life is good

 Fortunately, life has been great around here lately. Rachel has been talking and eating (her pants are even fitting again) and messing up her room. Unfortunately, I haven't bothered to write about it. Apparently when things are going well I just enjoy them, and when things aren't going so well I write about them. I am trying to change that and document the good times as well as the difficult ones.

A few days ago Rachel, her dad, and I had to go run some errands. She was in a good mood and enjoyed looking at things at the store and commenting (loudly) on a lot of them. One of the things she does frequently is comment about people. "Look, there's a boy. He's a cute boy." Sometimes she talks about clothes and colors, and sometimes she'll say things like "He date me" or "He marry me." That gets some looks occasionally. One thing she does often that is either super embarrassing or super funny (I choose to see it as funny, since I can't seem to get her to stop) is commenting on specific clothing items. She frequently says (again, loudly) "Look at that boy. He's wearing pants!" as if that is such a novel idea she's never even seen it before. I instinctively want to explain to everyone in the vicinity that yes, we do indeed wear clothes at our house, not just occasionally or frequently, but all the time! However, I think that would just make things worse, so I just smile and agree with her and move on. She makes me laugh.

Throughout this trip her dad had been teasing her and tickling her a bit. When we got home I was helping her take off her coat and hang it up and she leaned close to me and said with a very teenage-girl-conspiritorial-look "Mom, Dad's being weird." She had the cutest smile and was so happy, it just melted my heart. She is such a daddy's girl. Always has been. I love it when she is in a good mood and interacts with him.

When I get her up in the mornings I usually get comments from her lately. Mostly things like "it's not my turn" or "it's not my job" or "I can't do it" or "I'm not ready." The other day she didn't say anything until she got to the door of the bedroom. She then turned around and with a very serious expression said "We don't say 'pee.' It's (dis)gusting." Then she turned and walked out of the room. I wish so much I had been able to record that. It was the funniest thing she's done in a long time. Having been raised by a mother who had a dislike of anything crude, I very seldom use words like that (can't always say the same thing about my boys, but even they monitor their language fairly carefully since their mother also has a dislike of crude words), but I don't think I've ever had a conversation about it with Rachel. It must have come up at school, but it was just so random to hear first thing in the morning. I love having this awesome little girl in my life!