"My momma said there'd be days like this..." a.k.a "Every little thing will be alright"

It all began Tuesday night. Marc had a dinner out with a few important folks. I was to put the kids to bed. And meet with Anke to go over the music with me for the wedding next Friday. We quickly ate dinner, and Marc left. Kaia went down like ... Kaia. No problem. Lia's turn. She wanted a snack. She wanted a book. She wanted a butterfly story. All very regular requests, which was fine, but then it came time for me to leave. The clock was ticking and soon Anke would be here. Lia could sense this, I think. She would NOT let me go. Sometimes she resists, but never like this. She kicked and fussed and said "No!" and "I don't like you!" and would NOT stay in her room, much less her bed. Anke came. Lia came upstairs and was VERY sweet and cute. "Mommy, I forgot to say I love you!"
It's all a blur to me at this point, but for the next hour, I bargained and cuddled and sang and ignored and changed a completely dry diaper and fed her a snack and let her play...all while Anke and I spoke for minutes at a time. My blood pressure was a wee bit high. At one point in all of that, as I was leaving her room for the 100th time, hoping it was the last, her door handle came off in my hand (we have to pull really hard in order to close the door completely)! This made me feel even more crazed.
Finally, I told her that she had to stay in her bed, but she didn't have to sleep. In fact, she probably shouldn't even close her eyes if she didn't want to. She said, "But I'm a little bit tired, so maybe I'll close them a little." And Lia was down.

So after a late and frustrating evening, Wednesday began. Marc had a big day, and needed to be at work early. I would get Lia to Kindergarten and be back to meet the housecleaner (yay!). While eating breakfast we talked about her friends at Kindergarten and all the fun she has, because she was making noises about not wanting to go. I was feeling Momma-guilt over dragging her across the world and sticking her in Kindergarten in a foreign language, but we persevered. We put on her 'dancing dress' and headed out (a little late), although I hadn't had time to feed Kaia. No problem, I'd turn right around again, and attend to her every need afterwards.
Long story a big shorter, Lia wouldn't stay. I was late for the appointment, and stressed about it, and I just didn't have the heart to force her to stay. Tears were welling up in my eyes. Our neighbour Miriam was there dropping off her child, and I told her the situation. She offered to go let the cleaner in and explain what we wanted. She also offered her cleaning supplies because we didn't have any - what were we thinking?!?!
So I tried (gloomily) to get Lia playing with something fun. She wouldn't. She did, however, have a poopy diaper which I changed. This procedure was not without its share of problems...let's just say I decorated my shoe. Having recently become VERY sick from a minute amount of this substance, poop makes me VERY stressed. I had had enough. "Lia, let's go back home." She brightened up immediately, just in time for her teacher to come out and see her chatting away, a huge smile on her face. She didn't look like she needed to go home, but I did!
We opened the door to the kindergarten and realized it was raining. Anticipating a rapid return to the house, I had not brought the umbrella. Now I should note that I have a few odd and unreasonable fears, and getting caught in the rain is top of the list (although I DO like pina coladas). We ventured forth - what else could we do? As we hurried along the uneven paving stones, Lia tripped. She scraped her chin a little and her knee a lot. Waaah! So I'm pushing Kaia in the stroller in one hand, holding a bawling (and very heavy) Lia in the other, trying to avoid the massive slugs and dog doodoo everywhere (very European).
In this fashion we arrived home. Our house cleaner was there, and things calmed down, although it wasn't a great day even from then on. It just wasn't as catastrophic as the morning. (The cleaning lady actually made the floors and windows look worse, which is quite a feat.)

When Marc came home, things really picked up. We had dinner and Lia and I worked on painting and re-wallpapering her doll house. (I'm way more excited about this than she is, but I'm sure everyone would have expected that!)
Miriam came by with some beautiful Gerber daisies for me, and our two families hung out on our stairs, having ice cream, chasing children, and deciding that 2 children is really lots to have.

We've been listening nonstop to Puntamayo World Playground because it is awesome and it is one of two CDs we brought with us. One of the songs is sung by Bob Marley's mother and Taj Mahal: "Don't worry about a thing, 'cuz every little thing will be alright..." When it's not playing on the CD player, it's playing in my head, and it's quite a good theme song for this move, and for days like this.