Pre-school with Miss Mommy

This afternoon, Rachel wanted to put on her backpack and go to pre-school. She told me that I could be the teacher. I asked her if that meant that my name was Miss Mommy, and she agreed. So she is currently calling me Miss Mommy. It's pretty cute!

Rachel has been wanting more and more privacy in the bathroom lately. Today she sat there for half an hour reading a book and telling me to leave every time I poked my head in to see how she was doing. Then again, yesterday at pre-school, the teacher caught her squatting in the corner getting ready to poop! *drum roll please* She got to the potty in time, and apparently used it several times AT SCHOOL yesterday! Yay, Rachel!

It's snowing again today. So far there is about an inch at most. They're shovelling our sidewalks in the apartment complex. Um, ok. I'd prefer that someone had cleared the (several) inches of ice/slush/snow from the sidewalks between here and Price Chopper a week ago! I walked over there with Rachel in the stroller last week and it turned into a real workout, including carrying the stroller over heaps of snow by the curbs.

I'm not sure who took Rachel and replaced her with a compliant alien model, but here's a list of what she's been (mostly voluntarily) eating lately:

*waffles
*cheese sticks (string cheese)
*peaches - she chomps off little bites in 6-8 places and then says, "Dad can have the rest."
*meatballs (ok, she didn't love them...)
*lots of yogurt
*corn
*tater tots
*chicken (as in home-cooked, breaded OR unbreaded!)
*ricotta-stuffed ravioli (albeit shaped like Mickey Mouse)
*spiral pasta
*Kraft dinner
*pineapple
*peas

Ok, to some of you this list might not look that impressive. But to those of you who have seen Rachel eat and have watched her reject a lot of things, this is pretty cool!

Earlier today, we were listening to a Kindermusik CD. There's a story called Animal Serenade that is read on the CD. Rachel told me (unprompted!) that we were listening to Animal Roast. Um, ok. Then Ben took her to her Kindermusik class, and they had storytime. He asked her quietly what the book was: "Animal Roast," she gleefully said. Livestock beware! Rachel's on the prowl...

Happy Birthday, Rachel!!!

That is, Happy POTTY Birthday!

Yesterday we celebrated Rachel's potty birthday. It all came about by chance. On Thursday afternoon, I gave Rachel some new Dora underwear that I had bought for her at Target. Without even thinking, I said, "Rachel, here's some new Dora underwear. I was going to save them for your birthday, but I guess you can have them now." Next thing I knew, Rachel was telling me that it was her birthday the next day. Um, ok?

I guess you need to know that we've been discussing using the "big" potty. Our agreement was that when Rachel turned 3, she would use the big potty and we would give away the small potty to a little girl who was only 2. Rachel knows that her birthday is in April - "April 8!"

I decided to capitalize on this opportunity. Since we had time to kill while waiting for Ben to finish class, we headed up to the Country Club Plaza for some shopping. I suggested looking for a party dress. We went into the Gap and found the dress I've been wanting to buy for months - it was on sale for $12.97, marked down from $40! You'll see it in the picture below. ;)

Rachel went to bed very excited about her upcoming birthday. Thanks to some advice from my friends on the NFP board, we decided to call it a potty birthday instead of her "real" birthday.

Friday morning, Rachel woke up and used the small potty for the last time. We packed it up in its box, and then the waiting began. When I came back from teaching piano and grocery shopping at 11:45am, Rachel still hadn't used the big potty. I brought her flowers, and we sat down to eat her special "birthday" cake on princess plates. We also had princess cups. This was very exciting!

At 12:15pm, Rachel finally used the big potty! She was a little reluctant at first, but now she is a potty pro! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! For now we plan to carry the Dora insert with us since I think the fold-up one is too rickety for Rachel's comfort.

We also had friends over yesterday afternoon for an impromptu potty party! I'm sure they think I'm crazy, but what's not to like about cake, cookies & chips for everyone? Hehe.

Cute Rachel Sayings

Rachel's new fleece pants turned out to be a bit too low rise for my liking. I was commenting to Ben that you could see her butt crack. Rachel yelled, "Oh no! My butt has a crack!" Ok, maybe Ben & I are the only ones who found that funny.

Later this afternoon:

"Mommy, I haven't watched too much tv yet!"

It didn't work. The tv stayed off until after bath when it was just easier to hand her a grilled cheese sandwich on a plate and pop in Dora's World Adventure.
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Lately, Rachel has been going to bed but not falling asleep right away. About an hour later, she knocks on the door to get out and go potty. Great, you think? Too bad she also knocks on the door at ridiculous times like 5:30am and 6:11am thinking that it's daytime and she can stay up after she uses the potty.

The good part of this is that she has been staying dry at night.

