One heckuva cutie patootie

We had another stellar weekend at Casa de Toppall.  My sister, her husband and their 18 month old daughter came for a visit.  They landed on Friday morning and didn't go back home to Florida until Tuesday morning.  From Saturday morning to Monday evening they left Rachel with us and went to NYC.

Rachel has never been left overnight without one of her parents EVER!  Well, there is one exception to this -- it was one overnight stay at my mom's house.  But everyone knows that Mom-Mom is Rachel's favorite.  She'd prefer to be with my mom over her own parents.  I'm not kidding when I say this.  They have this crazy tight bond.  It's very cute and a little creepy. :)

This long weekend consisting of 3 full days and two nights could've gone bad, very bad.  I think we all had visions of Rachel crying non-stop wanting her mommy and daddy.  Or, Rachel refusing to go to sleep for her naps and at night.  We are happy to report it wasn't like that at all.  Rachel was a dream.  She was an angel the whole entire time.  She does a phenomenal job going down for her nap each day from 12:45pm to 3:30pm.  And come 7:30pm, she is back down sleeping thru the night until 6:45am in the morning. Honestly, you can't ask for a better sleeper.  Or a better behaved little girl for that matter. 

Ian and Sam had something new to bicker about.  It was all about Rachel this weekend.  Who got to sit next to her, who got to help feed her, who got to play with her, who got to push her stroller, who pushed her on the swings, and more. If it involved Rachel, my duo were quick to be by her side.

You forget how far your kids have come until you are thrown back in to the baby stage. It's been a long, long time since we've had to help the kids bathe, or use a stroller, or change diapers, or give sippy cups of milk, or help get dressed.  We are far from the days when everything comes to complete standstill because we need to be home for naps, or we worry about getting snacks and feeding them.  Even strapping in a car seat and getting in and out of the car is a thing of the past.  With Rachel, we dove in the deep end of the pool and picked up where Lori & Ben left off.  I'd like to think we did more than ok.  Rachel went with the flow, had a great time with her cousins and was up for all our regularly scheduled activities (flag football, religious school end-of-the-year program).   I think it can be best summed up as we are in the stage where we require less luggage to travel and my sister requires A LOT of luggage. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm exhausted.  But it helped that there was 4 of us and only one of her.

Here are some great pictures from our time together: