Play kitchen!

Yesterday we gave Rachel her big birthday gift from Mommy and Daddy (incredibly, we just hadn't found the time to do so before that). It was a play kitchen that Drew and PopPop (bless you, PopPop) set up while I was at work Wednesday. (We had actually bought it for a Hanukkah gift about a year ago and it had sat downstairs because, for various reasons, we never got around to giving it to Rachel). Anyway...it's stove/sink/refrigerator all in one, with a removable cell phone and the stove lights up and makes noise when you put pots on it. Plus it came with dishes, cups and some food. We added some play food that Auntie Jenn gave us almost two years ago, food that SHE'D had growing up but that Rachel hadn't shown much interest in because she was too little. As Drew ruefully noted, "this is nicer than OUR kitchen!"

I wish you could have seen Rachel's face as she gasped and opened her eyes wide. "Thank you so MUCH!" she exclaimed. She was so happy feeding us pretend food, and this morning she came into the bedroom as I was getting dressed and said, apropos of absolutely nothing, "thank you again for the kitchen area." It's amazing how much gratitude she shows for gifts, for dessert, for the food I make. It makes it so easy to buy her things, I need to watch myself that I don't spoil her.

When we got home from the park tonight, she went straight upstairs to her kitchen and brought me down a plate with a hot dog, chips and a chocolate bar for dessert. She told me sternly that I couldn't eat the dessert until I finished the hot dog, chips AND baked chicken and shells that I had warmed up for both of us. And then when we finished dinner, she brought everything back upstairs again and left the entire play area "neat and tidy." Oh, I love having a (mostly) neat and tidy girl.

Of course, the "neat and tidy" girl doesn't extend to playtime. Here's what she had to say at dinner:

"My name is Princess Bethany and I'm very curious."
"Why are you curious?" I asked.
"Because I want to go on adventures!' she said. And then she added, "It's very boring that other princesses stay home and comb their lovely blonde hair. It's so boring! Those are NOT the best princesses."

***

Also at dinner, Rachel told me that they had Slurpees at preschool the other day. I asked her what flavor she'd chosen and she said pink because the Slurpees apparently were flavorless; they just had color. She said there were a variety of colors ("except orange and blue, which were broken)."

"So I picked pink, of course," she explained. "Anything pink, I pick it."

And THAT, folks, is the understatement of the year.