Saturday Night's All Right for Fighting (Sleep)

Cereal shoplifter.

This weekend was a bit of a treat, as I got to spend it with both my girls. Hanna wasn't working, so they came over late on Friday and stayed until this morning.

This weekend was a Sarah & Duck weekend, rather than ponies, and we watched a bit on Saturday morning before heading out to Tumble Tots. She's definitely more clingy with me than with Mummy at TT, and I wonder if that's because I leave her every Monday so she worries about me coming back. She settled quick enough once I walked her through the first couple of climbs and I watched from the door as she looked around for me, then figured what the heck and started bouncing on the trampoline.

We went into Cambridge and did shoe shopping, picking up a new pair of shoes and a pair of sandals for Arya. Then we had lunch at Kimmoy, our favourite Chinese restaurant we can't order from since leaving Cambridge. We had the cheap lunch buffet and even that was pretty damn good. Then a cash machine ate Hanna's bank card, which was less good.

After grumping around most of Waitrose, Arya got up and started running around, apparently trying to lose me around the specialty breads. I actually lost track of her for a moment and was scared she'd get lost, but she headed unerringly back to Mummy and all was well. Back at home, Mummy had a nap and Arya refused to let me slip off to get dinner ready, so we ate quite late in the end.

I... have no idea.

She ate some dinner and fussed about going to bed, but eventually got her head down. It feels like what it comes down to these days is waiting her out until she's too tired to force herself to stay awake. After a while she finds a comfy spot and goes out like a light, but she really doesn't want to sleep, probably because of the light.

Still, only another month until the days start getting shorter.

On Sunday we opted for a lazy day with a picnic lunch in the park, but then the Morris Dancers came...

I was getting the picnic ready when I heard the sound of an accordion in the car park, and sure enough there they were when Hanna and Arya went out to look. They were there for the 200th anniversary of the Littleport Riots, and spooked Arya a little with their stick bashing and face paint, which is odd because you'd have thought she'd have been all up for that sort of thing. Perhaps she would if she could have joined in.

She's behind me, isn't she?

Anyway, we went up to Ely Country Park again (Arya remembered going with Daddy and Daddy, and that Mummy hadn't been there) and spent a couple of hours getting lightly broiled while Arya explored a climbing frame. At first she constantly wanted my help, but really got the hang of it before we finished. Then there was ice cream and a last bounce on the trampoline and home. She got briefly worried that we were some way behind Mummy on the path to the car park and someone else was following her, but Mummy didn't accidentally take home a different child and a skinny brunette instead of yours truly, so that was okay.

Dance, Dance Revolution!

Back at home, I tried to get Arya to take a bath. She refused, and actually got quite snappy with me, but then she had an accident and once we'd got her sorted she was all 'Bathtime now!' In fairness, once she was in she was super good, and even made only marginal fuss over having her hair washed. Once I announced that we were done with the rinsing, instead of immediately demanding to come out of the water, she asked: "Can I play now?" and proceeded to spend a fair while playing with her whistling dolphins, two of whom appear to have become brother and sister crime fighters of some kind.

Of course, then she refused to leave the bath, even when I'd let the water out, until she needed the toilet again.

She absolutely inhaled her lasagne, and we headed for bed in decent time, but once more she was restless. In fact, I got kicked quite a bit as she tossed and turned, eventually complaining of a tummy ache - she needed the loo again, but didn't seem seriously ill; she might have been a little overheated from the day, however - and once more did not go to sleep until gone half-eight.

Water Baby

Station bench or magical gateway?

This weekend, I went away to play games, but on Thursday I got to spend the day with Arya.

Hanna and Arya picked me up at the park and ride and we made our way home for a quiet evening. On Thursday, Hanna headed off for work and I laid out my plan for the day to Arya: We would go to the library, then into Ely to go swimming. I checked the library opening times, and realised that it doesn't open at all on Thursday mornings.

So, we went to the station and missed a train, then waited an hour for the next one while Arya got bored.

"I want to go home now."
"All right. It's a shame, but we can go if you really..."
"I want to go swimming."
"Oo-kay..."

So, eventually we got to Ely and walked to the pool. It's quite a trek, and past her favourite playground, so she wanted to stop off there, but I pushed on through to the pool, promising we'd come to the park on the way back.

