Fail. But kind of pass.

Fail? What have you done, Ben? On the surface, I spent yesterday morning at Children's Hospital with wee Eva, having the cut on her forehead glued back together. Before worry sets in too much, she's okay. The cut is small (and now glued back together). She is in good spirits and hasn't missed a beat.

However, walking into Emergency with your toddler, as a dad, in the middle of summer: I could sense the shaking heads and rolled eyes. I walked in, the stereotype of poorly conceived jokes. Yet, all I had done was go to work that morning. Eva had tripped, as she often does, and caught her head on the baseboard. Oma had patched her up amazingly well and I simply swooped in to take her to the hospital as it was a pretty good gash.

Arriving at the hospital, the staff at Children's were fantastic. They were professional and kind. They had videos and crayons. The only moment that was cringe-worthy was when I was commissioned to help restrain poor Eva whilst they cleaned the cut and held the skin in place for the glue. The doctor did advise me that it would be the worst 10 minutes of my life--and it came close. While she screamed, even the casual observer must have seen how her eyes told the tail of betrayal. Her own father holding her while these strangers fiddled with her "owie". I felt sick. And clearly so... when the ice lolly was delivered to Eva after all was said and done, they brought one for dad too. It was well timed. I needed a lolly. Eva was spent. She's quite good at goodbye these days and as I said thank you and goodbye to the nurse and doctors, she literally screamed "GOODBYE!" For all the betrayal in her eyes earlier, it was nothing compared to the tone in her voice that was one of hearty good riddance to the kind staff who had patched her up.

Despite having her buggy, I carried her back to the car as she collapsed into my shoulder and clung to my shirt. The two of us were shattered and, really, in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't so bad.

So, apart from having to take my youngest little girl to the hospital, how has it gone? I think we're doing okay. Let's measure:

Melt-downs: Hmmm. Cut foreheads aside (which you can't possibly include in my definition), there weren't any yesterday. The day before, there was one... though, it wasn't the kids--it was me, on discovering pen marks all over Eva's carpet. Repeated pleas for Anna to keep her pens out of reach went unheeded and new rules were rushed through that involve "items whose primary use is to make marks on paper or the like," are now to be kept downstairs. Apart from the clean up, we got through that pretty quickly. The day before, it was Anna over the inherently unfair distribution of toys that pervades in our home. So, let's call it 2 over 4 days, giving us an average 0.5 melt-downs/day. Pass.

TV Time: There are some unavoidable TV times in our day. Dinner preparation ranks among them. I flopped down with the kids while the corn-on-the-cob was boiling for 10 minutes and became acutely aware of just how rubbish some of the kids' programming is. The kids (Anna and Caleb... Eva was arranging ever so tiny bits of play-dough around the living room in what might be an effort to make it seem like a beach) were watching a program called Arthur, which appears to be based on the books by the same name. What a completely crap show. As far as I can tell, all the characters are in constant conflict, name-calling, and one-upmanship for 99% of the show until the very end when they all make up and quickly establish some lame moral. Why isn't the moral inherent in the story? Like "be nice to each other" or "resolve differences kindly". I was so appalled that I dragged out Postman Pat and Kipper. Quality British programming where the characters are gentle and kind, even if the stories are ever so slightly pants. I believe I've already seen a change in behaviour... and if I see Arthur I'm going to kick his ass. I also took them to get a movie. In the instance it wasn't transparently obvious by the cover or childhood memories of your own, Alvin and the Chipmunks are really annoying. Overall, I declare a pass.

Getting out of the house: I've got this one down. It helps that the weather has continued to cooperate. I've made it to the North Shore to take the kids on a walk 'round Rice Lake and swimming at our friend Jack's house. I've been to White Rock to the grandparents. I went swimming at the wave pool in Newton (cut a bit short for the safety concerns that maybe should have been more obvious before I went in with three young children). We've been to the water splash park twice. We've been out to rent movies and play at the local park. We've had friends over for a BBQ and played nearly endlessly in the garden with the new water table. We met friends at the Yacht Club (clearly we were guests) and had dinner on the beach. We've done really well on this one. We weren't even kicked out of the Yacht Club.

Eating Well: Mostly. They've definitely eaten vegetables and been hydrating. There have been times on certain days when I've been on the lookout for some sort of nitrate induced hysteria, but noting that melt-downs seem to be statistically normal, I shall assume that we've not yet tipped any internal balances.

Minimize sugar: Yeah. Not so good. There have been a lot of ice lollies. Caleb's lunch request for today was for a Wagon Wheel, Starburts, and a "treat". Clearly he believe the first two items to be food groups in their own right and not worthy of the "treat" moniker. I've turned my focus to brushing teeth thoroughly until Ange gets back.

Getting something non-kid done: it's been okay. The house is clean. I had a beer the other night. In the garden. By myself. Lisa came up on Sunday night and I got to go to the Safeway! Ummm... that is all.

So, we're half way. Thursday and Friday are the toughest because every kid has to get somewhere different for care on the Thursday morning (and Anna needs to move care at lunch) and then I have to get Anna to Maple Ridge and then get back to put the other two to bed and then I go pick her up the next day after work, having picked up the other two... fingers crossed!