Love it/Hate it

I love the fact that I live in a country where every grocery store has, right along side the full-size grown-up carts, little carts for little people. Do other countries have these? I don't know, but I have trouble picturing my little busy body wandering around in one of the massive box grocery stores that I remember from home. It kills me to watch her put the coin into her little cart and then push it around the store, sometimes getting distracted and wandering off, but most of the time, dutifully and enthusiastically, helping find the bananas, or the tomatoes. She loves the feeling of independence it gives her and it makes life a lot easier than having her squirm in the cart for the entire trip.

What I hate is that the stores have figured out that little shoppers, along with helping put things into the cart, actually like to have a say in what ultimately goes into the cart. Certainly, I've known that what you're expected to buy is at eye level, but it had never occurred to me that this would apply to adults as well as toddlers. Since my eyes have rarely wandered down to those bottom rows unless I'm really searching for something special, I've finding that up until now, I've been oblivious to a whole range of products. I'm looking at you, Bob the Builder Luncheon Meat! And don't think I haven't got a bone to pick with you, too, Disney Princesses Cupcake Mix. Since I don't actually cave to the many, many, many items that somehow find their way into our cart each week, I suppose I should be grateful for the many, many, many 'teaching opportunities' that are presented to me, but mostly, I'm just annoyed.

Bad mommy?

My toddler is sick. For two days now, she's been vomiting and having diarrhea. Not a whole lot, mind you, but make no mistake, the girl is sick. And yet, a very teeny, very tiny part of me is loving it. Not the vomit part. Not the diarrhea part either. Certainly not the part where I have to watch my formerly vivacious, outgoing, funny, energetic child turn into a tired zombie. But, the part where all she really wants to do is sit on my lap and cuddle? I'm all in!

'Tis the season

I don't believe that it's Officially Christmas until I hear Do They Know it's Christmas by Band-Aid (it has to be the 80's version, thankyouverymuch). The catch, though, is that it has to be played independently. I can't play it for myself. Rather, I have to hear it on the radio, in a store, in someone's car... There are years when it comes down to the wire (the tinsel?) and I really think that there will be no Official Christmas, but the song has always come through at the last moment.

This year, though, I cheated. I was too excited to share it with the Dude. I've been playing all sorts of Christmas carols for her, by everyone from Nana Mouskouri to Boney M to random children's choirs in order to indoctrinate her. Sinterklaas just has such a following here; no one is really representing Santa and I've been working overtime to make sure that she gets in the spirit, or as much as a two year old can. She's been enjoying the carols to some degree, but nothing so far has really grabbed her the way that Sinterklaas songs had. Until. Until! Until....I played IT! We listened to it over and over and over this morning, and we were both in heaven. It makes me wonder if it is possible to pass an 80's gene on to your child?