Day Ten of Fifteen

Well, as you've all no doubt heard by now, a terrible terrible tragedy has occurred in Paris where 128 people have been killed and 180 injured after gunmen simultaneously attacked six different sites throughout the city.

My daughter is safe and well and in lock down in her hotel room, where she has been since arriving due to illness .. thank goodness for aeroplanes laden with hundreds of people carrying germs, is all I can say! Who knows where she might have been when the shootings took place, if she was well enough to be out and about last night!

There are no words to describe the level of fear and adrenalin that frequently courses through my veins every time I consider what could have happened and what could still happen to my child while she is supposed to be enjoying her dream holiday.

Thank goodness I've had Chicklet to keep me occupied for the day, although I've been 'short' with her a couple of times while I tried to deal with my inner stress and her outer stress at the same time!

It doesn't matter how old your kids are, you still worry about them just as much, as adults, as when they were defenceless babes.

My heart ached when I knew that Bubbles was huddled on the floor in her bedroom riding out a massive cyclone-like storm that hit Sydney recently that seemed to go on for hours.

I felt like I wanted to throw up when Number One Son was beaten by his neighbour's X-husband not long ago and even sicker knowing that the DVO that was taken out, was just a piece of paper that the violent man could ignore if he chose.

Now, I'm trying desperately to ignore the voices in my head that are continually describing worst case scenarios in Paris and my imagination that keeps playing my own hellish movie productions that never end well.

Thank you to Vegan Chickie, who knows of my fears and is fulfilling my request by texting me every hour to tell me she is ok.

Today has not been the best day for me, but only due to the stress .. any other time, today would have been a breeze.

After our phone call with Vegan Chickie, the Bare-chested Chef dropped us at Civic at about 9.40am on his way to work. My plan was for coffee and a short play in the children's area, before grabbing some groceries and heading home by about 10.30am.

The Barista informed me that the Minions were appearing in the centre this morning and that there were huge numbers of children already accumulated in the play area and around the stage which was set up close to the play area.

Great! Just what Chicklet and I needed, an unplanned event for which we have not been able to prepare in advance. Her level of the 'spectrum' requires planning for these things!

So we head to the play area anyway, buying a Minion show bag on the way for $25 which contained a plastic cup, a plush toy minion, a pack of minion playing cards, a minion cap and a children's beach towel with life sized minion on it. Pretty good value I thought.

Surprisingly, I found a free table to sit at while Chicklet joined the gazillion other kids in the play area. By now, it was about 9.50am and I was assuming, by the size of the crowd, that the show would begin at 10am.

So I sat and I waited, watching Chicklet as she hovered between me and the play area and hoping that this would be over soon .. I hate crowds too .. especially crowds of unruly children!

By 10.40am there is still no sign of Minions, there is a young couple on stage singing Christmas carols, but they are not the slightest bit interested in the children because they seemed to be more interested in how they looked and sounded, taking selfies and quite obviously full of themselves.

Chicklet was now complaining that no kids wanted to play with her, so between us, we decided to leave the area and head to BIG W to find a dinosaur to take home.

After a long decision process and after I declined her request for the $70 T-Rex that moved and roared, we chose a noisy pteranodon with moving wings and glowing orange eyes. We then selected a couple of dvds .. Lady and the Tramp (her selection) and Bolt (my selection) .. before she excitedly requested a balloon.

BIG W at Civic has a whole party section in one corner with a huge selection of balloons which they blow up with helium at a charge of $2 extra. We selected the only dinosaur balloon which was foil and had 'happy birthday' on it. They tied a long piece of string to it and carefully attached it around her wrist and we departed BIG W with the biggest happiest smile ever!

The weather was looking ominous, so we decided to catch a taxi instead of the bus. I called the number and was told that they would be 'right there'.

We waited and we waited.

More than twenty minutes later, Chicklet decided that we should play 'catch the balloon'. It was a great idea in theory, except on the third 'catch', the string detached itself from the balloon and there it floated towards the sky with the ear piercing shriek of Chicklet trailing behind it.

