Daddy's Girl

Super-serious selfie

This weekend was... interesting.

I traveled over to Martlesham with Andy's girlfriend Sam and stayed the night there. I put Arya to bed and she asked me to tell her a story, so we had Red Rising Hood; the version where Red takes out the wolf with a frying pan and a meat cleaver rather than needing to look for a woodsman, of course. In the morning I took Arya to the playground, but she was a little out of sorts and not as into it as she normally is. She was obviously a little tired, and in the final analysis I think was coming down with a cold already.

We had some lunch and then headed for the train. I asked if she wanted to go in the pushchair, mostly to use it as a reminder that she needed to hold my hand, but she said yes straight away and was asleep in a few minutes. She didn't wake for a couple of hours, by which time we were on the train. This was very different to our last train journey, as she sat beside me for most of it and we chatted happily.

There was a long change at Cambridge, but we got some juice and she played close to the pushchair; after past experience of the terror of rail platforms, I was dead impressed. She also charmed everyone around us, from older, American tourists to the young lass sat next to us on the Littleport train who showed every sign of delight as Arya demonstrated her conjuring skills (see these trays? I put the hair bobble in the tray and hey! it's gone. Open the tray and it's still there!)

After all that napping I was a bit worried about the evening, but Arya ate some chicken korma, after a rocky start (I put it in the microwave and she protested: "That's for milk!") had a non-bath wash to get the grime off her face and the rice out of her belly button and then went to bed very nicely, just in time for me to make a late dinner for myself and Hanna when she arrived after her shift.

Pizza!

Sunday set new standards for lazy days. We had pancakes for lunch, watched Frozen, both Despicable Mes and a load of Clangers, then made gf pizza, Arya helping to distribute ham, sweetcorn and cheese before cooking. She had a bath with Mummy, then another episode of Pajanimals and bed.

In the morning we had breakfast before heading off. I picked up my bowl since I was sat back a little from the table to leave room for her legs, and I noticed that she had picked up her bowl to copy me, so that was adorable.

Potty training is going well (Hi, future Arya!), reading is coming on and she was able to point out all of her friends' pegs at nursery and tell me their names (the friends, not the pegs,) although her counting seems to have become erratic since she realised she could subitise up to 4. Still, she was pretty snuffly by then, so I give her a pass.

An awfully big adventure o the non-terminal kind

Mike the Knight, a young crusader in the
world of criminals who operate above the
law...

This past weekend was our first holiday as a complete family: Hanna, Arya, Andrew and I went to Alton Towers, expressly to visit CBeebies Land. There was a plan that we would take turns with Arya or seeing other bits of the park, but that sort of fell through as plans are wont to do.

We drove up on Friday evening and thus arrived in the wilds of Staffordshire in the middle of the night and pretty much collapsed into our beds (apart from Hanna who was still wired on Monster.) At... I have no idea when, I woke from a dream in which someone was calling for Daddy Luke, stumbled over to Arya's bunk bed and curled up next to her until she woke up at about six with a cough asking for a drink of water, and that was it for sleep.

We had a big breakfast and headed into the park, then straight for CBeebies Land (after picking up food passes and a tag for Arya's wrist and other such technicalities.) We kicked off with Mike the Knight in the Big Fun Show Time arena, where Arya found an egg but had an attack of nerves and had to get another little girl to take it to Mike. We got a picture, but only with Mummy. Her shyness around CBeebies characters was a recurrent theme, matched only by her desire to be taken to see characters she would then hide from in the crook of our necks.

Before I got the camera out, she
actually gave Upsy-Daisy a huge
hug.

We went on the In the Night Garden boat ride as a family, and then I took her on the Numtums Number-Go-Round while Hanna and Andrew slipped off to do the big scary rollercoasters that wouldn't let Arya on and I don't like. It took them about an hour and a half - I think - to do Nemesis, Air, the Congo Rapids Ride and the Sonic Screwball. In the meantime, Arya and I took in the Zingzillas' show in the arena, the Postman Pat ride and Nina's Science Lab, had a bit of a picnic snack, and met Upsy-Daisy and Iggle-Piggle.

