I definitely have what Rachel had

so, I took a sick day today (rare for me). I've managed to keep down a banana, two matzos, a slice of pizza and some chocolate sorbet. Tummy is still tender, but hopefully by tomorrow night I'll be over it. Ugh, I dislike being sick when I'm the only one taking care of Rachel and I can't play with her or be attentive to her needs the way I want to be. Nevertheless, she has remained incredibly upbeat and cheerful.

Tonight I was too wiped out to prepare dinner, so I tossed her bathing suit and a towel into the trunk and announced, when I picked her up from preschool, that it was so hot outside that we'd go to Hot Lips for pizza, then play in the fountain and Jamison Square and get ice cream at Cool Moon Ice Cream afterward. "Oh, MOMMY, THANK YOU!" she said rapturously. We were finishing up pizza when who walked in but her little friend Devin and Devin's dad, Jim (I had run into Devin's mom, Linda, this morning, and had hoped to see her and Devin tonight to hear about all the drama going on at her architecture firm, but only Jim appeared). Between keeping our eyes on the girls, Jim and I managed to have some snatches of conversation, and then we walked to the fountain. I felt so bad that I didn't have an extra suit for Devin (Linda had an extra suit for Rachel one time when we spontaneously met one weekend) and tried to communicate to Rachel that if she stayed in the fountain for a long time, Devin would feel left out and it would be really fun for us all to get ice cream together. So...we got our ice cream and my chocolate sorbet and then left for home. It was a really nice evening.

***

Rachel is really getting into "Charlotte's Web." Last night when I was feeling terrible and offered to read her four books because I wasn't up to watching her bike ride, she picked out my favorite books, not hers. One of them was Charlotte's Web, and she was hooked. Tonight we read the chapter where Wilbur is terribly lonely and discouraged by the ran one day because he's positive Fern won't come to visit him.

"He shouldn't give up!" Rachel said resolutely. "Fern may come after all."

***

This morning Rachel was talking about her early birthday celebration (a party on June 29th) and all the presents she hoped to get. They are technology-based -- she really wants a MobyGo and some version of an iPod, which made me sad that she's more into technology these days than books.

Or so I thought. Cuddling up against me in bed, she announced: "What I'd really like is my own library card!"

"Really?!?" I said delightedly.

"Yeah!" she said. "So I can check out my own books, like a big girl!"