Fantastic day

..This morning Rachel announced that she wanted to do "experiments" in the backyard and asked me to get her a bunch of things: three cups, three mints and red food dye. She asked me to fill one cup with water and another with ice, and she left the third one empty. Then she took them outside, dropped some of the mints and dye into one cup, and then shared the "results" with me. I had absolutely no idea what she was trying to test, but it's pretty obvious we'll need to get her a science kit soon before she figures out a way to blow up the house.

Had a great lunch and visit with Dan and Beryle today; I have to keep reminding myself that Rachel is their great-niece! Then we got home and it was such a beautiful, warm-ish, sunny day that I couldn't resist hopping on my bicycle (although I had lots of work to keep me busy) and going for a ride along the W&OD bike trail. After I'd ridden about 30 minutes, I found a lovely surprise: A guy selling homemade bbq along the trail! He was almost out of meat but very generously gave me a free smoked lamb chop, and thus commenced a long story about barbecue judging, good bbq restaurants in Arlington (apparently there are none, alas), and whether this guy has ever been written about (no, it turns out, so I'll probably pitch him to a local magazine).

I got back later than I intended, only to find out the sad news that Carol, our neighbor the FBI agent, is moving to Chicago within a month. That makes two houses for sale on our street. I will miss her and her kids; she is such a sensible person and has given me excellent advice. Oh, well, I told Rachel, maybe a nice family with kids will move into the house after Carol and her two kids leave.

Also found out that Rachel apparently marched up to Carol and announced that if she and Luz (her au pair) ever want to go out for the evening, she will happily babysit their 3-year-old and 2-year-old. Like, now. I find this hilarious, except that she did such a nice job of making sure the 3-year-old and 2-year-old didn't run out into the street while Carol and I were talking on her front stoop that I think Rachel would make a really fine babysitter. Unfortunately she doesn't know CPR or how to the dial the cell phone in case of an emergency, but I am sure she could figure that out.

Proof that Rachel is getting very hard to keep up with

This morning I took Rachel to gymnastics. Swimming was cancelled because of an electrical fire at the high school where the lessons are held, so I told her we'd run errands together until I had to get home and clean & cook dinner, since we were having people over for dinner tonight. "Can we please stop at the liberry?" she asked. "I want to do research for the lemonade stand." We ended up checking out a book with the title, "Better than a lemonade stand" about businesses for kid entrepreneurs. She loved it so much she actually began reading it while we were walking down the street in Westover Town Center on this GORGEOUS sunny spring day.

Afterward we went to a wonderful bakery here to pick up breakfast food for tomorrow. I bought her a pretzel and me a bratwurst to eat for lunch, and we chatted for a while as we ate. Then it was home, where Drew arrived just in time to play with her in the backyard. She showed him fun tricks on the swings, then curled up in his lap while he read a book about castles that she'd picked up at the library, while I cleaned the house, put away laundry and baked a cake.

Our guests arrived around 7:45 (Rachel had left to play at Ivy's house for a while), and we had a lovely dinner with a new friend, Donna, who I was introduced to via Facebook by Molly. Donna brought a friend, Dennis, who unfortunately had to leave early because of a mini-crisis involving his 15-year-old daughter. Donna has five nieces and brought some cool gifts for Rachel -- gel pens, a drawing pad, some candy -- and Rachel being Rachel, she immediately set to drawing a poster for Donna to take home. We all had a great time sitting around and talking, when Rachel all of a sudden announced, "Can you buy me a science kit? Like, TOMORROW." So, Drew will probably hunt one down after our visit with Dan and Beryle for lunch.

Really, Rachel IS getting hard to keep up with!

Science Fair

One of the thousands of reasons we are so glad we moved here: Arlington schools! Tonight was the science fair at McKinley. It was mostly for older kids (only one kindergartener in the whole school submitted an entry) but Rachel insisted on going. I thought it would consist of a bunch of displays of science projects in the cafeteria/auditorium, but it was more. Much more. Activities in multiple classrooms; cool giveaways like pencils that change color when you hold them; and live animals! (from a local nature center). Rachel got to hold a corn snake (I got a picture of this, will post it on Facebook soon) and pet a turtle (as did I, since, hey, I'm the mom and I get to do stuff like that) and rode a stationary bike to show how much energy it took to power things like a fan, a TV and a hair dryer. I couldn't get over how well this was done, as opposed to International Night, which was OK but the activities were kind of pointless.

