22 Months

Rachel turned 22 months this weekend. Only 2 more months and we will be celebrating her 2nd birthday.

Tim worked all weekend, so Rachel and I had a lot of time for just the 2 of us to play. She is leaning back admiring her handywork on her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, her favorite toy.

On Saturday, we went to the Carlsbad Outlets and then headed to the beach with Nana.

Rachel wasn't sure about the sand at first, but was dragging Nana behind her.

It was pretty cold, so she had an outfit change and smiled for me to take her picture.

She was watching the "duckies".

Nana was making a hill with her feet and initially, Rachel was taking away the sand two small handfuls at a time. She quickly realized she wasn't making any progress, so she attacked the hill.

She wiped her hands off on her already very sandy shirt.

She had such a great time and did NOT want to leave. We will definitely go to the beach a lot this summer.

Today we went to Kit Carson Park. It started sprinkling as soon as we got there. By the 3rd time down the slide, it was pouring. Rachel wasn't happy we were leaving so soon.

We went up to Nana and Papa's house to wait for my soccer game and decided to do a little puddle splashing instead. She was very happy with this alternative!

Road Rash

Yesterday, Rachel had a little accident at Tim's parents house.

She tripped over the climbing wall and fell into the ladder. She still has the mark from her stitches and now this.

If is not one thing...it is another. My guess is she is probably destined for a life of cuts, scrapes, and bruises.

She doesn't walk anywhere, she runs and her brain works a lot faster than her legs.

A Typical Saturday

On the weekends I am always looking for something to do with Rachel to get out of the tiny house that we have.

We started the morning off in typical Rachel fashion. She tries to organize and sort everything. She put her remaining 3 blueberries on top of remaining 3 strawberries from breakfast and sat there admiring her work.

We went to Pat and Oscar's for lunch and she loves their breadsticks as much as her mama does.

Then we went to the park for some playtime. She loves the slides more than anything.

I have to help her on the rock wall, but you can tell she feels like a big girl when she tries to do it.

She was having a blast playing peek-a-boo.

She wanted to run into the water and play with the ducks.

It is so much fun spending time with her on the weekends...I can't wait until summer again!

Wild Animal Park

On Monday, I had a vacation day and so Rachel and I went to the Wild Animal Park with Tim's mom and his cousin Emily, who was here for a week after working in Florida for a year.

Rachel was happy to get some ice cream on this remarkably hot winter day.

She loved the ducks and would have been happy to sit on this rock and watch them all day.

The elephants were great! They were all playing in this mud hole, especially the calves. The 3 little ones start mud wrestling about 30 seconds into the video. It was really cute to watch.

Lacey's Birthday Party

We celebrated Lacey's birthday at my Mom and David's house on Saturday. Rachel and I got there early and Rachel stayed busy the whole time.

"Grandma and Grandpa, I am here and ready to play!"

Rachel is helping her Grandma decorate.

Since our Christmas at my mom's was "cut" short, my mom found a present for Rachel that she got to open on Saturday.

Rachel and I took a long walk around the property. She wanted to explore.

She did a lot of redecorating of their rocks.

She found a couple of places to sit.

She really likes their wishing well and kept trying to turn the handle.

Tyler, Lacey, and her family came in the evening and we had a great time celebrating her birthday. Happy Birthday Lacey!

Emma's Birthday Party

Today we went to Emma's 2nd birthday party. It was circus themed and Rachel had a great time!

They had a cake walk. Rachel started dancing when the music started.

We won the first round despite me telling Bri not to call my number.

I think Rachel's favorite toy was the car she is riding here. She sat on it and scooted around a lot of the time.

She also liked the hula hoops

and blocks.

Emma got this whole cake to herself.

She did try to share some though.

Emma is opening her mound of gifts.

Towards the end, a lot of the kids were crawling through the tunnels.

Rachel turned into the cookie monster about halfway through the party. She discovered the cookie tray and kept going back for more and more. She has 3 here but ate many more than that and couldn't be kept away once she knew it was there. Every time I turned around, she had more in her hand. She doesn't get treats too often, so she takes advantage of when she can get some. Happy 2nd birthday Emma!

A New Beginning!

I would like to restart 2011. So, it is officially restarting today and things are going to go much better from now on =)

Here are two shots of Rachel's stitches from earlier this week.

We went to the doctors yesterday and got them taken out then.

It looks a lot better. It is hard to tell what the scarring will be like, but it seems like it is healing up nicely.

Rachel is so happy to be done with this whole thing and I think she is definitely ready to restart 2011 too!

What an Ending!

This vacation has not been very relaxing to say the least.

Rachel had one healthy day before this.

We finally got to celebrate Christmas with my family because everyone was finally over the stomach flu, and after about an hour and a half, Rachel was running around and fell and hit her head on the door frame. She was gushing blood. After we saw the gash, which was pretty deep, we decided to go to urgent care because we were an hour away and it closed in two hours so we knew we had to get there soon.

This is her second bandage and you can see how much blood was on this one. She hated having the big bandage on and wouldn't leave it alone. When we got there, we got moved to the front of the line in front of at least 10 people who were already there. They were definitely worried about the head trauma. They were even saying that we might have to go to the E.R. Thankfully, the doctor thought that it was just a gash and that he didn't think we needed a CAT scan.

This picture does not do it justice. All she kept saying was ouch. They put a numbing agent on it and let that soak in for about a half an hour. They strapped her down on the backboard, which she hated being strapped down, and then got the needles out and injected her with lidocaine. She ended up with 4 stitches total.

When we got home, she got an otterpop and got to open her presents from Mom, David, Tyler and Lacey. As she was pulling out the megablocks, she put every single one on her face. It was really funny.

She is sporting her new jammies from her Grandma and Grandpa.

She got a cool Tinkerbell quad from Tyler and Lacey, but won't be riding that until we get her a helmet!

:)