbrush. You can have a pink one the next time we change toothbrushes." Not helpful. She went back upstairs, weeping and wailing. Awhile later Rachel came back downstairs and found solace from Dad. They agreed that she will use her new toothbrush every night, and her pink toothbrush will be kept for camping trips. Dad even made her laugh.

Rachel's singing

All my children have loved to sing made-up songs when they were little. Rachel has kept it up longer than the others. The whole first day of our camping trip for her 6th birthday, she sang a tuneless song that repeated these phrases (in no particular order), "Camping, we're going camping, I love camping, camping for my birthday, camping is fun ..."

The next day Dominic took the kids fishing. She happily sang, "Going fishing, fishing for my birthday, going to catch a fish, camping and fishing ..."

Where is the logic in that?

Today is Rachel's birthday! It was also Cub Scout Pack meeting, in which Benjamin received his Bear (yay!). They planned to have a group of Native American dancers come and perform. The music was loud, of course. Rachel kept covering her ears and complaining. Eventually she told me, "I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I'm sleepy." 

I wanted to stay until the end. So, trying to encourage her to want to stay I said, "Rachel, this dancing and drumming is part of your heritage." 

She looked confused and said, "How will that solve my problems?" 

Good point.

Signs, signs, everywhere are signs

One of the toilets got clogged. Yuck. I was in the middle of making dinner when the kids told me about it. I wasn't about to fix it right then, so the girls took it upon themselves to put up warning signs. Elisa put up the expected sign: "Out of order." Later on, when I finally had a chance to fix the problem, I saw that Rachel had also put up a sign that was supposed to read: "Who did it? Rachel did it! Meow!" But Rachel is in kindergarten and sounded out the words she didn't know. Plus, she still mixes up her b's and d's. Her sign actually read: "ho bib it? Rachel bib it! meow!" Have I mentioned that Rachel thinks of herself as a cat?

Kid's speech 2

Benjamin couldn't say "thank you" for a very long time. It sounded more like "nay-noo." Now we tell eachother "nay-noo" when we're feeling silly.

Rachel is such a girl. She loves princesses, fairies, and mermaids. The r's turn into w's of course, such as pwincesses and faiwies. The one that surprises me the most is how mermaids sounds like worm-aids. I have corrected her time and again, yet I know I'll miss it when she stops.

Makayla loves piggy back rides down the stairs and calls for "higgy back!" or even just "higgy!" Dominic caught me asking her if she wanted a higgy back ride the other day. I didn't even realize I said it.

Rachel feeds her goldfish fish flakes and algae pellets, but she can't remember the word algae. Instead, she feeds her fish allergy pellets.

Driving on a foggy day Makayla said, "The frog is creeping me out."
"You mean the fog?" I clarified.
"Yeah, I can't see through the frog," she complained.

Eager to learn

Rachel is ready for school. She was ready last year but was too young. She finally gets to start kindergarten this year. Our school district does something a little different with the kindergarten schedule. In an effort to save money, kindergarten is a full day for half the week: Monday and Tuesday or Thursday and Friday, and every other Wednesdays. Rachel is on the Th-Fr schedule and begins school on Wednesday, 2 days after the older kids start school. When I explained this to her, she did not take the news well. "But Mom," she lamented, "I've been so patient. Can't I go to school on Monday instead?"

Canyon County Fair

Summer time is fair time. We got coupons for free admission to our county fair. Score!

Dominic liked petting the calves, or little moos as we call them, the most. Yep, he's the reason we visit the fair every year.

The vendors and exhibitors hall is always a favorite. Each stall has a bowl of candy. My kids basically run from one candy bowl to the next. By the time we left the hall, they were a bit hyper.

Benjamin liked the rabbit area best. He kept pointing out the rabbits that looked like our brown, floppy-earred Freya. She died a couple of months ago, so each reminder made him sad. He also liked to point out the gray Netherland dwarf bunnies like our own little Isis. The only way to get the kids out of there was to remind them that they could play with our bunny at any time. 

Elisa enjoyed the reptile show best. She kept raising her hand to pet the snakes, alligator, or giant snapping turtles, but unfortunately was never chosen. Rachel hid behind the bleachers.

Samuel walked past a magician, who recruited him to help with a card trick. The guy borrowed Samuel's hat, where the correct card suddenly appeared. Samuel gasped in delight.


