Late-breaking item about Rachel (from Drew)

So after dinner tonight I was cleaning up dishes and Rachel was finishing her chocolate goldfish grahams (having eaten a good enough dinner, carrot included, to merit dessert). When she was done, I asked her, as we do after every meal, to clear her place. She brought over her plate, then scampered down the hall.

"Uh, Rachel? What about the rest of your stuff?"

I heard nothing, then she came back carrying a dustpan and one of our kitchen brooms (which had to be twice as tall as she is). She then proceeded to start sweeping.

"I saw the crumbs and I didn't want us to get ants," she explained.

I thanked her profusely and praised her initiative, and she kept sweeping -- at one point, while trying to reach a crumb under the table, she pretended she was fishing with the broom. After awhile (and after taking a break from clearing the rest of  her place), she said she was tired of sweeping and would go into her room to pick out some books for our pre-bedtime litfest.

I finished the dishes, then remembered I'd promised to read something for Lisa. So I went into Rachel's room and told her I had to do something for Mommy and I'd be right back up.

I went down to our basement office, read Lisa's thing, then came back upstairs. Imagine my amazement when I walked into Rachel's room and found her, quite matter-of-factly, putting away the clean laundry that I'd left on her footstool earlier in the day. And doing quite a good job of it, too -- pajamas in the pajama basket, underwear in the underwear basket, stockings in the sock drawer, &c.

At this rate, Lisa said, she'll be making dinner for us by age 8.