The learning curve

This weekend LittleE has learnt to:

• Find the hidden scissors
• Cut his clothing with scissors
• Open the locked cupboard under the sink to investigate the sprays, dish wash powder etc
• Grab a knife off the bench
• Wave a knife in the air
• Stand on his little table in the family room and turn the fan and light switches on and off
• Stick his hand in the neighbours dogs mouth
• Climb onto the fireplace
• Unlatch the screen door so he can wander outside

its a wonder we haven't had to go to A&E at all this weekend! On the plus side he can now string "Good Bye" and "Daddy" together so technically that might be his first sentence...if we can make it to his 16 month birthday on the 23rd we might just be OK!

Friday Feast

Appetizer
When you were a child, which crayon color was your favorite?
Blue - not sure why though my parents thought they were adopting a boy and bought clothes accordingly, so I spent the first 3 months of my life in blue.
It came in handy with 3 other siblings as we all had our favourite colours so if Mum bought 4 things (plastic combs etc) she could get them in "our" colours so there would be less arguing.

Soup
On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest), how likely would you be to change jobs if it required you to move?
In a flash...unless it was somewhere really scary like back to my very very small (school and nothing more) hometown. We quite fancy moving to the Krakow office at the moment, the weather can't be any worse.

Salad
Take all the numbers in your birthday and your phone number and add them up, one by one. What’s the total?
82...embrassed to say I used the calculator...mental arithmatic is NOT my strong point

Main Course
Have you ever “re-gifted” anything? If so, what was it and who did you pass it on to?
Of course, if you don't love something set it free I say! In case family members are reading this...I won this large ceramic basket with fruit (so NOT me or my orange/purple/red kitchen) and regifted it to a secret santa session at mummygroup. The recipiant did not like it either, but someone else thought it was faboulous so it ended up in a happy home again....aaaaaaahhhhhh.

Dessert
Name something you need from the store.
Dishwasher soap, or we will be forced to do dishes by hand and that's probabley grounds for divorce.

Different styles of parenting...

M: "LittleE's feet are cold, do you have some socks for him?"
Me: pointedly looks toward the mountain of laundry about to cascade of the sofa behind him
M: ignores me and cuddles our 'freezing' child dressed in overalls, sweatshirt and drool, completely engrossed in Elmo
Me: extracts the first two socks (a grey one and a white one) before the laundry avalanches and throws them to M
M "they don't match"

Friday Feast

Appetizer
What are you proud of?
I've changed enough to manage to find someone who loves me as much as I love them.

Soup
What is the best thing you’ve ever won as a prize?
When I was living in the UK I won an all expenses paid trip for two to Milan and 1000 quid spending money...I put my 5 closest girlfriends in the jar and drew out Linda, who loves fashion the most anyway, and we had a BALL...bought a wonderful pair of Italian sandals I'm never going to give away even if I now have post pregnancy feet

Salad
Name something you do that is a waste of time.
Surf www.cuteoverload.com every day and look at the pictures...I'm addicted

Main Course
In what year of your life did you change the most?
1999 - went overseas, went to Findhorn, travelled to the places I wanted to and started a new life with only selected past baggage that I chose.

Dessert
Where is a place you consider to be very tranquil?
Looking out on the river in Merrill (or any body of water for that matter)

Rhino head

Yesterday LittleE took a dramatic tumble out of his high chair just as I went to pick him up and crash landed on his head and shoulder. I don't know who was more shocked, but he started howling first, and all I could think was "I've broken the baby"
I scooped him up and we both howled together while I checked him for broken limbs and head injuries. I think he might have been crying cos I didn't catch his spectacular leap, but I know I was crying from guilt for not catching the acrobat.
I decided I didn't want to test the rapid response of the linc ambulance (though I know they always need something to do) and rang the doctors, who wanted to see him even though he had no serious fall signs other than the bruise.
Lorraine came along for the ride to make sure he stayed awake...and to talk me off the very tall tower known as "Worse Mummy in the World" and after he howled at the DRs he was passed all clear.
I spent the rest of the day alternatively cuddling him and checking for dilated pupils, vomiting and changes in behavior...somewhat consoled by the fact that MIL told me M had also survived a tumble down the stairs not much older.
So today LittleE has a big round bruise, a new name "rhinohead" and we have a reminder from the garage door guys that skateboards will be much worse...so much to look forward to

Just write

Still finding it hard to get back to bloggin, even when I have posts buzzing around in my head...I blame Dooce, Mr Angry, Jonny B and some chick from Belgium with a twattish boyfriend, I'm completely intimidated by their writing. get to the end of their daily posts and find myself tongue tied...or is that fingertied?
Maybe I should challenge myself to a week of not reading and writing with the reward of reading at the end of it. But first I have to put the washing on and check out small fluffy creatures...sigh...

Can you spell stupid?

It's spelt "M-E"..and I blame it on my husband for making me tidier.
This week I managed to recycle an entire unopened box of clothes ordered from Lands End. Got the box and did not have time to open it as I was feeding LittleE (see previous posts, you stick to anything you touch during that process, especially as I'm teaching him "high five" at the same time) and left it in the hallway next to the large cardboard boxes from the new toilet. Come Tues night I'm rushing around getting the rubbish out and neatly stowed all the boxes and put them out for recyling. Thursday morning finds me running around the house going "LittleE...where did mummy put the box?...did you eat it?..."which might be possible though I had seen no sign of jeans and shorts in his poo...and I get very up close and personal to poo these days.
I finally figured out I had just recyled $180.00 worth of clothing and rang waste management. The very helpful operator told me the local guy would call me back. The very helpful local guy gave me the number of the recyling plant. The very helpful lady at MURF (the recyling plant...no idea...maybe recyling was invented by the irish) checked with the operators on the line. And at the end of all that I found out that it would have all gone to the landfill as rubbish-sigh-and that a lot of people lose cell phones in their recyling as well.
After all the helpfulness I feel a bit mean...but I'm sure that there is someone's relative from MURF walking around in my size 14 Jeans from Lands End going "SCORE"
On the bright side, today I figured out that if you crush a few cheerios and roll squishy banana pieces in them, your baby can pick up the squishy banana better... and you have to spend less time extracting said suishy banana from the seat of the highchair..."SCORE"

bit messy though

bit messy though, originally uploaded by zela.

LittleE has gone to sleep at 8am...after not having more that 10 teaspoons of food. Sometimes I long for the days when I'm worried about him eating too much, or junk food or borrowing the car.
Its the second morning that he has woken at 5am, the little horror so figuring out how the day rescedules is such a juggling act, must have got it wrong this morning as he fell asleep the moment his little head hit the pillow...oh well, that's 45 minutes of cleanup and checking email and showering I now have.
It will all be worth it when he smiles up at me when he wakes up.