This weekend, the biggest down was that I was ill, probably with the same thing Arya had last week. I'm still recuperating from that.
On the upside, Arya was... 85% pure awesome and only 15% bane of our lives. I had to turn in early on Friday - by which I mean Hanna said at seven o'clock: "Arya, get Daddy's teddy bears, we're putting him to bed." - and she gave Mummy hell over going to sleep. I slept for about an hour and a half, then got up and had a little chat with Arya, which... that's not even a euphemism. I went in - which was obviously what she wanted, on top of what is looking disturbingly like more growing pains - sat down and talked to her, about what she'd done and why Mummy was upset, and we agreed that she ought to put her head down, close her eyes and go to sleep. I left her to it, and that seemed to do the trick.
On Saturday we did the usual morning stuff, except that I didn't go to ballet so as not to infect all of the other kids. Arya got another card and present, and no-one hated us for cancelling, so yay! The afternoon was sleepy, since no-one had had a great night and I was still ill. Hanna crashed for a few hours, and then my parents popped in in passing. Arya mostly ignored them, because she takes a little while to really click in with people, then asked why they hadn't stayed longer(1).
Hanna had spent much of the day persuading Arya to sign on with the planned cinema trip to see Beauty and the Beast. She's come to enjoy the original, but was worried it would be scary. To win her over, Hanna watched the trailer with her, and Arya got really into that, so we watched all the trailers. Teaser, story, final, domestic and international, with comparisons to the original; anything YouTube could offer. After dinner (pizza) she started worrying about being scared again, so I persuaded her to ask Mummy if she could borrow her Beast teddy bear to help her not be.
Winning!
In the morning we set out for the 9.30 showing (not ideal, as it meant no Chiquito's breakfast before, but too late for it after,) with Arya in her Belle dress absolutely owning the cinema. We had to nip out a couple of times - apparently Belle being attacked by a pack of slavering wolves is less scary than her future love interest snarling at her, which is probably good instincts in a lot of ways - but basically she was a brave little girl. She initially said that she liked the film, but later revised her opinion to say that she didn't like the film but she liked the singing and the dancing, and Belle, and the Beast when he was kind, and Gaston dancing, and basically everything but snarly Beast and the torch-wielding mob.
She did get a little confused by the ending:
Arya: But where are Beauty and the Beast? Me: There they are, see. Arya: That's not Beauty and the Beast. That's Beauty and the Prince. Me: The Prince *is* the Beast.
Later, as I was telling this story to Hanna, Arya piped up: "I think you were right. The Prince is the Beast."
Validation of my crazy fan theories at last! Next I shall convince her that Bruce Wayne is just Batman with his hat off.
Also owning the bookshop. And Build-a-Bear. Basically, I'm sorry, but if you thought you won the weekend, you were probably second place or lower.
Lunch at Chiquito's was disappointing - reminder to self, never order from the set lunch menu - but after that we went into town for some necessary shopping. Arya and I stopped off at a science centre display in the Grand Arcade and she made a virus and a bacteria. Then we picked up a frock coat for the Beast, and a Belle dress for Princess Doctor Bear before moving on to the bookshop. Arya wanted to find a book with a witch; a nice witch, specifically. We looked at Meg and Mog, and she said that wasn't right, 'but close.' One of the staff helped us find a couple of likely options, so we picked those up before meeting up with Hanna and heading home.
Arya watched some PAW Patrol while I read Hanna's essay. I felt a little bad for leaving her hanging, and she was very determined afterwards that I shouldn't ignore her any longer. That was a fair cop, although she pushed it a bit when we were getting her ready to go back to Ipswich. It's only a couple of weeks now until she and Hanna move in, which is scary, but definitely good, because she really, really doesn't want to go of a weekend, and kicks off to the point that I almost want her to go; not for her to be gone, but so that we won't be fighting any more.
This weekend was Hanna's birthday. It was quite a time.
I met Hanna and Arya and Hanna's parents in town for a cuppa, then we
bought some icing in town and headed home. Traffic was as much fun as usual on
a Friday afternoon, and while we got in and ate in reasonable time, what with
one thing and another I didn't get Arya into bed until quite late, and sadly we
had to get up earlyish for ballet and Tumble Tots. Arya was firmly in 'no
ballet, no bun' mode, and I had to walk her in, but she didn't insist I stay
with her, which is progress for the first week after a lesson where we get to
sit in.
