The things this one says....

So, the hacking cough is gone but the post-nasal drip remains. I am very tired and lethargic but slowly getting better, just in time to head to international competition and then to Africa on a reporting trip for the magazine I edit. I have checked my schedule and I believe I will have time to really relax in...mid-February.

Nevertheless, Rachel and I have had a delightful two days alone together. A sample of her wit:

***

"Guess what Ava was doing at the lunch table?" Rachel said last night. "Chewing with her mouth open!"
"Did you say anything?" I asked.
"I was trying to stop her but she wouldn't listen," she said.

***

I took the last of the antibiotics yesterday, not that I believe they've done a damn thing.

"What if ants were on your antibiotics?" Rachel asked. "You would be TERRIFIED. Ants all over the bottle. Trying to eat your medicine!"

***

Today she truly astonished me. I was helping wash her hands and face after breakfast when all of a sudden Rachel said, "Who's God?"

"Depends on who you ask," I replied.

"I'm asking YOU!" she said.

"Some people believe God is a he, and others believe God is a she, and some people don't believe God exists at all," I explained.

"I believe in God," Rachel said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because she saved us from the war? Of the Jewish people?" Rachel said, looking at me. "She saved us from dying. And that's why I believe she exists."

Folks, I don't make up these conversations, they really happen. Neither Drew nor I know where she gets these ideas from.

***

I followed her above comment up with the following:

"Sometimes the things you say are so smart and clever, you take my breath away," I said.
"You take my breath away, too," she replied.
"Why?" I said.
"Because of what you said," she replied.

Really, it was all I could do not to cover her face with kisses.

***

"I'm going to take all my money in my piggy bank and put it into the tzedakah box, so I won't have any money!" Rachel said as we left for school.

"Well, you want to keep SOME money, right?" I asked.

"I'm not OLD enough to have money!" she exclaimed.

***

On the way to school Rachel and I were listening to a talk show and the host mentioned a factory fire in Pakistan last month that killed 300 people. The host compared it to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911 that changed the way factories were run.

I started telling Rachel about the Triangle fire; she interrupted me and said, "I know that story, Mommy," and then proceeded to tell me the entire tale of the fire  -- including the fact that it was "like 200 years ago, before you and Daddy and PopPop and Grandma and Grandpa were born." I didn't have the heart to correct her.