We'd not been to the Paradise Pool in Ely before, but it's actually pretty nice. The training pool has a sloped bottom going from 0-90cm, so Arya could walk in herself to about halfway. We did some jumping in and rudimentary swimming, but after however long it was mostly about getting her used to the pool again, and she was amazingly confident. I'd forgotten her new waterwings, ring and shampoo, so we rinsed hair - or as Arya would have it to judge by the cries, committed bloody murder - afterwards and went to get dry, only for Arya to take the towels, shove them back into a locker and announce that they were 'in the washing up' and couldn't be used.

Whee!

Eventually we got out and we did visit the park, even though that left us too late for the library. She had a lot of fun, but she was tired and a couple of falls took the wind out of her sails. We bought some plasters for her knee (with princesses on) and an ice cream because it was hot, then headed home for simple dinner and chilling with ponies.

On Friday we spent some time together, including an hour to get her dressed. There were some tears when I left, and she seemed pleased as punch to see me when I got home. I'm told she was quite the little beast on Saturday night, but went to sleep wonderfully for me on Sunday. I hope she was just playing up because she missed me, rather than playing favourites or trying to flannel me.

They left early Monday, Arya just about waking up enough to say goodbye.

Bang Bang, I Hit the Ground

"Yee-haw"

This weekend was once more sans Mummy, as Hanna was working and being serenaded by one of the country's top chap hop artistes (grown up Arya, there is a video.)

The most notable thing about the weekend was that the weather was gorgeous. After weeks of cold, grey and rain, Spring apparently decided to take a pass and hand straight on to Summer. It was warm, bright and breezy, like the more likable kind of manic pixie dream girl. We did somewhat regret not having Arya's hat with us, but she mostly made up for it by wearing mine.

We got up on Saturday and, after a pretty painless morning headed for the train for Tumble Tots. Arya did not try to leave the platform or complain that she wanted to go home, although she did steal my Ribena and leave me with the Tesco fruit smoothie. So it goes. She was reluctant to leave us to go into the hall, but very quickly got involved enough not to notice us slip out again. She came out looking exhilarated, and we all agreed that it would be lovely to have a picnic in Ely Country Park.

And then the bus was late, and not just a little bit late. Arya got very bored of the wait, and fell over running around on the little stretch of pavement wide enough not to get too close to the road. At that point she decided that she totally wanted to go straight home. Fair enough, I thought, and if she'd stuck by that we could always have had the picnic in Littleport. As it was, after we'd shopped she was back on board.

This photo is taken from the spot that a) has
the best view of both the steps and the slide,
and b) has a deathtrap of a collapsed
mole hole. Fun times.

It was about a ten minute walk to the Country Park, by which point we'd had one ice cream each and the others were already pretty much done for in the heat. We ate, and drank still lemonade with apple and blackberry out of plastic picnic bomb shot glasses (I'd mock Andrew more for picking them up, but seriously, why do they even exist? I can hardly blame him for not checking.) After lunch, Arya had a run around, climbing to the big slide several times (and often not even sliding, but clambering down the artificial hill in a very worrying way.) At last she told me she needed the toilet, but wanted to come back and play more. I said that was fine, as long as we went quickly to Sainsbury's, but then things went a little wonky.

Arya decided she would rather stay at the park, but having told me she needed a poo, I wanted her to at least try. We dawdled to the Sainsbury's where she didn't need the toilet and wanted to ride on a mobility scooter. Since she was obviously getting tired and time was ticking along, we headed home, which elicited some protests, although she was very happy with her fruit shoot lolly, which was the nearest the cafe had to an actual cold drink. Everything was fine then until we got to Littleport station, where Andrew lifted her down and she got upset because she'd wanted me to do it. Unfortunately, Littleport needs a certain amount of alacrity as they tend to close the doors pretty quickly.

Ding!

Arya insisted on following Andrew down the ramp instead of me down the stairs, but then dashed off along the platform. I followed as fast as I dared (as much as I don't want her rushing off across the platform, I want her fleeing from me even faster far less) and she decided to run down the ramp, tripping and falling. She scraped her knee and her hand and dinged her face pretty good as well, poor mite.