Tumble Tots went swimmingly, and after that we came home and I took
Arya to the library while Hanna and Andrew began rearranging the furniture for
company. The rest of the day was a long-form party, with breads and fillings
for all, and cake towards dinner time. Arya helped Mummy to make a spaceship (LEGO
Poe Dameron's X-Wing,) by which I mean she mostly played with the ground
support trolley and the BB-8 minifigure. For variety and nutrition, she got
beans and sausages on toast and some frozen sweetcorn, because she'd been
really good during the day, sitting in with us despite her shyness. I put her
to bed about half eight and she went out quite quickly, but I had to swap with
Andrew at around 3am. Arya was quite clingy and reluctant to go back to sleep, but
dropped off eventually.
In the morning, I awoke from a dream in which a crocodile was trying to
savage my shoulder to find Arya was kicking me there. I turned her around,
which unfortunately woke her up, but it was half-eight by then, so that seemed
fair enough. She was still very tired, and she knew it, but we got up and she
had some cereal, then we all – Arya, Mummy and Daddies, and one of the guests
who had stayed the night – had scrambled eggs for breakfast. The rest of the
day was quiet, but we played some catch with her squishy ball and watched Kubo and the Two Strings, of which she
retained a ludicrously precise memory despite going through most of the film
clinging to Mummy and asking to be taken home. I stand by my belief that the
whole wanting to go home thing is an indicator that she is really taking a film
in, and is almost invariably followed by asking to see it again and a
near-photographic recollection of the film. In this case, she knew from the off
that she didn't want to watch the two Sisters again, but also knew exactly when
they were due to show up (and managed to watch a lot of their scenes.)
'Helping' with the LEGO.
What with tidying up after the party and recovering from a late and
disturbed night, I made dinner quite late, and it was a struggle to get Arya to
eat it. She wanted beans on toast and frozen sweetcorn(1) again, but I was already
making chicken stew. She fussed about the onions, but eventually she ate what
we'd asked her to, so she got a small bowl of sweetcorn and cake for afters. On
the upside, beans and toast and frozen sweetcorn is probably better than pizza.
After dinner we got the house straight and Arya ready for bed, which took
some doing. As often is the case, she was very reluctant to leave, and for that
if nothing else I am very glad that she and Hanna will be moving in soon. I
realise that she'll start kicking off and demanding Daddy Andrew all week, but
c'est la vie. Once she was ready, it was into the car, hugs and kisses and away
to Ipswich.
And next weekend is Arya's birthday.
(1) Not cooked from frozen, you understand; still frozen.
Well, it's been a long weekend and no mistake, and I'm worried I might forget something. Forgive me, therefore, if I ramble.
Hanna came over late on Thursday and I had Friday off so we could spend some time together before she went to a LARP event to be a pernicious devil-slapper (I'm paraphrasing her NPC brief; the PC perspective was apparently more 'lovely girl, very misunderstood'.) We began Friday with Arya waking up at five, snuggling close to me, then sitting up an hour later and whispering: "We wake up now." until I did. It was a slowish morning, then we did some shopping, including Arya's first incendiary devices: candle lighters, for Hanna, but Arya wanted to hold them and we figured they were in packaging so it was safe enough; that was before we saw what she did to the box for the Peppa Pig bruise soother.
Carrot Henge.
Oh, yes; the bruise soother. Arya punched Hanna in the face, by accident, but pretty hard. I think I am actually the only parent she hasn't now punched in the face. This ties in a little to another issue, which is that Arya sometimes laughs when people are hurt, and I wonder if we don't need a fairly complicated discussion of the difference between real people and insinuating cartoon snakes, because she does also find it hilarious when Kaa in The Jungle Book gets all crinkled up.
After shopping, I brought Arya home from Ely on the train, as a treat. This is a fair distance from a year ago, when the sight of a train set her howling until we got off at the far end. In the evening she was sad to see Mummy go, but settled decently enough. We read some books and I put her to bed. Not long after Hanna got home in the wee small hours, she got restless, called for Mummy and I brought her through to us.
