Rachel's Smamish

Rachel's been asking me to put a video of her up on the blog because lately all the videos I have uploaded have been of Miriam. I suppose the reason for this is that I'm always frustrated with the videos I get of Rachel—she over performs and acts like a goof or is completely uncooperative. Like so:



Would you like a transcription? Here you go:

Me: Rachel!
Rachel: The sun is in my eyes! Mom!
Me: Is the sun in your eyes?
Rachel: I need sunglasses!
Me: I didn't bring your sunglasses.
Rachel: The sun is in my eyes.
Me: Hey, Rach! What language are you learning at school?
Rachel: Spanish.
Me: Spanish.
Rachel: Mom! The sun is in my eyes.
Me: Come over here!
Rachel: I wish that the sun just...does not be alive!
Me: Come over here! Stand in the shade! Rachel!
Rachel: There's no shade [be]cause the sun keeps shining!

And that's pretty much how she's like every day. There's usually one bee in her bonnet or another. Granted, she was feeling ill, but this is no exception to her daily behavior. When she gets sick she usually gets easier to get along with, not harder.

Once I got her out of the sun I was able to get her to sing, though then we had to battle the dreaded baby voice. I can appreciate that she thinks it's cute. However, she already has a natural baby voice because she is only four and still mispronounces things all the time—she still says fwick-or-fweat, for crying out loud! I don't need her purposely making herself unintelligible when I'm still working out how to understand her in the first place. I realize it's a stage and that it will pass, but it gets frustrating to listen to.

She's learning Spanish at school, though, and has started singing the days of the week every now and then...though she doesn't know the last part very well. She can say Spanish, but when she uses her baby voice she says Smamish.



Domingo, lunes, martes, miércoles, jueves, viernes, sábado...then something about starting all over again, I think, is what she's supposed to sing. That's what she sings in English.

I think that—when she sings in her own voice—she sounds very cute. If only I could get her to use her own voice all the time!

Rachel, though she frustrates me, can also be altogether adorable. Sometimes I feel like all I do is lament our inability to get along—but slowly, slowly she is growing up and throwing fewer fits and I see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Perhaps one day she and I will see eye to eye.

The other day we were singing the honey song from the new Winnie the Pooh movie. Rachel stopped singing to ask me why I sometimes call Andrew honey.

"Is it because he's sticky?" she asked.

"No," I told her, "It's because he makes my life sweet!"

"Oh, well...I still think it's because he's sticky!"

Later though, when Andrew asked her why I call him honey she said it's because he makes my life sweet. As she does.