Only Vegan Chickie will relate to the absolute horror that Chicklet was experiencing as she watched the balloon disappear, and as her screaming reached a crescendo, she suddenly turned and began to run - fast - in no particular direction!

MY scream at that moment, was louder than HER scream and it stopped her in her tracks and immediately silenced her, at which point, I grabbed her hand before she could take another step.

So now I had a decision to make .. do I appease Chicklet and take her inside to get another balloon, thereby, more than likely missing our taxi OR do I try to convince her that she doesn't need the balloon,  attempt to get her home thereby, more than likely, tempting a meltdown IN the taxi???

I chose the first option.

We power walked back into BIG W where I was quite rude to the woman behind the counter explaining what had happened. She suggested that they tie the balloon tighter to Chicklet, but I told her that 'as you can see, the string is still attached to Chicklet's wrist! It was the string that you tied to the balloon itself that let go! Thanks to you, I've just experienced my granddaughter's autistic meltdown AND I've also missed my taxi!!'

She was very apologetic and got me another balloon, which she blew up and tied the string extra tight. I attempted to pay for it, but she looked at me with kind eyes and said 'No, just take this one'.

*sigh*

Yes, I overreacted and shouldn't have given her such a hard time, but I my inner stress just took over!

I wanted to say "I'm so sorry, but my daughter is in PARIS!!!!"

We returned to the taxi rank and phoned for the taxi again - I explained what had happened and they sent another taxi, which arrived almost immediately.

We arrived home at about 1.30pm, just ahead of the storms that have been rolling in and over us all afternoon.

We had some quiet time for about 30 minutes.

We played dinosaur games with the new pteranodon.

We made runny chocolate brownies together.

We coloured in the personalised Octonaut pictures.

We watched Lady and the Tramp.

We had GF 'spaghetti with nothing on it' for dinner. Actually mine had chicken, bok choy and creamy lime & cracked pepper avocado through it. Delicious!

We had a quick bath and then two stories. We discussed our best and worst parts of the day and little miss chatterbox didn't want to shut up, until I said "No more talking. It's time to sleep."

I swear she was asleep 30 seconds later!

I think it's time for me to do the same. It's been a mentally and emotionally exhausting day.

Stay safe my child xo

Nite all.





  

Day Nine of Fifteen

Well, Vegan Chickie arrived in Paris today!

Her room with a view ...

... and this was in New York when she attended the opening night of The Colour Purple Musical on broadway ...

Just a little bit exciting!

Today was another good day with my little Chicklet.

The Bare-chested Chef didn't start work til 5pm today, so we all drove to Civic for some play time in the kids area. Chicklet played with three different kids. As one would leave, another would arrive and she would attach herself to them.

After about an hour, Dadu decided it was a good time to leave because she was beginning to get annoyed with the babies .. and we ALL know how she feels about those damned babies!! So they departed and left me to my own devices.

I enjoyed my morning coffee and then headed for the nail salon where I was able to sit down immediately for an average pedicure.

Once the old nail polish was removed, I discovered that my right big toe nail had a bruise under it and part of the nail itself was broken. I have no idea how that happened! I asked for clear polish on my toes and she painted one layer only which is very dull and barely noticeable. The usual foot and calf massage left a lot to be desired and I departed $40 poorer and feeling quite disappointed, although my feet at least look more presentable now.

Afterwards I spent a leisurely couple of hours browsing, buying and picking up some nice items to include in BGWLBH's care package which I sent in the mail today.

I bought the ingredients to make some runny chocolate brownies, which I hope Chicklet will enjoy.

I sat down in my favourite cafe at the centre for some lunch and watched a gorgeous young couple in their twenties ogle each other with love in their eyes. The young man couldn't take the smile off his face or his eyes off her face and I could literally feel the positive energy that was swirling all around them.

Neither of them was wearing a ring, so I guessed that this was a date very early in their relationship, just by the way they were hesitant to touch each other but obviously wanting to and by the way they ordered their meals .. they weren't completely comfortable with each other yet. There was definitely a connection there and they very much enjoyed the 45 minutes spent together in the cafe.

After I mailed BGWLBH's package, I called my personal taxi service at about 1.30pm and Dadu and Chicklet soon arrived to take me home. There is nothing nicer than seeing that excited smile on Chicklet's face when she recognises me as they pull up in the car.

