We love PopPop!

We had a fantastic weekend with PopPop, which is why I haven't posted anything to the blog since Thursday. Here is a summary and some highlights:

Friday night I made the mistake of leaving Salem WAY too late (don't leave Salem between 4 and 6 p.m., even if the roads are spotless, because you'll just end up sitting in traffic, is my new mantra). I had made a reservation at Lucca, the restaurant down the street from my house famous for being the last place I ate before we became a family of three. PopPop was waiting for us when we got there, we sat down and ordered food. And Rachel was the most well-behaved little dinner guest! (it undoubtedly helped that she sat on my lap most of the time, which is a big no-no at home but I relented because she was a little standoffish with PopPop at first). I managed to finish a hangar stake (which actually was pretty bad; I think the restaurants strong suit is pizza and pasta, neither of which I eat much of these days). But Richard and I actually managed to have a nice conversation without Rachel interrupting us all the time. As part of her kid's dinner (which she barely touched), she got a cup of ice cream for dessert, which I insisted she eat in her high chair. She looked so cute with chocolate smeared all over her mouth, and she was so polite the whole time! Richard was very impressed.

The next day I made gingerbread for all of us for breakfast and fried up some bacon. Rachel devoured the gingerbread -- it's so nice that she actually likes something that takes some effort to bake -- and we were going to go to the Children's Museum, but it was such a sunny day and we migrated upstairs to the playroom. Rachel and Richard played a bit on the floor with some of her toys as she warmed up to him rapidly. (Earlier she had opened the two lovely presents he bought her -- a toy cell phone which she immediately LOVED and a book of beautifully illustrated fairy tales). And then something wonderful happened -- Richard was sitting in one of the armchairs upstairs and Rachel toddled over to him and handed him the book of fairy tales. She climbed into his lap and cuddled into his arm while he read her "Rapunzel." I snapped a million pictures, one or two of which will undoubtedly make their way onto this blog. Sometime.

Then at 1:30 I decided we really needed to go grocery shopping so I had food to cook us all for dinner last night. We hopped into the car, went to the bank, dry cleaner's and Safeway, then made a detour to a park to catch some of the sun. Unfortunately it had gotten quite cold and Rachel was terrified of the dogs near the park equipment, so we only stayed about 45 minutes.

Rachel went down for a nap when we got home, I baked a huge batch of chocolate chip cookies for dessert and then made lemon chicken, noodles and a nice salad with homemade dressing. After dinner I put her to bed, raced off to a goodbye party to a former colleague of mine at the Oregonian who is leaving the paper to run a student newspaper in Eugene, then got back at 11:30 to find Richard dozing on the couch. The party was fantastic -- it's always nice to know that you're missed even months after you leave a job -- and I cleaned up from dinner then went to bed.

This morning I woke up with a cold that got worse (ugh), Richard stopped by at 10 and we went to brunch at a new place that had zero ambience but the food was decent. Rachel again was so grown-up; she thanked the waitress for bringing Mommy her tea and the waitress remarked, "so polite!" (and, yes, I can't hear enough of that:)). We got back home, I gave the remaining gingerbread to Richard and then Rachel and I headed to a gathering of our Chavurah. It was great to see everyone and meet a guy who grew up in South Africa and went to the University of Michigan, talk about coincidences! and we ended up staying much longer than I intended. I just had time to give Rachel a 2-hour nap before we headed to dinner at our friends Chuck and Catherine's house. Lovely time eating pizza and watching Rachel drink grape juice and beg me to cuddle with her on their living room chair. Then we headed home, I got her to bed fast and started making a mushroom barley stew (I am totally out of long-term provisions) and then I came down here to catch y'all up on the blog.

Whew! I need a vacation from the weekend!