Also, a camp update: Thanks to Drew's masterful grid and getting up at the crack of dawn the other day to register her online, Rachel is signed up for a million summer camps: Classic outdoor camp; a Daisy Scout sleep-away camp; science camp; art camp; sports camp. The only one we couldn't get her into was pony camp, but we may be able to get on the wait list for that one. We are leaving ourselves a week of family vacation, but otherwise, our little girl will be quite busy!

Camp

Drew is preparing himself to get up and online at 6:30 a.m. to register Rachel for the zillions of summer camps we need to register her for this summer. So far she has expressed interest in classic outdoor camps; art camps; a pony camp; and an engineering camp. Drew has created a spreadsheet of possibilities for when registration opens tomorrow. "I have a vision of parents all over Arlington doing the same thing we're doing, girding themselves for WAR."

He's right about that one. Let's hope Rachel gets into everything she wants and that we don't have to take non-existent vacation or comp time to stay with her for weeks on end.

One camp she will definitely be going to: Girl Scout sleep-away camp, specially for Daisy Scouts! It's a three-day, two-night camp in Leesburg, Va. When we presented her with that option, she immediately said, "I'm GOING! I've GOT this!!" She insists she is totally ready to be separated from us for half a week. I am totally not sure that I am ready, but I guess this is a small step in the long journey of letting her go for good. Sniff.

She's growing up, Part 345

Finally tackled a chore this weekend that I have wanted to get done for a while: Bed shopping. Rachel has been in her toddler bed for probably too long, considering that her cousin and other friends all have real, big-girl, twin beds. So, on Sunday we went out in the cold rain/slow/whatever the hell the weather was doing that day, it's a nightmare here -- to store after store to price beds. Drew very smartly suggested Rachel might want to bring a book or her Leap Pad to keep busy in the car as we drove all over creation, since Arlington is really spread out.

After visits to a couple of furniture stores, we settled on a bed from Pottery Barn Kids (we had a welcome-to-the-neighborhood coupon that helped quite a bit with the price). It's a nice, simple, white twin bed. Rachel was disappointed that we wouldn't buy her a bunk bed or a loft bed, but I kept reminding her that this is a bed she's going to have to want to sleep in even when she's 16. She was only mollified after I promised her that we could accessorize it with cute pillows and bed coverings. (And if she really wants a princessy look, there is plenty I could do with mosquito netting, some ribbons and hooks from the ceiling. Maybe as a surprise when she comes home from a playdate one day??).

The point is: She is growing UP. Soon we'll have to get her a desk, and reconfigure her room so that it looks like a teen is living there instead of a little girl. And that makes me sad.

Rachel the artist

So, a piece of artwork Rachel did is going to be displayed at the Arlington Educational Center! Her art teacher sent us the notice this week. There's a reception this Wednesday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Unfortunately I won't be able to go since I'll be reporting a magazine story, but Drew will be there with Rachel and I'll get him to take lots of pictures. And, of course, I'll see the display on my own sometime during the week or on the weekend.

Tia Daniella and Auntie Amanda: Looks like you may have had more influence on my daughter than you thought! Thanks. If she's half as good as both of you, that will mean she far outclasses her parents when it comes to art. (I'm just hoping she inherits Drew's data-analysis skills and my writing ability -- as long as she doesn't use it to make a living from writing!).

Rachel's report card

I've been meaning to write about Rachel's report card, which she got about a week or two ago (can't tell; these damn snow days have made the weeks a blur). It's not letter grades at this point; she's either meeting or progressing toward age-appropriate skills. Here is what her teachers say:

Mrs. Kappert, her main teacher: "Rachel is a hard worker and contributes excellent questions to group discussion. In language arts Rachel has a great grasp on letter sounds and uses them to stretch out unfamiliar words in her writing. In math Rachel does well in most area, and has quickly learned to add numbers together and show her work when doing so. I am thrilled to have Rachel in my class, and I am so much looking forward to the rest of the year!"

Mrs. Bonahoom, her art teacher: "Rachel has had a wonderful semester in art class. She is creative and shares ideas during class discussions. Rachel has great control in both fine and large motor activities. She loves adding details in her artwork. Rachel did an exceptional job with her large castle painting. She enjoys painting and mixing colors. Rachel works well with her fellow classmates and is always eager to help. She is an asset to our class."

Mrs. Byrne (Spanish teacher): "Rachel shows confidence with new material and works very hard to participate in class. Great job!"

Presidents Day fun!

