The Christmas Story

So I have a special necklace that my mother in law gave me many years ago. It is a silver Christmas Star. I pulled it out of my jewelry box today and told Rachel she could wear it to her Christmas party at school. I told her Gran gave it to me and it was very special and she needed to be careful. I then told her the following.

"Rachel, this is the Christmas Star, it was in the sky very bright the night that Jesus was born."

Rachel then proceeded to tell her Pre K teacher the following,

"Mrs Parker, see my necklace? This is the Christmas Star it is from when Jesus was boring."

Mrs Parker and I had a big laugh on that one.

Teaching the Basics

Okay so we have been working on Rachel being able to tell some information about herself to others....here is how it goes.

My name is Rachel Dian Johnson, I am 4, my birthday is August 16th, I live in Rockwall Texas.

She is doing great, the only thing she is having a hard time remembering is the city Rockwall. So in the car the other day we were practicing.

Mommy - What is your name?
Rachel - Rachel Dian Johnson
Mommy - How old are you?
Rachel - I'm 4
Mommy - When is your birthday?
Rachel - August 16th
Mommy - And where do you live?
Rachel - Walmart Texas!

We laughed very hard at that one, including Rachel.

Trick or Treating

Rachel dressed as Dorothy from Wizard of Oz this year, she looked adorable. At one house the couple answered the door and just oooh'd and ahhh'd over Rachel. The man asked if she could click her heels in her pretty red ruby slippers. Rachel then looked at him and said "There is no place like home." That just made the couple laugh and oooh and ahhh some more.

What does God look like?

Rachel has been asking all sorts of questions about God lately. So one evening in the car....

Rachel - God's birthday is on Christmas.
Daddy - Jesus' birthday is on Christmas.
Rachel - What is His favorite color?
Mommy - I don't know, but that is a great question to ask Him.
Rachel - Where is God?
Mommy - He is always with you, He watches over you, loves you, and is protecting you. We just cannot see Him.
Rachel - Can we go to His house?
Mommy- Someday we will get to go to His house?
Rachel - Do you think God looks like a veggietale?

I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing out loud.

She makes you feel so good about yourself....

Rachel - Mom why are there lines on your face?

How do children grow so fast???

Rachel came out of the bathroom and her legs were dripping wet.

Mom - why are your legs wet?
Rachel - I put water on them so I would grow.

I did not know what to say after that.

Kids...

Rachel - Mom, it's tough being a kid!

Seriously....where does she learn this stuff?

Andy Griffith...

Rachel watched her first episode of the old black and white Andy Griffith show, and now she is calling Matthew..... "Pa" love it!

Daddy

Rachel - I love Daddy, he is so SOFT.

Her future husband...

Rachel is lying in bed next to me and we are talking. Face to face..all cute and cuddled up.

Rachel - I'm gonna marry a prince
Andrea - I know and he will be great, he will love you, and take care of you so much.
Rachel - And he will wear a black shirt

Ummm...okay

Baskin Robbins

We tool Rachel for an ice cream cone this evening. She loves Mint Chocolate Chip. As she is scarfing it down as fast as possible she notices a round pink clock on the wall....

Rachel - Look at that clock! It's pink, I love that clock
Andrea - Yeah its pretty
Rachel (eyes looking all around the store...) This is a BEAUTIFUL house.

We laughed very hard. I mean it makes total sense. It's pink and surrounded by ice cream, candies and cakes. It is a little girls dream.

Birthdays...

August 8th is Rachel's Grandad's birthday (Matthews dad) so we called him to wish him a happy birthday. Rachel was a little shy as always as at first but once Grandad asked her about her upcoming birthday (the 16th) she was full of conversation. She proceeded to tell him....

My birthday is coming, it is a big one.

If 4 is a big one....what is 34???

The true meaning of colors

In the car Rachel has observantly learned that Green means GO.

Rachel - It's green, that means go daddy
Andrea - laughing...that's right and Red means STOP
Rachel - Red means Stop?
Andrea - Yes, and Yellow means SLOW down...
Rachel - What does Purple mean?
Andrea - I don't know.
Rachel - Hmmm, Purple means, Up a tree.
Matthew - What??

Favorites....

I am cutting up a cantaloupe and Rachel comes in the kitchen.

Rachel - What's that?
Andrea - It's a cantaloupe, it is Daddy's favorite fruit.
Rachel - Yuck
Andrea - What is your favorite fruit?
Rachel - CANDY
Andrea - That is not a fruit
Rachel - Ummmm, fruit snack?

The fruit snack is this little package of fruit gummy bear like candies. They are 100% real fruit with no preservatives, shaped like an orange, peach, grape etc.... at least it is somewhat fruit.

Shopping

So Rachel wakes up from her nap and we throw her into the car and head towards Mesquite. Fry's is having a huge sale on memory cards and we really need one for our laptop.

