Our girl took two long, long naps today -- one for 2 1/2 hours and one for 1 1/2 hours. We think the heat -- it felt like 100 degrees today, although it was probably somewhere around 90 -- made her especially sleepy, and snuggly. When she wasn't sleeping, or playing, she cuddled in my arms a lot today.
We spent her naptime de-cluttering the house; me by going through old magazines and cutting out recipes and travel articles, then trashing the rest, and finishing up the photo album of Rachel's first year (really, two photo albums -- I need to cut down on the picture-taking). Drew put primer on our attic closet in preparation for painting. He plans to do the first coat tomorrow night, since I have to work part of the day and we have an afternoon barbecue to attend. Then, hopefully, he'll finish up Wednesday in time for the attic to be dry Thursday morning so the carpet installer can lay down the carpet. It's going to look great when it's finished, I just wish Drew were going to be down here Monday and Tuesday nights so the paint is absolutely sure to be dry by the time the carpet folks come.
After Rachel awoke from her afternoon nap, I took her over to our friends Anna & Judy's house for a bbq. They live three blocks away, and it is so nice to be able to walk to their house instead of getting in the car and driving everywhere! Rachel was in an unusually placid mood; she let Anna (who's a mom herself) hold her, and then Anna's next-door-neighbor, Mel (who is a guy, but is also the state's acting director of public health. So, maybe Rachel figured he was trustworthy). She had two slight meltdowns, probably from all the dogs and kids and grownups and food. I was able to calm her pretty quickly.
Mel's wife, Sarah, said some lovely things about Rachel. When Drew finally arrived around 8, got a hamburger and then held Rachel, Sarah said, "She loves her daddy; she's been looking at him adoringly ever since you walked in!" to Drew. Then, noticing Rachel's alertness, the said, "your daughter is so analytical. She's just taking it all in, looking at everything!" Sarah is a nurse, so her comments made me feel especially good.
We pushed Rachel's bedtime a bit, figuring her long naps made it OK for her to go to bed at 9:45 instead of 9 (I pretty much nixed Drew's idea of going to the fireworks downtown, which last year were spectacular but also started at 10, and I did NOT want to have to deal with a baby, the crowds, the noise and then trying to get Rachel to sleep afterward). We settled for watching Anna's brother, Fred, in town from Seattle, set off a couple of fireworks in the street. Rachel seemed quite nonplussed by it all, smiling and clutching Drew's cell phone, her new favorite toy.
I think back to this time last year, when I was heavily pregnant and expecting to deliver any day. My due date was July 5th, and I kept praying that she wouldn't come on July 4th, since I didn't want her birthday to be the same day as a national holiday. Little did I know that she'd end up staying inside of me much longer and that I had to be induced to get her out!
Such a long time has passed. There were times I never thought she'd get bigger or that I'd get through those first terrible weeks after her birth. But...she did, and I did, and now I wonder what she'll be like next year. Almost 2! She'll be walking, babbling a lot, probably carrying dolls or stuffed animals, eating grownup food, swinging in Anna & Judy's hammock with the other kids...and, everyone tells me, we will be missing these baby days.
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Sounds like a good first 4th of July for Rachel! Marigold did stay up too late watching the neighborhood fireworks, after taking a two-hour, late-afternoon nap on our way back from the coast. She didn't get to bed until after 10 p.m., but that was just shortly after we got back from the neighbor's potluck/fireworks extravaganza. She "slept in" until 6 a.m., yay!
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