Princess For A Day

Yesterday ended up being a jammy day.  I had my Chinese lesson in the morning (for two long hours!) and then a massage in the afternoon.  In between the kids and I worked on a 350 piece Simpsons puzzle, part of which Caroline was here for.  It was almost destroyed on a couple of occasions but we managed to keep her from pulling it completely apart.  We finished it around 6:30, just before Tim got home from work.  The rest of the evening was spent trying to get the kids to sleep.

Today Ryan was up early and when I wouldn't get out of bed to do something on the computer for him he went off and woke Nicholas.  He managed to help Ryan with his problem but then had one of his own so he bugged me until I got up.  It turned out to be a good thing because it was a beautiful day with blue skies, I believe the first one since Mom left.  We had breakfast then got ready and went outside.  After going to the store for bananas and apples we ventured over to the red playground.  Right next to it there is a raised area with a trellis and benches.  Around part of this area there is a 'moat' and bridge.  For almost two hours I was Princess Cala (from the Gummi Bears) while my knights, Sir Ryan and Sir Nicholas, defended me and my castle from the dreaded ogres.  I sat on a bench doing important royal work on my iPod while they kept very busy.  It was cool but sunny and a glorious day for sitting outside.  Eventually the princess had to pee and we were getting hungry so we came inside for a royal lunch and rest.  I tried to get Ryan to sleep while Nicholas read but it didn't work.  We hung out for a bit then went back out to my castle for more ogre-fighting.  Eventually the boys made me a leaf lunch and we sat down on some rocks to eat.  An older Chinese lady came and sat down with us.  She and I ended up talking for about forty minutes, all in Chinese.  I didn't understand everything but she was really patient and tried to use different words that I might know and some charades.  Some of it I pretended not to understand because she was questioning me about Nicholas, school and the time he would miss while we were in Canada.  A lot of people here just don't get the idea of not sending your child off to be cared for (not necessarily taught anything) by someone else.  Some people do but they are in the minority.

When it started to get cold we said goodbye to the lady, after helping her up off her rock, and headed inside.  The kids got a warm bath then we had milkshakes and dark chocolate while watching Christmas shows.  After supper the boys went to bed without a peep.  I think their day of saving me from ogres wore them out.  It's wonderful.  Now I just have to get to bed at a reasonable time.  Last night I had trouble getting to sleep, most likely due to all the exciting stuff coming up in the next few weeks and months.  So much to think about!