Weekend recap

So, after getting home and unpacking and processing the whole Patagonia experience, I turned to some writing I needed to do on Saturday. Drew needed to take our VCR in to get fixed (and yes, why bother, it's an ancient technology, but all the readers of this blog know who my husband is. 'Nuff said). I ended up spending most of the afternoon alone with Rachel. We played "baseball" outside -- it was a warm and sunny day -- and, man, is she a good hitter! Wish I could sign her up for tee ball RIGHT NOW, but the earliest I can do so is age 5. Sigh. Hope that gives her enough time to get good enough for softball scholarship to Stanford...

Then we read a couple of books. She is enchanted with a series of stories about girls at horse camp who end up helping rescue Fairyland pets from Jack Frost, who wants the pets for himself. These are LONG chapter books -- 60 pages or so -- and Rachel pays complete attention. (We started reading "Charlotte's Web" the other week, but that apparently was put on hold while I was in California). We've also started playing a word and letter game that Drew invented -- Rachel says a word and I have to say another word with the first letter of the word she said. Then we switch. She really likes this game. Need to find a similar one with numbers.

On Sunday Drew headed to Seattle for his weekend shift (only two more weekends in June to go and he is DONE with this stupid shift for the rest of the year, hurrah!) and Rachel graciously let me sleep in (I awoke with a start at 9 a.m.! to find that she had stayed in her room coloring in her Hello Kitty coloring book. Where did this kid come from? How did I get so lucky??). Then we headed to the Children's Museum on the MAX train, which Rachel loves to take and I do too, it reminds me how much I love public transportation. We met her friend Lila Ann for a playdate, and had a great time even though I was groggy from taking Benadryl the night before (allergies due to pollen in the air, ugh) and got sick during lunch and had to rush to the bathroom. Suzanne, Lila Ann's mom, and Steve, her dad, graciously watched Rachel while I recovered. When it was time to leave, Lila Ann pitched  FIT -- sobbing and screaming -- and Rachel watched, wide-eyed, before turning to me and saying, "I won't do that." "Good," I murmured.

Luckily (or not so luckily for Lila Ann), we ran into another one of Rachel and Lila Ann's friend from St. James named Sadie. So, as soon as Lila Ann left, Rachel and Sadie tore through the museum, me and Joe (Sadie's dad) following behind. They played with various plastic water toys in the water room, visited the treehouse room and the dig pit, and the theater room and another exhibit before I insisted to Rachel that we needed to leave. She was sad and got whiny before I ordered her to stop. I knew it was a good idea to leave because she fell asleep on the MAX ride home, then slept almost THREE HOURS before I finally woke her for dinner. She had a minor meltdown, sobbing that she missed Daddy, which I think was because she was disoriented after waking up. She quickly cheered up and had some good suggestions as to what to buy Daddy for Father's Day.

And then it was bedtime.