"Fly! Be free!"
On Saturday, Hanna took us to Tumble Tots, then headed off. Arya was lively, and not as well behaved as she has been, but she was pretty good at taking her turn, even when the inaccurately named Mercy was being a right little 'mare at her. I try very hard not to tell other people's children off, but it's hard when you've just spent a minute and a half telling your daughter to wait her turn while the nervous kid goes over the ladders, only for a pushy three year old to immediately start tailgating her. How could she think it fair if I didn't say anything? Equally, I don't want to get into an argument with Mercy's Mum in front of the girls.
On the way home, Arya ate carrots and homemade humus. I didn't, because unlike Arya I don't like humus. We rode the bus to Ely, but jumped off at the station as Arya had hit her head when the bus stopped suddenly and was feeling a little aggrieved towards buses in general. As a result, we hopped on the next train instead of visiting the park in Ely, and instead walked to the park in Littleport. Arya actually walked a lot of the way and was good and sensible about it. We only spent a little while in the park, probably because we'd just done Tumble Tots and a walk, and because the weather was grim.
Like a true nature's child...
We had a bit of a contretemps in the park, as Arya was unhappy that I wouldn't let her pull the zipline all the way back to the top (by which I mean that it was physically impossible to hold the swing low enough for her to pull more than half way.) On the way back, she wanted to sit on the Harley memorial, a silver motorcycle commemorating that William Harley Snr left Littleport for dust years and years before his son co-founded the Harley-Davidson company, purveyors of fine aftershaves. I caught my pocket on the forks and ripped my coat, but damnit she looked adorable.
Then home, where we watched The Jungle Book again and made - at Arya's insistence - biscuits and cookies. The biscuits were one of the finest batches of gingersnaps we've assayed. The cookies were less successful, in part because of Arya's habit of trying to stir as you pour ingredients, thus confusing my poor scales. The result was not unpleasant, but a little too floury.
On the downside, she's started responding to the question: "How're you doing?" by turning her back and saying: "Leave me alone again." She really is a tweenager.
Breakfast! The top did not survive the beans.
Hanna stopped back for dinner, then went off while I put Arya to bed. I don't want to brag - not least because it almost certainly means it will go horribly wrong next week - but I've got bedtimes pretty much down. A little milk, a little singing and a few poems - 'The Owl and the Pussycat' is a favourite, as is 'Winken, Blinken and Nod' is solid gold snooze material if she doesn't complain that it's Mummy's one, and I've started off on 'The Law of the Jungle' - and some snuggles and she's gone.
On Sunday we went to swimming, which was a mixed bag. She started really well, then decided she didn't want to kick any more. She didn't want to lean back into the water and I didn't push since we were worried she might have an ear infection coming, but then she splashed in with gleeful abandon from the side. She was also incredibly good at back floating with the woggle, then difficult turning face down. It was all very unpredictable. Afterwards, Hanna dropped us off at the cinema and, at Arya's insistence, we had a quick breakfast at Chiquito's before going to see Inside Out.
I don't think we've ever had such a successful cinema trip. She watched throughout, reacted to what was happening on the screen and to me. When things started to get sad, I put a hand out to her, and she laid a comforting hand on my arm. Then she got onto my lap and buried her face in my shoulder while I wept onto her hair. I call that a pretty major bonding experience.
She was very excited to see the trailer for the live-action/CGI remake of The Jungle Book, and I think the original was a little disappointing after that, so we put on her Anna dress and watched Frozen until Mummy got home. They're off home now, both pretty sleepy - which surprises me, because Arya slept like a log.
The Museum Explorer backpack was way too big for her, but she was quite taken with the hat.
Today marks the end of a long week's holiday from home with Hanna and Arya. It's been exhausting, and not a little expensive (see also my other blog where I talk about plumbing woes,) but also awesome and amazing. I spent less time with Hanna than I would have liked, due to mutual exhaustion and not a little illness,) but we've had some high old times.
