Too easy to impress

We spent some time in the morning by the lake, paddling and throwing rocks into the water.

Before heading back home, we went to an ice-cream stand, less than a two-minute walk away.

Benny: “My legs hurt.”
Me: “Really? Why?”
Benny: “Because of all this walking.”
Me: “…” (?!)
Benny: “Do your legs hurt?”
Me: “Nope.”
Benny: “Wow. That’s impressive.”

What should I worry about more: his legs aching after 80 seconds of walking or the fact that he’s obviously way too easy to impress?

Unexpected consequences

Our kids are very environmentally aware. They recently started upcycling – they’re creatively turning milk bottles, egg cartons and cardboard boxes into birdhouses, bird feeders and insect hotels.

It’s a lovely idea. It also means our house is gradually filling up with poorly painted and decorated trash, which we’re supposed to admire.

I started lying to my kids about boxes still being used just so they don’t ask me to have them for their “project”. Who would’ve thought that one of the consequences of a lockdown would be me putting empty milk bottles back in the fridge if the kids are watching? What am I turning into?!

Just the two of us

“I need to poo,” Benny enters the bathroom while I’m in the shower. I hear him sigh loudly as he sits on the toilet.

I just wanted to take a shower by myself and be quiet for five minutes, but I can’t tell him to wait.
Benny’s pensive while taking a poo. He says: “I really like spending time like this, just the two of us.”
Immediately I feel guilty for not having enough time for each of my children. Until he adds, more cheerfully: “But I like doing arts and crafts with Dada more.”

At least I’m good enough for him to hang out in the bathroom with me.

What not to think about when…

“I was just imagining that I was falling off a mountain and what would be the most stupid things to think about at that moment.
I think number one would be thinking about what to make for Arts and Crafts and number two would be telling myself to stop talking to myself: “Stop talking to yourself, you’re falling off a mountain, stop talking to yourself!”
That would be really dumb.”

Molly (7) on What not to think about when you’re falling off a mountain.

Life’s not fair!

Molly and Benny have to tidy up their room, where Oskar also plays, every evening before going to sleep. Last night I had a great opportunity to hear them complain to each other:

-It’s not fair! Why do we have to clean up after Oskar? Mama’s with him, she should be doing it!
-But she does a lot of other things…
-Did she play with us all day? No! Did she do what we wanted? No. And what do we have to do? Do some drawings, tidy up…
-You’re right, it’s not fair, Molly.
-And you don’t know how hard it is to go to school, Benny! Why do the teachers get paid when we have to work hard? We work and when we complain, we get a time out!
-Yes! We should get the opposite of time out! We should get one million kuna!

I thought Benny was on the right track at the start of the discussion, but Molly’s arguments were impossible to refute. Life really isn’t fair.

Ready to start cooking

Being quarantined with limited sources of entertainment is turning Molly into a proper foodie. She takes pleasure in eating and thinks about various flavours and how they combine. She already started giving me cooking advice. For example: the pasta sauce I made today, in her opinion, lacked mayonnaise.


This is a huge improvement from her wanting to put chocolate into everything.

A visit from two tooth fairies!

Me at 1 am: “Crap! I forgot about Molly’s tooth!”
I grab 20kn from Jay’s wallet, run to Molly’s room, I try to find her tooth under the pillow but can’t do it without potentially waking her up so I just leave the money next to her pillow.

Molly at 3:30am: “Dada, my tooth is still under my pillow! Do you think the tooth fairy will come tonight?”
Jay doesn’t know I already left he money, so he waits until Molly’s asleep again, gets 20kn from my wallet, folds the note neatly, wraps it with a piece of string, retrieves Molly’s tooth from under her pillow and replaces it with a gift from the tooth fairy.

Molly at 6:30am: “Wow! I got 40 kuna! The tooth fairy wrapped this 20kn note really nicely and the other one… maybe fell out of her pocket?”

What a lucky girl! Two tooth fairies! One thoughtful and careful who pays attention to details and… the other one.