A Very Pony Passover

..yes, that would be a FANTASTIC title for a Passover-themed My Little Pony book. Why didn't I think of it before??

In a word, tonight's Seder was AWESOME. Many kudos to my amazing sister for pulling it off. At first the girls -- Valerie and Rachel -- were quite shy; Rachel got a little sniffly when she tried to say hi to Valerie and interact with her, but Valerie didn't respond. Not surprising, really; she had just gotten up from a nap before we arrived. (We actually got to Queens a half-hour early, and we ended up taking Rachel to a playground and letting her run around for a while before walking to Daniella & Darryl's apartment. One thing I am learning on this trip: Rachel is the age when kids are like puppies: you have to run them regularly or they have too much pent-up energy. She kept moving and twirling every place we went today -- including a tiny, crowded pizza parlor and a Hungarian pastry shop -- and we constantly had to tell her to stop and watch out for the people around her because they can't always see little people. I felt terrible restricting her so much and decided it was because she wasn't in Oregon and she was feeling cooped up, but I think it's all kids her age who need regular exercise).

Anyway...at some point the girls warmed up to each other before the Seder started, ran into Valerie's room and everything was fine. They were both extremely well-behaved during the Seder -- which was, mercifully, under an hour -- and I believe Rachel even ate a decent dinner. Daniella put the kids with their dads at the kids' table while the grownups (Mom, Dad, Daniella, Amy and Jim) sat together. At the appointed time, the girls found the afikomen and they each got a My Little Pony storybook, a frog princess book and some pony and princess stickers. Of course the girls immediately asked for Grandma to read them the My Little Pony book and Grandma gamely sat on the couch and read, a little girl on each side of her. It was adorable beyond words -- until Daniella took over and then DAD sat next to Mom and me on the other side, and Mom turned to the same page in the storybook as Daniella...it was hilarious, you had to have been there. We all madly took photos, then finished the Seder and then the girls ran in and out of Valerie's room again, screaming with laughter. (Grandma and Grandpa had left by this time, which caused Rachel's first bout of crying; she wanted Grandma to read her another pony story and Grandma said she'd do so on Sunday when we'll all congregate at their place for a visit).

But the real sadness came when we insisted that Rachel get ready to leave and then she really, really started sobbing. "Why don't you stay?" Valerie insisted. "You can stay here!" which of course made Rachel cry even harder. "I don't think that's helping," Amy observed, and she was right. Drew hugged Rachel, then Valerie hugged Rachel, and we promised her over and over that we'll see Valerie again on Sunday for a nice long visit. And then, very reluctantly, we left...at 10:30!!

It's scenes like this that really makes me wish we lived closer. Wouldn't it be great, Daniella said to Drew, if both girls end up going go Columbia? And he answered with his vision: Valerie goes to NYU, Rachel goes to Columbia, and they both end up sharing an apartment in Chelsea. My vision: they both end up touring Europe together the summer after their freshman year in college.