"Hullo Chicklet! How are you?"

"GREAT!" is how she always responds to that question.

She was excited to learn that I'd bought her a surprise and we couldn't wait to get home to see what it was. A little pack with four dinosaur toys, a book and a stage that has a volcano and palm trees as the backdrop and a river and grass as the foreground to stand on, as well as an upper level stage for the dinosaurs to stand or sleep on.

We spent the next hour playing that game. She decided, for some strange reason, that the lizard we bought from Underwater World was going to be a doctor and the four dinosaurs were going to visit and be healed.

The Apotasaurus came to the doctor because he couldn't jump and he might want to jump to the sun one day .. so the doctor told him to go home and practise and that he would get better and better at jumping the more he practised.

The Stegosaurus had a problem with his spinal plates blowing in the wind. The doctor told him to go home and exercise until the muscles got strong enough to hold the plates firm in the wind.

The triceratops couldn't roll because his horns got in the way. The doctor asked why he wanted to roll? Because it looked like fun! The doctor advised finding something else that was fun to do and not so difficult for a triceratops to do.

The T-Rex had skin off his knee .. because Chicklet kept bending the legs backwards and forwards (I'm surprised the legs hadn't fallen off!) so the doctor advised T-Rex to go home and rest and to try not bending the knee for a few days, til it healed.

Suddenly the big laughing penguin was brought into the story to be another doctor and so the game went on!

Soon it was time to play under the snake sprinkler and we chased each other around the house with the watering can getting drenched .. perfect weather for getting drenched! Forty minutes later it was bath time, but she got bored in the bath after about ten minutes, which is unusual!

We dried off and put some clean clothes on, grabbed a big bowl of grapes and lay on my bed watching 'Ribbit' the movie. I paused it about an hour in, so that I could cook my dinner. Chicklet had spent the afternoon eating bananas, grapes, brown crackers with peanut butter and nuts, so she wasn't interested in dinner, but finished off the grapes instead.

We ate in bed and watched the end of the movie. Twenty minutes on the Minion game and it was time for bed. We read two stories, discussed our best and worst parts of the day and five minutes later she fell asleep holding my hand.

An hour of domestic duties followed .. it's amazing how much mess we can make in one day! Got a load of washing done and then collapsed on my bed to kick back and relax.

It was a good day. For the time I was at home with Chicklet, I didn't feel like there were any gluten after affects today and she was calm and happy.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring? Definitely cooking some runny brownies!

Nite all.

Day Eight of Fifteen

A deliberately quiet day today.

Still suffering the after affects of the gluten yesterday, and although there were no meltdowns, she was obviously struggling.

She see-sawed between her Dadu and I all day.

She would watch part of a movie with me in my bedroom, pause it and disappear into the other part of the house with Dadu for an hour or two, then come bursting back into my room wanting to play the Minion game, then she'd run out and ask Dadu to watch the Minion movie with her, then back with me to put stickers under my bed or play the doggy game with all her dog animals, then back out to make another finger puppet with Dadu.

The only time she almost lost it was when she ran into the corner of my wardrobe and smacked her forehead. She really yelled long and hard and demanded that Dadu put a cuddle heart on the wall so that Mama could cuddle her when she got home. She absolutely refused to be cuddled by either of us because she only wanted a Mama cuddle!!

Ten minutes later, she was snuggled under my arm on the bed watching the Ribbit dvd and munching on a punnet of blueberries.

So our quiet day at home had the desired affect - less stress on her (and us for that matter!) and a smooth transition into day three - Vegan Chickie advised me this morning that a glutenous error takes three days from which to recover.

I am going to push my luck slightly tomorrow and take her to Civic and the kids play area in the morning and then catch the bus home. Of course, this depends on how she wakes up in the morning .. I'll make a judgement call then.

The Bare-chested Chef really put in a big effort and served me a restaurant style dinner tonight, which he'd worked on all day. Slow braised beef cheeks done in a red wine sauce with zucchini, onion, purple and yellow baby carrots, fresh beetroot and spinach.

