About a month ago, Hanna bought me a ticket to a launch event for Chris Riddell's new poetry collection, Poems to Fall in Love With. Arya saw the ticket on the fridge, and since we've read quite a lot of books either written or illustrated by Riddell, she asked if she could come with me. I said yes, as long as she wasn't too tired on the night, since it was at 7.30 on a school night(1).
On Tuesday then, I picked Arya up from after-school club and we went into town to have dinner. In a moment of inspiration, I suggested that Andrew join us at Pizza Express, so that he wouldn't be stuck all alone for the evening, and so that if she was too tired, he could get her home. It was on the way to the restaurant that we got absolutely soaked when the skies opened on us.
We had our pizza and Arya made her choice; she wanted to come with me. Thus, we headed for the Church of St Peter in Ely, where Mr Chris Riddell was doing satirical cartoons live on an overhead projector, because why not. We found a seat, got settled, then unsettled, and Arya insisted on sitting on my lap and then leaning back so that holding her was almost shredding my spine, because her understanding of balance and tension in her own body, let alone someone else's, is pretty limited(2).
Riddell described her plait, which I'd put in her hair in the
morning, as 'worthy of Greta Thunberg,' so that's going
on my lifetime list of top reviews.
The event itself involved Riddell sharing some anecdotes relating to the poems, then someone else would read a poem out, while Riddell sketched an illustration for it on the OHP. The anecdotes were very sweet, and Riddell himself very charming. I'm not sure how much Arya took in, but she loved the pictures of hedgehogs and the poem about otters that she found while flipping through the book. She was also very struck by the poem that Riddell read out himself, while setting a copy of the book on the OHP(3) in place of a live drawing, although I'm not sure if she took in that it was about the death of his younger brother.
After the readings, it was of course time for the traditional oh-so-long queue to get a copy of the book signed. Arya was very good about the wait, and bounced from pew to pew as we advanced along the line.
Riddell signed a copy of Poems to Fall in Love With for Hanna, and a copy of his other new book, The Guardians of Magic, for Arya. He also added a dedication for Arya to my pre-signed copy of Once Upon a Wild Wood, so I guess that after months of asking, that's actually hers now.
I mentioned that Hanna had asked if he could do a sketch of Arya, but allowed that there probably wasn't time. He looked back along the line of about fifty people and agreed, but after signing the books he got out a piece of paper and his sketching pencil, and produced the sketch above, which is now framed and ready to go on the wall, because damn that's amazing. Seriously, he did not have to do that, and I will treasure that picture and the gesture that produced it(4).
Home
As may be judged by the length of the queue behind us, we actually did quite well and were able to get out after no more than half an hour. We headed down to the station and got a taxi, since trying to get Arya to walk back home from the station, or walk back up the hill into town to get a bus, would have been something of a calculated act of cruelty.
On the way home, Arya sat and read the start of Chapter 3 of The Guardians of Magic, which is proving a very successful bedtime read. No doubt a review will pop up in my book blog in due course (probably at the end of September.)
So, a tough night for the little one, but a good time was had and now we have a one of a kind, supercool portrait sketch of Arya and the memories to go with it.
(1) Arya kept telling me that she would make a decision on the night, quite unwilling to accept that this would be too late since we'd be in Ely with no way to get her home and me back in time for the reading. (2) Hopefully her acro classes will help with this, as well as building some strength into her frame. (3) Sharp observers will probably have noticed that it is in fact a visualiser, not an OHP, which would be useless for this purpose unless he was sketching on acetate. (4) Even if he did worry her by suggesting he might blame her for holding up the line, and then anger her by shifitng the blame to me. She's so protective.
Oh, wow; it's been another long break, not least because Google+'s failure of privacy and eventual collapse has cost me my controlled distribution list.
Welcome to Hogwarts.