Every year they have an ag tent. We spend a lot of time there. The tent had a model cow, and people could "milk" the cow. All 3 girls enjoyed it.  They spent a lot of time milking that cow. I had to keep herding them away so other children could have a chance, too. At one point Makayla broke the udder. It gushed water until the person in charge could fix it. She immediately started milking the cow again. Maybe we should get a dairy cow ... or not. I'm sure it would quickly turn into an unwelcome chore.

The tent also had hand-cranked wheat grinders. Apparently, every Idahoan would have to eat 221 slices of bread every day if we kept all the wheat we harvested in the state. The display had a bucket of wheat grain, a bucket of flour, and 8 wheat grinders. The kids had a blast grinding the wheat. Even Benjamin got into it for awhile. What really surprised me was Rachel's reaction. I was pulling her away so we could go eat dinner. With one hand holding mine and the other hand still turning the crank, she begged, "I want a wheat grinder for my birthday!" Her birthday is in 10 months.

Conversations with Rachel

Genetics are very interesting. Mine and Dominic's genes have mixed in unexpected ways in our children. Samuel, Elisa, and Makayla all have blue eyes like me and smile dimples like their dad. Benjamin and Rachel are dimpleless like me, but Benjamin has green eyes like Dominic's uncles, and Rachel has brown eyes like her dad. Our children's sun tolerance runs the scale between Dominic's tan and my sunburn with freckles. Rachel, at 5 years old, can see that she looks different from most of her siblings (except for Benjamin, who doesn't seem to notice or care).
 

L-R: Rachel, Benjamin, Makayla, Samuel, Elisa

One day when I was in the kitchen making dinner, Rachel came up to me and asked, "Why do I have to have brown eyes? Everyone else has blue eyes." I love her brown eyes. I thought all my children would have brown eyes like my husband, so I am very happy that at least one child does. Plus, I think her eyes look like melted milk chocolate - just gorgeous. So I explained that she's special because she's the only one with eyes just like daddy's, and I love his eyes. Besides, the world would be a boring place if we all looked the same. She agreed and skipped away.

Rachel with our first rabbit, Freya

This summer we put up a pool in the backyard. Half the neighborhood children spend every afternoon in the pool. I make sure all the kids that go into our pool wear sunscreen. Despite that, Rachel has gotten very tanned. Last night she was the last one brushing her teeth in the bathroom. She put down her toothbrush and asked, "Why do I look so different from everyone else?" as she looked down at her very tan arm. I explained that she has some of both Mom and Dad in her. Her skin looks more like Dad's. She remembered what I've said before about how she has Mom's cheeks (meaning no dimples). Then we looked in the mirror. I pointed out that the shape of our eyes are the same even though they're different colors. We also have the same shaped lips. We smiled at that, and our smiles match, too.

Kids' Speech

I love kid-speak! It's very cute to me how Makayla says gingky for stinky. Our neighbor's daughter calls hamburgers hamgurbers. When Lisy was telling me about her adoreable freckles the other day, she actually said a-doe-able fweckles.

As a toddler Samuel couldn't make the s sound. He called himself Yammy, earning him the nickname Sammy Yammy. And Dominic had a blast when Samuel substituted his j's with d's, often asking him to say jam and jam-nation.

Speaking of replacing letters with ds, my older brother would get out of the bath and say that his dingers were dinkled (translation: fingers are wrinkled). We still chuckle about how my nephew Spencer used to call himself Der-Der.

Benjamin called Fruit Loops cereal Oot Oops, a term we still use. At the grocery store recently I said, "Let's get Oot Oops," and then put Fruit Loops in the cart. Lisy is a great reader and said, "That's not Oot Oops. It says Fruit Loops." She was upset that I had grabbed the wrong cereal.

The other day Makayla asked for a lolli-hop. I thought it was so funny that I kept saying lolli-hop, too. She corrected me saying, "No Mommy, lolli-hop." (Hee hee hee) She used to call her older sister Waychel but now says Baychel. Rachel even answers when we call for Baychel.

I love it.

Made-up Lyrics

If you haven't heard it yet, there's a popular song that says, "What does the fox say? Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding!" Tonight Lisy came up to me singing, "What does the mom say? No-no-no-no-no-no-no!"

Benjamin used to replace random words in a song with condiments. Ketchup and mustard were his most often used substitutions. For example: "I am a child of ketchup, and he has sent me mustard." He doesn't sing this way anymore, but he still likes to surprise us with it occassionally.