It was 'to die for' and was exactly the type of meal that I would return to a restaurant to order on a regular basis. Absolutely melt in your mouth and so full of flavour, I'm drooling just writing about it!!

That's my day in a nutshell!

For having done not very much at all (should I say, having spent almost the entire day sitting or lying on my bed), I'm feeling decidedly tired this evening, so I think an early night is on the cards.

Think of me Friday night at the club, girls :)

Nite all.

Day Seven of Fifteen

Not such a good day today.

It started badly when Chicklet became upset that I had cleaned her play room. Apparently, she had arranged some special toys in a special way as a surprise for Mama and now her floor was completely bare, much to her dismay and distress!

She discovered this just as Mama phoned from New York, so she had tears rolling down her cheeks telling us about Mama's special surprise being ruined, with Mama on the phone also in tears because she couldn't bare to hear her bubba so upset and not be able to comfort her.

*sigh*

By the end of the phone call, Chicklet was laughing and having a competition with Mama about who loved whom the best.

I promised to help her put everything back the way she had it, but she couldn't remember how it was. She told me that her Octonauts were in a special box, but I know that her Octonauts were scattered all over the floor .. they were probably the only toys that I took any notice of while I was cleaning!

So it was a bad start to a bad day.

We tried to play 'I Spy' in the car while we were on our way to Underwater World, but she got very frustrated when we couldn't guess her 'H' word. Her clue was 'there is one in every car'. Eventually, we discovered that her word was 'people' .. therefore understandable that we didn't get it!

Nonetheless, she was not happy with us.

At this point I got my Intune out and rubbed a drop on her jeans. She was calm for the remainder of the trip and was pretty good throughout the day, sometimes a little manic and it was difficult to get her attention at times because she was focussed on other kids, but nothing that we couldn't handle. She was easily distracted with bargaining and compromising.

We stopped for a break at the kiosk .. first buying a lizard toy from the gift store .. and then Dadu bought her a chocolate paddlepop. At the time, I wondered about the ingredients, but decided that after all this time, Dadu would know what was gluten free and what wasn't, but having looked it up this afternoon, Paddle Pops contain gluten AND they are obviously full of dairy, which we are supposed to be avoiding.

This appears to be the trigger that took us over the edge this afternoon.

After a great day at Underwater World and a quiet trip home in the car, Dadu was exhausted and needed a nap, or at least some quiet time, so Chicklet went to her play room with a plate of egg and salad (which didn't get touched) and I headed to my room and closed the door.

I figured that the two of them would have their quiet time and then spend the afternoon together doing activities and playing under the snake sprinkler.

I had my fan on high, which creates a kind of white noise .. almost impossible to even hear a soft knock on my door, let alone anything that's happening in the house, but there was definitely meltdown screaming happening and her name being uttered sternly many times.

She knocked on my door about 90 minutes after I'd closed it and requested that I play the Minion game and then demanded that we do an 'acivity'. By this time, it was already after 5pm and I attempted to dissuade her, but she was insistent, so even though she wanted to do THREE activities, I convinced her that one was all we had time for before dinner and bath!

As Murphy's Law would have it, she chose the most difficult of all the activities in her drawer! Cardboard finger puppets that required much bending of cardboard and matching of numbers and glueing that was difficult to manage on tiny surfaces!

It took Dadu and I at least 30 minutes to put together one finger puppet each while little madam floated around the table asking impossible questions and expecting instant results.

She decided that she was definitely not hungry for dinner tonight and then there was a mini argument over bathing or showering .. it's important to pick your battles, so Chicklet and I won that one deciding on a bath.

The lessons we have learned today:

• Do not clean the play room without Chicklet's permission and/or supervision.
• Do not feed gluten and dairy laden Paddle Pops to Chicklet .. it's the equivalent of feeding a Gremlin after midnight.

Difficult, but valuable lessons learned.

It is now the halfway point of my babysitting duties and to put Vegan Chickie's mind at rest (and as I explained to the Bare-chested Chef tonight), I am loving my time with Chicklet. Not once have I pleaded with the Gods above to make the time go faster because every day has been a joy for me. She has been an angel (until today's little hiccup) and she has filled my heart with love every single day and what's more, I have been impressed with my stamina!