Rachel - Where are we going?
Andrea - Daddy's store
Rachel - I love Daddy's store, can we be outside and look at the flowers?
Matthew - It is not that store, not the orange store. (home depot)
Rachel - Is it the blue one? (....you guessed it...Best Buy)

I just looked at Matthew and started laughing....she knows him so well.

Princesses....

Ok so I am dusting in the living room and out of the blue Rachel comes in and says: "Mom, let's talk." she sits on the couch and crosses her legs.
Andrea - "okay" and I sat down facing her crossing my legs expecting the where do babies come from type questions...

Rachel - "Is Daddy your prince?"
Andrea - "yes, Daddy is my prince."
Rachel - "did you marry him?"
Andrea - "yes, I married my prince."
Rachel - "Nicholas is my prince" (her cousin) then she smiled and ran off. Hey, at least he is not imaginary!!!

Making all ages laugh...

So we were out to lunch and as I was eating Rachel asked me "what is that mommy?" I replied "it is called Alfredo, do you want to try it?" She crinkled her nose and said, "I don't like Fredo." It was funny and cute, but the the best part was, an elderly couple was eating at a table next to us, as they got up to leave the lady who had to be about 80 looked at Rachel and said... "I don't like Fredo either." Now that was funny. Nice to know she can entertain people of all ages... from 2 to 82.

Who's the boss??

One day Rachel was being very bossy. So I said "Rachel be nice, you are not the boss!" then Matthew said to her "Rachel who is the boss?" and her answer was "Mimi!" (Andrea's Mom) Matthew just looked at me and said "she is probably right!"

Happy Birthday Allison!

Today is Rachel's cousin, Allison's, 9th birthday. So when I told Rachel that she said - "Let's go see her!" I replied, "we can't she lives too far away." (Alabama). Then Rachel said - "I will use my noculars." (Binoculars) and she cupped her hands around her eyes.

A new fascination and realization

Rachel has a new fascination with being "Super Girl" any time we are trying to get her to try something new and she is scared we say, "you can do it, you are a big strong girl!" So now she is Super girl... She runs around...saying "I am Super Girl, I big strong!"

Also, today we were rummaging through some boxes and we came across some photos. It had a picture of me when I was not quite 2 years old and a picture of Matthew around 2-3 years old then our wedding picture. I explained to Rachel that the baby pictures were of mommy and daddy when they were little. She totally got it, and said "that's you mommy?" I said "yes, when I was a little girl like you." She then said "what happened to you?" I laughed and said "I grew up, I am not a little girl anymore, I am a woman." I also told her that she would grow up to be a lady, and then a woman also. Rachel then laughed and said "I don't want to be a Woman!"

More smiles

Rachel - "Mom, my face is hungry!"

Rachel is very observant of other peoples behavior. At the grocery store the shopping cart has these cute brightly colored play cars attached. So the kid gets to "drive" the car while you drive the cart. One day another shopper almost ran into us, and Rachel honked the car horn and said "move it lady!" I was so embarrassed, but have only Matthew and I to blame since we say that all the time in real traffic.

Today's funnies

Ok today we went to McDonald's while Matthew visited with a friend Rachel played at the inside playground. As she ate her apples she told me about her friend Kate, after much prodding I realized Kate was her imaginary friend and Kate has a horse named "Jelly". Which is odd because Rachel does not like jelly.

Rachel talks pretty well for her age and can be understood. But she sometimes reverts to this high pitched baby talk that she thinks is cute. When she does this we tell her - "Talk Right, you are a big girl, no baby talk." She gets it and corrects her speech. Well today on the playground I overheard her tell this boy..."talk right, no baby talk" he was about 2 years old. Try explaining that to her...he baby talks because he is still learning... and it is okay.

Also, my Aunt Janet was in town and Rachel told her in private...."I like to say "butt", but my mom says I have to say "bottom."

Days of Old....

Here are a few cuties from days of old...

Rachel's first word was right after her 1st birthday, she was looking at a picture of herself and loudly and clearly said "BABY".... is that vanity?? From there it was non stop talking.

In the car headed home from day care (2008) Rachel was talking non stop and I had a headache, so I said "Rachel, do not say another word till we get home, Mommy needs quiet time." She sat silent for about 1 minute and then in a soft whisper said...."I love you." My heart just melted.

Some phrases:

- No not today... when asking her to clean her room or eat lunch
- Are you Cra? Are you Buh?....Rachel kept saying "are you crazy" to everyone so we had to tell her "don't say that, it's not nice." So one day she was on the verge of saying it but changed crazy to bunny...it went, " are you...a bunny?" Then she just began shortening the word crazy to cra...and bunny to buh. Also if watching TV or she hears one of us say Crazy... she immediately corrects us and the TV and says..."you can't say that it is not nice."

Some words that she says incorrectly but oh..so cute.

Strawberrys - Strawbabies
Lemonade - Lemellate