Restaurant

Dear Rachy,

The past few weeks you have gotten it in your head that you want to open a restaurant. I can't remember exactly what spurred this idea, but you have been slowly working away at it. You think up things to serve and spent many days creating a menu. You had a shopping list and were so upset one day when I said we weren't actually going shopping for your items. In the end, I let you add your items to my grocery list last Friday and we picked up the red peppers, strawberries, blueberries, cucumber, carrots, and raspberries (I distracted you from realizing that I was not buying a watermelon).  Once we had the items, you were gung ho.

Yesterday, you made signs and moved the playroom all around to allow for two tables with chairs and a blanket underneath in case anything dropped.

This is the point where I realized that you actually thought you were opening a restaurant. Up until then, I thought we were both on the same page with this one - that this was a 'pretend' restaurant. You asked me if we could go for a walk to put up your signs in the neighbourhood, just from our house to the mailbox and then maybe knock on a few doors to invite people over personally. I hesitated and in that split second we both stared at each other. I saw the pleading look in your eyes: please don't ruin this dream for me, Mom.

I distracted you for a bit by reminding you that we were going to the library after Kingsley's nap, so the signs would have to wait. Besides, it was going to rain, so how about you just post them on our windows? You did just that while I frantically wondered how I was going to break your heart and tell you that no one was going to be coming to The Bell Restrote.

I don't know how long I can distract you before you finally realize the sad truth, but in the meantime Cordelia and I were your first customers and I gave you a four quarter tip for your excellent service. If you remember that I had mentioned it, you might also have a lemonade sale tomorrow (or in your words, have an outside restaurant). I will definitely buy whatever you're selling.

Love Mommy

Little Mama

Hey Sweets,

You are in Mamamode lately. You play with your baby (a big My Little Pony named Cheerie Lee or something) all day long. You feed her, dress her, play with her, read her stories and you sleep with her every night just like you saw me sleep with King and Cor. You are so cute with her. You've played with dolls before, obviously, but you haven't gone through a real baby-craze phase like this in a while. Yesterday you told me that all you want to do is be a mommy. We'll see. ;)

Love Mommy

Imagination

Dear Rachie,

One thing that I have absolutely loved over the past few months is the way that you and Cordelia play together now. At any given moment you or Cor will yell out: "Wanna play..." and the suggestion can be any number of your favourite imaginative play games. You love most to play Jungle (where you are animals in the jungle), Sweetie (where one of you is a mom and the other is the little Sweetie baby), and Cafe (your new fave where you both run a cafe that serves everything from mashed potatoes to lemonade).

You have such amazing imagination. And even more amazing is the way you and Cordelia get along and interact. I know this won't last forever, so I am enjoying every second of it... while I sip my lemonade and dodge the stampeding rhino's.

Love Mommy

Believer

Rachel, you are still such a believer in all things make-believe. Sometimes I am baffled by the lack of logic, but mostly I'm impressed with your willingness to not care if things make sense.

A couple of weeks ago, I took you and Cordelia to see Sesame Street Live. Cordelia was stone faced the entire time. She just stared. You enjoyed every minute of it, singing and dancing and yelling out answers. When we came home, I chatted with Cordelia a bit. She admitted that she had been scared. The monsters were so much bigger than she had thought they were. I was surprised to find out that she thought Elmo and his friends were real. I explained to her that they were people in costumes, which was why they were so big. On TV they are puppets and here they are grown ups . We discussed how they saw, where their heads were, and how they took them off. She was very relieved.

We went downstairs and I told Daddy what had just happened. I told them how she had thought the monsters were real, but they were just people in costumes. Behind me, I heard you making a strangled sound. I looked over and you just said, "Moooom..." and looked, I don't know, upset and shocked. Like I had just said something really offensive. It turns out, you also had not realized that the monsters were people in costume. You had thought they were real. You were so mad at me for telling you otherwise. You kept asking, "Is that true?" just begging me to change my answer and say that they were not people in costumes.

