Raisins and toddlers...

Today I did the grossest thing I have ever done as a parent.

Tommy looked at us suddenly while eating his afternoon snack and said in a very shocked voice "My raisin". We both looked at him to find him poking in his nose and looking stunned. When asked, he said "in my nose" and we both knew we were in for it. Not wanting to incur another humongous doctor bill, I asked John to run for the tweezers while I tried to get Tommy to blow his nose. He proceeded to suck air in. Not good. When John got back with the tweezers, I tried to look into Tommy's nose, but he had pushed / sucked the raisin in too far to reach. As John readied him for a trip to the E.R. (why do these things always happen on a weekend or after business hours?) I took a last ditch run through my friendly search engine. You wouldn't believe how many raisin up nose stories there are out there, and I was lucky enough to find the solution in the second one I looked at. I read the story, yelled for john to bring the boy upstairs, and gave it a shot. Basically, you plug the opposite nostril and give a sharp breath in through the mouth. More of a quick puff - you don't want to hurt their ears. Took me two tries since he was screaming and trying to push me away, but the raisin (and everything else in his nose - ick) shot out and stuck to - you guessed it - my cheek. I'm thoroughly washed now but I did think John was going to be ill. Tommy looked at me as if nothing had happened and for letting us take care of it here he got a new Hot Wheel Ferrari. Lucky kid - not so lucky mama. I'm filing this away for the next time.

Life in the handbasket...

I have most definitely been absent for far too long. It seems like the past several weeks have flown by and I'm not sure where the time went! We were so busy over the holidays, and I am finally catching up - next year I hope to be a bit more organized so I can keep up, but I had thought I was this year and it all got away from me... again.

My best friends Linda and Doug came to visit the weekend before Christmas, and we had a wonderful, if too brief, time just relaxing and catching up. Tommy was delighted to see 'Auntie Linda' and 'Uncle Doug' and you'd have never known he hadn't seen them since he was 16 months old. He adores them both. They gave him a 'Music Maker' which is like a small wooden zither - he LOVES it! It's wonderful because even at his age, he can play music. Duets with Daddy on guitar are soon to follow!

I've been working as much as I can at the Attic. I really enjoy my time there and even though I feel like I don't have nearly enough knowledge to help people as much as I'd like, I learn more everyday. It's fun, even when we're busy, and I love seeing all of the beautiful needlework that comes in.

I recently took a punch needle embroidery class, and I'm enjoying this new skill. I think it's great for taking a break from cross-stitch, as it goes quickly and doesn't require counting. :-) All you have to do is fill in the area with a color - easy and somewhat mindless, which is a nice change. ( I can do mindless, just watch me :-) )

Our biggest news is that Tommy started at Montessori school two weeks ago. We had really liked our daycare, and the people there, but felt like he wasn't getting the independence he needed. Also, he had started to tell us regularly that he 'didn't want to go to school'. Now that he's in the new school, he's actually excited to go, and seems to enjoy what he's doing there. I think it helps that he's only there for the mornings, whereas he was at daycare all day for three days. The shorter days plus attending all week seems to have made a big difference for him. He loves his new independence, and he's made some big strides even in the short time he's been there. Many more pleasant afternoons that we ever had before, and his cooperation is better too. The main battles we have now are when he wants to do it himself but we don't have time for him to poke along. Oh, and food. Always food...

I have taken on some on-the-side editing work for an old friend (he's not old... we've just known each other since college...) who has taken up writing. I love his stories, but he needed a bit of help polishing the language, so I volunteered my time. I'm so proud of him for having the courage to take this step and I really want to see him succeed. I'll be passing on links to his site soon.

I do hope to be here much more regularly now that I seem to have gotten it back together. I have a review to do soon, and a giveaway to set up, so I'll be posting the details in the near future - stay tuned!