Hanna and Andrew brought Arya down on Thursday, so that we could set off at are-you-kidding-me on Friday morning to visit the Natural History Museum in London. Hanna and I were determined that Arya would get to see the diplodocus in the great hall before it was replaced with the blue whale, and thankfully she was pretty impressed by Dippy. She also got to trot around in a little Museum Explorer pith helmet and backpack, which dwarfed her a little, but she seemed happy.
That's George up there.
She was also very taken with the Museum's collection of grandfathered taxidermy (as most children are who don't take a fear at them from the first,) and the animatronic T-Rex - after a fancy, Kensington curry - was a huge hit (although I had to schlep a pushchair up the crowded stairs to the walkway over the dino exhibit and poor Andrew got kind of caught in the crowd.) Overall the dinosaurs were pretty popular with Arya, and we bought her a stuffed triceratops - now dubbed 'George' - as a souvenir after she huggled him all the way home.
Here's a video of Arya watching the Rex. It's a little blurred because of the dark, but that is her and Hanna in the foreground.
We also had a lovely walk around the wildlife garden, looking at the ducks and chasing the pigeons. I regaled her with my rendition of 'Poisoning Pigeons'.
The drive home was a little fraught due to tiredness, but all told it was an excellent day.
Also on Saturday, the return of the Duplo, now with 60% more making stuff herself.
On Saturday we chilled. A lot. The main occurrence was that she had strawberries and bits of white chocolate egg - a gift from her uncle and aunt - after dinner. She let her parents have a few strawberries each, but shared out all the chocolate, keeping none for herself. So proud!
The remake of Only Lovers Left Alive was criticised for casting much younger actors.
On Sunday we had our traditional swim and breakfast double bill, but didn't follow up with a film as breakfast ended up being huge and leisurely. Andrew was appallingly saintly and restrained himself to the full breakfast (rather than the breakfast feast Hanna and I chose) and we all necked bottomless hot chocolate while Arya judged us from behind her cowboyesque bacon and beans.
Instead of the cinema then we came home, and Hanna splashed out to rent Tinkerbell: Legend of the Neverbeast from Amazon Prime. Now, I should maybe talk about the Tinkerbell* movies on my movie blog, because I've been pleasantly surprised by them. Legend of the Neverbeast moved Hanna to tears, while Arya... Well, Arya fell asleep on Mummy's lap, which she hasn't done in, like, forever.
English through and through, Arya searches for a deeper meaning in cricket.
Then the washing machine died, so we went to Martlesham on Monday to do laundry (and because it was just good to spend a bit more time as a full family, rather than Andrew and I being an either/or deal.)
Sadly there was no way to photograph myself.
In Martlesham, we went to the playground with Arya, and also ran around on the common, where she spent several minutes trying to see... something in the stump holes in the cricket wicket**. At the playground she sat in the climbing frame car and insisted Andrew sit on the back and I on the front like some ponderous Spirit of Ecstasy.
We traveled home after dinner, leaving Andrew to his working week, and on Tuesday went into Ely to paint plates at Crackpots ceramic cafe. This was not cheap, but Arya had a terrific time, and we got a set of plates out of the deal. Arya's ended up looking pretty good considering that she mostly just smooshed paint across the surface. Mine was perhaps a touch overambitious, and a little foxed by the change in colours as it fired.
Tate Modern, here we come. And I don't even know if I'm joking.
From Crackpots to Treetops, we spent the afternoon at the local soft play centre, chasing Arya up and down the climbing complexes. She got a bit spooked when she lost Mummy going down the big tube slide (much too narrow for an adult,) but did get enough nerve back to ride the straight slide with Mummy. As a note, she was still at this stage confused and a little upset that we seemed to be forgetting Daddy Andrew, before eventually and reluctantly accepting that the three parent household was not yet a fixture.
She didn't nap and thus went to sleep really well and really early, but woke at about half-one complaining of a sore knee and demanding that only Mummy could help, which was true since she swung for me if I even tried. We had this a couple of times in the nights that followed, and each time only Mummy would do. I don't know if she was swinging it, but she was very insistent and very specific about her knee. On Wednesday night, after along nap and a long, long time not going to sleep, she kicked off again and wouldn't settle at all without Mummy.
She pushed me off this thing: Hanna has video evidence.
