Solo Saturday

This was one of the only Saturday that I have ever planned without a playdate. It's a big deal for me, since I've been frantically scheduling us so we (which really means "I," won't feel lonely. Actually, the playdate I'd scheduled fell through, so I figured between running around on errands and the two friends I'm seeing tomorrow, it wouldn't be so bad.

And it really wasn't. In fact, to my disappointment, I didn't get to do everything I wanted to. I figured I'd get the car washed (it was so dirty on the outside that it was becoming hazardous on the highway because I couldn't see who was in my blind spots), go grocery shopping, the bank and then the library. And the weather was so gorgeous -- sunny and warm-ish -- that I wanted to chuck everything and just go to the playground. I figured we'd hit the playground after we finished everything else.

Well, that didn't happen. We didn't even get out of the house until 1 or so -- I slept late, didn't get into poor Rachel's room until 10 or so (she handed me her apple-shaped icee with a binky in the middle of it and exclaimed, "birthday cake!" Is there any surprise that I love her so??), we had a leisurely breakfast and then I tried to do as much laundry as I could before Craig, my new tenant, arrived (he takes a class on Saturday mornings to get his helicopter license; it runs from 7 a.m. to noon). Rachel was extremely helpful today, clearing all her dishes from the table and coming down to the laundry area with me and taking all my clothes from the washer to the dryer.

(Oh, yes, she freaked me out by saying she wanted to get cereal for herself. She lifted the box of Cheerios, brought it to the table, took out the bag and with only a little assistance from me and poured it into the bowl! Yes, the day is coming where she'll be able to get out of her big-girl bed, toddle into the kitchen and make breakfast for herself before Mommy and Daddy stagger in behind her. Oh, happy day!)

So then between getting all of those errands done, we never made it to the playground. Or the library. But it was a busy day, and she insisted I sing a lot (her current fave is "The Mockingbird Song," the one that begins, "Hush little baby don't say a word..." she absolutely loves that). We sang at breakfast, in the car, and would have continued at Safeway except that we ran into former colleagues of mine from the newspaper. Then we got back, I unloaded the groceries, talked to Craig for a while, talked to Drew, paid bills and then it was time to wake Rachel up. We had a quiet dinner, I put her to sleep, talked to Drew again and then make chocolate-covered toffee bars for dessert tomorrow night (my friend and former newspaper colleague Anne is coming over for dinner and I hope to talk a lot about Sweet Adelines, which she just joined! Yay Anne!) and am finishing up with this blog before hitting the sack.

Sleep tight, everyone!