My friend from college, Charon, graciously offered to take the family to Disney on Ice. It's at the Verizon Center; Charon works for Verizon and often scores free tickets to D.C. events (like a Wizards game in January, which I would have loved to go to but Drew and I had made dinner/movie plans that night). Drew dislikes ice skating, but I said, sure! So, Rachel was wildly excited to go and we decided I'd just take her and Drew would use the morning to get a bunch of stuff done that he hadn't been able to get to yet.

Rachel and I parked for free at the East Falls Church Metro station and took the train in. It let us off a block away from the Verizon Center, so finding our seats was easy. We both had fun; the skating and music were cheesy, but I actually got into it after a while. I bought Rachel a pair of Minnie ears (her request) and some cotton candy (also her request), but other than that, she was very good about not asking me to buy her all the overpriced stuff that the Disney folks sell. At a couple of points she was dancing in her seat.

Afterward I asked her if she wanted to go to a museum and she said yes, so we stopped at Starbucks for a snack (and I ended up explaining the law of supply and demand because it was mentioned in a book she's reading, a Disney movie called "Frozen,"). Then we headed to the Air and Space Museum (her idea, thank you Uncle David!) and watched a short movie there, narrated by Douglas Fairbanks Jr., about WWI pilot movies -- a fascinating subject, as it turned out. Rachel and I examined the cockpit of a Boeing 747 and went into a couple of exhibits about the origin of flight and the pilots of WWI and WWII. We were there about 90 minutes before the museum closed, so we walked to the nearest Metro station about two blocks away, then got into the car and drove home. Drew was already making dinner and I started mixing up the batter (with Rachel's help) for Valentine's Day cookies I offered to bring to her class for their Valentine's Day celebration (postponed from last Friday). The cookies are now about to go into the oven, then I'll make pink frosting and call it a night.

There are so many things to be delighted about today -- the fact that my kid has her own Metro card and we're within a 20-minute Metro ride of all the cool things in D.C.; the fact that we can talk about all kinds of things for a whole day when I'm not worried about work or writing or the house or that I'm not volunteering enough at her school; the fact that we got out of our rut of playdates that even Rachel gets bored with sometimes, I can tell. But the real delight was the mother-daughter time we got to spend together. That was the best thing of all.

Rachel the builder

This past weekend was a lot of fun -- on Saturday morning, Rachel wanted to play with a cool building set that a boy had gotten her for her birthday. It's a series of cardboard pieces that have military depictions on them, and you put them together to make planes, ships, airplanes, etc. So, Rachel decided that she and I needed to design our own ships, planes, trucks, and I promptly got down on her bedroom floor and started building things with her. At one point I worried that I wasn't being imaginative enough, and she said, "You don't need to look like mine, Mommy. All you need is your imagination."

"Rachel, I love you," I replied, touched. "You're very wise."
"I try," she replied. "I very much try."

We ended up gathering the pieces into a "display" for people to buy (I had visions of military contractors walking up and down the aisles of a gigantic airplane hanger looking at our creations and bidding ungodly sums of money on them) which Rachel called "Citytopia." She put all the planes/trucks/ships into her pink princess tent, and stationed some stuffed animals at the front of the tent as the welcoming committee for the display. I nearly died laughing.

Then I took her to her gymnastics class, where I got to watch her from a balcony above the gym, and I just couldn't take my eyes off of her -- she is so muscular and nimble! We headed to swim class, where I sat next to two women who were in the process of discovering that both of them had lived in Bethlehem (yes, THE Bethlehem) at different times. (This is what happens when you move to a cosmopolitan part of the country). We got home and in the afternoon she had a playdate with Ivy, who came over and they watched a movie while I made popcorn and hot chocolate. Drew came home after that, we had family movie night and watched some of the Olympics (Rachel and were mesmerized by the women's slopestyle snowboarding) and went to bed.

On Sunday I went to the library to research a book author I'm writing about, then treated myself to a manicure, pedicure and eyebrow wax (and, boy, I needed it). We ate dinner at The Silver Diner, a great inexpensive restaurant close to our house, then headed home to watch more Olympics. Then Rachel went to bed and I watched Downtown Abbey before hitting the sack.

What Rachel and Mommy do when Daddy is away

Tonight Drew's boss at Pew took the entire FactTank team out for drinks to thank them for the great job they're doing. He said the blog exceeded all his greatest hopes. He also entertained them with stories of Davos and showed pictures of his house in Greenwich.

Really, it's a different world we're living in.

