Toilet bowling, that is. The weekly, or sometimes monthly act of cleaning the cuvette in which we relieve ourselves daily. Now that we have 2 bathrooms in our house, it's a double-dip of fun. But that's not the way that things should be, you see when we bought this house, the bathrooms were divided.

Peter got the small upstairs one (pedestal sink, shower, toilet), for his, erm, business. I chose the downstairs one which is a large full bath. More time consuming to clean, but the one that company is likely to see/use, therefore the one which needs to be cleaned properly.

Now, as things were to go, Peter was meant to keep his bathroom clean. I stocked it with Lysol wipes and Mr. Clean magic erasers for this very purpose. A squirt, brushy-brush and flushy-flush here and a few wipes there and bingo! It's in adequate condition for a male-owned bathroom. But no, alas, he could not even handle this small chore and I watched, in dismay, as the sink became toothpaste-crusted and the toilet started to look like pink and brown tie-dyed t-shirt.

Fast forward to the week before Christmas. Visitors are imminent. I knew that there was no use in asking Peter to clean his toilet. He is very adept at ignoring all requests for help on the home maintenance and cleanliness front, especially when he does not fancy the job at hand. I don't know how he manages, but he actually makes me feel GUILTY for asking him. Sick, I know!* Anyhow, asking, nagging, pleading and begging are not terribly effective and I lack the sociopathic nerve to take his kneecaps out with a baseball bat, so I decided to take care of the worst of it, ie. cleaning the toilet.

Off I went to put a new sponge on the toilet cleaning thingy (aka. a fresh brush MAX) which I inherited with the house. Anyhow, if you watch the little video on the link in the last sentence, you will see that a sponge is clipped onto the end of a wand. What it does not show is what happens when the wand does not click fully into place.

So there I was, scrubby scrub, trying to remove some of the worst scum in the drain hole when *click!* the sponge detaches and becomes wedged just out of sight.
"Uh-oh!" I thought and I got some BBQ tongs and attempted to dislodge it, to no avail. In fact, I think I only succeeded in pushing it down further.

Next step: rubber gloves. Rolled 'em on as high as I could, and reached down into the drain hole, but my fingers were barely scraping the sponge.

The plunger was just a bad idea. All that did was push the sponge down further. Toilet no worky anymore.

It's taken until today for us to pull up the toilet, and with much nagging and begging on my part. Peter hates home repairs even more than he hates cleaning, which usually leaves me holding the handy-woman wrench. For this, though, I needed his male upper-body strength for the toilet lifting part.

Still no luck, though. We can't see the sponge anywhere, and now the bathroom smells like poo-drain. Tomorrow I will go get a snake and we'll if we can't find that sucker... The, er, good news is that it offers us an opportunity to replace the wax seal on the toilet.

I know. Every cloud has a silver lining.

Posted by Chelle at 8:53 PM | Permalink | Comments

This week I will tame some dragons. Some I've hatched myself, a few have come from who-knows-where and some still swoop way up overhead - I have only to guess what those look like, and my imagination does not lean towards the cute and cuddly.

It won't be easy. They're equipped to put up quite a tussle. But they need to know who's boss and should have seen this coming. Granted, dragons are not ones for foresight.

Dragon taming is all about the element of surprise. They all sit and ponder, or fly on reconnaissance or lie around, fat from all the gorging, feeling safe in their numbers. The trick is to whisk one away without the others noticing. Then separate 'em and work on 'em one-by-one. As their numbers dwindle, the rest in the group begin to loose their poise - they look around, wonder, "where did all the others go" and get all sloppy. The last few are usually a breeze.

I've got two to tackle tomorrow. Oh, and treats don't work.

Collar, chain, electric whip, megaphone and courage: Check! Here we go.

Posted by Chelle at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments

So, er, I guess I have been incommunicado for awhile.
I'd like to blame it on going back to work, or on the time I'm now spending doing marking in the evenings, or on my somewhat fitful efforts to get back into shape, or the fact that I can't even get near a computer while Evvy's around without her wanting to touch/smash/garble it. But these are all cop-outs. I just got out of the swing of things, and now it's going to take effort to get back on track.

So, on to my daughter.

Evvy is still very much Evvy. In fact, she becomes more Evvy with every passing day.

You, too can do the "Evvy" by following these simple steps:

- Repeating your favourite words in a variety of intonations and volumes a la Shakespearean actor. Gesticulating and pointing is also important - large gestures please, you are playing to an audience. "Dada? Da-da! dadaDaDA! Daaaaa-dah! DADA!!!"

-Toddling around cheerfully with a variety of random items to proudly display to household members. Choices include: dish gloves (put on hands by self), pictures of family members, a tin of cat food, a container full of playing cards or one of daddy's sneakers.

- Declaring that you want "DOW!" and accompanying this assertion with a nose-dive flop every time someone picks you up and attempts to hold you for more than 2 seconds.

