After our intense day yesterday, today was more relaxed. K slept in quite late, and H pottered around and talked to me. When she did get up, she and H played computer games together, and played beautifully together in their room for ages. H is also really getting into that Marbletick game, he can make quite precise patterns with the magnetic tiles. K decided around 11ish that she wanted us to have a tea party with the vintage china I am collecting (we’re planning a tea party for her next birthday), so I made that happen. We found all the library books that have to go back, and read them one last time. We’re finally getting through When Hippo Was Hairy, which is an African folktales collection we’ve had out for probably two months without actually getting around to reading! (We have been reading it in the evenings as well since we were between Laura books for a couple of days). I wrapped up all B’s things which she left here, ready to take to the post office, then realised I can’t really afford to pay $10 postage this week. We also wrote out the postcards for our JL postcard swap. Then we ate leftovers for lunch, and headed out to the village.

I ended up only sending out two postcards after all, since I didn’t have enough cash on me to pay for a stamp to Eire as well. We picked up our parcel (H’s turn to hand over the slip) and the rest of the mail, K bought the stamps for the postcards, and H posted them. It’s very tiring having to remember whose turn it is to do what but otherwise they complain far too much. I am really loving the way that the librarian now knows us all, and knows when we have holds to pick up, and we have chats about books. We had so many holds to pick up K could only borrow two other books, but H is now borrowing up to four – and no more, because I really don’t need to deal with them having 30 books out between them! We took our loot home and sat down and read most of them, then K and H took their Bananas in Pyjamas DVD (curse the day I showed K where to find the kids’ DVDs) off and watched it. Then K watched her wildlife documentary on wildebeest. I rearranged the subject shelves, since we have some new books and DVDs about Africa to display, and some more winter books as well. They look much tidier now. H was not very interested in wildebeest, and even though he repeatedly said he wanted to watch Playschool he appears to have reached saturation point at last (hurrah!), so mostly we did stuff together instead. As well as telling him stories, I can now ask him to tell me a story, and he is happy to oblige, which I like much more 😛

In the evening Mr Bat kept them amused while I attempted to work up some enthusiasm for cooking (including Skypeing with their grandmother), but fortunately my recipe book inspiration came up with something really quick and easy which everybody enjoyed, so it wasn’t too much hassle. After dinner H went pretty much straight to bed, and I started These Happy Golden Years with K. After a couple of chapters, she wasn’t tired yet, so I suggested we play Uno, which she had found earlier in the day but I vetoed as being no good while H is around. Mr Bat, K and I played a couple of hilarious games, winning one each, then K went happily to bed. It was a very lovely way to spend an evening – so nice that she is finally really old enough for this sort of thing! We have an Uno date for tomorrow night too…