For 45 minutes

The second time Andrew's alarm went off this morning, we realized the power was out. That totally explained the repressive heat. The power was out for 45, the first time.

I didn't want to get out of bed yet so I just lied there, thinking about what I was going to do about everything in our freezer if the power didn't kick on soon. The fridge stuff would probably be alright. Eggs aren't sold refrigerated here so we've become less frantic about getting them into the fridge the minute we get home from the grocery store. Our "poo milk" can last almost for forever and we definitely have the ability to finish off our bootleg real-live cow milk before it goes sour. The "poo cheese" can last forever; the real cheese could probably last for a day. Maybe two. The bread is only in there so it doesn't go moldy on the counter. Jam, ketchup, mustard? All good.

Our only real worry was the yogurt.

And the stuff in the freezer.

I wondered if anyone in the branch would think it was weird if I asked them if they had room for the whole contents of our freezer in their freezer until the power came back on. Frozen vegetables, frozen cheese, frozen milk, frozen chicken. All that stuff pretty much needs to stay frozen until we're ready to use it and we aren't ready to use 25 servings of chicken today.

Luckily I only worried about it for 45 minutes, until the power came back on and I fell back asleep. And then the power turned back off and I worried again. And then it came back on and I fell asleep again. It's been on for the rest of the day, so our freezer food is safe.

So instead of worrying about what to do with our perishable food, I spent the day fielding questions from Rachel, mostly about going swimming. This girl has an impeccable biological clock, either that or she just felt like too much time had gone by since the last time she went swimming with Finn.

"Swim! Finn!" she said/asked/chanted.

"Well, I don't know about swimming, but I definitely know we won't be playing with Finn. Finn moved."

"Finn...?"

"He left on a plane."

"Finn...plane...?"

"Finn is all gone."

"Oh. Otay. Swimming?"

"We'll see. Why don't we get dressed, first?"

And thus went my day. She was really stuck on the whole swimming idea. About 45 minutes before Andrew got home she asked me, again.

"Rachel, wait and see what Daddy says when he gets home, okay? Don't ask me again or the answer will be no!"

I wasn't in the mood today to take her swimming by myself. And by not in the mood I mean I was tired and wanted someone to pass her off to in the water. For 45 minutes she left me alone and it was great. And when I say that she left me alone I really mean that she didn't ask about swimming; she still acted as my shadow for the entire time period.

When Andrew walked through the door, Rachel squealed with excitement and greeted him with,

"Hi, Dada! Swimming?!"

Seriously? She remembered to ask him about swimming the very minute he got home? What did she do--sit around worrying about whether or not she'd be going swimming for 45 minutes? Who'd she get that from?

Oh, me. I can also sit around and worry quietly about something for 45 minutes, easily.

We went swimming, but first we went to Road 9 to run some errands. It had to happen in that order because if we went swimming first I wouldn't want to go to Road 9 to run errands, but if we went to Road 9 first, I'd still want to go swimming.

We did end up swimming and it was a blast. Rachel was so hilarious the whole time. She just loves water. She started blowing raspberries almost constantly for some reason; it really worked out great because we could dunk her several times before she'd stop spitting and take a breath. When she did accidentally inhale water she'd spout it back out on someone. She only choked once or twice, which is really pretty good.

She kept screaming out for who she wanted. She actually says "want" now instead of "ah," at least most of the time. I think it just hit her one day when Andrew said, "I get it! Ah means want!" and Rachel responded, "Yeah. Want!"

"Want! EMMA!" she'd yell (because Emma came with us). Or DADDY! Or MOMMY!

And then she'd kick her legs and paddle her arms and we'd move her along and she'd pretend she was swimming. We also threw her a lot. The Maadi House pool is great, but they have the stupidest rules.

As a former lifeguard, I feel I have the right to say their rules are stupid.

They don't let little children anywhere near the deep end, even if they are with their parents. They often ban jumping, just whenever the mood suits them. No splashing. And they have this rule where the last quarter of the hour is "adult swim" time, which in theory is nice but in practice is ridiculous.

I'm sorry, but when playgroup is there and there are only moms and babies in the pool because it is the middle of the day...it does not make sense to clear the pool for 15 minutes. What purpose does that serve? The moms can swim, but the babies have to sit on the deck, what?

Anyway, a rule they do not have is a "no throwing" rule, which is silly because I have seen so many people get hurt being thrown or being landed on by people being thrown, etc. However, throwing is kind of fun...so we threw Rachel a lot.

She wasn't sure whether to claim she was flying or swimming.

She did a lot of jumping, bubble blowing, and even rode around on my back. She usually hates riding on my back, but Emma was riding on Andrew's back so obviously it's cool now.

We swam for an hour and 45 minutes.

And I'm totally rambling...so I'm going to go to bed.