Rachel Update

Good Evening, folks!
Finally, I get to sit down and say hello. The girls are sacked out after a little sales tax holiday shopping for school supplies and learning tools....more on that in a bit.
It's quite humid in the computer room, so I have ditched my shirt, confident a certain 2 1/2 year-old won't walk in here, look at my chest and exclaim, "Pretty Nipples!" I wish I was making that up.
There is no cheese in the world to go with all the whine that pours out of a 2 1/2 year-old.
You would think their world was on a string. You get fed; you get changed; you get pampered, but sometimes it's just not enough. There are Little People to see, Heffalump movies to watch, feet to be stepped on and moods to be swung. Sometimes I have these visions of Joan Crawford before snapping back into reality.
Rachel has so much hair, I think it obscures the devil horns underneath. The other day, Rebecca walked into the kitchen and Beelzebabe had poured out the oatmeal and sugar for her cereal onto the floor.
But what really drives us batty now is we can ask her if she wants chicken, for example, and she says, "No" Within 15 seconds she is shouting, "Chicken! Chicken! Chicken!" Multiply that by 100 times a day and you can see why we can't wait for this phase to pass.
There are so many moments of sweetness to balance things out, though. When I tell her I love her, she responds, "I love you too, David." I tell her I prefer to be called daddy, since she is the only one who can call me that. So that starts a 30 second exchange of "David! Daddy! David! Daddy!...." The important thing is she loves me.
We recently decided that Little Pumpkin (a) needs to associate with more people her own age (b) needs to associate with more people her own age who speak English as a primary language and (c) we need to keep mommy out of the padded jacket with the pretty belts.
So I am happy to say that on September 1....Rachel begins preschool. She'll be going Monday-Wednesday-Friday to the Early Learning Center at our Temple from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 pm except for Mondays, when she'll stay until 3 to play ball and listen to creative storytelling.
The school is across the street from my office, so we'll be able to travel together in the HOV lane. I can hear it now..."Music!" "Daddy needs to hear the news." "Music!" Rinse and repeat. If she ever gets sick, I'll be right across the street to pick her up.
There will be 12 people in her class...6 boys and 6 girls. Her class is the Butterflies. Rebecca and I were discussing this and Rebecca asked Rachel is she wanted to spend time with a teacher and other kids and the response was a loud, "Yea, school!" So we have that going for us, which is nice. And what's a little pink eye among friends!
Meanwhile, mommy will have a little more time to herself to relax, swim, read, sleep or whatever she chooses, as long as she doesn't swim and sleep at the same time.
Our dining room is still cement. We decided to get a second estimate on how much it would cost to use wood paneling in there and it turns out the estimate recommended by State Farm's dude was way out of line. Home Depot quoted us prices less than half of the contractor and they planned to use top-of-the-line stuff compared to cheap stuff the contractor wanted to use. You might say we were floored.
Anyway, I need to fill out paperwork for Rachel's school. That requires me to get off the Net to help my Butterfly.
Ya'll come back now, hear!

Love,