So grown up!

Not so long ago, she would just throw
pieces at the board until we gave up and
did the puzzle for her.

It's been a long spell with Arya this week, which brings all its own pleasures and trials. It hasn't helped that Hanna has been ill and pretty low, and I've not been well, so our collective cope has been flagging sometimes.

This 'weekend', Hanna and Arya arrived on Tuesday night and stayed until Sunday evening. For those who follow my other blogs, it may help to give some perspective on the level of struggle that we didn't manage to get through the six episodes of Arrow Season 4 we had backed up. I think - and again, it's indicative that my memory is imprecise - that I only had to go in with Arya a couple of nights, but she was difficult to settle a couple of times and restless at others.

Wednesday and Thursday were tough for Hanna, as I was still at work. Arya was lovely when I got in, all smiles and cuddles and without blanking Hanna most of the time. She gets very needy for the absent parent or parents sometimes and it can be hard being the one looking after her as she wails: "No! I want Mummy/Daddy Luke/Daddy Andrew!" It was therefore especially nice that, after giving me a big welcome home cuddle she sat between us and hugged Hanna. On a personal note, getting to pop up during a musical number in The Muppets Christmas Carol... I'm sorry, Tellyfrog Christmas and sit down singing was pleasing to my odd little Broadway heart.

Reversal.

On Friday, I was home and we went places. Actually, first we did puzzles, and she is getting so good at them. She loses focus after a while and gets impatient, but the first couple she absolutely storms through. She's still a little hazy on the whole 'flat sides go to the edge of the frame' idea, but we'll get there, and her ability to relate fragments of image to one another has come on leaps and bounds since I last did a jigsaw with her.

We went to the doctor's, just in case she had an ear infection again (she had a very unsettled night) and she was as good as gold. I think that the last time I took her to the doctor she cried, so that was good. The GP's surgery is right next to the park, so of course she wanted to go when we came out, despite it being pretty cold and miserable. She swung and ziplined and pushed Mummy on the swing, and got to go on the big kids' swing herself, which thrilled her.

Unfortunately, the time we spent at the park - plus Christmas traffic - meant that we did miss breakfast at Chiquitos. They still did her bacon, egg and beans, but it cost a lot more. After that, we went to see The Good Dinosaur at the cinema. Arya enjoyed the beginning, but when things started to get heavy she howled her heart out while Hanna tried to reassure her it was going to be okay. (I would have helped, but I'd started blubbing and so would have lacked credibility. Dag nabbit, Pixar!)

Making an entrance.

When the credits rolled, Arya turned to Hanna, tears still in her eyes and said: "We watch that one again?"

On Friday night, Hanna was out with Kieren, whom Arya says she does not like but apparently only in a 'I can't keep saying 'yes' when you ask these questions' sense. (If I thought she really didn't like him I'd have to work out the appropriate way to deliver a poly veto.) Arya was upset that Mummy was out, and didn't want to settle to sleep until I'd managed to get Hanna on the phone so that she could tell Hanna 'I love you very much' and say goodnight; and hang up on her at least once while pushing buttons to make the phone stay lit up. After that she settled down next to me whispering 'I love Mummy, and Daddy Luke, and Daddy Andrew; and Mummy loves me, and Daddy Luke loves me, and Daddy Andrew loves me,' over and over like a mantra. As bedtime affirmations go it beats 'valar morghulis' in my book.

I... I don't know, okay.

 On Saturday we took the bus to Tumble Tots - always exciting. There was a new girl in the class and watching her totter through activities the way that Arya used to, I realised just how much my little girl's confidence and coordination has grown over the last six months. She swarms up the net ladder, balances without a hand to hold and even joins in the singing and dancing for time to time. She also sticks her sticker over her mouth sometimes, and while we were waiting for class (we get there very early on the bus) pushed open doors and kidnapped the Shade Primary School Worry Bear, placing him in the cupboard he is supposed to sit on. I asked her to put him back and she told me he was sleeping.

This is a lot of tree.

From TT we went into Ely to do some pre-Christmas browsing, had some lunch and visited the Cathedral, where Arya was impressed by the giant tree. She was, however, very tired by this point and had to be push-chaired against her will several times. We were not surprised when she slept on the way home, nor when, later on, this meant she was very very reluctant to sleep.

Putting her down on Saturday we also faced the mutually upsetting realisation she she is too big to fall asleep on my lap.

Please, sir...

Sunday morning was pretty chilled and involved a lot of making stacks of play doh. We popped out to the shop and Arya insisted on buying Mummy a chocolate orange. We had a cooked breakfast for lunch, as she'd been craving sausages and that's the one thing Chiquito's can't do gluten free. By the afternoon, however, Arya was getting a bit fractious. I can't blame her, we'd been in all day since Hanna and I were both wiped and the weather was poor, so I sucked it up and took her to the park, where she had loads of fun jumping in muddy puddles. This calmed her down enough to get us through the rest of the day, and evidently wore her out enough that she went down in almost record time after chick-chick curry followed by jelly and ice cream. She was still sparko when I put her in the car to go home.

A round up of this weekend's entertainment shows a continuing love of The Jungle Book and a growing fascination with the upcoming live action/CGI remake. That's going to be interesting, as I predict a PG or even 12A certification, which means she can see it with us, but might be considered disruptive in a packed audience. Someone might complain, and then I'd have to kill them.