Rachael, our drama queen

[Disclaimer: usually when people say things like a kid is a "drama queen" or "little actress," they mean it in a sort of condescending way, like the kid needs to start being so overly dramatic about silly things. That is not my meaning in the least, but I couldn't think of another term to use here.]


It's a good thing God made me Rachael's mom.

I think a different mother might be getting her into therapy. Or scolding her a lot.

This is a little hard to explain when you're not witnessing it, but it's so fascinating, I'll try my best.

A few months ago, Rachael often told me she needed to go take a nap. Coincidently, a few minutes after she went in her room, the doorbell would ring. It was a little girl dressed in red who looked a lot like Rachael and said her name was "Video." Sometimes she would even be wearing a name tag. She called me "Miss Jennifer" and said that she would be staying at our house a for a few days. She was five years old.

[BTW, see The Buggles' music video to understand this a little better.]

Apparently Video and Rachael are friends. Sometimes Video would join the family on outings. One time she and Rachael sat next to each other at IHOP. We were sometimes confused, since they look so similar, but Rachael sat on the right, and Video sat on the left.

So, one time when Robert looked at Video and called her Rachael, Rachael said, from her seat, "No, dad! I'm right here!"

There have been other visitors, too. Yesterday we had "Chessie," the Cheshire Cat, stay with us. [We saw a play at the Civic Center a couple weeks ago where Chessie was one of the main characters.]

Imagine Robert's surprise when he came home from work to find a cat slinking around our house (on her back legs) and speaking in a sort of purring British accent.

Often when Rachael when Rachael seems noticeably sad, or scared, or something, we'll say, "Wait a minute ... are you Rachael, or are you somebody else?"

It usually isn't Rachael.

For example, the other day a little girl was very sad and didn't speak at all for a while. When we asked who she was, she sadly held up her fingers in the shape of the letter "A." She wouldn't tell us why she was sad, but then later wrote on a piece of paper, "I wunt chessie."

Soon after that, Chessie, the slinking, purring, British Cheshire Cat, showed up. I think Alice was still in the house too, but I didn't see her quite as much.

See why it gets confusing living here?

Rachael says she wants to be a drama teacher when she gets older. That's really striking to me, because I almost guarantee she will do something like that in some capacity.

What's also striking is how intense she is about this. I would expect many six year olds pretend to be somone, or act out stories: "Hey, look, I'm a cat, meow!" This is almost on a different level.

For instance, Rachael is often away when one of these visitors stays for a few days. One time she went to the beach with her Aunt Carol. She even called us and told us how she was doing.

Never a dull moment around here.