"Rachelisms"

About a year or so ago I went into Rachel's room to wake her up. She opened her eyes (with apparent difficulty), and very sleepily said "Not again! This is crap!" She wasn't impressed with my stifled laughter, but I seriously couldn't hold it in. I have wished many times that I could have known ahead of time so I could have recorded it, because the look on her face was priceless.

When she was younger (probably 6 or 7) when asked if she liked something she had eaten she would usually say "it didn't make me puke." That was high praise from her. She doesn't say it anymore, but sometimes her brothers do.

A few months ago her younger brother was in a Shakespeare Festival, so we went to watch him and cheer him on. He did the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliette, some sword fighting, and was in an ensemble piece where nearly everyone died (it was Shakespeare, obviously there was a lot of death). After we came home she started talking a lot about the evening. She had enjoyed herself immensely and talked a lot more than she usually does. I asked her what she thought about her brother and she said "He wore a dress. He kissed a mermaid. He fought with swords. Lots of people took naps." As an explanation; her brother wore tights with a long tunic over the top (he looked awesome, but yeah, it kinda looked like a dress). The girl who played Juliette had red hair, and all girls with red hair are Ariel, and therefore are mermaids (obviously). I absolutely love that she thought that everyone was taking naps instead of lying there dead. It makes Shakespeare a lot less morbid. I heard other reviews of the evening, but none of them even came close to Rachel's.

Last fall Rachel and I went to the store and there was suddenly a downpour of rain. I don't think it would have been worse if someone was standing outside the car with a huge bucket of water and dumped it on us. We're not used to that kind of weather here, so it took Rachel by surprise (me too, that's why I didn't have an umbrella). When we got back in the car ready to go home she looked at me and stated as emphatically as she possibly could "water is wet!" 'Nough said!

Over the summer she had a lot of headaches and therefore had a lot of bad days. One day we had to go someplace even though she really wasn't feeling well. I was helping her get ready and she glared at me (I really wish I had a picture of her expression to put here...) and said "You're a rude, evil, bad guy!" I was just grateful that those were the worst words she could think of.

One school year a few years back her favorite word was "painful." In the morning when she was getting dressed she would frequently yell "This is painful!" at the top of her lungs. I'm grateful for understanding neighbors. During the warmer months her window was open, so I'm fairly certain they could hear her yelling at 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning. Probably not the best alarm clock. Incidentally, her brother was downstairs agreeing with every syllable she uttered. He just didn't have the energy at that time of the morning to voice it with such gusto. They're not morning people.

This is why I miss her so much when she quits talking. It's just fun to remember. Kind of keeps me going when there's a lack of words for awhile.