We went home and I sat with her watching Sarah & Duck and other CBeebies treats while Andrew got my prescription and sorted the washing up, as she wouldn't let me out of her sight for a while. Reading this back, it sounds like it was a difficult day, but it really wasn't, and where it was, it was mostly so due to the heat and resulting tiredness. Also, despite her refusal to even try to go at Sainsbury's and a last minute panic, Arya made it through the day without accidents.

Arya, Meerkat and flower.

I took her to bed and got her settled, then she asked me to swap out for Daddy Andrew. I was cool with that, and said goodnight. An hour later I checked in and they were both asleep, so I left them to it.

On Sunday I woke up stupid early, just because that's how it was. Once Arya was up I ran her a bath, but Andrew had to bathe her because I was almost literally falling-down tired. Then I took Arya to the park while Andrew cooked lunch. We took Meerkat as Doggy and Teddy weren't around*, and she found some discarded carnations and decided to bring one back for Mummy**.

We chilled for a bit, had lunch, and Arya played with her Duplo, and then it was time to go back to Martlesham. Arya was very affectionate, but went without a fuss, which feels like real progress. She's come on leaps and bounds over the last year and I am so very proud of her.

* Doggy may be missing. I'm worried about Teddy, having to look for him while breaking in a new partner.
** She also insisted we keep an ice cream by for Mummy.

Spring is Sprung

Dice, dice, baby.

It's been a weird weekend; rough and amazing all at once. I know, right; welcome to parenthood.

Hanna and Arya came over early on Friday, which meant I got to spend some time with them before bedtime. Arya's still super sleepy, so we're trying her on some vitamins to up her thiamine levels; the gluten intolerance keeps her off most of the fortified cereals and breads that B12ify the modern diet. I don't know if it's helping yet, but she did seem to sleep better over the weekend. In other developmental news that will make Arya cringe if she reads it in later life, we got through the weekend with only one accident, and increasingly she's asking to go to the toilet when she wakes up and shedding a dry nappy.

Anyway, Saturday was Tumble Tots and Arya was once more much better at going into the class on her own. She's becoming so much more confident these days. It's wonderful to see. A little part of me misses my shy little girl, but when push comes to shove I'll give up getting to be the big protector in exchange for my daughter being able to face life on her own. I like to think that this is the latest in a long line of phases that I'll be putting in a box to recall fondly while she moves on.

'Superman's' cape needs brushing.

As she would say: "I'm not a shy little girl; I'm Arya."

Before Tumble Tots, while Hanna was pre-sleeping for her night shift, Arya played in her summer house and with her Duplo. Apparently, she has some issues distinguishing Superman and Batman, but that's okay; she knows what the Hulk does. After Tumble Tots, we headed for Ipswich. As Hanna was working nights, the best way for me to spend as much time as with them both was to go over to stay with them in Martlesham. This also meant that I was able to look after Arya while Hanna and Andrew built storage units and made a start on clearing up.

Doggy and Teddy were the flavour
of the weekend, which made me
think of the Kimmy Schmidt 'Bunny
and Kitty' song. Now I don't know
which of them is a fed.

We started off by going for a walk in the woods off the green; Martlesham Heath is actually a really nice area. We reminisced about the time she tried to lose the pushchair in the bushes, watched butterflies and went looking for the Gruffalo's Child. we didn't find her, but it looked like rain so we headed back. It spotted and maybe we were a little too eager to get inside, but it was a nice walk.

We chilled, watched some MLP and then Hanna headed into work for the night and Arya went spare for a little bit. I thought it was pretty bad, but it turns out I hadn't seen anything yet. Still, that's later.

On Sunday we all slept in. I think Hanna was a bit stung that no-one was up when she arrived. Despite this, I was at sixes and sevens most of the day, and despite that we had a great time at the park. Doggy and Teddy came with us and took their turns on the slide. It was utterly adorable. She also insisted on her turn when the bigger kids were using the slide, including telling one of them to wait her turn when she crowded up behind her. So proud.

She's a hard-working gal.

Hanna and Andrew were cleaning out their LARP tent on the green - at least one person felt the need to tell them that they couldn't camp there - and when we headed back over to them, Arya decided that she was going to 'help', by brushing up dirt and wielding the mop like a trouper. I swear, we've never asked her to clean things, but she just takes to it. She's not 100% good at it, but my parents would no doubt applaud the impulse.

