Christmas Eve

We had a quiet day today. I took off work because daycare was closed, so I arranged a playdate in the morning with a Jewish mom named Carly. She's a member of Portlandjmamas, a listserv I'm on. She has two kids, 28-month-old Lucy and 14-month-old Jimmy, and another boy on the way. Carly is 29, lives in a huge house in a beautiful part of Portland (the Eastmoreland neighborhood) and her husband runs...a skateboard shop. He's a Buddhist. She's a stay-at-home mom. No, I have no idea where their money comes from.

We talked for over an hour and I would have stayed longer except I got worried we would miss Rachel's nap window. But Carly is really nice and the kids played well together (well, at least played parallel to each other) and we had a lovely time. Toward the end of the visit, as I mentioned we had better get going, Rachel -- unbidden -- began putting the toys back in the cart where Carly had gotten them. I was so impressed!

Later, when she went down for a nap (after a really whiny lunch), I went down for a nap myself -- and slept two hours! I guess I haven't yet caught on the sleep I missed when she was sick. Drew, who was working today, finally brought her to the basement guest room where I had sacked out. We went back upstairs and Rachel and I played in the living room while Drew finished up his day. Rachel pretended to talk on the cell phone and during dinner prep, she was so helpful! She carried the milk jug to the refrigerator and placed it on the shelf (she's a strong little girl!), then threw some old parsley and crumpled-up napkins into the garbage when we asked.

She also put spoons and forks on the table. When I accidentally set out lunch napkins and Drew suggested dinner napkins, Rachel handed me the lunch napkins and took the dinner napkins from my hands and put them on the table, too!

I think she understands a lot more than we think.