- Being obsessed with dogs, dog books, dog sounds and dog pictures. Having no fear of dogs whatsoever, even when being bowled over and slurped mercilessly on the face.

- Running off in whatever direction mama or dada DON'T want you to go. Coyly looking back over your shoulder when called, then running away even faster with gleeful giggles.

- Loving your weekly routines and clapping enthusiastically because today is swimming day with daddy, or Grandma and Tessa-dog day, or playtime with Izzy day. Greeting nap time and bedtime with "night-night" waves and blankie cuddles.

- Eating next to nothing one day and pretty much everything the next.

- Waving "bye-bye" to anyone in the vicinity who makes eye contact - especially cashiers and street people.

- Learning new words every day. Very cute new words.
Some examples:
A clock is a clicking "tick tock" sound made with the tongue. Not to be confused with "horse", which is "nay!" THEN a clicking sound with the tongue to indicate galloping.
Strawberries are "wa-wee-wee"s, then a smacking sound (which also means "food" or "eat")
"Please" (which we are encouraging like crazy right now) is "tleee!" and my favourite remains "fish" which is an enthusiastic "shhhhhh!"
She also has some well-pronounced words like "keys", "duck", "cow" "night-night" and "towel" which can be recognized by your average person on the street. The rest take some deciphering.

There, got those instructions down? Now it's your turn to try!
Of course, all this is less effective if you are not a toddler. They also do not work well without the big blue eyes, chubby belly and soft blond curls. you would also do well to douse yourself in "Essence of Cute" before giving it a go in public.

Well, that's all the Evvy news for now. I guess I should share a bit about myself, but I will save that for another day. Not that you can handle any more suspense...

Posted by Chelle at 9:09 PM | Permalink | Comments

(NB. I actually wrote this post in early September, but never got around to publishing it!)

I look back at the first few posts I made after Evvy was born and realize what a difference a year makes; not only to my daughter but also to my own life as a mother.
I am beginning to see why many women consider having a second (or, bless my heart, THIRD child). Motherhood, to some extent, becomes more involved, but also more enjoyable with a toddler. Really, I figure that one is an ideal age. Here's why:

She can walk, but cannot yet outrun me.
She is still light enough to carry, but chubby and delicious with baby fat.
She still needs me, but loves exploring her new world independently, too.
She knows enough words to tell me basically what she wants, but not enough to talk back or tell me off.
Plus: She is so darn cute... especially the way she toddles around like a little dinosaur-robot-baby.

These days Evvy is a busy little free spirit. Now that she can walk, that's pretty much all she wants to do... and she doesn't look back. She's always carting things around here and there - both hands are constantly full of toys, shoes, or random objects that she figures would improve Feng Shui if moved to another room. It's a whole new dimension in tidying up the house.

I am glad that I have a confident, outgoing, curious daughter, though. It has made going back to work part-time a bit easier in that she has adapted really well to being away from me and doesn't shed a single tear when I leave. I am lucky in that my family and friends have stepped up to be caregivers - and ideal situation.

Evvy is spending Mondays with daddy, Tuesdays with Grandma T. and Wednesdays with Sam and her daughter, Izzy who is almost exactly Evvy's age. On Thursdays I take Izzy for the day so Ev gets to spend 2 days with her little friend! So far, things have worked out great.

That being said, as the year progresses, I will miss being an exclusively stay-at-home mom. Hmmm... I also miss some other things already, for instance cuddles, which are now few and far between. It's go-go-go these days and Evvy does not want to be held back, or even held, for very long. Diaper changes could be mistaken for a wrestling match with a greased pig. She does still enjoy bath time, though and loves going to the swimming pool, which she will be doing every Monday with Peter.

Evvy eats pretty well and sleeps pretty well now, minus a few glitchy days here and there. She babbles constantly and is learning some new words, for instance "nnnnnnnnnno!" which Grandma T taught her unintentionally while scolding her dog, Tessa. She can say shoe "shhh-oh", fish "ashhh", num-num (for food), kitty kat "ki-khhh" and DVD (ie. Baby Einstein) "dee-dee-dee".

Evvy's birthday was a fun and well-attended event. Lots of friends and family were present to enjoy our home and deck. I spent several hours preparing a completely homemade and elaborately decorated birthday cake - a task that every mom worth her salt should do at least once in her life, just to find out how much effort it takes!

I'm looking forward to seeing the changes that this year holds in store for my little Ev. She seems to be growing in leaps and bounds and I can only imagine that this will continue. I thought I'd miss having a little babe-in-arms as Evvy grew, but I love how I can interact with her more every day and I am amazed at her adventurousness, spunk and sweet disposition. All in all, I couldn't be happier to have a toddler!

Posted by Chelle at 7:33 PM | Permalink | Comments