But we took a family trip to the Harry Potter studio tour for Arya's birthday yesterday(1), since she took such a shine to it last year and has besides got all the way through the book series and is able to recount sections of it in absolute detail (The Deathly Hallows is apparently not scary, apart from Chapter 8,) and as that was one of the last thing I wrote about, it seemed an apposite moment to dust off this old blog. We'd planned to go on her actual birthday, but it turns out that it was really hard to get tickets this time, I think because they've been having a bit of a refurbishment. On the plus side, this meant that they had some exciting new stuff for us to see, most specifically their new Gringott's display.
So; we took off around lunchtime - the tickets were for 4pm, because when I say it was harder to get tickets this time, I'm not exaggerating - and actually got into the exhibit around 2pm. They'd redesigned a lot of the presentation, although most of the actual material was much the same, beginning with the Great Hall and the first sound stage, which is basically a space the size of an aircraft hangar full of costumes, props and sets. Last time, we spent a long time there, as Hanna and Andrew looked at all the details and I wrangled Arya. This time, Arya was very keen to see a few things, find the snitches and stamps for her passport and then move on to the Forbidden Forest; so much so that we even passed the greenscreen photo opportunities by.
A fun outing for Niffy the Photobombing Niffler
Before the Forest, we got a couple of forced perspective shots with giant daddies, and then stopped off at the wand choreography exhibit. Arya insisted I practice the wand moves with her. She did very well, but then decided that her pose for a photograph was going to be her demurely holding the wand in both hands. She's such a badass, and yet such a classic princess at the same time. Her favourite thing at LARP was 'killing people' - quickly amended to 'pretending to kill people. I mean the quest to the land of Hope.' - but she dressed up for today in her Nutcracker dress(2) and insisted on pushing her two plushy Hermione's around in her toy pushchair.
On the badass side, Arya was once more brave and took the 'spiders' option in the Forbidden Forest, and tried to protect Mummy from the spider toys in the gift shop. She was prepared for the dementors in the train carriage 'ride'(3), and I think that she hid in the corner for effect rather than from need. She also really wanted to see the compartment sets before we went on to the cafe, which she did with Daddy Andrew.
Our plan had been for a brief stop at the Backlot Cafe, maybe for Butterbeer ice cream(4), but by this point it was seven hours since we'd had brunch and so we had just the most expensive burgers and hot dogs (which in fairness were both large and tasty.) Then we went out to where they keep Privet Drive, the house in Godric's Hollow and the Hogwarts' Bridge, which leads across to the second sound stage, which is a mix of permanent displays and large-scale sets.
Bank.
The latter includes the Diagon Alley set, the big miniature of Hogwarts they used for exteriors, and the new hotness: Gringott's Bank. This is, as I say, part of the recent refurbishment, and I don't know how much of what they have there is reconstructed and how much refurbished from things they had in storage. It's pretty damned shiny, anyway, and I was particularly impressed by the attention to detail on things like the paying in slips.
Now, Arya was beginning to flag a little at this point, and by the time we were taking photos on the vault set with Niffy the Photobombing Niffler she was getting very lively. Then we got to the ruined Gringott's set and were attacked by a dragon, which was pretty damned awesome; a superb bit of effect work, which used a barely-visible screen and some smoke to present us with a charging dragon which then spewed flame in our faces like we were the surrendering citizens of King's Landing. It was honestly a little too intense for Arya, who was a less than happy to see a massive, fire-breathing lizard getting up in her face, bless her.
By the time we got to the big mini room, Arya was about done. She had enough spoons left to choose a gift from the shop - a light-up Triwizard Cup - and then we headed out.
Long day.
Last thing for the day was dinner, which she didn't want to miss. Now, maybe she just wanted to delay the end of the day, but that was a good call. I suspect we would have made some really bad choices if we waited to get home to eat, and she probably wouldn't have gone to sleep even as soon as she did if she'd been hungry, and she demolished her pizza in a matter of minutes.
So, that was a long day. A good day, but a long one. Props to Hanna for getting us there and back, and to Arya who was tired, but could easily have been so much more of a monster through what is, after all, a four hour walking tour. She made a real effort to keep it together, even when the mass of people was really wearing on her, and I love how driven she was about what she wanted to see, and how accommodating when it just wasn't feasible.
