I saw Dragons!

I took this photo because she
wouldn't let me do anything else.

This weekend was our long planned trip to Norwich to see the GoGoDragons street exhibit. It... did not go entirely as planned.

Some of this was our fault; we left a bunch of stuff behind and I think we were overoptimistic in how much we planned to do. We also, however, got hit by Arya's shifting sleep patterns. She fell asleep on her way to Cambridge, at about 3:30, and didn't wake up until we lifted her bodily from the car to stop off at a Tesco pretty much for the purpose. This did mean that she got to see my parents when we arrived at Carleton Rode, but it also meant that she didn't sleep again until gone midnight, by which time Hanna and I had been thoroughly tried, wound up, and kicked or headbutted repeatedly.

Saturday was, therefore, exciting.

Patch was a particular hit.

We got the Park and Ride into the city and hit the trail. Well, actually we went to Boots to buy wipes and replacement clothes as she had spring a leak, eventually having to go to the nearby Disney Store for the latter, scoring a very popular Frozen t-shirt and shorts set (she is a total sucker for Frozen.) Then, finally, we were ready to look at some dragons.

Arya is suitably unimpressed with
Wonder Dragon; I think it's the
lips.

There were a lot of dragons, although I don't have a huge number of photos. Another of our oversights was a phone charger, so we had to pick up a cheap digital camera and most of the pics are on the machine at home. The day itself was a definite success, however. We met up with friends for lunch, and even while flagging visibly, Arya became quite excited each time she saw a dragon, and at the end of the day announced proudly to her grandparents 'I saw dragons!' I think her favourite was 'The Mother of Dragons', which was painted with other, smaller dragons, and had an egg in the curl of her tail, cracked and with an eye poking out, but she was also very taken with Tuppence and her coin scales.

She fell asleep on the Park & Ride, and stayed asleep back to Carleton Rode, where I hoiked her out and carried her around the end of the village fete for ten minutes to wake her up, then we had a play in the playground; a little swinging to get the old brain spinning over again, a go down the big slide with Daddy (we came off the end with a whoosh and a bump) and fun with the xylophone before heading home to worry chickens (and be worried by them.)

We had a light dinner with Granny and Grandad, then returned to Littleport. Arya declined to fall asleep, but went out like a light within about ten minutes of getting home.

It's important to be clear that this
was her choice.

On Sunday we went swimming, although I confess I am a little spotty on what actually happened. I was on the poolside and sort of zoned out. Since she might read this one day, I may as well note that she impressively judged her own body sufficiently to know she was about to pee, and thus refused to put her nappy on. Not a bad choice, but she was standing on the bench in the changing rooms at the time, so not an ideal one either.

We did some shopping - which, due to only Waterstones having an early opening included the purchase of a Batman Duplo set (phenomenal hit; within thirty seconds of constructing the Batmobile it was being driven off by the Joker) and a small, beanie version of the dragon from Room on the Broom, now dubbed Baby Rah - headed home, stuck the BBC adaptation of Room on the Broom on the box and dismissed all thought of leaving the house - or indeed the sofa - for the afternoon.

We didn't quite managed to stay put. We did go out to get some more Frozen cereal, after a tense discussion with Arya, and Hanna did a quick grocery pickup as well.

"I want more beckfas." (She does love her afternoon cereal.)
"We don't have any more, but if you wait until Mummy is up, I can get some more."
"Want more beckfas!"
"There is no more. Would you like to put some shoes on and we could go out for some."
"Want more bekfast!"
"I know, but if you slam your hands on the table once more, you definitely won't get any."

The aromatic delights of hot
artifice.

Ah, parenthood.

Dinner ended up running late for... reasons* so I reheated some chicken korma for Arya and boiled a little rice. Since she can be funny about things that come on the plate, I rinsed the korma tray and used that to serve it, with a spoon to load curry onto her plate. She loved it, and once again was asleep within a few minutes of settling, falling asleep across my lap and barely stirring when I transferred her to the bed. We just had the one bedtime upset, when I went to get more milk and she came after me because I'd forgotten to keep Baby Rah with me (while she held on to Daddy Rah.)

This morning she and Hanna went home, taking both Rahs with them.

We're currently hitting some obstacles in that she doesn't always know where or why fun becomes painful for others, and she seems to connect 'sorry' with an admission of malicious intent; like, if she says sorry we'll be all 'ah-ha! You are evil!' Which of course we won't, but it's uphill work. She is also developing worrying levels of sass, as well as an ability to sleep through any disturbance that I wasn't expecting until at least 13 or 14. We still adore her, but it can be difficult. To quote another discussion from the weekend:

"You're a trial, Arya; did you know that?"
(Proudly) "Yes!"

I said: "I'd better do some washing up and start dinner."
Hanna said: "There's no rush; she still looks okay."
Less than an hour later, Arya started bouncing off the walls with hunger and exhaustion.