Rachel goes to a play

Today was beatuiful and sunny. Drew took Rachel to the farmer's market (they came back with strawberries, the first of the season, and asparagus and other yummy things) while I putzed around at home, and then we all met downtown at 2 for "Snow White," which was performed by Northwest Children's Theater (the same group that put on "Go, Dog. Go!" that Rachel liked so much a few months ago.

I didn't much care for this version of Snow White, which was done in Japanese anime style (although it was live action). Lots of martial arts, odd-looking costumes and the 7 Dwarfs were the 7 Spirits, and the witch was evil because she had stolen the magic of a dragon that had fallen in love with her, etc. The message was that beauty is useless if it's overtaken by vanity. Snow White and Rose Red were samurai sword-fighting girls who also loved makeup, and the Mirror Mirror on the Wall was an old guy who'd been cursed years ago because he was the one in love with the Queen...or something like that. The whole thing was kind of muddled, but the costumes were great and the music pleasant, if forgettable.

The remarkable thing was that Rachel paid attention and stayed focused the entire play, which was 2 hours long (including intermission), and I think it could have been trimmed by at least 30 minutes. She sat on Drew's lap and barely made a sound until toward the very end, when she whispered that she had to go potty. Drew took her while I watched the specacular ending of the dragon making its way down the aisle and ordering the Queen to surrender her magic. This is going to be what it's like for the next few years - missing important endings to things while we take Rachel to the bathroom! Oh well.

Cute Rachel saying of the day: This morning Drew and I were talking and Rachel kept interrupting. We both admonished her, me getting down to her level at one point and telling her that she can't interrupt us when we talk. "But I want to talk!" she protested, thereby setting the terms of the debate: For us it's a matter of her learning not to be rude; for her, it's a matter of us denying her her God-given right to talk.

She pouted, then said:

"When grownups don't let little girls talk, they get VERY MAD!"