We're going on an egg hunt...

Arya hops into the oven to be baked for an hour. This was, to be clear, entirely
her idea.

This weekend was Easter, which means Empire 1 and a long, long weekend of Daddy Luke time for Arya and Arya time for me. It can be a little daunting sometimes, but it's exciting to, and this time I had PLANS (TM).

The family arrived on Thursday with a car full of kit and a sleeping Arya, and on Friday morning Hanna and I were awakened by Arya coming in to give us cuddles. This was delightful. We had a chilled morning and then Hanna and Andrew headed for site while Arya and I headed for the station. Arya spent most of the journey huddling in the pushchair to avoid the wind (adorable, but no photos as I forgot my camera,) but walked the last bit in Ely to get to soft play.

Now, it was the wrong softplay, and not just from her perspective. Planet Zoom is the soft play attached to the bowling alley, and we had problems last time we were there with the food order getting mucked up. This time they weren't even serving food, so lunch was... eclectic (see below.) Still, after a slow start Arya persuaded me to ask the staff to open up the outside play area. It was filthy, but she had fun out there, and then came in and climbed around on the indoor equipment happily for a while. After that, we headed home via a shop at Tesco. From the checkout she wanted to go and sit in Costa, and as we had a bit of a break until our train I agreed.

This is... Okay, I don't know, but it was
adorbs.

Lunch was, roughly: A bag of Doritos and a bag of chocolate Stars from the vending machine; a punnet of grapes; a rice cake; an almond Magnum*. Perhaps unsurprisingly, when we got home she hankered for something more substantial and we kind of grazed until dinner time. Dinner was pizza, including the cheapest and nastiest ham in Tesco, by special request. "How about this?" I asked, showing her a pack of Tesco finest roast ham. "No, this one," Arya replied, holding up a value pack of Tesco Everyday wafer thin hamlike substance. She also asked for sliced tomatoes, which she then proceeded to pick off every slice before consuming it. Still, after that unlunch she managed pretty much a whole pizza on her own, which was impressive.

On Saturday we went to the library and got some new books. Arya decided that she wanted to be Cake from Sarah and Duck, and so asked me to fill her with flour and sugar, sprinkle her with poppy seeds and bake her for an hour. We made an oven out of the sofa cushions and I popped her in to cook.

Then my parents came over for lunch and criticism of my housekeeping abilities. They brought food with them as an alternative to takeout (not that they don't like my cooking, but by convention they provide when we eat) and although initially unconvinced, Arya wolfed down copious quantities of roast chicken and rosemary and onion potato. That evening I asked what she wanted for dinner and she said: "Chicken and potatoes."

After mum and dad left, we braved the leading edge of Storm Katie to go to the park for a while. It was cold and windy, but Arya had a great time running around on her hill and being swung on the swing. Coming home in the cold was less fun, but we stopped for some shopping - mostly to get milk, which went a little sideways when she refused to have a 4-pint bottle of semi-skimmed in the basket and insisted on a 2-pint. I negotiated a 4-pinter of 1% milk on the grounds that the cap was pink, but she wanted the two pints of semi as well, and later refused the 1%, having mentally downgraded it to purple.

Then we warmed up and watched a bunch of Equestria Girls, which really weirds me out. 'What direction cna we take this story of anthropomorphised ponies?' 'I know; what if they were equestriomorphised humans!' Arya calls it "My Little Pony Walking Feet," which is just too delightful for words.

"Egg!"

Dinner was fish fingers with chips, beans and little sausages, peas and sweetcorn. As she had done on Friday, Arya went to sleep quickly and easily. Bless.

And then came Sunday.

I woke up at 7.30 and was delighted with my long, restful sleep... until I realised the clocks had changed. Still, I had time for a shower before getting Arya up for an Easter egg hunt. She had a glorious time finding the many, many chocolate eggs my parents had brought for her. Her main egg from us was a stripy one with a stuffed tiger to hold it, but she ignored it completely, even looking behind the tiger at one point.

"What about that egg?" I asked.

