Roller-coaster ride

Remember I said that last night with Rachel was absolutely wonderful? Welll, I got paid back today. This morning sucked. Absolutely SUCKED. She was reluctant to wake up and finally whined, "I'm TIRED! I don't want to get UP!" (and I'd rather have a kid who doesn't want to get up instead of a kid who gets up at the crack of dawn and expects the whole household to follow suit), but I really needed to get to Salem by 10 a.m. I yelled at her a couple of times to hurry up and she cried and cried. "I can't WAIT until Daddy gets home tonight and he gets to deal with this tomorrow morning," I muttered. Whereupon Rachel sobbed, "I WANT DADDY!"

She was OK in the car with granola and orange juice (and beforehand I carried her into the kitchen and set her on the counter which seemed to calm her down) but once we arrived at school she threw a fit, crying and shrieking for me not to leave. (One thing that annoys me about her school is that the teachers don't comfort her as I leave. Today my strategy was to shake off her hands, put her backpack in her cubby and walk rapidly out of the room, hoping she wouldn't follow me. I could hear her screams down the hall).

When I picked her up, all was fine although she was a little whinier than usual tonight. I was probably more sensitive to it, too; I had a terrible stomach ache and nearly bent over double to suppress the pain. Pepto-Bismol helped a little but I ended up having to lie down on the couch. Rachel whined that she wanted to snuggle with me, then proceeded to find every way possible to lie or tumble or jump on my aching tummy.

Finally got up and made dinner at 7:15, which pretty much guaranteed we wouldn't take a walk, but I don't think I could have gotten through walking around the neighborhood even though it was a beautiful night. Toward the end of dinner I started feeling a lot better even though I ate the worst thing possible for a tummy ache -- leftover steak and a baked potato.

As my mood improved slightly, so did Rachel's.

"I really really really really really really really really love you, Mommy," she said.
"Well, I really really really reallly really really love YOU, Rachel!" I replied. "Isn't it great that we love each other so much?"
"Yeah!" she answered.

Of course, she then followed that up with:

"I miss Daddy I miss Daddy I miss Daddy I miss Daddy!"