SHE'S READING!!!

At Noah's birthday party last night, our friend Amy gave me some books that her own kids learned to read from when they were Rachel's age (actually, probably a little bit older). She noticed them this morning and while Drew was getting dressed and ready to get soup ingredients (I made Scotch broth with kale and sausage and macaroni soup to get us through the next two weeks), she and I cuddled in bed and she insisted on reading to me. She had brought in the books Amy gave us (they are thin books with very basic sentences), and started...reading!

"Mat sat. Sam sat. Mat sat on Sam. Sam sat on Mat" is how these books go, and Rachel astonished me by reading every single word! The ones she couldn't get right away she was able to sound out. I was so proud and stunned....she will definitely be reading chapter books my kindergarten if not before. My little girl reading! I can hardly believe it.

Now that we have the beginnings of literacy, we need to work on numeracy. Drew took care of that tonight while I was making soup -- he took Rachel downstairs and taught her how to write 1 to 100 on the computer. He has also taught her to play "Old Maid," and I foresee many winter evenings by the fire when we'll all be locked in fierce combat over card games, board games and storytelling. Oh, she is just delightful to be around these days!

Rachel was also very patient when we dragged her around to multiple furniture stores in a quest to replace our falling-apart kitchen chairs. We didn't find anything and will resume the hunt next weekend. We thanked her profusely for being so cheerful (even if she did get a bit too cozy with one saleswoman and started giving her a hug when we really wanted to be left alone to ponder our decision in peace). As I told Drew, thank goodness we're not in our 20s and tasked with furnishing a house, because then poor Rachel would have to come with us every weekend to look at furniture and she'd get so bored.

Also today, we Skyped with Tia Daniella, Valerie and Zhou Zhou. More comparing of toys and clothes -- both girls changed outfits once -- and eventually the parents had to put a stop to all the stuff that our kids were bringing out. Those little girls are so cute, even if they drive us batty.

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Cute Rachel saying of the weekend:

Drew offered to clean up tonight after I spent two hours making the two soups. I tried to protest, but he shut me down.

"Mom, you clean up two nights a week," Rachel said. "You need to let Daddy clean up the rest of the time."

We were marveling at how she's growing up in a house where the women AND then men cook and clean, and Drew asked Rachel, "what if a boy asked you to marry him but he said he didn't want to do any cooking or cleaning and he expected YOU to do all the cooking and cleaning? What would you say?"

Rachel's response?

"I would NOT marry him."

I could only respond thusly: by pumping my fist in the air and yelling, "Yay! High five!" After Rachel high-fived me, I said, "My work here is DONE."