Amazing things Rachel said today

Rachel has been unusually...needy? Whiny? Weepy? the past day or so. I think that's because she loves having Anne and David and Jean visit and so she tends to monopolize all their attention, and she doesn't seem to understand that sometimes they want a break (as do Drew and I) and she can't be the center of everything all the time. So, that tends to manifest itself in her acting out in the fairly mild way she does -- she never throws temper tantrums, but she does tend to stamp her feet, whine and become rude -- and so both Drew and I have had to take her aside and explain that she needs to be respectful of other peoples' time and energy levels.

This morning was one of those times. At breakfast I had to get up and take her into her room, and I sat in the glider and cuddled with her and said that she needs to know that Anne and David don't have children and so they're not used to her energy and she needs to give them a rest once in a while. That somehow evolved into a conversation about...well, I'll try to rehash it here.

"Most of my friends don't like their parents," Rachel said. "I'm the only one who likes their parents."
"Doesn't Sadie like her parents?" I asked. (Sadie is a member of the Rachel Posse at preschool).
"No," Rachel said.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because they call her a tattletale," she said.
"Why do they do that?" I asked. "Sadie doesn't have a brother or sister."
"Because she tattles on her parents to each one," she said.
Oh.
"How about Devin? Doesn't she like her parents?" I asked.
"No," Rachel said. "They always tell her what to do."
"Well, we tell you what to do," I said.
Then she added that she doesn't expect us to buy her things all the time, "just on July 11th" (her birthday).

***

"I know how to play the violin," Rachel announced, and indeed she remembered getting a taste of it during a demonstration at Multnomah Days, a neighborhood festival we attended last May.
"Do you want to learn an instrument?" I asked. "Which one?"
"A saxophone," she said.
"A saxophone??!!" I said. "Why?"
"Because it's jazzy and exciting," she said.
"Um, I think you're too little right now," I said. "The saxophone is probably as big as you are!"
Then she changed her mind and said, "I want to play the violin," so maybe we'll see about getting her lessons this winter.

***

Rachel informed me that today she was going to tell ME a story and she made this one up. I'm trying to recreate it as best as I can:

"Once upon a time there was a girl named Bella and she wanted violin lessons. Her parents said they weren't sure, but then she asked and asked and they said okay. When she got the violin home she put it on her dresser and then an odd thing happened. She couldn't find it! It had moved. So she looked around the room and found it in another place, and then it moved again. So then she looked inside and she saw a ghost! It waggled its butt at her and then she took the violin and threw it to the ground, and then the ghost flew up into the air and disappeared. And that was the end."

She has the storytelling gene, this one.