Happy Halloween!

Thunder Mountain Railroad, Here She Comes!

Brian here,

As you can see, Rachel is further preparing herself to go to DisneyLand to ride roller coasters. She already knows how to put her hands up to show everyone she isn't scared!

Practicing for Disneyland

I remember this one time while waiting in line or something my mom said, "We are practicing for Disneyland (or World)." Okay so I can't remember the exact situation or the quote, but I remember the general point. Anyway I thought I would use this tactic with Rachel. Never to young to start learning patience or to visit Disneyland :). Here is how we have been practicing:

From Life with the Bjorks

We talk about going on an airplane and fly our airplane around the room.

From Life with the Bjorks

Rachel sits in her stroller and tries not to fuss about it. This tends to be most successful when the stroller is moving and there is lots to see, so I think we may be okay in Disneyland.

From Life with the Bjorks

Our ride practice includes spinning with Daddy (Mommy does not spin), going upside down (also a Daddy and Rachel thing), and riding our rocking horse.

She probably won't get the patience part or even understand the idea of "practicing" for a couple years, but she can definitely enjoy Disneyland now. We are headed down there very very soon, and I think we are all ready!

Test Post

Brian here,

Some of you may have noticed that several of our pictures aren't showing up on the blog anymore. The pictures are still there, but the link names got changed during a Lightroom 3 update. (See Dad, software is a pain for me too)

I'm now doing a test post for using Picasa instead of Flikr. I'll edit it tomorrow in Lightroom and republish and see if it holds the link.

From Life with the Bjorks

EDIT: All righty, It looks like image links on Picasa don't get changed when edits are made from our image editor: Lightroom 3.

I Think She Was Messing With Me

Yesterday Rachel and I shared some grapes for a snack. She LOVES fruit! After we were done she became very interested in the stems. I explained that we do not eat the stems just in case she was thinking, "Mmmm, grapes are good, so maybe the stems are good too." As I expected the stems headed towards her mouth. As I was getting ready to gently remind her that the stems are not for eating she gave me a sly look and the stems quickly took a detour to the top of her head. Then she did it again, but this time they found their way to her ear and then a third time toward her eyes. At this point I began to laugh hysterically because it appeared that Rachel was teasing me. Following my lead she too began to laugh, and I was left to wonder how on earth did she learn to tease like that. She never ceases to amaze and entertain me.

RachelBug Turns 1

Last week Rachel turned one. To honor this momentous occasion we had a lady bug themed birthday party. When we started planning the party we thought it would just include both sets of grandparents, but we were honored to have other family members share the special day with us. As you can see I had lots of fun making decorations and food. Rachel and her 2 1/2 year old cousin provided the entertainment. What is more fun than watching and playing with little ones?

Rachel has grown and changed so much in this past year, and I love being her mommy. Here are 10 interesting (at least in my opinion) facts about Rachel:
1. She wears 6-9 month clothes
2. She weighs 18 lbs 1 oz with her cloth diaper on
3. She is 29 inches tall
4. She can walk
5. She has yet to come down with a cold or any illness
6. She still sports a toothless grin
7. She loves peekaboo, books, and going upside down
8. Her favorite animal is a dog
9. She loves fruit
10. She signs more independently and will imitate the signs for dog, please, and milk

Picture Perfect

Since Rachel's 1st birthday is this week I thought we needed to get some photos of her, so yesterday we packed up a couple of outfits and the camera and headed over to Capital Park. Here are some of our favorites: