Sheep Guarding Llama

Got to work before eight this morning. That’s pretty early for me. We are hearing a rumour that we might have flash flooding tomorrow which is pretty hard to believe considering that it is bright and clear today. So I might leave a little early tomorrow to avoid the flooding if the storms hit early.

Mostly uneventful day. As are most days. I worked a little late but not bad tonight. Got home around seven thirty. No playground tonight. Dominica had a long day trying to get Liesl back into her school mindset. So they were not very happy with each other. Dominica and I talked for a while and we are both thinking that we want to move into Manhattan, potentially. I was pretty surprised because for the past decade she has not wanted to live there but now she thinks that she would like it. Our trip to Europe and spending time in so many large cities really changed her perspective on city life. That would make me much happier. Living “almost” in New York City but getting none of the benefits while paying the price in money and commuting overhead really sucks. Moving into the city would mean no need for cars, public or semi-public transport to the office, access to all of the great aspects of NY life. I am not a suburban person. Give me an estate in the country or an apartment downtown. Nothing in between.

Liesl and Luciana were both very insistent that we play Wind Waker tonight. Dominica was not up for it but I agreed to play it for a while to make them happy. And that kept us from watching any television tonight so that was good, in reality. The girls are really into the game and pay unbelievably close attention. It is very good for them. Liesl really has good memory and problem solving. And sometimes she even takes the controls from me and navigates something for me because I can’t remember where things are and she has a complete map of everything in the game in her head. It is really quite amazing.

We played for an hour and a half at least. Luciana ended up falling asleep on the couch. So I carried her up to bed.

I have to be in the office early again tomorrow so we were off to bed a little after eleven as soon as we were able to get Liesl to go to bed too.

Luciana got up at seven thirty and climbed into bed but only for half an hour.  Then she wanted her chocolate milk, mommy to come home and to watch Go Diego, Go in the living room.  Liesl got up a few minutes later.  Liesl, surprisingly, agreed to the choice of morning shows.

The Scotts ended up not being able to find a hotel room south of Albany yesterday so no luck on having breakfast with them this morning.

By eight thirty both girls decided that they wanted a bath.  I drew them a bath, they both opted for a blue one today.  One of their favourite things over the last several months are these bath colouring pellets from Sesame Street that Dominica found for them.  They love putting the colouring into the water and picking different combinations.  The one that is weird is the pure yellow pellets as they make it look like they are taking a bath in urine.  The blue ones work really well and are perfect for pretending that the tub is the high seas – which works out well as they have a pirate bath toy set for making stories using form pieces that stick to the walls.

They talked me into some more Wind Waker today and, with the extra focus that the morning brings, I finally made it past the really hard part and am able to keep playing.  So we played that for much of the morning and I was finally able to make some real progress and put some distance between Dominica’s game and mine.  Quite a bit of space, actually.  Today was a much better gaming day.

Dominica got home mid-afternoon.  We mostly just caught up and all hung out watching 30 Rock and Wizards of Waverly Place.

Today is our one full day of just me and the girls.

Today we spent most of the day just hanging out.  We slept in then I re-introduced Liesl to The Wizards of Waverly Place which she kind of remembered from when she was very little but she really did not remember any of the show so it was basically like she was seeing it for the first time but it felt a little familiar.  It took a few episodes for her to warm up to it but once she did she was really into it.  Luciana liked it from the start but never got as excited as Liesl.  We actually managed to watch the entire first season today!

The best part of the show was whenever the title music would come on Liesl would jump up and dance like crazy to it.  So funny.

For dinner I ordered in from the Chinese restaurant that allows us to order completely online.  That’s so nice we will probably never do anything else.  I tried out their sweet and sour shrimp this evening and some other tofu items that I knew would keep so that we would have leftovers tomorrow.  The girls, of course, just got vegetables lomein.  One of their favourite dishes.

We played some Wind Waker this evening but it was incredibly frustrating because we got to a spot where I am stuck.  Really unsure if I will be able to continue playing.

Luciana got upset at bedtime tonight and ended up putting herself to bed in her own room alone.  Very unusual.

We got to sleep in some this morning.  We had originally thought that Dominica’s ride was going to come this morning but she didn’t end up coming until twelve thirty.  I suppose that I could have gone into the office and worked a half day but that is just way too much driving for only working half of a day.  Could have been as much as three hours in the car plus all the stress of racing back to get home in time for Dominica to get on the road.  It would have been a bad time investment.  If I am taking the day of, I should also take off from driving all of that way or it is really silly.

So the morning was mostly just getting Dominica ready to go.  We didn’t really do anything.  It was nice to just relax.  It is so rare that I have a three day weekend and I get to spend it at home!

Before leaving, Dominica ran out and did some shopping.  She managed to stop and get Subway for all of us which we ate shortly before she left.  That left me with some leftovers for Liesl which would make the weekend easier.

Dominica was off at twelve thirty and now it is just the kids and me until Sunday afternoon.

The girls have really been looking forward to me playing Wind Waker once Dominica was gone.  So that was a big focus of the day.  I am well behind Dominica in the game and need to do a lot of catching up to be where she is.  It is handy that Liesl has watched Dominica play it and remembers absolutely everything and was able to help me extensively.  By the end of the evening I was almost exactly where Dominica is in the game.  Now tomorrow I can work on getting ahead of her.  Liesl is rooting for “team daddy” as she calls it.  Liesl loves turning all of the mundane things in life into competitions.

The girls were excited that they got to sleep in our room tonight.  They were looking forward to not having to sleep in their own room all week.  And for two guaranteed nights in a row, a rare treat for them.  They would never sleep in their own rooms if it was up to them.  And they would never sleep in ours if it was up to Dominica as she likes having a lot of free space.

Pretty relaxing day in the office today, it’s my “Friday” because tomorrow, the real Friday, I am taking a vacation day to stay home with the girls.  This is going to be a really fun weekend of just us with Dominica away.  We’ve been looking forward to it all week.

I worked a little late tonight, wanted to make sure that all of my ducks were in a row before tomorrow.  Then tonight was quiet, just the family hanging out and off to bed at a decent time.

And my mini vacation has begun.