Meanwhile, back in Arlington, Rachel and I worked on the valentines for all 18 kids in her class. (I am trying to be less stressed about money and whether I'll end up working full-time or freelancing and be in the moment with Rachel when she comes home from school, trying to do whatever she requests instead of worrying about whether dinner is on time or whether I can steal a few more moments to work. She is much more relaxed around me and prone to say "I love you, Mommy," spontaneously if I'm not worried or snappish, I've noticed). At dinner she asked us to make a up a song, and here's the one I came up with for her:

There was a girl named Rachel
As lovely as a tree of maple
Her eyes were blue as the ocean
Bluer than a tube of lotion

Hers, about me, was:

There was a girl whose name was Lisa
Whose favorite food was pizza
Her eyes were brown
As a squirrel's down
And lovely as can be

Clearly, she is the writer in the family. We set the poems to song, and she took my African drum, the one next to the fireplace, lugged it to the dining room and beat out the rhythm while I sang-read out the verses. Who says you need electronic devices to have a good time?

the origin of the Tiara constellation

Rachel informed me tonight that there is a Tiara constellation. Here's how it came to be:

"There was a princess, and one day she met a farmer. And she was in love with him, so she asked her father if she could marry him. Her father said no. So, she really wanted to marry him. So, she changed into some not-very-pretty clothes and packed her bags and was going to leave the castle, but she forgot something very important. Her tiara! The guards almost caught her. So, she threw it up in the sky, and that's how it became a constellation.

The end."

This kid is DEFINITELY ready for babysitting. She could keep a 4-year-old entranced for HOURS.

Summer project

Rachel apparently has decided that she's going to open a lemonade stand this summer. She informed me this morning that Daddy needs to take her to the library so she can do "research." This winter will be for research about the lemonade stand; the spring will be building the lemonade stand; the summer will be operating the lemonade stand; and the fall will be....another project, perhaps.

I have no idea where she gets these ideas from. She said Eli, a kid in her class, was discussing businesses with his dad. So, maybe that sparked her imagination.

Of course, this is also the kid who, after her bath today, pranced into the study where I was working and sang, "I don't wanna be a chicken/I don't wanna be a chicken/bok bok! bok bok!" making her elbows flap like chicken wings. I don't think she's quite ready to break the glass ceiling.

Dinnertime

Now I know why dinnertime is so precious for parents -- sometimes, if the mood is right, you get to have great discussions with your kids. Tonight's was started by Rachel, who informed us that she is going to be a featured interview in the school newspaper. Two older girls are going to interview her, probably because she said one of her wishes was to go back in time.

What time would you like to go back to? we asked.

She paused for a minute, then said, 1820. "What was going on back then?" she said. Drew told her about the exploration of the West, that the railroads were being built, and that was years before Ma and Pa left the Little House in the Big Woods in the Little House on the Prairie series.

"How about the Seventies?" Rachel asked.

"The 1970s?" Drew replied. "No, you don't. The clothes were boring and the music was awful." Thus commenced a long discussion about leisure suits, pet rocks, Pong, typewriters, record albums (surprisingly, Rachel knows what record albums are) and wide collars. She thought most of it sounded hilarious.

We just felt old.

Uncle David's here!

Uncle David (aka, Uncle Airplane) is here for a quick business trip. Rachel, who loves him dearly, was very excited to hear that he would be staying with us last night and tomorrow night (Tuesday). I plan to cook a nice dinner tomorrow night, plus we have homemade babka for dessert.

Rachel's very specific instructions to me last night were to put out the place cards she had made. She wrote up four, with each of our names on one side. On other side she wrote, HUG! I was told to put the place cards with HUG! at each table setting, and then when you turned the card over, there was the name of the person who was supposed to be in that seat.

The kid stuns me with her entertaining prowess. I told her the other night that if she wanted to, she could accompany me on my next big catering gig (assuming it's in D.C.) and she was wildly excited. The funny thing is, I think she'll actually be a help, which is why I suggested it.

Oh, and when I was about to bring my full-up laundry basket up the stairs, she insisted on carrying it herself. It was heavy and about twice her size, but my wiry, muscled little daughter did it all by herself without being asked. She has an uncommonly generous spirit. Yes, we got lucky with this one.

A lovely sentiment

Last fall, Rachel, Drew and I went to a fall festival at a local pumpkin patch. We bought Rachel a plastic bear, and she filled it with layers of different-colored sand and closed the top with a twist cap. It's quite colorful and has sat on her windowsill since then.

The other day she decided to bring it downstairs and put it on the Lazy Susan on our dining-room table. Then, yesterday morning, she took a few grains out and carefully dropped them in my palm.

"It's love sand," she explained. "Every piece of sand has an element of love in it."

Really, I have no idea what planet this child is from. I'm just happy that we get to borrow her for a while.