You often ask, even before the Sesame Street incident, if things are real or not. Things such as mermaids, fairies, goblins, unicorns, monsters, dragons, various animals... you always want to know if they're real. Mostly, I have just started asking you if you think they're real or not. You've decided that mermaids are not real, nor are unicorns, but fairies are.

We are now in the Christmas season. On the weekend, we went to the Santa Claus parade. You loved every minute of it. Your belief in Santa Claus is 100% in tact. When we woke up in the morning, Buddy the Elf had returned. You and Cordelia were ecstatic. You've been talking to Buddy, whispering to him, dancing for him. It's adorable. While I was making dinner, you came in to the kitchen with an odd look on your face. A frozen smile. I asked what was up and you said, nothing. But you had that smile that you were fighting to keep on, even as your face dissolved into tears. The whole story came tumbling out: you had been putting a puzzle away on the shelf when Buddy had gotten jostled and he fell over. You were just beside yourself, sobbing. I assured you that things would be okay and we went to check on Buddy. I assured you that grown ups were allowed to touch elves. I picked him up and leaned in to hear what he had to say. PHEW! Don't worry, Rach, Buddy was just fine. I settled him down and had you run and get a cold thing (ice pack). I put it on Buddy's head for a few minutes and then he was fine.

Today, you raced into school and caught up with Adrianna on the way. From the road I heard you exclaiming in excitement about the REAL ELF that was in your house. My heart froze a bit. Please, please, please don't let anyone ruin this for you. When Mason came over today after school, you grabbed him and ran him into the kitchen where Buddy was hanging out today. I wasn't sure - he looked up and saw Buddy. Did he see an elf? Did he see a doll? Either way, he didn't say anything. He thought it was cool and told his mom all about it when she got here.

Rachel, you make my heart burst with your imagination and trust. I hope a part of this never leaves you.

Love Mommy

My Little Mermaid

Sweet Rachie,

We just spent a week at a cottage in Port Franks. You had a fabulous time. While we were there, you discovered the story of the Little Mermaid. You were intrigued, to say the least. The cottage had the Disney DVD version of the story as well as the original Hans Christian Anderson version of the tale. Nana was up visiting us one day and without realizing how far off the original was from the Disney story, read the whole thing to you.

The stories somehow spiraled into you creating mermaid tales out of paper for you and Kingsley and your cousin Hailey, then water to swim in, shell bra's, and finally on our last day at the beach you spent half the time lying in the water singing like Ariel does.

You are so adorable and so creative. Your drawings of mermaids are awesome. Since we've been home, you've raided the basement for any Little Mermaid books that were tossed down there from lack of interest. You've been begging me to find the movie for you.

You make me smile everyday.

Love Mommy

Santa Claus and Minnie Mouse

A few weeks ago, I was reading a Junie B. book to you. Junie B. was deciding what to dress up as for career day. Someone said they were going to be Minnie Mouse and Junie B. said she's not a real person, just a costume. There was a pause and you made a sort of huffy sound.

I asked what you said and you said: "That's not true."

"What's not true?"

"Minnie Mouse. She's a real person. She isn't a costume."

"Oh."

"Psssht. She lives in Disney World."

"Oh."

"She's just silly." Pointing to the book.

"Yeah..."

I know there's not a lot of time left before you realize what's real and what is not real. I love that you are so gullible though. It's going to make Christmas that much more awesome again this year when I have all three of you excited about Santa Claus. The Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, Rudolph, and even Mickey Mouse. You are so awesomely a believer in all things about childhood.

Style World

My Dear Rachie,

You are so unique. So confident and sure of yourself. So individual and proud of it. I LOVE this about you. Your style cracks me up. I have spent a lot of time discussing with Nana and Daddy about whether or not I should be trying to tame your style a bit. I have chosen not to, which has led to some interesting outifts and hairstyles. You don't care, I don't care. You are so beautiful in whatever you wear, however you wear it.

You even ask to do my hair all the time now.

One day, you might realize that your hair or clothes are a bit odd and change to match your peers. Or maybe you won't and you'll always be this awesomely unique. Either way, I hope you still run into the room yelling: "STYLE WORLD!!!" with each fabulous ensemble you put together. You are fashion, baby.

Love Mommy