She's growing up too fast, Part 1

Oh, the things Rachel has done for herself the last few days:

--Yesterday, perhaps tired of waiting for Drew and I to get our act together after breakfast, Rachel went into her room and GOT HERSELF DRESSED ALL BY HERSELF!!! And the outfit matched! Mostly! Except for the purple striped socks that didn't quite go with the flowered hippie pants and pink shirt! But who cares! We knew it was no fluke when she did the same thing this morning!

--I came home late tonight to the lovely sounds of Beausoleil on the CD player and Rachel helping Drew make duck soup from a frozen carcass we'd saved in the freezer after a meal of duck last New Year's Eve. She was helping him cut up the soft dough for the dumplings (which were an epic failure when they turned out a gloppy mess. That is the last time Drew uses the recipe for dumplings from The New Basics cookbook. Blech!). Rachel has gotten to the point where Drew can have her shred lettuce and drop dumplings into soup without direct supervision. My friend Amy says that kids can cook a full meal by the time they're nine. Only six more years to go! Better yet -- Rachel ASKED for duck soup and then ATE IT!! That opens up a whole bunch of meal possibilities on rainy nights like tonight.

--Tonight as I was shoving a bowl into one of our overcrowded cupboards, Rachel suddenly got up from the table, came right over to me with a very serious expression, then leaned down and kissed me on the lips. I was stunned and managed to say, "Thank you, Rachel!" before she got up and matter-of-factly went back to the dinner table.

--After dinner she slid off her chair and, at Drew's urging, began cleaning up the mess in the living room.

Just in case she sounds too grown-up...Rachel informed us tonight that for Halloween she wants to be a fairy. "Tessa's going to be a mouse," she said. Rachel also told us that we needed to get her "a special fairy shirt and a special fairy skirt," so I will be combing catalogues and shopping consignment stories to find a suitable costume.