Magic reading place

For the past two days it has been very springlike here, and when I pick Rachel up from school she wants me to play with her on the McKinley playground. Yesterday it was difficult; I was in work clothes (I had gone into The Boston Globe's D.C. bureau to attend a weekly planning meeting and work on a story) and so I didn't want to clamber around in my work shoes and pants in the mud and dead branches (although my work shoes really need replacing, sigh). We settled on finding a tree stump half-hidden by surrounding trees, which we decided was an excellent place to read "The Magic Treehouse," a series that PopPop and Mammaw gave Rachel and is filled with GREAT stories.

It was so lovely sitting on the stump and reading to my daughter; I can see many summer days where we'll be doing the same thing, until she's old enough to read to herself.

Today I wore sneakers; she pointed at them and said, "Good!" We ended up doing an "obstacle course" on the play structure, playing hide-and-go seek, and she showed me all the cool things she can do on the monkey bars, etc. Playtime stretched until 7, when I insisted we go home.

On the way back we stopped at the neighborhood tree swing and met up with Ivy, Izzie and another little girl. Ivy suggested that Rachel not try the same way of swinging as the other girls because she's too little, but Rachel tried it anyway and succeeded -- I gave her a big wink, I was so proud -- and then the older girls proceeded to take a thick rope and (with Rachel's help) tied my legs together. Luckily the knot wasn't that tight. They had a great time over my protests.

Finally, to the background of a beautiful sunset, Rachel and I walked home together.