Social Sunday

So, what do Rachel and I do when Drew's in Seattle working a weekend shift?? Par-TAY!

We went to a chavurah potluck at Lake Grove Swim Park in Lake Oswego, a lovely place with a play structure (Rachel promptly showed me she can do everything on it), a tiny wading pool and the lake itself. It was too chilly for me to go into the lake, so we sat by the wading pool with Rachel wading in while I tried to read sections of the NY Times. When we got back to the picnic table where our chavurah had established itself, the homemade lemon blueberry bread I'd made was gone -- even the kids liked it! -- and everyone was packing up. We had a block party to attend at 4, so we made a quick stop for ingredients on the way home. Rachel complained that her neck hurt, and so we both agreed she should lie down for a while and "rest" while I made cupcakes for the block party.

Well, Rachel's "lie down" lasted approximately 20 minutes, but she was certainly cheerful when she got up. She said her neck didn't hurt anymore. "That was a great suggestion, Mommy!" she said, hugging me. Then she asked me if she could help make the cupcakes, and boy is she really, truly a help in the kitchen! All I had to do was measure out the ingredients; she dumped them in the bowl and even broke up the chunks of flour and sugar. She likes to hold the mixer while I guide her using it; hard to believe that 3 years ago the sound of the mixer absolutely terrified her. We had a nice talk with Mom and Dad -- it's so nice that I can leave her on the phone to have real, honest-to-goodness conversations with her grandparents on both sides -- and then we walked to the block party, which was three blocks away.

We were a little late and much of the food was gone, but Rachel -- before I could stop her -- managed to eat our friend Anna's chocolate chip cookies before I could get any decent food in her. The night's haul for Rachel: a couple pieces of fruit and a bag of chips. Sigh. Rachel managed to talk one of the parents into blowing up a balloon and shaping it into a sword, whereupon she immediately began whacking me with it. Another little girl, who had her face painted to be a cheetah, decided to growl at me and both she and Rachel ended up chasing me around the block until they could "tie" me to a tree. The little girl, by the way, was very cute if very loquacious -- she explained her parents are divorced, so she spends one week at her mom's house on the block and the next week at her dad's house on Shaver Street, but she goes to Alameda Elementary and she loves her teachers there -- and then she and Rachel ended up chasing me again, much to Rachel's delight.

Then Rachel hooked up with a girl named Bridgette, whose mom, Max, was in my mommy and me class right after I gave birth. Bridgette, therefore, is about Rachel's age and Max told me that she was really disappointed that block party would only include older kids on the block, most of whom tend to leave her out of things. That probably explains why Bridgette very generously let Rachel try out her two-wheeler bike -- she even let Rachel use her helmet -- and I rode Rachel up and down the street a few times before she said, "This is really fun! When Daddy gets back can you tell him to take off my training wheels?" (I'd been feeling remiss about not making her use her tricycle more often this summer and frustrated that she can't ride yet because I want to bike all over the neighborhood with her -- maybe we'll be able to do that by next summer! Whee!!!).

Then Rachel said to Bridgette, "I hear there's a treehouse around here." "We have a treehouse in our backyard!" Bridgette said. "Want to see it?" So....two little girls ended up playing in the backyard while I visited with folks out front. When I went to see what they were up to, they asked me to play hide and seek, which I did, and then I got to watch Rachel do incredibly impressive gymnastics on Bridgette's swingset (Rachel can now hang by the back of her knees without hands. Yes, my heart stopped).

When it was time to leave Rachel really sobbed; she was upstairs playing in Bridgette's room and didn't want to go -- but I promised we'd connect with Max and Bridgette and have a playdate soon. As I told Max, it will be great for Rachel to have a little friend at Alameda and to be able to WALK TO HER HOUSE and TO SCHOOL with her someday!!