I hope that we have built some wonderful memories together and I will look forward to Vegan Chickie's future holidays when I will get to spend more time with my gorgeous girl (until she becomes a teenager and then maybe not so much!). Maybe Mama and Dadu can go on holidays *together* while Chicklet and I have fun!

On saying that, I am also missing Adoring Husband and look forward to seeing him in just over a week .. I will need to undo all the damage that he has done with his 'less than vigilant' eating habits while I've been gone!

Anyway, I'm feeling the love for you all!

Nite all.

  

Day Six of Fifteen

I can't believe it's 10.30pm already!

Another successful day for Chicklet and I.

When she came into my room at 7.30 this morning, she seemed a bit manic and verging on losing control, so while she was in my room and before I jumped in the shower I put a drop of Intune on the back and front of her neck.

It took about twenty minutes before she seemed completely settled again .. I love this stuff!!

On his way to work this morning, the Bare-chested Chef dropped Chicklet and I off at the local bakery where I bought my coffee and then we walked down to the new kid's playground in the estate. We had it all to ourselves so we played there for almost 90 minutes.

It's not a well planned playground. A large circle of sand framed with a concrete strip and covered with a large shade cloth sail. There's a climbing frame with a slide at one end, a couple of strange swing seats that are about 3 inches from the ground, another plastic warped table-like contraption that can be climbed on, three strange mushroom looking things that are not even angled well enough to sit upon and I think that's it.

There is an electric barbecue and a picnic table nearby, but no shade or cover for either of them and then over to the side there is a bench seat, also out in the open with no shade. The park is also right beside bushland which is on the edge of a swamp - which I consider could be quite dangerous with young children. Parents will need to be very diligent.

On saying that Chicklet kept herself occupied for almost 90 minutes by herself, so I guess it can't be all bad!

We walked a different way home from the park and it was an easy walk.

First on the agenda when we arrived home was to sit down and play the Minion game on the Ipad until we were rested enough to get into some 'activities'.

I drew a farm and used the farm animal stickers to create a farm ...

... then Chicklet copied me ...

... this is her farm ute with the dogs inside ...

... and finally, one of her dinosaur worlds with mountains and caves (notice a lot of her dinosaurs are wearing necklaces?) ...

Today, we also drew a garden and filled it with stickers of bugs, grasshoppers, bees, wasps, dragonflies, ladybugs, caterpillars, butterflies and other creepy crawlies.  This photo is of Poppy Barry being chased up the tree by spiders and bugs (you can only see his skinny legs and feet) ...

Lunch was followed by almost an hour of quiet time while Chicklet watched some Wile E Coyote in her play room and I lay on my bed listening to the quiet .. a rare thing when little miss chatterbox is around!

The snake sprinkler was now in the shade, as the sun passed over the roof, so we went outside to chase each other with the watering can which we filled up with the water coming from the snake's mouth.

This time I joined in and Chicklet was crazy with happiness as we took turns drenching each other. Sometimes she was laughing so hard that she couldn't stand up and barely had the strength to hold the full watering can! Such fun!

Bath time followed, to wash all the grass and mud off .. I cleaned the bathroom and her play room while Chicklet bathed and Dadu came home for his work break around that time, so he dressed her before he returned to work.

More time on the Minion game, then dinner of boiled egg, capsicum, cucumber and carrot.

Two books for bedtime and discussions about the day. Thank goodness, I wasn't the cause of her 'worst' part of the day today! The worst part for today was walking home from the park, which she claims was 'too far!'

Today was a perfect Spring day, not too hot and with a nice breeze blowing for most of the day.

Tomorrow we are aiming for Underwater World, which should be fun. The Bare-chested Chef has two days off work .. his weekend is mid-week.

I've located a Holistic Dentist in Maroochydore and I missed a call from them this afternoon, so I'm hoping to go visit them before I head home next week. This is a female dentist with 20 years experience and her website talks about 'oil pulling' with coconut oil, colloidal silver for keeping gums clean and healthy and safe removal of amalgam filling with the support of vitamin C and a high protein diet during the process to help the body rid itself of the toxins without compromising the immune system. She has already won me over.

