Mall of America

While in Minneapolis we just had to take Rachel to the Mall of America, which of course meant a trip to the Nickelodeon Theme Park with in the mall. This was Rachel’s first experience with rides and she loved it. We started out slow with a Blues Clues ride that just went round and round. She smiled a lot...we then worked our way up to the Dora and Boots Ferris wheel - She smiled more with the height. She then got her first taste of a roller coaster, as it whipped her and her daddy around some "fast" turns she squealed with glee. But the absolute best was the one in the picture. I cannot remember the name, but she laughed so hard during the ride she could barely catch her breath. We were laughing just as hard. I must say - we were very proud of her for riding it by herself, she showed NO FEAR, just a little nervousness at first. I wish we could have gotten her on video, even the ride worker was laughing at her. It was awesome and told us that she has a real taste for excitement and maybe a little Dare Devil in her. Oh boy!

Ping Pong

Rachel has found a new game - Ping Pong! She truly takes after her daddy. While in Iowa/Minnesota visiting friends and family Rachel was able to test her athletic side and she loved it. She actually did quite well at hitting the ball - great hand-eye coordination. She laughed a lot, got frustrated a lot, but most of all had a ton of fun!

Reading

Every kid has their favorite book and one of Rachel's is Brown Bear, Brown Bear. It is a great beginning book, the repetitive pattern and colorful pictures make it very easy for memorization. We tried for weeks to catch Rachel reading the book. And finally Daddy caught her without her knowing as she read it to herself in her pink castle tent. The best part is that as she reads it, she takes a sneak peak to the next page so she knows what animal and color comes next. Our next mission is to catch her singing. We found that she has started to memorize songs from her favorite movies or from the radio. She can hear a song on the radio and name what movie it is from...sound familiar (just like mom). So Daddy put together a Mix CD of her favorite songs. Her favorite song to sing right now is "Part of Your World" from the movie The Little Mermaid. Stay tuned for a video once we can catch her!