For the past three days we have had our first overnight house guest. Her name is Piri and she’s 2 1/2. Piri stayed with us while her mom went to Taupo to load the moving truck and bring all of their belongings back to Raglan. We’re exhausted.

Honestly I don’t know how single moms do it. There were two of us. And she had us beat. Easily.

We climbed up into our “up high” bed (all three of us) and slept hard, both nights. And at 9:30 I’m just barely hanging on tonight.

Before I go to bed, top three moments of the weekend:

#3: Bath in a bucket. (Piri, not me)

#2: The scientific experiment of testing the diameter of a dried pea vs. the diameter of a toddler nostril. No harm done. After a few tears and a bit of firm pressure above the pea, all is well.

#1: Me coming out of the house and seeing Piri running over. “Dani, Uncle Melsom needs help. He’s stuck.” Turns out that the latch on the outside of the door of our outdoor shower is not childproof. It is in fact child friendly. And a good way to trap an unexpecting adult.

She was clever and beautiful and funny and fun, but I think we’ll hold off for a while.