Looking forward to bedtime.

Not mine, although I do enjoy my sleep. Nope, looking forward to Principessa's bedtime. Not because it means she'll be quiet (that is a bonus!), but because of what will happen at bedtime.

Recently, when I've taken Principessa to bed, we have listened to a story on the iPod. Over the last week it has been The Wolves In The Walls written and read by Neil Gaiman. Before that it was Dr. Seuss's The Cat In The Hat Comes Back read by Kelsey Grammer. But tonight, oh a treat! As she has been enjoying the audiobooks so much, I decided to invest in a few more. One of the new audiobooks is King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table by Benedict Flynn. Now, as it's Arthurian mythology it was a must buy, but I hadn't looked at who was reading it. Imagine my joy at discovering that Sean Bean is the narrator. Yay! *Swoon* 'Twill be a happy bedtime tonight! Now all I need to do is find an audiobook narrated by Jack Davenport!

Kid logic.

Principessa is starting to get more argumentative these days. And arguing with some form of logic and fact. The lastest argument is the bedtime argument.

• Me: It's time for bed.
• Princi: Mummy (points to window) it's not dark.
• Me: It's still time for bed.
• Princi: But Mummy, it's still light. It's not dark. It's not night.
  

What can you say? Perfectly logical. It's more or less impossible to get her to go to sleep much before 11pm at the moment. I am thinking of waking her up at 5am and saying 'But it's light. It's time to wake up."

She's also making me laugh lots when I'm playing Guitar Hero - most of the time at her request. I think she likes the tunes. Why does she make me laugh? She tries to sing the songs. Well, more shout than sing. And it is soooo funny and cute! She especially likes 3's and 7's by Queens of the Stone Age. It makes me think I should re-invest in some QOTSA albums.



(OK, while looking for the 3's and 7's vid to put on the blog, the song started playing and Principessa hoofed it down the stairs, burst through the living room door and looked mightily confused that the GH3 tab was not playing on the TV! Funny little Monkey! Oh, and I call her Monkey because she was born in the year of the monkey, and she climbs like a monkey too!)

Well, I'm just on 1,100 words into the Wallace assignment. Not good as I only have just over 100 words left, and I have more spiritualism stuff to cover, his socialism to start, and a conclusion to wind the whole thing up. I think it might be time to go through what I have written and see if there is stuff there that I can cut. Grrr. I think it is all relevant. And I hate cutting things in case they are the things that are being looked for in the essay. Bum! I'm kind of looking forward to this essay being done with, even though it's been, by far, the most interesting of the units.

A day in the life of....

Principessa.

She had a good one yesterday. I had been sorting out my room and her cot, so that the cot magically transformed into a bed. With this, she was very happy. It was the in-between of cot and bed that brought the giggles.

Grandand and Uncle Gareth were sorting out the cot. The sides were taken off and leaned up against wall and wardrobe until they could be moved somewhere else. Principessa decided that the cot sides would now be her ladders and ran around shouting "My la-dah, my la-dah!" She then commenced climbing up the cot side leaning against the wardrobe. She got to the top and climbed into the top shelf compartment, turned herself round, sat down and began shouting "Help me, I'n stuck!" (Yes, really. It is "I'n", not "I'm".) To give you the picture, she is bent over double with her head sticking out of the wardrobe over her feet. Uncle Gareth then films her on his phone and moves the camera closer to her until she can take it from him. The camera is pointing to her pyjama trousers and she says, "Ohhhh, Niamh trousers," and then giggles, as if it is something really amazing. Funny little girl. We then proceed to freeing her from her self-imposed wardrobe prison.

It gets to bedtime, then past it, then to 10pm. I go upstairs to attempt putting her to sleep. Firstly, I try putting up some star lights so that the room is not dark. If only it was that easy. No, the lights only encourage her to try to climb up shelves to try to catch them. So the lights are switched off. Next, we try tucking Principessa into bed. So she is lying in her bed, and I climb into my bed. I sing her favourite bedtime songs - the A, B, C's and Sweet Child O' Mine. Yay, it seems to be working. I turn over and try to go to sleep, only to have my bed invaded. So, she lies next to me.

I say, "Are you going to be a big girl like Lola one day and sleep in your own bed?"

She cuddles into me and says, "I'm not Lola." (Lola is a character from her favourite books at the mo, the 'Charlie and Lola' series.) She then goes to sleep.

So, that is Principessa for you. (Oh, another funny incident. She was being naughty in the bathroom a few days ago and I tell her to get out. She doesn't, naturally, and shouts back to me, "I need discipline!")

Well, I'm off now to put a story plan into action. I'm just hoping it will be an A-Team moment and I can finish by saying "I love it when a plan comes together."