Playdate

Rachel and Sydney are scheduled to have a playdate on Wednesday after their Brownies meeting. I'm generally not a fan of playdates because they interfere with homework and bedtime, but there's not much I can do when I'm at work (which I will be tomorrow night; I had tonight off).

Today when I picked up Rachel from school, Nicole said that Sydney had asked if they could have a playdate tonight. I sort of made an exasperated sound -- two in one week is too much, and I am really trying to broaden Rachel's base of friends because I think that Sydney monopolizes her time (and yes, Mom, I sound like you did when I was much younger).

I told them they could choose between tonight and tomorrow, but not both days. Rachel got very upset and I said, "If you act that way, then we won't have a playdate either night."

They chose tomorrow. Thankfully Nicole had said to Syd that since I wasn't working tonight, we had planned to have a family dinner, which was true, and one of the reasons I didn't want to host a playdate -- I would have felt obligated to have them both over for dinner, and I didn't have enough food and wanted it to be just a family night. Luckily Nicole was gracious enough not to press the point.

As we walked home, Rachel was still in a bad mood, and said that I had ignored her when we walked to school this morning (I had tried to catch up with Billy, the father of Ivy and Liam, because I hadn't seen him in a while) and I was ignoring her then. No I wasn't, I said. Just then, we spotted a tiny mouse near the construction site. It was so cute -- it looked to be sleeping, although Rachel thought it was hurt. She took a few pictures with her cellphone.

When we got home and I asked if she was upset that she wasn't having a playdate, she said no. "I really wanted to read and cuddle with you," she said, but she didn't want to say that aloud and hurt Sydney's feelings. Totally understandable. I didn't make a big deal about it, but I was happy she said that because I wanted to spend time with her alone, too. Later tonight when I was putting her to bed we agreed on a secret wink she'd give me if she's in a similar situation with Syd again.

And tonight turned out to be lovely -- it was cool and not rainy, so we had dinner outside wearing fleece and sweatshirts. I made asparagus with penne, and we unfroze a babka I had made months ago and had that for dessert. Rachel showed Drew how she had gotten me on Instagram a few days ago, and Drew said, "The time is soon coming when Rachel will be our tech support."

"That day has already come," I observed.

Then I read with Rachel in bed and sang her two songs, and tried to convince her that she wasn't too serious ("I'm too serious," she said, when I suggested that she could become a camp counselor someday after she asked me if I had ever been one). So we had a talk about being serious vs. being responsible, and how the latter doesn't mean that she's not a fun person, she just follows the rules. I told her that she's a goofball and that she makes Daddy and me laugh a lot and we love being around her. She started giggling then, remembering a story Drew told over dinner about the slide shows his parents had when he was a kid, and how one slide was "Look! There's Drew being chased by a lobster!" (Not really, but it was pretty funny, anyway. He actually was being chased by a goose.) Both she and I had a good laugh before I said goodnight.