A day incarcerated with a toddler!

The rain and the wind has kept Boo and I cooped up most of the day. My lack of enthusiasm for fun toddler activities today did not help matters either! I was blessed with 2 hours of child free time this morning, as my little sleepy head didn’t drag herself out of bed until just before 10am. She has never been an early riser, and the weather Gods probably confused her this morning as it was so dark and rainy.

After breakfast, Boo locked herself in the “Play Zone” so neither the dog or myself could annoy her!?! When she reappeared, she decided to do some painting with what she calls her ‘Bingo Dots’ What this actually means is use at least 100 pieces of paper and put a dot of each colour on the page before you start again. Of course then you get bored of that and get violent with the paints and bang them against the paper until the paper is so wet it falls apart. However, today at this point it was my turn to paint. I was not allowed to paint until she had written my name on the back of my paper, and I was not allowed to finish until I had used every colour on my page (and of course painted exactly what I was told to paint). After I’d done my 3 paintings, I co-erced her to having lunch (after all one of us had been up for hours)!

After helping me hang some washing on the airer in the back room, harassing the dog for awhile and some whinging and tantruming about anything and everything, I turned to my friends Hi 5. I was trying to do some ironing – necessitated by the fact that my iron-free work clothes are still in the washing basket and the rain means they won’t be washed and dried for tomorrow (I achieved a pair of pants). Boo meanwhile was displaying early signs of cabin fever. Poor Charli on Hi 5 copped a mouthful from the cynical toddler – she was pretending to ride a horse, Boo glances at the TV and rolling her eyes, sneers “Thats not a horse, silly” and the tirade continued. Glancing at the clock I realised I still had 5 hours to fill before bedtime…

A break in the rain came about 3pm, and to get out of the house we braved the arctic, cyclonic winds to walk the dog. Boo mind you has decided she’s staying in her pyjamas today, and opts for a ride in the pram covered in every blanket she owns.

When we get home, we then have to wake up Catherine (the hermit crab) so we can sit and watch her try to climb up the side of her plastic home, and so Boo can rake the sand with a fork. After about 10 minutes I was tired of marvelling at Catherine’s attempts to climb over the gum nuts Boo had put in her home, I suggested we tidy the ‘Play Zone’ again, and then with a little bit of time left before dinner I cleaned the fish tank. Needless to say, we now have a fish swimming upside down with buoyancy issues, “Will we have to send Blackie to heaven, Mum”???

Dinner came and went, followed by a bath, and then at 6.30pm Boo suggests we go and sit on her bed and chat. So after we chatted about our day, what she did with grandma and papa last night, and the ins and outs of Winnie the Pooh and friends, she suggests we turn off the light and have a cuddle – and crashed out. For my daughter to go to sleep with no issues, and before 8pm is a miracle. Thankfully it happened today!