"No; that's the tiger's."

Ready to go.

That's me told.

We got up and took a train into Cambridge (Arya insisted on having a ticket of her own, despite not needing one until she's five.) The plan was to have breakfast at Chiquito's and then go to the cinema and see Zootropolis. It didn't work out like that. Arya decided she wanted to run around the arcade at the bowling alley - it's full of flashing lights - instead of eating. I figured we could eat after the film, although it would be more expensive, but then they told us there was a problem with a previous showing, so instead of 12.05 the film would start at 12.45.

Like father, like daughter.

Fine. We went and had breakfast. I lost a button from the pocket of my combats and Arya offered it as a tip. I swear the entire staff at that restaurant think she's the best thing ever. We headed back to the cinema at about 12.35 and went in... to find the film about five minutes in. I was unimpressed and told a member of staff so. As a result, I have two comp tickets which will be getting us into The Jungle Book gratis.

We left the film about halfway in, as the tale of predators in a world of civilised anthropomorphic mammals being driven into a feral state (although we didn't get to the conclusion, I suspect the unassuming, downtrodden assistant mayor of being the mastermind, not least because she was a sheep and the lackeys of the conspiracy all wolves) contained way too much snarling and drooling for Arya to cope with in the cinema. Okay, so The Jungle Book may be a similar bust, but she was really keen when she saw the trailer and she manages better with two parents (or maybe just with Mummy.)

Back at home we chilled with some Sarah & Duck and ate cucumber and crackers. It was already pretty late by the time we got home (damn you, George Vernon Hudson!) so it wasn't long before we had chicken korma and it was time for bed.

Congratulations; it's a bunny.

Except it wasn't.

"I think it's wake up time," Arya noted, looking at the light outside the windows. It thus took more effort than usual to get Arya ready for bed, despite her being tired enough to have gone through two pairs of emergency pants (after a Saturday without accidents despite all the travel.) She gathered up handfuls of my old notebooks (chip off the old block) and stuffed Sophie Bunny up her vest like some sort of surrealist pregnancy simulator.

Eventually we got to bed, but Arya was restless as hell, her body telling her that it was early even as her mind shut down from tiredness. She fought sleep for hours, and then Mummy called to say she was coming home and that was exciting all over again. Then she wanted CBeebies Stories on my phone, so I let her watch one story, and of course she got super upset when I tried to put the phone away. I said I was going to leave the phone next door and she ran after me crying.

"Are you upset because I'm going, or because I'm taking the phone?"

"Because you're taking the phone."

Happy place.

What I did next constitutes a calculated risk and probably poor parenting, but I was tired and my shoulders were aching and an innocent comment from Hanna had left me feeling judged already, so I went for broke. I gave Arya my phone and left the room for somewhere between five seconds and eternity, before going back in and explaining that it hurts to be told I'm less important than a phone, but that if she wants me, she just needs to call out; she doesn't have to cry**.

I got her calmed down just before Hanna and Andrew arrived. She wanted Mummy and Daddy Andrew to come in, and we all gathered around on the bed. She was asleep in minutes, and still a shade before 10 o'clock.

Sunday began once more with Arya coming in to give us cuddles, then was a lazy day, with lots of My Little Pony (proper Friendship is Magic, rather than Walking Feet) and cuddles with Mummy and Daddy Andrew (and Daddy Luke.) She had a bath and a hairwash to make her hair less of a chocolatey tangle, which was a bit stressful, before they all headed off in the late afternoon. Arya burst into tears moments before departing and I went over so that we could say goodbye properly (which yes, does involve saying 'goodbye properly'. That's my girl.)

* We were operating a system for the weekend - one ice cream per day, no more, either after lunch or after dinner. The system mostly functioned by her having an ice cream after lunch, then trying to wheedle another after dinner anyway.

** Yeah; we're currently walking that tightrope between making her feel unloved and teaching her that emotional blackmail is the Devil's currency. It's all about recognising the difference between genuine emotional distress and wanting ice cream, and it's much harder than that sounds.