She straight begged me to take her
to meet Iggle-Piggle and then
buried her head in her arms. The
same happened with Tree Fu Tom
and MimMim

We then wandered over to look at the Tree-Top Adventure and the Octonauts Rollercoaster, but they were both very busy and before we got onto anything else Hanna and Andrew got back and we went for lunch, which was one of the few downsides. Food at Alton Towers was overwhelmingly soft carbs and protein, mostly with a BBQ sauce, with meager provision for non-fizzy drinks on the meal passes and naff all gluten free. After lunch, Hanna and I went to sate a craving for tiny fresh doughnuts, but then Arya took a tumble and split her lip, and by the time we were sure she was okay the doughnuts were cold (and the only reason I had paused long enough to collect them was that I didn't see the blood.)

I can see why she'd be wary of Jess, having seen the movie.

From the first aid centre we took the cable cars to Cloud Cuckoo Land, the other children's section, where the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Ride proved a little too intense for Arya. By then she was tired, so we put her in the pushchair and she went spark out and stayed asleep while we went through the Hex ride in shifts.

Gangsta.

We took the Skyride back and walked to Mutiny Bay where we got Arya certified 90cm on the nose and rode the Congo River Ride as a family, which she seemed to hate; I don't think she likes being splashed unless she's also doing the splashing. It wasn't a major upset, however, and soon after she was just amused that we were all wet and she absolutely loved the Sea Life centre Sharkbait Reef exhibit, complete with actual sharks.

To finish, we went back to CBeebies Land, where we took Arya on the Octonauts ride. A family behind us were very doubtful of whether she was tall enough and, having paid for some manner of VIP pass themselves, appeared to think that her orange 'I'm 90cm' wristband meant that we'd shelled out for the super VIP 'ignore health and safety regulations in this park where they recently had some highly publicised accidents' pass. Arya was terrified, but once off the ride very firmly announced that she had enjoyed it. Then Hanna took Arya on the Tree Top ride - a little car that runs on a rail around CBeebies Land - we ate more BBQ and came home.

Born to drive.

On Saturday night Arya went off eventually, and we played some Ticket to Ride before bed.

On Sunday we failed utterly to go in early, but Hanna and Andrew still managed to get in another ride on Hex, the flume and a couple more rollercoasters while Arya and I did more CBeebies. Before they went off, they took her on the Postman Pat ride for a photograph; unfortunately it's limited to two adults per car, so I sat that one out, promising myself the next photo. Then we couldn't find anywhere else that took photos and I started to worry I'd be left with no picture of me and Arya at the park.

While Hanna and Andrew were off, we took in the Tree Fu Training ground - a decent adventure playground, but a bit too old for Arya - and then went through the sensory garden the Treetop Adventure again. The queue was long, Arya was scared by the two girls behind us - six and eight if I had to guess - constantly screaming for no reason and I was hacked off by the woman who carried her child out of line then nipped up in the wheelchair lift (presumably to join someone who was holding a place in line, which isn't supposed to be allowed,) but once we were on she absolutely adored the ride, waving at the CBeebies bugs and watching what was below us.

After that, we had a snack and got some juice from the CBeebies Land canteen, and we sat and shared a packet of biscuits in a most companionable fashion.

We met up with Hanna and Andrew for lunch, and walked up to the pseudo-West African zone where the pizza and pasta shack offered not only buffet lunch that wasn't BBQ meat, but also non-fizzy on tap, a salad bar (yay vitamins!) and gluten free pizza. They also made Arya a gluten free pizza and included it on our meal passes, despite the fact that technically we should have paid extra for them, so seriously, I like those guys.

I was clearly knackered, because
this is the only photo I took all day.

Arya took Andrew off for a walk (technically the other way around, but I like the way that reads) while Hanna and I spent some time together. We went on the spinning barrels ride and acted like total children, then the flume, then we had pancakes and headed to Cloud Cuckoo Land on the Skyline to meet up with the others and oh my gosh it was swinging all over the place. I'm sure I have a permanent crease in my linen trousers from where Hanna was clutching my leg.