It's almost midnight, so I'd best get some sleep with another big day planned for tomorrow!

Nite all.   

Day Five of Fifteen

Really? Day five already?! How time flies!

I'm feeling a little brain dead tonight.

With the storms and heavy rain last night, I welcomed an addition to my bed at 1.30am when Chicklet came into my room complaining about how loud the rain was and that she was scared. She climbed under the blankets and I told her that as soon as the rain stopped, she could go back to her own bed.

Well, we both fell asleep and I was woken at 4.30am by a little voice saying "Bozzy Wozzy, I fell out of the bed!"

Without even looking, because she sounded fine, I said "Well, hop up and go climb into your own bed. The storm has gone now."

She replied with "Bozzy Wozzy, I need your help!"

I rolled over and looked to see her little head, shoulders and arms were on the ground and she had the palms of her hands on the ground, holding her head and shoulders up, while her legs and feet were entwined in the sheet on the bed and she couldn't move at all!!

It was hilarious! Even more hilarious, was me attempting to untangle her while preventing her from landing hard on her head or face!

I finally managed to unravel her and had her standing upright when I suggested that she now climb into her own bed, so she left my room.

Apparently, she went to Dadu's room and woke him up instead.

He was looking very much the worse for wear this morning because he struggled to fall asleep anyway, and then had his sleep broken by Chicklet.

Anyway, we were still able to get to swimming lessons on time this morning (in the pouring rain) and I watched Chicklet start the lesson very focussed and bubbly and happy and positive, being cheeky with the teacher and doing everything as instructed.

On our way to swimming lessons and talking to Mama on the phone...

By the end of the 30 minute lesson, she was totally unfocussed, not hearing anything that the teacher said and completely scatter brained! Luckily the lesson only went for 30 minutes. She was good for about 23.5 of them.

She really loved it in the water and was reluctant to climb out of the pool at the end of the lesson. She was diving under the water and dog paddling across the pool, kicking with a paddle board both on her belly and on her back and she dived down to the bottom to pick up the pink fish from the floor of the pool. All very impressive.

The teacher did so well with the four young kids in the class. There was Chicklet and another little girl around the same age, who was sobbing before she even got in the water. She hated every second of the lesson and didn't want to attempt any of the instructions that she was given but was making a half hearted effort through her never ending tears. I felt sorry for her. The instructor was firm but kind, so hopefully it will all be worth it in the end.

There were two other children, who were probably between three and four years of age. A boy and a girl, both of whom were very confident in the water and the teacher struggled to hold them back because they wanted to do 'everything' five minutes ago!

After the lesson, we sloshed our way through the heavy rain to the car and I was dropped off at Civic for the morning. I had a leisurely breakfast of bacon and egg and avocado and spinach at the cafe and an extra large latte then strolled through the shopping centre browsing in all of the stores.

I bought clothes and jewellery, stickers and textas for Chicklet, some coconut flour and almond meal from the health shop, got a couple of Christmas gifts to put away and then did some grocery shopping .. which was a stupid move because I wanted to have a pedicure, but by the time I finished, I had too many bags to take into the salon *forehead slap*.

Never mind, I can do that on Wednesday or Thursday when the Bare-chested Chef has his next days off.

He came to pick me and my load of shopping bags up at around 1.30pm and I got to spend the afternoon doing activities with my little Chicklet.

We created a farm with some farm animal stickers, including a barn with chickens looking out of the top windows and a farm ute with dogs.

We used some dinosaur ink stamps on paper and then drew mountains and caves and trees to create a dinosaur world.

We traced around the cardboard dinosaurs that we made a couple of days ago, coloured them in and drew jewellery on them, a shiny red bow tie AND a golden crown on their heads.

We also made some pteranodons and coloured them in too.

We played the Minion game on the Ipad again, had rice and papadums for dinner, a bubble bath and then Dadu read a LOT of bedtime books before Chicklet succumbed to the sandman.

No dinner for me tonight - just a bunch of grapes and a big bottle of water. My hearty breakfast kept me satisfied all day long!

