Say, "Cheese!"

Almost got a smile!  Rachel is a smiley girl, but she refuses to smile on command for the camera.  She let her guard down the other night and I almost got a smile!

Good Friends

It is so hard to stay in touch with friends, especially friends from your younger days.  Mike has one special friend, Francine, that he has known since he was in middle school.  They have managed to stay in touch despite the years and distance (mostly thanks to Francine).  I remember meeting Francine when I was in college.  I went to Connecticut with Mike when our spring semester was over.  On my visit to Connecticut, we also drove to Boston to hang out with Francine.  I am not sure if we got to see one another again until mine and Mike's wedding in 1992.  Francine was there for that, and we made the trip to Connecticut in 1997 for Francine and David's wedding.  We met up again in 2001 in Boston when we were in the area for Mike's job.  At that point our families each had two kids about the same ages.  This made for a closer relationship with Francine as we commiserated on the ups and downs of being parents.  I always enjoyed Francine's company, but I am not sure how close we would have become if it had not been for the births of our third children.  Both of us ended up being moms to children with Down syndrome.  Not only that, but we both found out from prenatal testing.  Now, you get us together and we just can't stop talking, comparing the kids to one another, the husbands, etc.  It is sometimes scary how our families seem to be so similar.  At one point during Francine's visit with us this past weekend, out two oldest children said the same thing at the same time! I am very thankful that Francine stayed in touch with Mike over the years and that we have gotten a chance to become good friends.  Good friends are hard to come by.....good friends who know where you are coming from are rare.  Rare and cherished.     

Soccer

The local soccer club has a program for children with disabilities.  We have never taken part in it before, but I thought I would let Rachel give it a shot this year.  Players from the local club volunteer as buddies for the special needs players, and the buddies do their best to get out there and keep the kids focused on soccer skills and games.  The volunteers often have their hands full!  Rachel has loved going out to the field to play.  She rarely is doing what she is supposed to be doing, but she is having fun and talks about soccer throughout the week.  I cannot say enough about the young volunteers that get out there with Rachel.  They have been so sweet and so patient.  Rachel has really kept them running for the hour and a half they are out there, so I am betting they go home pretty tired.     

Rachel and her buddy.

Learning how to kick the ball into the net.

The little kid in the white shirt sitting in the middle of the the field is Rachel.  Not sure what she was doing.  I am not sure she even noticed the game going on around her, haha!

 She is still sitting in the field............Oh well, she had a great time!

"Why?"

One of Rachel's newest things is to ask "why?" every time I tell her to do something.  The teacher commented, recently' that she was asking "why?" at school too.  She has the perfect inflection with it and really seems to be asking for an explanation, but she only says it once.  I don't want to sell her short, but I am thinking that Rachel is not actually asking for me to explain myself, she is just responding to me with "why?" because she has noticed that her sisters do it ALL.  THE.  TIME.  I think that was one of my biggest fails as a parent......giving the older girls explanations for why they should do something.  I am paying the price now.  Sooooo, poor little Rachel gets no explanations.  I say, "Go wash your hands."  and she says, "Why?" at which point I just tell her again to go was her hands.  She will usually go ahead at that point and do what I have told her to do.  Now if I could just get that to work with the older two!       

Christmas 2011

All the Christmas decorations were up, presents were wrapped, school was out, and we were ready for Christmas!

It may have looked like Christmas on the inside, but outside it was warm and sunny on the outside.  Christmas Eve the girls got out and played in the kayak behind the house. 

I was inside baking.  Leah decided she wanted to help in the kitchen instead of going outside.  She loves to cook, and one of her favorite shows to watch is "Chopped".  Maybe she will be a chef when she grows up.  I am not any sort of inspiration for her, as I can barely follow a recipe, so she will have to just keep watching her televisions shows. 

Finally everyone joined me and Leah in the kichen to decorate cookies.  We could not convince Rachel that it would be fun, so she wandered off to do something else.

As has become our tradition, our dear friend, Regina, joined us for Christmas Eve dinner.  It just wouldn't be the same without her or her silly hats. 

Christmas morning arrived and the girls were up before the sun.  son't know what was up with that, as they have never done that before.  They got lots of stuff and spent the day playing with all their new stuff.  Rachel's favorite Christmas toy was her new set of blocks.  She perfected stacking them on the couch.  She really has a knack for that....must be all those years of occupational therapy! 

I got to spend a little time playing with the toys, but Christmas Day was busy for me because the girls and I were packing up and leaving the next day to go see my dad in Alabama.