A Springtime Rachel update

Every Wednesday is "Mama-Rachel Day" when Daniel is in preschool, and Rachel gets to decide what to do all day with Anida. From her choices, we can get a pretty good idea of what would make up a perfect day.

It would involve books. Lots of books.

Almost every wednesday means a trip to the library to pick out new books. Rachel has her own library card and knows how to use it. She will frequently check out 20-25 books in a week.

Then, if she can convince an adult to read them all to her in a single session, taking occasional snack breaks, that would just be heaven. Grandparents are particularly good for this purpose, and have been known to read 10-15 books back to back before finally calling it quits.

More recently, Mama-Rachel day has involved going to the pool to practice swimming. Rachel is in her second set of swim lessons, and is working on the whole concept of kicking with straight legs and floating on her back. She's doing very well, and has a great time in the water.

Rachel has taken up the tricycle, and has started zooming around the driveway and cul-de-sac like her brother. She particularly enjoyes it when Daniel is in the mode to play bicycle with her. A few weeks ago, we decided it was time to get her a bicycle, and it didn't seem fair to give her the hand-me-down bike that Daniel outgrew, so a pink princess bike showed up. Probably a little too early - she rode around on it for a day or two, then reverted back to the tricycle, which is fine.

We've also put the training wheels back on Daniel's old bike, so that she has a smaller one to learn on.

Rachel dresses herself these days, and has a unique fashion sense. Most of the time she'll select matching tops and bottoms. Still shows a distinct preference for the color pink, and really, really doesn't like wearing jeans - choosing tights and a top or dresses.

Our little girl can be a little shy, particularly when first meeting people, but quickly warms up to them if she's not too tired. She's usually very, very sweet - she likes giving out presents, and will frequently give up her toys if some other kid wants to play with them. Still, she's capable of throwing HUGE temper tantrums/fits, and can keep them going for quite some time.

It's easy to forget that she's "Just 3", because she's about the same size as her older brother. Both of the kids have "Charts" where they can earn a sticker for completing certain activities, at the completion of which, they earn a prize that they select themselves.

Rachel's activities have been focused around getting dressed, helping with chores, avoiding accidents and learning the alphabet, a few letters at a time. For this, she's earned a trip to the ice cream store with Papa and the right to watch a Dora the Explorer movie from Netflix, both very popular. Rachel has extremely good counting, sequence and pattern recognition for her age.

Where Daniel was a whiz with the alphabet and letters, Rachel is showing a preference for numbers.

We don't have cable or satellite TV at home, so the childrens programs on PBS are the extent of what our kids know of television, and it's pretty limited what they get to watch.

A couple of times a week, they get to watch a show, and the current favorites are "Dinosaur Train" and "Sid the Science Kid". Rachel has a keen sense for when the show is about to end, and will inevitably say "Pwease, one more" as it starts wrapping up. The format of Dinosaur Train is that there are two episodes in a 30 minute show, so there she'll try to negotiate "Can we watch 2 shows"?

And that's about it for the Rachel-specific update.