oh to be three
7.40am: Bao comes to the bedroom to tell me she needs a wee. Send her to the toilet, and put her back in bed telling her to 'wait for the alarm' (blatant lie since the alarm in the kids' bedrooms have not been set since the summer holidays began).
8.15am: she comes back into the bedroom to demandsay she wants to get up and have breakfast. To her credit she did stay in her bed till my phone alarm (set for 8.10am went off) so that I could snooze. I am hungover after a BBQ/Euro finals party we hosted at home last night. I think I fell asleep only around 1.30am.
8.30am: breakfast - cream cheese on wholemeal bread (CRUSTS ARE EVIL), a handful of Corn Pops. After she finishes she brushes her teeth and goes off to play.
9am: play
10am: play, with brief pause to stare in wonder after her brother tips a huge fly he has caught into the waiting jaws of his new venus flytrap plant.
11am: off to Balexert shopping centre with me and The Bun to have a look at the summer sales in the shops. The Bun is feeling flushed (he recently found a folded 100CHF note on the floor of the supermarket, just like that) and wants to buy something for himself.
11.30am: browsing the toy department at Globus. Attaches herself to a Rainbow Dash stuffie (24.90CHF) but neither her brother nor I are going to fork that sum of money out for her, sorry kiddo. Convince her to leave empty-handed to check out the 'nature shop'. Over there she fiddles with the toys on display and does a lot of her 'I wish I could have' sad pouty faces but we don't buy anything either.
12 noon: stingy mother agrees to splurge on a coin-operated helicopter kiddy ride (1.20CHF per rip-off ride) that both kids must share. After this, there is more browsing in FNAC and The Bun agrees to buy a packet of superhero temporary tattoos for both of them to share.
12.30pm: J comes to meet us and all of us have lunch at the Migros restaurant (i.e. self-service cafeteria run by massive supermarket cooperative). Bao decides on saucisse de veau (veal sausage) and fries (with mayonnaise, never ketchup) for lunch. The kid's meal set comes with a choice of an ice-cream. Bao picks a watermelon popsicle.
1.30pm: a bit more browsing (but no more buying) and we all go home. Bao is drowsy on the short car ride home (she has more or less dropped what was left of her nap) but revives as soon as we get home. Immediately demands that tattoos be applied.
2pm: play.
3pm: I fall asleep while reading in bed. Presumably, Bao and her brother are playing.
4.15pm: get woken up by kids asking for help inflating these cool LED-light up balloons that The Bun had bought from Globus.
4.30pm: play. Minor tantrum. Small snack for kids.
5pm: play. Bao falls out of bed while playing, cries (more out of anger and embarrassment than actual pain), continues playing.
6pm: play. Normally the kids get to watch TV at this time but today they chose to play.
6.30pm: dinner. Bao is cranky hangry and almost throws a strop about hand-washing. After gulping down mashed potatoes, her blood-sugar levels are raised and she is more pleasant at the dinner table. She eventually eats more than half the entire bowl that I made for all four of us to share.
7pm: play.
7.30pm: bath (which means water play).
8pm: stories, bedtime chit-chats, goodnight-glorious-goodnight.
9pm: when I peek into their room to check on them, Bao claims that I didn't kiss her goodnight. (I did.) Her brother is already asleep. Kiss Bao again, tell her sternly to go to sleep.
9.30pm: finally asleep - limbs all splayed out, mouth slightly open, looking like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.