Curly Girly

Lucy can be fiercely independent. It's already well documented that she stomps around the house as if she owns it and appropriates whatever toy she might see Oliver playing with if she feels like it.

But this week she has added to these displays of assertiveness. Firstly when I put her to bed the other night she insisted on holding her milk herself. I wasn't allowed to help at all. If I put my hands near it she batted them away as she drank. I sat there feeling somewhat redundant, but also amused and impressed.

Then she decided that after months of protests, screaming and running away when we try to dry her hair after her bath, she would instead dry it herself. Here she is demonstrating this new skill whilst also showing off her natural curliness.

When daddy's in charge

Hayley has been on a course tonight. Consequently daddy was is sole charge of getting both little darlings bathed and into bed. To speed things up I let them clean their teeth in the bath, though Oliver did it properly again after his milk. Oliver decided to play up at the worst moment, just as i was trying to put the little lady down. I then briefly ended up with both kids crying, but recovered to see them both go happily to sleep pretty much on time. Phew!

Like clockwork

Around bathtime I tend to put the radio on, tuned to Radio 4. I like to get the kids in the bath before The Archers theme tune comes on at around 7.02pm. That way I know they've had about a quarter of an hour by the time the music plays at its conclusion. It's all part of the bedtime ritual and Oliver knows this is the signal to get out (which of course prompts him to lie down for an extra "swim").

So it's a measure of the military precicion with which we run our operation that this picture, taken at precisely 7.02pm, shows Oliver fully dressed on his way to the messy room eating an apple as Lucy decides that now would be a good time to move her favourite chair from the living room to the kitchen.

Runs like clockwork, our house.