I can die happy

Because after dinner, Rachel voluntarily -- i.e, without Mommy asking -- PICKED UP HER DISHES FROM THE KITCHEN TABLE AND BROUGHT THEM TO THE COUNTER!! I was totally flabbergasted. I praised her lavishly, of course.

Then, perhaps expecting too much, I urged her to clear Mommy's salad bowl, too.

"I cleared my dishes," she explained.
"I know, honey," I said. "But I need you to clear Mommy's dishes, too."
"It's too heavy," she said.
"No, you can do it," I answered.
"I'm too little," she said.
"You can do it," I repeated.
"I don't WANT to," she whined.
"How would you feel if I just fed myself dinner and not you?" I asked. "We both help each other in this house."
"I don't WANT to!" she repeated.
"I don't care if you WANT to," I said sternly. "Clear Mommy's bowl. NOW."
She started sobbing, but she ended up clearing the bowl, along with both our placemats and silverware. I thanked her again and we headed into the bedroom to do Mommy Books, after which I let her tickle me and climb all over me until I insisted on giving her a bath.

***

She has started correcting me if I miss a word during a song or use one that is incorrect.
"The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout..." I'll sing.
"Climbed," she'll say from the back seat.
"The itsy bitsy spider CLIMBED up the water spout," I'll say. She does it with all different songs; she's developing into quite a bossy concertmaster!

***

Tonight when we were driving home, she said, "Look, Mommy, a rabbit!"
"A rabbit?" I asked. "Where?"
It took me a while to figure out that she had been looking at clouds outside the window and saw one she thought was shaped like a rabbit. I can't wait until we can lie on our backs on a picnic blanket and point out different clouds and discuss what shapes they look like.

***

One of the songs I love to sing is "This Little Light of Mine." She's very firm about the order in which I am to sing the verses; I have to start with "In my daily work/I'm gonna let it shine (3x)/Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine."
Tonight she said the second verse had to be, "Building a new world." At the end she said, "Because it's broken."
"Yes, Rachel," I said. (Oh, how right she is! It feels as if our very lives, this very country, is crumbling). "It's up to your generation to fix it."
"Because it fall down," she said. "It has lots of owies."