Rachel turns 2

Friends

A month has passed - where does the time go? And so much to tell. Our little girl went off and turned 2 years old, which just doesn't seem possible. She was well celebrated with a "Dora the Explorer"-themed party at home. Carly, Eli, Declan, Fiona and Harrison were in attendance. Between celebrating early with some friends, Grandma Babe coming into town early, and Grandpa coming in late, it was a full week of partying.














With a milestone birthday, come the measurements.

• Rachel weighed in at 28lbs 4oz, (70th percentile)
• She measured 34.875" (88.6 cm, or 80th percentile
• Head circumference was 19" (70th percentile)
• Cuteness at 100%

So we're still tall, slender for our height and have a big noggin. By the approximation that she'll grow to twice her 2-year-old height, she's destined to be about 5'10". Most of the time, Rachel is one happy little girl - it takes a lot to shake her off her rocker, so she'll be fine, fine, fine, fine - until she's not, and when she's not happy - she's really not happy. She has an unfortunate tendency to bite Daniel (hard) when she feels threatened in any way, but we're working on it, and Daniel is showing more patience than you honestly would expect from a 3-year-old.

As yes - Daniel has had some fun moments of his own in the last month. Probably the most impressive development is that he's made large strides with his swim lessons. He can now plane out and swim with both his arms and legs - face in the water, and he'll do this for 8-10 feet at a time. He just needs to remember to breathe, and he'll be off to the races.













Daniel has always had a knack for memorizing his books/stories. Long ones too (He'll read the entire "Gruffalo" book to you if you flip the pages). But he's started recognizing whole words and reading based on word recognition, which is huge. He read all of "Orange, Pear, Apple, Bear" to Rachel the other day.

Daniel has always been good with words, and he's turning out to be a social guy. Our friends the Dows came through town during the weeklong Rachel celebration, and Dan said it best: Daniel will never know a stranger. Favorite toys vary by the day and week, but trains and being a firefighter are the current hits. Farmor made him his very own firefighter jacket.

Rachel has started going to a gym class while Daniel is in school, and has taken to that like a fish to water. She climbs, bounces, balances, slides and has a fantastic time. And no update on Rachel would be complete without mentioning that she sings all the time. Mostly variations on "twinkle twinkle little star", but there are others.

As alluded to above - Grandma Babe came and visited for a week or so. Grandpa was in town for just a few days. So the house has been full of visitors and actually feels a little empty now that everyone is gone.

And that'll have to do for now. Hope everyone is well

Love, ADRE.