What Rachel says when we're cuddling

Rachel likes it when I cuddle her in bed, which she asks me to do for the two nights every week that I put her to sleep when Drew's in Seattle. It's our way of decompressing from our busy days, giggling, singing, talking. I hope this stage lasts a long, long, long time.

Tonight she stroked my cheeks with her little hands, pressed the edges of my mouth together so I had a hard time talking (I protested and did the same to her, and she started cracking up) and begged me to sing (I had sung my chorus's version of "Sonny Boy" in the glider beforehand, which is the most depressing song imaginable -- it's about a mother's longing for her son, who died as a child -- but Rachel called it "nice and relaxing"), so I sang "Summertime" to her and she sang "Clementine," to me.

Then she said, unexpectedly, "The other kids hit me."

"They do?" I said. "What do you do?

"I tell them, 'don't do that,' she said.

"And...?" I said.

"They still hit me," she said. She went on to talk about one friend of hers, Devin, who hit her. So Rachel yelled back at her, and Devin said nothing. I think they're still friends.

"Hit them back," I said. Probably not the best advice, but I've told Rachel many times to go to her teacher if she's hit. I think she does, but just in case...it's never too early for her to learn to defend herself.

Keep in mind that this was an hour after she said, at dinner, "I can sip and kiss at the same time. Watch me, Mommy," and she sipped her soup and kissed the spoon at the same time.

"Do you kiss some of the kids at school?" I said. She said she did.

"Who do you kiss?" I said.

"Like, everybody," she replied.

"I bet the other kids like that," I said.

"They try not to avoid me," she replied. I asked her again, to make sure she didn't mean that they actually try to avoid her, but she repeated herself the exact same way. So...I'm guessing she has more friends who love her than she realizes...?