We had a chilled afternoon, we had dinner and then it was time for Hanna to go to work and this time... This time was a drama. We had tears, wailing; it took ten minutes to get her from sobbing on my ankles to crying on my shoulder, and we almost had a relapse when it turned out there weren't any Pajanimals episodes on Netflix or the Sky Box after I'd offered that particular option for decompressing. Fortunately Andrew suggested The Clangers and that was okay, followed by a Clangers story on CBeebies Storytim in bed. She specifically asked me to read the story instead of letting the app do it, which was sweet.

"What flavour would you like."

On Monday, we did the park again while Hanna slept, and Andrew made a pretty tasty lunch. After that, we went to Christchurch Park - big park in Ipswich, in the grounds of the manor house where Hanna and Andrew were married - to meet up with Andrew's brother and sister. We had ice cream and went up to the playground. Arya was a little intimidated by the scale of the place, but settled in quickly. There was this little hut thing and she decided she was going to sell us drinks and ice creams from it, extracting 'moneys' from a speaking funnel.

It was a gorgeous day and I would have liked to stay longer, but Sunday/bank holiday trains are a harsh taskmaster. There were some tears on the way out, and she said that she wanted to come with me. These moments are heartbreaking, but also reassuring. We're giving her a non-average upbringing, but every time she beams that smile and announces to the world: "I have two daddies," I know we're doing right by her.

As I left, she went back to playing, happy as can be. That too was good to see.

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.

Sleep is for tortoises

Trouble brewing.

Arya has started singing the alphabet song, quite a lot. She's pretty sound on the opening, then wobbles a bit before a strong closing; something like: "A B C D East Street Bee. Age I J K Emmlemmnupee Coo R S T Oo V dubbada S Wa ah Zed" (and yes, zed not zee. Result!)

This weekend, Hanna and Arya brought Arya over on Friday night. She arrived sleeping, and thus woke in the middle of the night craving milk (and Dr Bear, for comfort rather than sustenance.) I dutifully provided and after some time (I have no idea what actual time this all happened) got us both settled and asleep again, only to be woken at 5:30 by a grinning baby, excited to begin her day. By some miracle, I managed to keep her from bursting in on Andrew and Sam in the living room until six, and scored Hanna a few more hours of sleep.

Sam is Andrew's new girlfriend. Saturday morning was the first time Arya had met her, which involved climbing up between her and Andrew and calling her Mummy. Apparently a side effect of a polyamorous household is a flexible approach to the terms mummy and daddy (she also seemed to be calling some other dad in the park daddy on Sunday) and someone in the house when she wakes up apparently qualifies for definite. We explained that Sam was not mummy, but Sam, and thankfully she got the idea pretty quickly.

Ely, ponies, and on the left, Sam.

We did baby gym, then went to Ely for the cathedral open day, where Arya had a whale of a time running around a huge, open space. when we came to leave, we left Andrew and Sam to make their own way back to Martlesham, and Arya was sad to see Sam go, calling through any available door 'Sam! Where are you!'

By this point, everyone was shattered. Hanna had a nap and Arya fell asleep on my nap with a bottle in her mouth. Consequently, she went down for proper sleep pretty late, but she still woke up at 4:30, immediately calling for me.

Swimming was a bit of a farrago - a lot of stuff I'd not done much, with a tired baby and a tired Daddy - but breakfast was as good as ever and then we went shopping. She got new shoes, but we didn't buy a Minion because she couldn't decide if she wanted one. I suspect that Build-a-Bear freaks her out because she can't figure what to leave behind. If I hear she's been good, I may pop in and get her one over the week.

The playground backfired this week. She had a great time, but it was all swings, so it wore out Mummy and Daddy much more than her.

Once she eventually got to sleep, we watched some TV and fell gratefully into bed... until 4:45 this morning.

It was a great weekend, but spondic reserves are bottoming out now. Please send spoons.

Dads United

"Feed me, Daddies, or I will eat my own
arm!"

This last weekend was both a chance to spend time with Arya, and to bond with my fellow dad, Andrew. Hanna was away for the weekend, so it was the two of us looking after the little one, including taking her to her Tumble Tots gymnastics class.

In Soham.

By bus.

