solo

A. is away for just about TWO WEEKS. So, to keep myself amused (on top of my 5 PhD students, my 6+ hours/ week of teaching, my prep for talks I'm giving and my toddler care) I figured I'd blog more. The good news is that, after following through that one time, Nina now says "remember, I was just playing, and mummy lift me up... climb in when mummy SAYS", and by and large, she does it. So that's good.You don't have to follow through too often, with Nina - she learns, and takes us more seriously with other things. Next up: the frequent dinnertime battle, in which Nina doesn't eat, and goes off, only to have a PANIC ATTACK when she spots someone doing the dishes and/or packing leftovers away. At that time, she screams, runs into the room, and whines "I want to eat my dinner". It's annoying. I usually just slowly get her to eat it by explaining that we eat at dinner time, and that we clean up, otherwise it gets messy at our house, blah blah blah. One of these days I'll have to put it away and actually not give it back, precipitating a wakeful night. Although really, it's only been once in the last few months that she's actually woken up in the night asking for the food she didn't finish. I just can't face it now, with A. away.

     I was away last week, at a conference in Amsterdam. It was good, busy, nice to sleep in a hotel room with no toys in it, and with ample heating (my GOD! my towel dried between my nighttime bath and my morning shower! HOW is it POSSIBLE? and it's so unecessary: they supply more than one towel per guest... and it's heated along the entire, short, middle-of-the-night visit to the bathroom, so you don't have to fumble in the dark for your wool slippers and then freeze your tush off... you get the idea, especially those of you who've been here). Nina would have loved it there. I had a view over the water, so there were lots of boats, and I could see trains entering the central station, and streetcars. I can't wait to go back, with her next time. 

     So, solo parenting: so far so good. Yesterday we hung out all morning, made bagel dough, and cleaned the floors. Cleaning the floors can provide almost an hour of entertainment if your toddler wants to hold the mop with you, and then take a turn doing the whole floor HERSELF. Had lunch, had nap, went to zoo very quickly because they close at 5, had whiny crankiness because I didn't realise she was hungry, came home, had leftovers, shaped bagels, put toddler to bed, boiled and baked bagels, watched Jamie Oliver's food revolution on youtube, and that was it. Fun show. And the bagels are great.

    Today: rushed to get Nina to nursery before I had to teach at 9, but made it. Then I walked over to pick her up, heard about how well and how quickly she's adjusting to it there, and how good she always is and how much fun she has and all, and we retrieved our stroller. It had stayed there all weekend. Then we came home, made some bus puzzles, had some homemade mac+cheese with grilled asparagus, took forever eating dinner (as above with the screaming panic), and then had a bedtime. Not bad.