(1) Her birthday is March 12th, but there were no tickets, so she got an 'official' birthday so she could push open the doors to Hogwarts. (2) This was bought as a stand in for her Hermione ball gown when that was still in storage come World Book Day, and was clearly a good choice, as it was misidentified by several people at the studio. (3) Not an actual ride, but a bit of a back-projection demo. (4) Vanilla and caramel; very sweet, but unlike butterbeer itself, not fizzy.
It's been a while since I posted here, in part because as a full-time ersatz I don't have the same structure; partly because I take fewer photos as a full-timer and thus post snippets to Facebook, where I am reluctant to post too many pictures. So, here's a bit of a digest:
The other day, Arya and I were walking to school. Arya ignored my pointed hints about how it would be super helpful if someone were to carry their own bag, but then suggested we use the gate that only has one handle on it, because that would be easier with my hands full. Spontaneous empathy FTW.
Bath time:
Arya (fills a cup with pink, bubbly bath water): "Here, Daddy. Drink this. It will make you poorly." Me: "You're not selling this, Arya."
Wicked witch is apparently on her career plan still. (I told her she was bringing the religion into disrepute; she laughed.)
Rosie Revere, Engineer became the latest book to be resisted for days with insistence that she didn't/wouldn't like it, only for it to become a firm favourite once she'd actually heard it.
Enjoying the original Rapunzel, we agreed that just bringing a rope would have been much more useful than bringing a ball of silk a night to weave a ladder from. I mean, he's a Prince; he has a horse, and people.
I honestly don't know what happened here, although if I had to guess I'd say that the multicoloured mat messed with some automatic filters. Arya took one look at the picture and simply assumed "I was green."
This weekend had plenty of frustrations, but also lots of joy. Plus ca change, I hear you say.
Hanna and Arya arrived late on Friday, so I moved the little one straight into bed from the car seat and didn't really see her until Saturday morning. Saturday was a bit of a red letter day, as it was Arya's last day at accompanied Tumble Tots. We've got a couple of weeks out for Easter, then she's moving up to the big kids class, an hour later and without parents. I imagine there might be some teething troubles in week one, but that she'll adapt quickly, and probably be better for the supervisors on their own.
Eeee!
After TT we had to go into Cambridge as Arya has been complaining of pain in her feet. We stopped off at the cinema complex for a Chiquito's breakfast (the long term staff cooed and ahhed over Arya and said wasn't she big now, and we got a bit of a pang that we don't get there so often anymore) before heading for the town centre and the shoe shop. While Hanna found a parking space, I took Arya to get her feet measured, and found that they were... basically the same size. Arya was pumped to get to have her feet measured with the iPad, however, and clearly keen to get some new shoes. I suspect that the ache is due to impending growth, a perfectly reasonable supposition which Arya nonetheless felt was not a good enough reason for her not to have shiny pink trainers.
Best smile!
We went to the bookshop as well, where Arya was fascinated by the Very Hungry Caterpillar jack-in-the-box. She talked me into buying her a card game from the same franchise and then threw in a Gruffalo fox at the last minute, but it was still less than that jack-in-the-box and I felt I owed her something since I was essentially distracting her while Mummy went skivvy shopping and I would have felt bad doing that by just showing her things she couldn't have. Anyway, then we stopped into Waitrose on the way home (still forgot to get Parmesan) and that (Daddy said) was that.
It was a very long day, and when we got home we barely managed to make it to bedtime without all collapsing into tears. Arya and I played her new card game a few times (although it's a little tricky for her as yet) and then some 'Go Go Dragons!' which she's very good at, while Mummy cooked. For all she was tired, we made it all the way through without any accidents, which was pretty awesome, and with Arya being pretty good about toileting in general. After dinner we went to bed and she read to me from one of my old notebooks. I'll be honest, I don't remember the notes for my old Stargate fanfic reading quite so much like The Gruffalo, but there we go.