The timetable for Saturday was therefore:

8:00 - Bus from Littleport to Ely.
8:25 - Arrive in Ely, walk around some.
8:45 - Bus from Ely to Soham.
8:50 - Arya gets fed up of the pushchair and wants out.
8:55 - Arya gets fed up being held and wants to sit in a seat on her own (see picture.)
9:00 - Arrive in Soham.
9:03 - Cross monster roundabout.
9:05 - Discover that side gate to school is locked; contemplate crossing back over the roundabout and going down the road with no pavement to the car park entrance.
9:08 - With some relief, find an open gate some way along.
9:10 - Arrive at school for 10:00 class. Change Arya and let her have a run around while chatting to the Usborne rep who was selling books there. Be reassured that if the terrible two aren't being too terrible, she may be saving it until she's three. Or five.
9:35 - Andrew gave Arya her snack and drink. This seemed a good idea at the time.
10:00 - Tumble Tots. Arya had a fantastic time this week, and was much more comfortable forming a 'train' with the other kids to move between the activities. We did have a little confusion where different activities used the same set-up as last week and she remembered what they did previously, but basically she just threw herself into it all. She also nearly smacked us both with a pole as she turned left and right like a Muppets plank routine.
I was particularly impressed by how well she sat and listened as the activities were explained, rather than running off and trying to climb on things.
11:10 - Left Tumble Tots and headed for the bus stop.
11:20 - Headed to another bus stop, just to keep moving.
11:27 - Arya asked for apple juice; we didn't have any. Began to walk in circles with the push chair to keep her distracted.
11:30 - Bus from Soham to Ely with a little girl asking for juice we don't have and clearly very, very hungry.

Painting!

11:50 - Arrive in Ely.
12:00 - Shop in Waitrose, including apple juice.
12:25 - Present gluten free roll to the organic pork stall in the farmers' market and ask them to fill it with bacon.
12:26 - Happy Arya!
12:50 - Bus back to Littleport with slightly grumpier Arya, as by this time there was no bacon left.
13:20 - HOME!

So, yeah, Saturday morning was good, if a little fraught in places, and set her up for a pretty scratchy afternoon and evening, although we did have some good times painting.

Saturday evening, Arya was clearly too tired for a bath, and too grumpy for Pajanimals. 'Bed time,' we said. 'Do you want Daddy Luke or Daddy Andrew to put you down?' Arya gave us a look and embraced the power of and, taking both hands and refusing to settle at all until both Daddies were with her. Actually, she didn't so much settle as single-handed tag-team using us as distactions, so Andrew snuck off while I was getting her some milk and she went to sleep a little after the third bottle. I think. I did much the same and woke up after another half hour or so.

"Daddy! The slide is broken!"

We all slept in the next morning - and I for one felt so much better for it - so we scrubbed the plan to go to the cinema and instead had a morning bath - mostly to clean her neck - and then went to the playground. This was mostly good times, although Arya got a little tearfully after she slipped trying to go up the slide. I think she was also a little disappointed by how slowly she slid down the wet slides, but the squeaky noise made up for that a little.

We came home and had a big brunch, and later we did some baking. While Andrew popped out for butter, I got everything else together for ginger biscuits, as that's what we'd agreed to make.

"Cupcakes!"
"No, biscuits; remember."
"Cupcakes please!"
"Okay, sweetheart."

So I got the stuff all set up for cupcakes, Andrew got back and we were about to start weighing out...

Arya really takes the biscuit.

"Biscuits."
"But we were making cupcakes. You asked for cupcakes."
"Biscuits please."
"Okay, final choice: Cupcakes or biscuits?"
...
"Biscuits."
"Right so."

So we made ginger biscuits, and it was a lot of fun. I normally let Hanna do the baking and it was nice to work together mixing the dough. The fact that it's quite a soft dough and that the butter is melted really helped, as I wasn't trying to obsessively get a smooth dough around a well-meaning second fork, so we were able to work together much better. We then prepped a tray each of biscuits, or rather I prepped a tray and she spooned dough into a single big splodge and was justly proud of her efforts (we just left her too it, and the fact that it all ended up on the tray is actually amazing.)

Sunday trains being what they are, we headed for the station for the ten to four. Arya wanted out and I acquiesced so I could give her a cuddle, but then she wanted to be back in the pushchair, or on her feet. Then the train arrived and I picked her up for a hug, but she asked for the pushchair so I hopped on the train to put her down... and the train pulled out.

This gave me another twenty minutes or so with Arya and Andrew, so I can't really complain.