Chavurah fun!

Today was our monthly meeting of the chavurah, the small group of families within Congregation Beth Israel who have kids around Rachel's age (I use that demarcation loosely -- the youngest kid is 5). I was feeling groggy and tired from taking NyQuil the night before and almost didn't go, but decided at the last minute to.

Rachel, of course, had a great time as soon as she found a 9 1/2 year old girl named Eva (the daughter of the hosts, who have two older boys) who very thoughtfully took Rachel under her wing and showed her all her stuffed animals. They were hanging out in her room when I peeked in after I'd helped myself to brunch food (I hadn't eaten breakfast) and they looked so cozy together! Both Drew and I thanked Eva profusely for keeping Rachel company, and we thanked her parents, too. "It can't be fun for Eva to hang out with a 3 1/2 year old," I said to Shelley, Eva's mom, who replied that Eva was probably glad she had a little girl to play with since most of the other parents in the chavurah all have boys.

"Can you come to OUR house?" Rachel asked Eva as we were leaving. "You can stay for three days!"


***

I was so tired when we got home that I tried to nap while Rachel napped. Unfortunately hers didn't last long, and I tried to persuade her to nap with me on the futon upstairs in the attic. She cuddled a little bit, then said, "Mommy, I'm going to bring you one of my stuffed animals for you to cuddle with." She trotted downstairs and returned with a puppy, which I actually did cuddle with until Rachel woke me up by asking me if I wanted some stamps on my hand. "Rachel, I'm trying to SLEEP," I said crossly, which I instantly regretted.

Then Drew came home from grocery shopping and I did some work on a freelance story and came downstairs when Rachel was in the bath. She asked for me to put her to sleep, but I had to tell her a Hello Kitty story. I made up a tale about Hello Kitty being worried that no one would come to her birthday party because her birthday was in the winter and there was snow on the ground and so the other friends wouldn't be able to drive to an indoor playground -- but then she woke up to the smell of chocolate cake and found that her mommy had rescheduled the party so everyone came to Hello Kitty's house and Hello Kitty got lots of presents, and they all went out and played in the snow, and then they all came inside and had hot chocolate and popcorn next to a big fire. And cake. And it was the best birthday party EVER.

"I'm worried it's going to SNOW on my birthday," Rachel fretted.
"Rachel, I promise you it won't snow," I said.
"But sometimes it snows in July," she said.
"Rachel, you are a very smart and clever girl," I said. "But you're wrong on this one. I promise it won't snow."

Then she started fretting that Halloween was really far away, and then she told me she wants to be a unicorn, with a pink mane of hair and a rainbow outfit. (I really hope that by October she has changed her mind to be a nice, easy-to-put-together princess. Or some kind of animal). Also: For her birthday she wants a rainbow cake with chocolate icing and pink and purple frosting.

"Frosting is the same as icing," I said. "So, you have to choose one or the other."

"Chocolate on the side and pink and purple on top," she said.

"Okay," I answered. "I'll have to work on the rainbow part, though."

"You can buy rainbow things," she explained. "Like rainbow-colored sugar!"

Like I said, I'll have to work on it.