Wednesday was also the day that Lindt bear met his fate. Arya had been peeling bits of foil off him for days and then kept asking us to fix him. Eventually there wasn't enough foil to patch over and I said: "You may just have to eat him." She did.
Well gangsta.
We spent the early part of the afternoon at Milton Country Park, where we saw grebes and grebelings and Arya escalated from the kiddie playground to the big kids' playground before finally scrambling - with assistance - around the big adventure playground. The wobbly steps were a real favourite, which she decided where too orangey for Dads and thus shoved me off them insisting it was 'Mummy's go'.
This long and exciting trip was of course why she had a long nap, but at least for once we weren't worried that we weren't getting her enough exercise. We basically stayed out until she was falling down tired, then tried to get fro yo, but they were out.
Clearly she's planning to be a super villain.
On Thursday the main thing being exercised was our democratic rights***. This meant going back to Martlesham so that Hanna could vote, so we took Arya to nursery for the afternoon and nipped into town for lunch with Andrew and a failed attempt to rewatch Age of Ultron. Hanna was blitzed by this point, and ill to boot, so I picked up Arya, who had an unexpected butterfly on her face and had somehow retained her Burger King crown (swiped from the windowsill during an emergency pit stop) for the entire day.
The half-butterfly stayed all day, like some fairie princess of the opera.
Friday morning she kicked up a right stink at the idea of being un-butterflied, so Hanna started to draw one back on until Arya got bored and decied Mummy's arm was a better place for butterflies. We dropped her at nursery for the morning and did some shopping before heading home by way of Crackpots to pick up our plates. She was still well and truly knackered, so she got an early night and we didn't really go out again once we got home.
She loves giving medicine to the animals, and her parents, but the best bit is that she gets her own set of keys.
On Saturday Arya was, for some reason, the sorest-bottomed of babies****, but we took her shopping in Ely and she got a new book (Stick Man, plus floor puzzle and a carrying case which she insisted on toting herself; the overall effect was so adorable I could practically hear ovaries bursting as she walked by) and a new toy, specifically a vet's set, which she is quite in love with. It's at least as cool as the empty box from Mummy's Lush gift set, even though that's full of technically edible (and gluten free) packing peanuts.
Dissipate modern youth, dolled up in Jasper Conran designer dresses and wasting their lives away in seedy cracker dens.
She fell asleep in the car on the way home and napped long and late, as did Hanna. I was watching The Iron Giant when I woke them, and rather against expectation, Arya loved it. She was devastated when the Giant was blown up, and delighted to see he was okay really. She then demanded 'more robot,' which was a tough one to manage.
Such a darling.
On Sunday it was swimming again, and a very successful class. We came home for pancakes and segued into a light, snacky lunch while we watched films with bears. Yogi Bear was such a hit with Arya that 'more robot' became 'more bear', so there was the nonsensical madness of The Care Bears Movie II*****. Hanna wasn't up to much more, so I took Arya for a walk and finally found a local playground (yay!) On the way we looked at the flowers (she was a little disappointed not to have enough puff to blow the seeds from a dandelion clock.)
Melancholy.
We then had loads of fun at the playground, and inaugurated a game called 'one more slide'. Basically, I say: "Time to go home. One more slide." She nods, slides, runs past me, holds up a finger and calls "One more slide." Repeat as needed. When I bargained her to 'five more slides, then we go' she basically ran up and down the bridge, occasionally sitting and looking wistful, apparently having worked out that if she never used up the five slides, she would never have to leave.
Horse.
Eventually, I had to carry her away, as she wouldn't put her shoes back on and is too strong to force into a pushchair without hurting her. On the way out we stopped by a visiting circus to look at the horses. She was very taken with the horses, and I can see a time when a substantial chunk of the household income goes on Hanna insisting on getting Arya a pony, which I know I'll end up mucking out because although Hanna swears that she'll make Arya do it, if Arya stops and decides she doesn't want to keep a horse if it's that much trouble, I'll be too attached to sell.
Portrait of the artist as a young girl
The advantage of 'one more slide' was that Arya was knackered, got an early night and slept through, waking just before my alarm after about ten hours sleep.
