The once was a man from Nantuket
Who got his foot stuck in a bucket
He fell with a clamour
It cured his old stammer
But now all he can say is "Oh dear!"


I'm not really sure why I wrote that. I would take it back but I've had my "delete" key surgically removed. Anyway, for more adventures of the Man from Nantuket, visit his website at: www.icantbelieveimsostupid.com and enjoy! And let me know what you think of the site.

Ok, down to business. I promised a little update on Princess and Little Man so here it is. I mentioned recently that they are starting to play together more and more. Mostly its that running and screaming game, and the manner in which they decide who is pursuing and who is pursued is more complex than I can fathom. Now, apart from the noise, its great that they play together, but it can make bedtime difficult. The problem is they don't know when to stop.

Little Man used to sleep well, back before he had any teeth. When they shared a room, we would put him to bed first because it would take him around 30 seconds to fall asleep and Princess with a whistle and a handful of party poppers couldn't wake him up. She would try for about 30 seconds and then she too would fall asleep. Oh, how I long for those days.

Anyway, Little Man now knows the joys of not going to sleep. He can lie down and lift his legs up. He can stand up and walk to the edge of the cot. He can run to each of the corners. Endless fun! Apparently it can amuse him for hours, which means he doesn't go to sleep quickly any more.

We experimented with putting them both to bed at the same time but this did not work out well. If Princess is not distracted, she will still fall asleep very quickly. Usually if she hasn't made any noise for five minutes, she is probably asleep. That means its safe to put Little Man down because as much fun as exploring his cot again is, all his laughing and yelling and baby-equivalent of "Wow! Look at this! This is amazing! FOUR corners, still!", he still can't wake up Princess. Mind you, if he ever learns the word "chocolate" we will have to put them in separate rooms.

Anyway, occasionally Princess has managed to keep herself distracted long enough to be awake when Little Man goes to bed. This rarely ends well. Princess now has an audience who finds her slightly more fascinating than the corners of his cot, though I suspect some of his yelling is him trying to draw her attention to the amazingly consistent number of corners. Little Man has not yet reached the Age of Reason and so there is little we can do with him. Princess on the other hand, has reached the Age of Reason, though she thought it was the Age of Raisins. However, she is pretty difficult to raisin with.

She knows she is not allowed to play with Little Man when they are supposed to be sleeping. She also knows it is she who will get in trouble if they are caught. So she has developed very good hearing and the instant she hears the sliding door open, she will drop whatever it is she is doing, or whoever she is holding, and leap back into bed and pretend that she has no idea what is going on. She will even go so far as to clasp her hands together and smile her "I'm too cute for you to be angry at" smile.

I caught her the other day. Its amazing how quickly she can move. I knew she had been playing with Little Man, not because I caught them together. He was running around in his cot saying "...here's a corner and here's a corner and...". No, aside from the sound of someone leaping into bed, Princess was sitting up, eyes wide and innocent and hands clasped angelically before her. When she tried to smile her sweet, "Aren't I the picture of innocence?" smile, she realised that she had Little man's dummy in her mouth. So what did she do then? What would anyone do if caught in that situation? She spat the dummy out and said "Oops". I could see her thinking, "Would he fall for it if I pretended I didn't know how that got there?" but a few moments pause was all she needed. She lay down, pulled up the doona, closed her eyes and held out the dummy, which I took and gave it back to Little Man, "...and here's a corner and here's a corner and swuck, suckck,sswuck,swuck,swucksucckkcsswuck..."

Oh well. So now, Princess goes to bed first, and then, when we are sure she is asleep, Little Man does laps of his cot. Its not perfect but its a process that seems to work.

Ciao!

Thought for the Day: shlathole sounds rude, but actually, its not a word. Its kobberish.