Rachel loves Frozen and all the songs on it, "Let it Go" being one of her favorites. The other day we were playing outside in the garden. Instead of singing, "Let it go, let it go ... the cold never bothered me anyway," she replaced it with, "Let it grow, let it grow* ... the flowers never made me sneeze."

*Correction: When I read this post to Rachel, she corrected me. She actually sings "Let it bloom..." Oops.

Sweet Hour of Prayers

Elisa: If I read in the afternoon, I fall asleep. The other afternoon Elisa asked if she could read to me, and since I wasn't going to do the reading, I thought it would be alright. Nope - I fell asleep pretty fast. I vaguely remember snuggling up to Lisy, but she was gone when I woke up. That night Lisy prayed, "Thank you that I could read to Mommy, and thank you that I could be Mommy's teddy bear."

 Rachel: I'm trying to transition Rachel from repeating everything I say during her bedtime prayers to thinking about what she wants to say. I ask questions like, "What else are you thankful for?" Her usual response is "wainbows." Lately when I ask if she wants to pray for anyone, she responds with "Please bless Mommy to get enough sleep." Then she smiles at me and whispers, "that's for you." 

Global Observations

Rachel sat down in front of our old globe. "So," she said, "this is what the Earth looks like, but without all the words and letters."



Elisa's turn, and she was carefully looking over the globe. She stopped spinning it and pointed to the Galapagos islands. "This is where the mermaids live." I don't know why she chose it, but that seems like an appropriate place.
"How do you know?" I asked.
"Ariel told me," she answered in all seriousness.

Lucky Girl

I was in the kitchen cleaning up dinner. Rachel came in and asked if she could have the last biscuit. "Sure," I said, glad I didn't have to save just one biscuit.

A minute later I heard Dominic laughing from the living room. He came and told me that Rachel walked right up to him, leaned in, smiled mischeivously, and whispered conspiratorially, "I got the last biscuit, Daddy."

In the spirit of Halloween

Rachel wore a witch's hat over to her friend Eliza's house. After playing for a little bit, Eliza's mom texted me:

     "Rachel just poked her head into my room saying, 'I am the wicked witch of Crimson Avenue.'"

I could practically hear the laughter through the text.

Rachel is showing off the butterfly wing on her cheek for Halloween. She was a butterfly fairy princess.

Where did that come from?

We have 2 cats, 2 frogs, a guinea pig, and a rabbit.

Rachel said while riding in the car, "The goat peed on the pixie dust tree."

They are mutually exclusive

Grandma: "Rachel, you need to pick up your toys now."

Rachel: "But I'm beautiful."

Sorry, kid, but that has nothing to do with it. You want to be beautiful on the inside, and that means you need to be obedient.

As a matter of fact, I do have a problem with that

Rachel was whining to try to get me to do something that I did not want to do. I said no, but she kept asking and whining. Finally I looked her straight in the eyes and sternly enunciated, "I said 'no.' Do you have a problem with that?"

"Yes," she said.

A bit flustered I said, "Oh. Um, what's your problem?"

"I don't know?" she said while trying to suppress a smile, and she dropped the subject.

Nobody likes tornadoes

Most children mix up the words for potato and tomato. Rachel, on the other hand, confuses tomatoes and tornadoes to funny results.

Rachel often helps me in the kitchen. So she was standing right in front of the stove when I added chopped tomatoes to the pan. In horror and despair she cried, "Mom! I hate tornadoes! You know I hate tornadoes! Why did you put them in the dinner?!" Then she stormed out to the backyard. Honestly, I don't like tornadoes but love tomatoes.

Tornado. Not a tomato.

Eh, tornado or tomahto, it's all the same, right?

A child's prayer . . . cracks me up

Me: "Thank you for your family,"
Rachel: "Thank you for rainbows,"
Me: "and thank you that Daddy has a job,"
Rachel: "and thank you for butterflies and flowers,"
Me: "Please help you sleep well. Amen."
Rachel: "and thank you for unicorns. Amen."

All the children, when learning how to pray, have gone through the phase when they only say, "Dear Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen." Not quite, kiddo - you still need something in the middle. Makayla took it one step further tonight.

Me: "Okay, fold your arms."
Makayla: "Fold your arms, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."