Sweetest girl in the world!

That describes my Rachel. A sampling from today, when Mommy's tummy hurt:

"This is why Daddy likes to do it."
"Do what, sweetie?" I asked.
"Set the table and clean up," she said.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because you do it all the time when he's gone!" she answered, like it was the most logical thing in the world.

***

I didn't really like my meal at the Middle Eastern restaurant we went to the other night with our friend Sarah, and neither did Rachel. Poor thing, I made her eat her ground beef kabob, which was awful -- I had the same thing. In fact, the only thing I enjoyed was the falafel.

"Guess why my meat wasn't very good there?" Rachel said. "Because YOU didn't make it!"

***

"Mommy, you have great stories. You always tell them spooky!" Rachel said at dinner, hours after I told her spooky but true tale of a guy who froze to death on the chair lift at a Canadian ski resort because the chair lift operators forgot to run the lift one last time before the resort closed for the evening. Dad and his friend Mike Bakwin were there a few hours after the resort workers discovered the body. (I had embellished the tale to be about a guy named Max who snuck onto the chair lift after it was closed. "Great way to introduce your daughter to skiing, Lisa," Dad cracked tonight, but it was Rachel's idea for me to tell her the story, so what could I do?

***

Rachel is very excited about our trip to Seattle in two weeks when Drew is gone; she's going to a hockey game with Amanda and Jenn. NO MOMMY ALLOWED. It's her first outing withuot us.

"I can't WAIT to go to the hockey game with JUST MY AUNTIES!" she said tonight. "No strawberries allowed!"

Um, right.

***

"This is a dazzling cake!" Rachel said, tucking into the leftover birthday cake I'd made for Drew's birthday. "You make dazzling cake, Mommy!"

***

"Guess what, Mommy?" Rachel asked as we were finishing up dinner. "You're the best thing in the whole world!" As I was tucking her into bed, she said, "Mommy, thank you for being the best Mommy!"

"That you for being the best daughter!" I said, touched.

***

And perhaps the nicest thing she said to me tonight:

"Mommy, you're such a good Mommy," Rachel said during dinner.
"Why am I such a good mommy?" I asked.
"Because you're kind and you're gentle and you speak nice to others," she replied. "And your love transforms into someone else, right from you. That's why you're a good mommy."