To make an omelette...

So, we all have our little ways of doing things, right?

Most of the time when you're living with someone, you can put up with a lot of their quirks. They feed the toilet paper roll under, no problem, you quickly reverse it, problem solved.

But then there are the things that you can't "fix". Ingrained habits we all have, but which may get on our most loved ones' last nerve.

In our household, a major issue is the technique employed for cracking eggs. Really, you ask? Seriously? I am afraid I must say yes.

I crack my eggs on the rims of bowls or pans. That is just the right way. My dear husband, on the other hand, takes the egg and cracks it - I am not kidding you - on the underside of my kitchen counters. Ugh. This little habit of his has been grating on me for months now.

Then just in the past few days I have seen this miraculous product, the EZ Egg Cracker, advertised. Many people may claim that this is a superfluous, even useless product. But this I dispute this as an oversimplification. It may be a sanity preserver or in the most extreme case, a relationship redeemer.

Teeth Brushing

This has actually been brewing around in my mind for quite a while, and a fellow blogger blogged about it today so I thought I would share my thoughts as well.

On the surface, oral care seems such a simple, mundane task, correct?

Okay, now try doing it with a squirmy 1-2 year old who may or (more likely) may not want your fingers or the toothbrush in his mouth.

This is an aspect of parenting that honestly never ONCE crossed my mind in all the years I dreamed of having a baby, when I was pregnant or even for the first 6 months or so of his life.
Then one day I realized that I would be responsible every morning and every night for the next few years or so for this other person's teeth. I am sure that I am not alone in this. No one sits around at baby showers discussing the best toddler toothpaste or the correct brushing technique. It sort of reminds me of watching your favorite TV show, I mean there are just a lot of everyday details that are simply left out. For me this was one of those. I considered a million details of caring for my baby while I was pregnant; the best diapers, the best foods, the best bedding, the best shoes, the best way to launder his clothes, etc etc etc...but the tooth brushing thing somehow just fell through the cracks.

If you've never had to do it, what I am saying may not make a whole lot of sense.
But believe me, when you have been bitten hard enough to bring tears to your eyes, it will.

The Past Week

It seems I am under a bad star or something this week. I know it could always be worse, but I have been having the craziest accidents. First, our upstairs hallway is pretty crowded-I have our loveseat there right now that used to be in B's room. When we got him a ball pit for his first birthday, there was no room for both, so out it went! GH warned me that it was too crowded, and in fact we've been "meaning to" move it, along with our 101 other things we've been "meaning to" do forever... :)


Well, I was going too fast out into the hallway from our room and I hit my right two little toes incredibly hard against its base. I thought for a minute they were just going to fall off! I made it through the rest of the day, but oh my, if I moved them even slightly the shooting pain was terrible! That night, GH looked at them when he got home and he didn't think they were broken, so I just kept "resting" them as much as possible. A few days after it happened I was brave enough to try to bend them, and found that I couldn't...scary. Also, the color around them, like going down my foot towards my ankle had changed to a dark bluish/purplish color. GH looked at them again and said that if they didn't improve soon, I should probably have them looked at. Well, thank God, they finally started improving some yesterday. The color is still bad, but at least I can bend them a little. And really the pain is almost gone as well.

Then, last night, I was going to broil some steaks at 500 degrees in the oven, and the recipe recommended preheating the pan you were going to use as well. Sounded sensible to me, speed up the cooking time etc. So I stuck it in while my steaks finished marinating. Meanwhile, GH got home from work, and we were talking, discussing our day and stuff. I took the pan out to start cooking the steak, while we were still talking, and I placed it on the stove top. Then, I went to retrieve the steaks from the fridge, still talking to GH, and I went back to the stove and PICKED UP the 500 degree pan with my bare hand!! AARRGHHH!!! Wow this pain was incredible...terrible terrible terrible. I immediately put my hand under the cold faucet, while GH went upstairs to get ointment and to look up the best treatment for minor burns. So I left my hand under the cold water for at least 10 minutes, as recommended, periodically taking it out to "test" and the pain was still terrible. It was largely concentrated in two spots, my left index finger and my palm. After the water treatment when I felt it was slightly lessened, I put some ointment on it. It seemed to be okay more or less, but then a few minutes later, started burning like hell again. So I got an ice pack out and kept it on for literally an hour. That really did the trick I think. I put a lot of ointment on it last night before going to bed and this morning I really hardly feel it at all. I know I am very lucky and last night when it had first happened, all I could think of was that guy on Survivor Australia (the only season I watched) when he fell into the coals. He ran into the water to put his poor hands in, then when he took them out of the water, all of his skin was just like dripping off. It was so gross! And I was sure for a moment that that was going to be me too. The pain I felt was so intense, and this is coming from a woman who had a completely natural labor and birth- no epidural, no pills, no IV meds, nothing. I really feel for real burn victims. God, if what I suffered last night was so terrible to me, then just think what they go through.

Finally, this morning, I was trying to carry B and 3 glasses downstairs with me and guess what? I moved (erm, trying to avoid said loveseat again) and banged one glass right into the wooden balcony; glass flew everywhere! Thank God, neither of us were injured. I put B into his playpen and had to vacuum the entire hallway and stairs, one by one. Not my favorite thing at any time, much less, to do on the way down to breakfast; haven't had my morning coffee etc.

So hopefully from here on out, this star will move on and I will have fewer or at least less dramatic accidents!