If she has a conception of gender roles, it will be that Daddy cooks, while Mummy does light construction.
She fell asleep quite quickly, cuddling Foxy, the notebook, her watch and a bottle of Nandino Strawberry cordial. She did persuade me to let her have a second bottle of milk, and woke at about four with her nappy having leaked. I got her changed and into our bed, where she filled enough of my side of the bed that it was easier just to go next door and sleep on the dry side of Arya's bed, where Hanna very kindly let me doze in until eight thirty. I have to say, I needed that lie in and I greatly appreciate getting it.
Tea.
We had pancakes for breakfast and then Hanna finished off Arya's summer house. Then we had lunch and Hanna went out for a bit to visit game friends. Arya wanted to go after her, but I explained that Mummy had the car and we couldn't take a bus after her, and instead Arya invited me to her house for a tea party. I moved her little kitchen unit into the house and she made biscuits. I provided ginger biscuits from the cookie jar and we sat and munched happily.
We went shopping to get wine for the coq au vin and also happened to pick up a box of mini Magnums; not sure how that happened. Actually, I do; we left an empty ice cream tub on the sofa and Arya got an ice cream craving. Ordinarily I'd just have said no, but I don't like telling her things are for us and not her (barring gluten or alcohol.) It had started to rain a bit so we watched some Sarah & Duck and chilled until Hanna got home. We had a couple of accidents in the afternoon (I've noticed once she has one she seems more likely to have another,) although throughout the morning she was superb at asking for and using the toilet.
While Hanna and Arya had a bath, I made dinner (the aforementioned coq au vin) which actually went down really well. We got to bed pretty late, but Arya said she didn't want a song, just for me to go to sleep. She conked out without finishing her (first and only) bottle of milk and I slipped off to spend some time with Hanna before they headed off for Ipswich.
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.
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.
So, this weekend (which began on Wednesday when I came over to Ipswich to help with childcare,) Arya has had chicken pox. I know it's best to get it over with early in life, but she's been so miserable poor mite. She's been itchy and feverish and periodically subjected to assault with cold moisturising creams of one sort or another. It's a tough life.
I traveled over on Wednesday morning to relieve Andrew, who is running short of leave. I found her blotchy and itchy, but generally in good form and sitting in boxes full of stuff (she was most put out when Daddy Andrew took the stuff - papers, Magic cards, picture frames - out of her box and lined it with a blanket.) We had a little lunch and went for a walk in the woods and she napped a little, but despite not sleeping much during the day she found it hard to sleep that night.
On Thursday we mostly mooched around the house, save for the going to sleep walk, which she assayed in nowt but a nappy, in spite of sun and wind. Andrew and Hannah spent most of the evening getting her to bed, and she didn't finally settle until gone midnight.
"It's for you."
On Friday we watched Planes and waved Hanna off for the weekend. We ran around in the park before her nap walk, and by the evening she was doing much better. There were a few new spots, but mostly they were starting to dry out and I think very early on Friday morning was the peak time. In the evening she asked where Mummy was and was very comprehending when I explained that Mummy would be back later in the weekend. She then tried to call Mummy on a compact shaped like an owl, as though it were a phone, which is odd as she only tries to call people in the room on the actual phone.
"He'll never get it out of this lot."
She also successfully used the potty and referred to her picture on my phone as 'me' instead of 'Arya'. I think this was her very first pronoun.
On Friday night I put her down to sleep in about half an hour (go me) and then on Saturday we had another chilled day with some Planes 2 and, naturally, some Sarah & Duck. We went for another walk in the woods and she tried to persuade me to ditch the pushchair altogether, even making an attempt to push it off the path into the undergrowth.
On Saturday night we discovered that her room was too light for her to feel like going to sleep, so Andrew put up a blackout blind on Sunday. Sunday was also the day when she found her snow suit, insisted on dressing in it, and then took me out for a walk of an afternoon.