Anyway, then we went on the carousel, and that was lovely, and something Hanna has kind of wanted to do with Arya for a while. We grabbed some ice cream from the Dark Forest and strolled back to CBeebies Land one last time. Andrew tried to win a fluffy unicorn for Arya, and got close, but ultimately I can't imagine it being very satisfying to win a fluffy unicorn without destroying something.

In the absence of a suitable ride, we popped into the CBeebies Photo Studio for a family pic and one of me and Arya in the greenscreen Night Garden. We bought sandwiches for the journey, rode the Nigth Garden boat one more time, then Hanna took Arya on the Numtums ride and then we were off home, with Arya clutching her new fluffy CBeebies bug.

Not a cheap weekend, nor an undemanding one, but a good one.

The Sleep Question

Parents of newborns tend to feel that they know exhaustion. They are down with this exhaustion thing and if anyone else claims exhaustion, they mentally chalk it down to 'a bit tired'. Even other parents of newborns, because no other newborn is quite as restless, right?

This photofails to capture the glory of
Arya's hot chocolate moustache.

Yeah, well... having been one of those parents of a newborn, I can tell you we were wrong. Two year olds are much more exhausting.

Arya arrived asleep on Friday evening, then woke up at midnight. We sat together and cuddled on the sofa and by the time she fell asleep at about 4am we had watched, I swear to you, seventeen episodes of Melody*. I was awake a little longer as I painstakingly manoeuvred her into a position where I could sleep without waking her. it was not comfortable and the sleep that I got was not good sleep.

For once, I was more tired than Hanna. It did not feel like winning. We were tired enough that the lyrics on Tim Hart and Friends: My Very Favourite Nursery Rhymes** really started to freak us out. 'Hey kids! You're going to be decapitated! Probably at bedtime.'

So, we went to Cambridge and had breakfast, which... it was a thing. Still, she seemed pretty chipper, which was not the case when we were shopping later. Once we'd done my trip to Hobbycraft, I probably should have let Hanna do her shopping while I took Arya to look at rabbits, but I wasn't sure there actually were rabbits or if the Cambridge petworld was just accessories and I didn't think either of us could stand the disappointment.

We got home, and I was no longer more tired than Hanna. This also did not feel like winning, but Arya and I sat and watched Frozen and that's always fun. She also did a little beam balancing. Oddly, she's still not happy on her own for that, given what we did on Sunday, and prefers a hand to hold. She went to bed at eight and wanted to some into bed with us at one. She now takes up enough space that I went next door and slept in her bed.

On Sunday we went to old favourite Treetops soft play. Arya made a friend, and whereas last time she had to be coaxed higher than the second ramp and completely freaked out when she went down the tube slide and Mummy couldn't follow, this time she was all over the pace, scrambling and climbing and sliding with abandon. I think the price has gone up, but £4.50 is still a good cost for letting her work out all her energy and keep entertained for two-to-three hours. She absolutely loves it and it's like a playground that's harder to fall off.

I could tell Hanna was flagging when she spent fifteen minutes feeding balls into the pneumatic tube.

Dragon!

Arya is big into Frozen and
Minions.

After, there was PlayDoh, and also ice cream. Hanna and Arya made a dragon out of the PlayDoh and Arya plucked its eyes out repeatedly.

We had takeaway for dinner, because were beyond anything else and because chicken curry and rice is an easy sell. Arya went to bed early, but in the middle of the night started coughing horribly. She was and is fine, it just sounded traumatic.

Oh!

Her latest adorable quirk is that she is very insistent on her name. She is Arya. She is not monkey, or sweetheart, or biscuit, or little one; she is certainly not a baby girl. That's fine, and entirely her purview. She is also, however, not a clever girl, nor even clever Arya. When I asked: "Are you sleepy, Arya?" she answered: "No! I Arya!"

* I only realised how long and how many in retrospect.
** I consider this 'gateway folk'.