May Showers

Yesterday morning Rachel and I got up long before daddy. We played quietly in the living room, read a few stories, and made a really big mess before we decided that it was time he got up. He worked mostly evening hours yesterday but he did need to go in for a few hours during the day to get some administrative things done (like get an A-lot parking pass).

So we went in to wake him up, but I guess he was already awake because he was hiding under the sheets when we walked into the bedroom and scared us both half to death when he yelled "Boo!"

He realized that we had let him sleep in a little too long so he started rushing around to get ready while Rachel and I tided up the bedroom a (very little) bit. We were just about to stop throwing the pillows at each other and actually make the bed when Rachel heard the shower turn on.

Before I could even say her name, Rachel was out of the bedroom and banging on the bathroom door, crying. That girl is so fast! And she really, really loves bath time. She thought it was unjust that Daddy should get to have a shower while she stayed dry and she was wailing away, telling the world about her plight.

Andrew wanted to tease her so he opened the bathroom door, waved at Rachel, and then closed it again.

That's about when I decided to follow her into the bathroom.

When the door closed on her she howled in agony and looked at me with her biggest pouty face on and tears welling up in her eyes. Then she took a deep breath, to help compose herself, balled up her fists and started banging on the door yelling,

"Ahhhh! Ya, ya, yaahh, ya, ya! Da dja! Ya, ya, ya!"

I picked her up and she continued to wave her fists and kick her legs while screaming her expletive "yas."

She quieted down soon after I had picked her up, but continued to point and grunt at the bathroom door. She needed a bath anyway but I waited until she had calmed down enough to reason with before I started undressing her. I wouldn't want her to think that all her yelling helped her to get her own way, when in fact it was her messy face and dirty feet.

Today we got to have a different type of shower. It was a rainy day today but we had to meet someone at the library to purchase their jogging stroller (our friends in Cairo advised us against bringing any other kind of stroller since the sidewalks are essentially non-existent). I strapped Rachel in the front carrier and we set off for the library. It was rather blustery and a little bit wet, but it hadn't really started to storm yet.

Rachel loves the wind. She loves water. And she loves people. So it really should come as no surprise that she was very happy while we were standing on the street corner waiting for the light to change. I was busy watching for the light to change and making sure that no cars came up on the sidewalk to hit us. But I could feel her kicking her legs and hear her giggling away, enjoying the breeze and the raindrops and the people walking by.

Then I began to notice that the people turning right were all very happy people. A lot of them turned the corner smiling broadly, if not outright laughing. A few of them pointed while laughing, so I would look behind me to see what they were laughing at, but I didn't see anything. The lamppost just didn't seem to crack me up, nor did the tree, or the street sign...

I watched car after car turn in front of us and point and laugh. It was really starting to puzzle me. Not that people shouldn't be happy, but I just wasn't used to seeing people that happy. Then one car drove by with a little girl in the front seat.

She waved at me. I awkwardly waved back. I didn't know who she was or why she was waving at me. Then she made a silly face through the glass...and Rachel burst out laughing. It was obvious the little girl was waving at Rachel, and not to me.

I had been completely ignoring her because I was so busy trying to figure out what everyone was looking at. When the next car came to turn, I paid attention to Rachel instead. She displayed as many tricks as she could while being stuck in the front carrier: smiling, waving, shaking her head, pointing, and clapping.

She probably charmed half the population of Orem today just at that one street corner.

In the end, I was glad when the light changed and we could cross the street and go to story time where we were no longer part of the show. I was also glad that we had found the lady we were buying the stroller from because it was raining quite hard by the time we got out of the library and it was nice to have a little cover for Rachel, who of course leaned out over the side of the stroller, catching the raindrops in her hand until she fell asleep with her head bobbing over the side of the stroller. What a silly, silly, busy girl!