True Companion

Our wedding song is True Companion by Marc Cohn.   When Brian and I are apart from each other for long periods of time I find myself listening to it frequently.  We have been "gone" from each other for a little over two weeks now, so the girls and I are listening to the song a lot.  They call it the Daddy song and when it comes on we all talk about how much we miss Daddy and who misses him the most :)

Today in the car we had it on repeat and were listening to it over and over.  At one point Luna says to me "You guys can watch us dance at our wedding, ok Momma."  I asked her who "you guys" are and she says "you and daddy."  Then I said "I will love coming to your wedding and watching you dance, who are you going to marry?"  She says "Rachel, my sister, because I love her."

Friend from Japan

My sister has a friend (Takaya) visiting from Japan and since we are all staying in one house, we get to spend a lot of time with him.  Jessica is working during the day so some days he spend the whole day with me and the girls.  I just love it.   He has dove right in with the kiddos and has done more than his share of playing and reading to the girls.  He is super nice and really easy going.  It is a pleasure to have him here.

Rachel can be pretty timid around new people but she warmed up to him right away.  I think his quiet gentle approach won her over and they became friends.  I love to hear her little voice "Takaya, you want to play with me?" She really likes him.

Takaya brought some treats from Japan for us to try out.  Here is Luna enjoying some of them.  For those of you who know Luna she is a food kid, loves food, all kinds veggies and fruits are her favorite.  She also loves to smell food, I mean she really likes to smell food.  When we grocery shop together she will ask many times during the trip if she can smell this or that.  When we cook she is always wanting to smell the spices and other ingredients.  So it is fun to try new foods with her and see what she thinks.  So when we tried the treats out I asked her what they tasted like and she said "banana" for one of them.  I tasted it and it tasted nothing like a banana but the texture was almost exactly like a banana.  It was a great description for the texture and it was yummy.

We are looking forward to spending some more time with Takaya before he returns to Japan.

Sweet Sweet Rachel

Since we have moved to New York I feel like Rachel has grown up so much.  I think it is the combination of how well she talks and no longer being in a crib.  The last of the baby stage for her is being potty trained which we are working on but so far not much progress.

These are two of my favorite stories about Rachel.  The reason why I love these stories is because they are an expression of her love for me.  She will tell me she loves me but it is hard to know if she gets what she is saying or if she is just repeating what is modeled to her.  But through these stories I know Rachel loves me and that is why these stories are dear to me.  They make me smile and delight in being her Mommy.  One takes place in NY and the other happened when we were in Washington.

One weekend, we were in Port Townsend visiting Nana and Pops.  While doing a project outside Pops found a frog.  We were showing it to the girls and neither of them really wanted to touch it, Rachel was a bit afraid of it.  She tends to be timid most of the time.  So to try to get the kids a little more comfortable with it and to show them it is not scary I picked it up.  Rachel became very upset with this and took it from me while crying.  She started to squeeze the frog and I kept trying to get her to give it back before she killed it.  But she would not give it to me and instead just got more and more upset.  So finally Pops put out his hand to take it from her and she easily gave it to him.  She just did not want her Mommy to hold the scary frog :)  She was looking out for me.  Love it!

The second story was in New York.  One evening after dinner Brian was taking the girls to the park and I was going to go grocery shopping.  Brian and Luna had just left the apartment and Rachel was just going out the door to follow.  She turns back around and says "You going grocery shopping Momma?"  I said "yes."  She says "ok, be safe Momma."  Love that girl!  Keeping her Momma safe!

When she is rested and in a good mood she can just be the sweetest little thing but watch out if you try to take one of her toys!  :)

Satin Princess Pillowcases

Luna's bedding here in Washington is Princess Tiana and she loves it.  It is 100% cotton which is very typical of most bedding and the only problem I have with it is the pillowcase.  A cotton pillowcase is not ideal for Luna's hair.  It dries out her hair and does not help her styles to last as long.  A satin or silk pillowcase is much better.  So we have a plain white satin pillowcase that she has been using for a long time, we even take it on vacation with us.

When we got home to Washington and she saw the Princess Tiana pillowcase she fell in love with it.  I tried to put the plain white one on and she was not having it.  So for a couple nights I let her use the cotton one but after seeing what it did to her hair I knew I had to do something.  So we went to the fabric store to pick out fabric for me to sew her a Princess Tiana satin pillowcase.

Of course the only fabric with Princess Tiana on it is cotton.  But I did find some ribbon that had a number of princesses on it, one being Tiana.  So she picked out some solid pink satin and we got the ribbon to make it Princess Tiana.  Here is a picture of the ribbon with all the princesses on it:

Anyone know who the princess is between Snow White and Belle?

The finished pillowcases, much better than plain white!  Of course Rachel had to have one to and since I am braiding her hair as well it will help her style last a little longer too.  My Mom actually sewed Luna's and I did Rachel's.  Thanks Mom!  They both love them.  I am considering making a couple more so that I don't have to travel back and forth with them, we will see if I have time.

Sweet Maggie Girl

This is our dog, Maggie.  She is the perfect dog for us. She is super low key and laid back.  It was one of the hardest things to leave her behind when we moved.  But she is in great hands, my sister is taking care of her while we are gone.  Now that we are back for a while we have been soaking her in.

Luna has never been that into Maggie, she likes her and will ask about her but that is pretty much it.  Rachel on the other hand loves Maggie.  I often times find her on Maggie's bed just petting or cuddling with Maggie.  When we got back it took Rachel a few days to be comfortable around Maggie.  But as you can see she is loving her once again.

 Maggie getting a Rachel kiss

Maggie getting Rachel pets

The other day, Rachel crawled up on my lap after giving Maggie some love and said to me "she is a great doggie."  Mommy feels the same way Rachel.