Rachel takes care of Mommy

Since Friday night I have been laid up with the most awful stomach virus imaginable. I mean AWFUL. I went out on Saturday to do some much-needed errands (oil change, tire rotation, etc. etc.) then came back and have been flat on my back ever since -- when I'm not running to the bathroom. There is literally nothing left in my body to get rid of, but my body doesn't seem to realize that.

Big shout-out to Drew for taking care of me and Rachel for much of the weekend (although he got to sleep in on Saturday and Sunday mornings while The Little Girl and I did puzzles and read books. Thank heaven she's a quiet child in the morning). Rachel, for her part, kept apologizing: "I'm sorry your tummy hurts, Mommy," and making me pretend vitamin cookies to make me feel better. Unfortunately they didn't work.

She woke us up on Saturday and we were grumpy, so I sat her on my lap and told her very seriously to PLEASE LET MOMMY AND DADDY SLEEP ON SUNDAY. And she did! So when I got up around 8:30 (I had woken up at 7:30 and just couldn't get back to sleep), I found: The kitchen cabinets were wide open because she had dragged her little red chair to the counter in an attempt to get out the plates and set the table for breakfast. She realized she couldn't quite reach them, though, so she dragged her chair over to the baseboard heater in the dining room (her favorite place to sit when the heat's on because she claims she's cold all the time) and then dragged her footstool next to the chair. When I came out of the bedroom, she was sitting quietly on her footstool and pretending it was a house.

Result: She got to watch her "My Little Pony" movie for a while, even though it was a lovely sunny day outside. It was the least I could do.

***

"Hey Mommy, you know what?" Rachel asked. "At the medicine place there are so many nail polishes. There's so many that you can't even believe your eyes. There's so many that you can't even decide the one you want!"

(I've gotten accustomed to the pink glitter nail polish Drew let the drugstore clerk put on her yesterday. I think it's kind of cute, actually).

***

"OK. There are two reasons I wake you up," Rachel informed me this morning. "I want to wake Mommy and Daddy up so much because I want to say, 'I love you' and I want to give you a hug. And I want to put my feet against you!"