Lego character swims!

M proudly announced that she peed in the toilet... And that her Lego figure went in for a swim as well.

My daughter is a joker

Moki skipped her nap today but I'm not complaining because she managed to stay in her room for two hours, playing with her toy monster and singing extremely loudly. She only came out of the room three times: the first time to tell me that she had to pee (even though she still wears nappies and most of the time refuses to use the potty), the second time she knocked a picture off the wall which really scared her and the third time she called me to say that the picture fell again but when I came in to check, she shouted: "Moki joking!".

How you change with the second baby, an empirical study, part II: Bed time

I'm very strict with our kids' bed times and for both of them I have established night time routines pretty much from the day they were born.
With M it was: bath, pyjamas, milk, lullaby, sleep.
With B it is: pyjamas, milk, asking M not to turn the light on, telling M to turn the light back off, holding B in the dark room silently while attentively listening to the noises from the lounge and hoping he'll fall asleep before M gets bored of watching TV.

You have to be self-critical

Moki just asked me for another piece of paper because what she drew was "really boring". Let's hope that what she draws next is more exciting.

Watching the eclipse... Not. (II)

Now that the stupid eclipse finally ended, I can stare directly at the sun for as long as I want!

Watching the eclipse... Not.

I told him he was being ridiculous but Bibbo insisted on being scared of the eclipse. He wanted us to spend our morning inside, just watching TV and drinking coffee. So even though I wanted to do something constructive today, I had to listen to my son's needs and quickly finish my second cup of coffee so I could have the third one while binge watching low quality television.

Night time naps

I'll stop saying that I'm going to sleep in the evening. I'll start referring to it as "going to take a few night time naps".

One of those days...

One of those days when you wake up feeling more tired than you were when you went to bed, when you feel like you've wasted your time doing nothing all day but can't motivate yourself to do anything worth doing, when you feel guilty for not being patient, loving or supportive enough...
That's when you decide to pick your daughter up early from the daycare because spending time with her will make you feel better.
Except that instead of hugging and kissing you the way you imagined she shouts at you, spills a full glass of water, kicks her baby brother in the head (not intentionally but it makes him scream for ages nevertheless), pees in her trousers and shouts at you some more. She does give you a big hug at the end of the evening, when she's trying to get you to let her stay up for a bit longer...
On one of those days I like to go to sleep at 20:30 and not think about the fact that I'll be up again three hours later.
Hopefully in my dreams I'll be a single, childless woman who gets to sleep for 12 hours after a day of intellectually fulfilling work and zero nappies.

Dealing with a minor hysterical breakdown

I dropped Moki off at the daycare and was on my way to register our new camper van when I got stuck in traffic. Which would have been annoying but bearable if Bibbo had been asleep but he was wide awake and complaining. Groaning turned into whining turned into screaming.
For a full hour and a half I was trying to sing, shhh Bibbo and every now and then shove a dummy in his mouth and keep it there. All the while I was driving slowly enough that I was able to attend to Bibbo in the back seat, but fast enough so I don't get beeped at. For a full hour and a half Bibbo was upset and after a while, I was emotionally exhausted.
Five minutes later it was difficult to tell which one of us was crying more loudly. Having a minor hysterical breakdown was my cue to pull over (sobbing while driving across two lanes full of very angry drivers to the only empty parking space I've seen for ages) and treat myself to some nice breakfast (or any food, actually!).
The second I took him out of the car, Bibbo was in a great, smiley mood which made me feel a lot better but it also made me re-think my life philosophy: I realised that we were healthy, we were about to have some tasty food, it was a very sunny day and there was actually absolutely nothing of be stressed about. Everything else could wait. So I forced myself to breathe deeply and enjoy my unexpected moment for myself.
As we were about to get back in the car of course I was hoping for a fast, tear-free and enjoyable drive. But I knew it was OK to just pull over and find something else to do if either of us got too stressed. And honestly - both options sounded good.

Like a crazy night of heavy drinking

I spent most of the last night awake. The sound of the morning birds around 5 a.m. made me nostalgically think back to all those pre-children times when I returned home from a night out accompanied by the chirping of the birds.
Then I realised my night was quite similar to a night of heavy drinking: I prepared drinks, I cleaned the puke off someone, they smiled at me and then puked in my hair, I held and comforted them while they cried and I woke up feeling pretty shitty.
But I never had friends stay over and then loudly and in tears demand breakfast and entertainment after just three hours of sleep.