Saturday with two toddlers

Tonight was a preview of what life would be like if we had two kids.

My friend Sarah, who is going through a rough patch in her life, brought over her son, Noah, who is four. (She had been feeling despondent Friday night so I thought that inviting her over for dessert would cheer her up). They arrived at 7:30, just as Rachel had finished opening some more birthday presents (at the rate she's going -- opening up each gift and immediately wanting to play with it/figure it out and ignoring the rest -- we will get around to opening all of them by, oh, Hanukkah). The kids are always a little shy around each other, and so Sarah got them going while Drew and I cleared dinner, which we hadn't quite finished yet, and I got out dessert (freshly baked chocolate-chip banana bread with vanilla ice cream and homemade chocolate sauce).

Luckily the kids mostly wanted watermelon. They had a great time telling the grownups "DON'T EAT THE GREEN PART!" (i.e., the rind) and then Rachel asked Drew to pretend to eat the green part while making a "yucky!" face while she and Noah shrieked with laugher. (That's one thing I'm going to miss as Rachel gets older -- that wonderful giggly toddler laugh that is SO infectious!). Then Drew, Rachel and Noah played a complicated game of "Star Wars" using the letter/number foam letters that Tia Daniella got Rachel for her birthday which I'm sure Tia Daniella never envisioned would be used as weapons. It involved a lot of running and yelling and laughing through the house while Sarah and I sat in the kitchen drinking our tea and discussing various preschools. She remarked that her ex, Mark, would never get on the floor and interact with Noah the way Drew was doing with Noah and Rachel. And I could see that Noah was getting a kick out of the interaction; when Drew went downstairs to pu away the ice cream in the deep freeze, he insisted on joining him.

"I think you may have an extra kid!" Sarah said, and I told her the next time they come over, maybe we should all watch one of the "Star Wars" movies together (and maybe Mommy will make popcorn and chocolate chip cake and we can all snuggle on the futon together). At any rate, I told Drew that if we have extra room at our Thanksgiving table and Sarah needs somewhere to go (unlikely, since her parents live in Eugene, but just in case), we should invite her. He agreed.