And then on Monday I went to work and Hanna stayed to wait for the washing machine. She did get into Ely in the morning, where Arya played 'one more slide' with her. As the machine didn't arrive until almost seven, we had a late (takeaway) dinner and a late night, although I think she went down pretty quickly once we got to bed.
This morning I left for work - despite her asking me to sit and have more breakfast with her and Mummy, which I desperately wanted to do - and now they're off for the week. After such an intensive period, I'm going to relish the sleep, but miss her like crazy. Waking up to find her curled up against my back, or hearing her calling for me, is a real treat and I'm sorry to have a break from it.
It's been a really good ten days, and we have a stuffed triceratops, a set of plates, a bundle of photos and a lot of great memories to show for it.
Plates.
* Possibly Tinker Bell; I've never been sure. ** 'Cricket wicket'; did no-one ever stop and think, maybe a different name? Something less rhymey. *** See what I did there? **** A special shout-out to the fifteen year old Arya reading this online for the first time. ***** Why is Grumpy Bear bashful about losing his swimming costume? He's naked the rest of the time.
This weekend, Hannah decided that I needed to get more practice in putting Arya down for the night. I panicked a little, resisted the urge to tell her that her hopes and aspirations exceeded all practical likelihood (conceptually hilarious, but in actuality a terrible thing to do to a child) and then gave it the old college try.
I gave Arya a bath after dinner, then we watched some Pajanimals (a quartet of young Muppets visit magical lands on their flying beds to get help dealing with life's little reversals from characters such as a neurotic octopus, a cripplingly insecure bear and a narcoleptic rabbit who teaches yoga), she drank some milk, and we went into the nursery to settle.
She will also sometimes sleep on the go.
She kicked off immediately, having expected Mummy to come and put her down. I persevered; she wailed and tried to claw the door open.
I did We're Going on a Bear Hunt, and round about the snowstorm she walked over to where I was sitting next to the bed, stopped, went back, picked up her milk bottle, handed it to me, sat on my lap - still crying - held out her hands for the bottle, took it, popped it in her mouth, lay back, rearranged herself a couple of times to get comfortable, stopped crying and swiftly went to sleep.
Whaling is her new craze.
The next few nights were even better, although the last couple she's been terribly hot. I feel accomplished as a Dad.
With the heat and all she didn't sleep terribly well over the weekend, so neither did we, but last night was a real red letter night. I put Arya down in her cot at 8:30. We brought her in with us at about 11:30, not because she was awake but because we'd been watching Pan's Labyrinth and were having trouble shaking the fear that she'd be carried off by a faun, or a Spanish fascist.
Not kidding; all the time with this thing.
Despite the move, she didn't wake up, and as best we can tell, she actually slept right through the night for the first time.
In other news, we went back to see Muppets Most Wanted again, between swimming and games. She is still very mobile around the cinema and bless the Cambridge cinema going public for their tolerance.
Elsewhere, she's picked up the habit of leaning back over the edges of seats. It's adorable, although it did take a worrying turn this morning, when it became a full-on Lois Lane pick-up/attention-getter as she flung herself back across mummy's lap and towards the empty space in front of the sofa.
My little girl is a year old! It's kind of overwhelming. Look how big she is!
My girls
She's super mobile now, crawling around all over and I'm sure she'd be standing if she could see the point of it. Her favourite journey seems to be up and down the main corridor, often checking the rooms on the way to see if Mummy is in them.
She's really taken to her new Duplo sets, and she can scrawl on paper like a boss. Cutlery is beginning to be within her competence as well, although she's still at the stage where she can sit and painstakingly try to fit food onto the fork by hand.
She's still well into the Muppets. The other day, in the cinema, she was so enthralled by the Muppets that she kept missing my ice cream tub with her spoon, and one evening when Hannah was working late, she fell asleep on my lap while we watched the Elton John episode.
I feel like I don't post enough, and I think I know why. She frustrated and amazes me by turns. I find it much easier to express the former than the latter, and I don't want to write a blog about how she frustrates me because I lack the words to express my wonder at all that she is and does; because it's easier to explain how annoying it is when she stays up late into the night, shouting at the walls to hear the echo, than how incredible it feels when she cuddles up against me for comfort.
So; effort must be made and words must be found, because I'm never going to have these years again.