Vegan Chickie has checked a few more items from her OS bucket list today. She visited Central Park, walked the High Line, ate at Chinatown and crossed the Brooklyn Bridge.

Central Park ...

It's almost 9.30pm and I think I might turn off the light and attempt a solid night's sleep.

Nite all.

Day Four of Fifteen

A truly memorable start to my day!

4.30am and we were almost thrown from our beds by the most horrendously loud explosion of lightning striking somewhere very close by. I swear that it hit the road outside my bedroom window .. which was open at the time! It hurt my ears and scared the bejeezus outta me!!

It took Chicklet all of five seconds to run into my room and land on my bed! "I'm scared of the loud storm Bozzy Wozzy!"

"It's ok." I replied "come here and I will give you a cuddle."

"No!" was her response "Mama will cuddle me when she comes home. Go put a heart on the cuddle heart for me!"

So up I get in search of heart stickers in the dark!

I told her that if she was going to stay in my bed, she had to sleep and not talk to me. She then spent the next three hours climbing in and out of bed to check the clock next to her own bed. She has a clock that shows a moon face during the night and you can set it to show a sun face at a specific time in the morning. Chicklet's clock is set for 7.30am, so she knows that she can't come out of her bedroom until the sunny face shows on her clock at 7.30am.

Needless to say, I did not get much sleep in those three hours. Surprisingly, it really didn't affect my day too badly. I didn't feel tired and I was still able to keep up with her. I admit that I was grateful for the hour respite that I got when the Bare-chested Chef arrived home for his break mid afternoon, but I'm pretty impressed with my stamina so far!

Mama phoned this morning from inside a Tesla car .. this is Mama and her friend 'King of the World'.

I call him that because he has created a successful life in which the world is at his feet. He wants for nothing, he has many friends and family who adore him and on top of that he is a good, kind and generous human being.

They were driving on the highway to New Jersey when she phoned and excitedly explained how the car drove itself. King of the World didn't have to steer the car, nor use his feet on the pedals. She was in awe and maybe just a little bit scared!

Vegan Chickie is obviously having a great time and I hope that she is relaxed knowing that all is well on the home front.

You may be surprised to learn that we did NOT watch 'Chicken Little' today .. even though I offered twice!

Chicklet's new obsession is the Minion game on my Ipad .. not playing it herself .. but watching me play it. I probably played it for three hours altogether today.

We had plenty of activities going today. We created dinosaur world. We had dinosaurs climbing the Great Pyramids, Big Ben, the Taj Mahal, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Parthenon, Uluru, Sydney Opera House, The White House and many other world landmarks.

We created pictures out of Toy Story stickers, Brave stickers, Monsters Inc stickers, Cars stickers, The Incredibles stickers.

We drew pictures to put the stickers into and then we put stickers down and drew pictures around them.

We ate a healthy lunch of raw vegetables and then for dinner, more boiled eggs and vegetables. She asked if she ate seven eggs, would she have to have vegetables as well? I told her that even if she ate twenty eggs, she would still have to eat 'some' vegetables.

This afternoon we hooked up the snake sprinkler, but this time I sat in the outdoor area and stayed dry .. Dadu arrived home for his break during this activity, so I left them outside and hibernated in my bedroom for a little while.

Tonight, in bed, while we discussed the best and worst things about the day, she said that the sprinkler snake was the best AND the worst thing about her day, because she loves to play in the water, but I didn't join in and let her drench me like I did for the last two days and that made her sad .. she didn't like playing by herself.

Once again, I feel like a meanie :(

We had about 15 minutes today where we did nothing and she kept asking me "What can we do that's fun?" I told her that sometimes it's ok to do absolutely nothing and that we didn't have to do fun things all the time. She advised me that she NEVER does just 'nothing'! EVER!

I've been told.

Tomorrow is Chicklet's day for swimming lessons and she asked if I would come and watch. I'm excited to see her learning to swim!

The weather is stormy again tonight but I'm hoping the worst of it is over. We've had some good rain and a bit of lightning and thunder, but by the look of the BOM site, we will only get rain for the rest of the night. Fingers crossed.

Day four .. another success *happy dance*

Nite all.