Everyone loves a parade...

especially Rachel, who had a great time today at Multnomah Days, an annual event celebrating Multnomah Village, a small neighborhood in Southwest Portland where our friend Amy lives. Amy and her son Jake, Rachel and I all went to the parade in the morning, then Rachel and I wandered over to the Kids Zone (she got a unicorn painted on her face for free, did a back somersault on the rungs of a ladder on the play structure, and stood in line to go down a bouncy slide. She wanted to do the rock-climbing wall, too, but you have to be at least 45 pounds).

The parade folks threw candy at the kids and Rachel scooped up quite a bit. I made her wait until she'd had a bagel for lunch to dig into it. She was also very helpful when I tried on some clothes -- she watched over my camera and purse and made small talk with the vendor, who pronounced her "very smart," -- I can't wait until she's old enough for us to go clothes shopping together -- and then we stopped by a tent advertising music lessons, were some kids of different ages were playing violins. Rachel said she wanted to try, and she actually played pretty well! No sawing the bow; she dragged it across the strings in an almost musical way (maybe now Drew will listen to me about giving her violin lessons?). It was thrilling to watch her; she looked so serious and focused!!

Then we went to Amy's house where Rachel played with a bunch of Jake's friends. At one point she picked up a pretend weapon and said she wanted to kill me. (She also asked the balloon man at the Multnomah Days parade to make her a sword so she could whack monsters. Don't tell ME about gender stereotypes; I don't believe them).

Amy and I were able to catch up a little before Rachel began demanding my attention. She asked to play Amy's electric piano; Amy graciously assented (get the feeling that my kid is going to be musical?) and I pulled her around in Amy's sons' wagon until it was time to go home.

We picked up Drew for the chavurah potluck, to which I brought a chocolate chip cake (demolished within minutes) and had a nice time hanging out in Lee and Robin's big backyard. Rachel ate some dinner, went off and played with the other kids, came back to us, went off and played by herself. I'm continually surprised at how un-needy she is, especially compared to some of the bigger kids we were with tonight. (At one point she said, "I'm going to run and play." Then she changed her mind and said, "I'm going to get my exercise." And she did!)