Our house in London

We've been getting asked a lot about how our new house is coming along. Here it is:

I know, it's a little drafty... but the electric meter is up on the one wall that you can see! We're getting electricity!

In all seriousness, we've been told that the crew has now finished framing both floors of the house. You'll have to make do with this picture until late February when I assume that my mother will take more pictures.

Another day, another school closing...

I'm starting to feel like we are on the set of the movie "Groundhog Day."


This morning we woke up to cold temperatures (-18C). No new precipitation fell during the night. There is maybe 4-5cm of snow. Ben says that there's not even that much. The roads are clear.


Ben has another snow day today.


I'm not making light of other places that have had it much worse than us. We have also heard that Kansas City, MO got hit worse than where we are. Still, it hasn't really snowed since Saturday unless you count the infinitesimally short-lived snow flurries we saw yesterday afternoon.


Ironically, I believe that I still have Kindermusik and Rachel still has pre-school since all the KS schools seem to be open today.


I'm including a picture of our "big snow" - it was taken on Saturday.

Interpretation is everything.

At preschool this week, the kids have been talking about what it means to do a mitzvah. Last week they were sent home with a leaf. The idea was that the parents would write down a mitzvah (basically, a good deed or kind act) that the children did, and return it to school where it would be hung on the mitzvah tree. This week we got snowflakes.

Since we were away last week, we had two mitzvot to do. I asked Rachel for her ideas. She suggested picking up her toys. I then suggested helping to make her bed. We did both of these things yesterday and Rachel was very proud of herself. She kept asking what her next mitzvah would be. Hehe.

Last night as we tucked Rachel in and we recapped her day, she informed us of another mitzvah:

"I pooped! That was my last mitzvah!"

While I agree that pooping in the potty was a kind act since it meant that I didn't have to clean up poopy pants, I think some more discussion is in order.

Oh no, it's a blizzard. Quick, shut down the city.

If you don't understand or appreciate sarcasm, stop reading right now. ;)

This morning there was a thin layer of ice on the roads. Ben spent about 10 minutes scraping ice off of the van before we could go out. It was overcast, but no snow yet.

All schools have been closed. UMKC cancelled the afternoon classes. This is good, because now Ben doesn't have to drive in for one orchestra rehearsal. However, it's pretty much flurrying out there. There are big flakes but they're coming down S-L-O-W-L-Y. To be fair, the wind is blowing a bit too. Oh, I am so scared.

For those of you that use instant messaging and are familiar with the smiley guy that's ROFLOL (rolling on the floor laughing out loud), that's exactly what Ben and I were doing about 5 minutes ago. Now I don't deny that the "storm" will probably get worse. I guess I just don't understand the pre-emptive school closings.

While we're at it, it was 56F (14C) yesterday. Rachel's pre-school class stayed indoors to play. Um, ok. The school handbook says they go out if it's 32F (0C) and sunny. It was dark, cloudy and windy but didn't rain all day.

There's no place like home.

I'm editing this at 1pm to add that it has almost stopped snowing. ;)

On the road with Rachel

We drove back from London a few days ago. As we left on Sunday night, it began to snow. How ironic, since there was NO snow the whole time we were in Canada! Well, no snow unless you count a couple of dustings. I say that doesn't count.

We drove to Benton Harbour (fine, it's probably spelled Harbor but what can I say, I AM CANADIAN!), MI and stopped for the night. On Monday morning, we headed for the outlets in Michigan City where Ben got a new winter jacket for $40, and several pairs of incredibly cheap pants. I lucked out at the Hanna Andersson outlet and got the comfiest grey sweat/yoga pants. Even better, once I got home they turned out to be too big, so we called and they're sending a smaller size to me! Yay! I'll still keep the other pair for wearing around the house though. Yes, they're that comfortable.

At about 2:30pm on Monday, we stopped for lunch in Normal, IL. Ben is very excited that we have a receipt from Normal. He wanted me to take a picture of the "Welcome to Normal" sign, but the camera battery was dead. Oops.

After lunch, we tried to get Rachel to use the potty in the van. She kept saying that she didn't have to go, yet she'd had 2 large cups of apple juice... finally, I said, "Rachel, come here and I'll tell you a secret."

Rachel's eyes lit up. "Is it cookies?" she asked. "No," I said. "It's even better than cookies." (This kid knows me and my on-the-road potty bribes, eh?)

Rachel thought for a minute. "Donuts?" she said with a huge smile. "No," I said. "It's even better than donuts." (I'm sure you've all guessed by now that I was going to offer a piece of chocolate.)

Rachel thought again, grinned widely, and shouted, "RAISINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Ben and I totally cracked up, and I said, "Why, yes, Rachel. It IS raisins. You can have TWO boxes of raisins after you go potty."

Five minutes later, we were on the road and Rachel was happily munching on her raisins.