The incredible power of the sticker

 Well, after my 13 days of solo parenting A- came back. I got surprised for a day or two every time he did something like put the dishes in the dishwasher, or get them out again, having gotten used to doing every single tiny thing. It was nice. Very nice. I got another really bad cold. Then I flew to Vancouver for 4 insane days which I might or might not blog more about another time. I ate cheesecake and it was exactly the same as it was 15 years ago: fantastic. Flying in to the airport, especially internationally, is stunning - it's clean, it's mainly empty, it's got free wifi, it's got Native art, it's got plants, it's got flowing water, it's got waterfalls, it's got sculpture, it's got super-friendly bilingual staff of diverse ethnicities offering help, it's got a shiny new train station on a line into downtown. In other words it is the absolute opposite of every single aspect of flying in to the UK (where, I noted, one is greeted with a broken escalator, some garbage, a long dreadful walk to Heathrow central bus station, a 45-minute pointless and ultimately ineffective wait in a freezing cold line for a totally ridiculous typically bullshit reason and so on). 

Now I'm back. I don't have a cold - this is the first evening with A- in London in a month that I haven't had one. I don't even really have jet lag, not having adjusted in the first place. 

And I want to blog about stickers. We've had more than our share of bedtime problems with Nina, and less than our share of other problems. At bedtime, you can't do a 'time out' or a treat or whatever because all of those things ultimately just give more delays. The solution? A big piece of paper, with colourful circles, hearts, stars, moons, and NINA in big colourful letters, all done in crayon; a 5£ set of stickers from the local WHSmith and some mini gift-wrapping bows. Each crying-free 'good girl bedtime' gets Nina one sticker, in one circle. After filling a column of circles: a gift-wrapping bow! On or under a colourful heart, star, moon or happy face! WOW! Oh my god - a STICKER?!  Bedtime problems were solved, at least for now, immediately. I mean, that very night. It's amazing. She's so psyched about putting it on there in the morning, and the BOWS. Wow. I help by making a big deal out of it, praising, clapping and so on. Stickers - who knew? A- is still saying it was a stroke of genius. 

It takes considerably more than that to motivate me. Promotions? Money? well, it takes quite a lot of money. A fancier job, maybe? The chance to move home, that's a good one. I know: a really great, warm, beach holiday with snorkelling involved, and great food, organisation included- that'd be awesome. Maybe a grand piano. All of them are hard to arrange. But a 2-year-old? It's all about the stickers.

And here's one more cool thing. Today Nina drew this. It's a plane. It's not a scribble! It's got wings! 

She has sudocreme on her face because the cold weather is making it dry and red. But she was happy that I was happy. I think she's really happy that I'm back. She was pretty thrilled when I said that after nursery we'd have some Mummy-Nina time. She relaxed, both last night and tonight, when on the verge of getting into bed, when I said that my trips are done and I'm not going on any more trips soon.  I taped the plane to the fridge.