Hanna got back too late to see Arya, but she did find her way into the bedroom while we were asleep, opening the door before Andrew called her back.
This is just the tip of the iceberg; there were so many amazing moments that enlivened what was overall a pretty rubbish time given that she was ill. I am shattered now, but I don't regret the time and effort, not just because I was able to care for my daughter but because it gave us so many wonderful moments of bonding, from the cuddles to her insisting I fold myself into her cot-bed next to her, to her allowing me to go back and rest instead of joining her and Daddy Andrew for her walk on Sunday (I must have looked truly knackered.)
There was also a stuffed snowy owl that I
did my best to sit in front of as it was posed
as if dead.
I spent much of this weekend in Martlesham, as Hanna was working Friday and Saturday until late. I arrived Friday and got to spend some time with Arya before she went to bed. She opted for Andrew to put her down for the evening, which was unsurprising as that's the routine in Martlesham, but sat with me during Pajanimals, which suggests that she's getting better at separating affection from routine.
In the morning Andrew and I took her into Ipswich to do some shopping and visit the museum.
The Ipswich Museum is one of those slightly creepy places with a Victorian collection of stuffed animals, including a rather faded red panda posed as if it were some sort of vicious, snarling monster. Arya at once spotted the little owl (see picture) and also recognised the giraffe from our zoo trip last week. Then she spent a fun-filled half hour going up and down ramps and stairs while her daddies tried to keep up with her without losing the pram or letting her dive through the banisters (super-fun, right?)
"Catch me!"
We had a bit of a strop when we put her back in the pram after the museum, but then we got some lunch and got her changed and she was much happier. She also ate most of her lunch, which is good going; often she barely touches it, especially now that she's old enough to get her own.
The Tinga Tinga counting book.
Reading is increasingly fascinating to her, and she was totally into her Tinga Tinga Tales counting book on the bus home. As we walked back from the park and ride she was flagging, and simply played with the Red Nose she was given at nursery. Finally, she dropped off while we were shopping in Tesco and napped for a couple of hours.
On Sunday we rose early for swimming. She was dead keen to swim with Mummy, and only a little clingy. Hanna thinks she's more anxious with me because I'm anxious, and I think she may be right.
After swimming we came home to Littleport for pancakes and relaxing. Hanna grabbed some shuteye while I gave Arya an omlette (she's not mad for pancakes and needed something more than fruit and yogurt.) That was roughly when Arya decided to educate herself on potty training by reading the book I have from the library (and which is, by the by, overdue, furthering her involvement in petty crime that began when we dressed her in a hot sleep suit*.)
Sadly, Hanna and Arya had to go at two for an ATS belly dancing recital, but it produced pics of Arya dancing, so that's okay.
* I feel terrible that my two year old daughter has already been dressed in stolen clothes, but in my defence we never took them out of the store until I had paid, and the sleep suit in question - a cow-print number - was adorable on her.
These are some of the things that Arya-Rose loves to do with her parents.
We're Going on a Bear Hunt - because it's a classic. We're working out proper routines for doing the poem solo, duet and three hand, and she loves it.
Where's My Shoggoth, which is mostly me making strange noises. Goes down a storm.
Being read to, although a chapter is about her focus limit. We're having a go with The Thirteen Clocks at the moment.
Being sung to.
The Muppets. I'm sure she's starting to move along with Popcorn, and The Rainbow Connection seems to be another big hit. In general she likes the Muppets, probably because (see above) they sing.
So why, I hear you ask, choose to read The Call of Cthulhu to an unborn child? Well, partly because I won't really get a chance to read it to her again until long after she's grown out of being read to, but also to let her hear a different voice from me.
I did a number of voices for Noggin the Nog, keeping as close to Oliver Postgate's originals as I could, but you read something like The Call quite differently to even the scarier sections of a Smallfilms book (like the bit where the trolls are closing in but haven't yet been revealed as harmless bears in fancy dress). I want her to recognise my voice in all its variations (and yes, she has had Professor Gloom on Twilight Radio played to her, although not by me.)
