Rachel

She's two and a half, and her nickname ought to be "Sunshine" but she most often called "Little Boo," "Little One," "Little Buns" or something extremely affectionate like that. She is such a cheerful girl, and being two years old agrees with her so very well. Her language is exploding rapidly, every time I turn around she knows a new sentence structure or word. These days she's taken to imitating big sis a lot, so I get questions like, "What does 'believe' mean?" or "How do you spell 'cat'?" Things she thinks Kate would like to know. She can say just about anything that she wants to say, but still has very adorable style of talking. She loves to double words -- like "let's take a walkie-walk" or "bathie-bath." She calls her favorite story (which has a character named Bobby) Bobby Pin because she fuses the character's name with the thing I use in my hair. She has a few other little enjambments like that, I just can't remember them right now. She sometimes flips words around; my favorite is "stipstack" which she uses interchangeably with "chapstick" -- it's as though her tongue just can't get it out correctly if she tries to say it more than once in the space of a sentence or two. "Moo-cow" is her official name for cows, and she's especially scared of the Chick-fil-a moo cow.

She soaks up things just like a sponge. As Kate has been working on her memory verses, I noticed that Rachel has about half of Psalm 1 memorized. It's just heart melting to hear her lisp out "and on HIS law he meditates day and night." She and Kate get along very well most of the time, and now that they can both play pretend, the fun has just doubled. I hear "I'm Jane," or "I'm Webekah," or "I'm da momma" pretty frequently.

She is just getting into sitting still for a longer book to be read to her, and these days "If You Give A. . ." books are her #1 on her list. She also continues to chose her Eloise Wilkin's favorites like We Help Mommy and Baby Dear. She also loves to sing & can sing many favorite hymns and bedtime songs. At family worship times, her top pick is the song about David & Goliath. She knows which songs I typically sing & which ones Josh typically sings. One evening as I put her to bed, I began It is Well with My Soul, and she felt compelled to mention that I was singing daddy's song. She even tried to sing the men's response in her lowest possible tone of voice. Soo cute!

She is a daddy's girl, and isn't afraid to be around him when he's working out in the yard. Not even around the loud lawn machinery! Saturday she sat out watching & playing next to him while he trimmed the bushes on the entire side of our house! She's much more intrepid than her sister ever was (or is!), and it is fun to see that character trait maturing with her.

Last of all, she loves her family. She says "LiLaw-en" as one name. Lydia's name just gets smooshed in there at the beginning. And she always pays special attention to little Lukey. She adds a smile to Gagi's face every time she sees her, and really loves to be with all of her grandparents. I love to hear her have a little chat with my parents on Skype. She loves for mom to tickle her 'neck' and doesn't see a lot of barriers to a thriving relationship in the fact that they live thousands of miles away from her! And that makes me smile.