Vacuuming

Okay so right now I’m going to introduce you to my neighbour. She’s also the apartment manager and we’ll just call her Crazy Vacuum Whore…or CVW. Her daughter and Abby get along pretty well and don’t get me wrong…she’s a nice person. But she has a bit of a temper and will fly off the handle at the smallest thing. She also has this insane vacuuming habit. At least once a day she will go around the hallways and her apartment with the vacuum cleaner. There has not been one day where she hasn’t vacuumed. It almost makes me feel like a bit of a slob, because well I can’t remember the last time we vacuumed. It’s not that I hate vacuuming, I just have a daughter who absolutely despises the vacuum cleaner and wails like a banshee anytime I even get it out of the closet. I don’t even have to turn it on, as soon as she sees it…she will run to her room and start her usual wailing. I’d do when she’s asleep but by that time the elderly couple on the other side of me are probably asleep and I don’t want to seem like a crazy bitch doing my vacuuming when people are trying to sleep. And I would do it in the day, but Nick sleeps during the day because he has a 3rd shift job. 

So I’m screwed and yesterday I could see all kinds of junk on the carpet…like dust bunnies, toenail clippings and Cheerios from way back when. Abby hasn’t eaten Cheerios in about six months. Yes, I still walk on the carpet but what else am I supposed to do? I try to get Nick to take Abby to the park but it seems to go in one ear and out the other. Sigh.

Grocery Stores

This morning has been pretty average so far. Abby’s in the living room watching her favourite tv program- “The Koala Brothers’. Sometimes I wish that I had Tivo so that I could record some stuff and then we could do stuff like go to the park instead. But this will finish sometime around 11am and then there’s only an hour and a half until her nap time. I would usually take her to the park during this point in time, but I’ve got a lot to do around the house in the morning- so it’s just not a viable option  

Talking about Abby, when I got home from choir practice last night my sister in law was sitting for me. She told me all the things that her and Abby had gotten up to while I was away and Nick told me that they’d been to the store up the street from here. It’s a natural grocery store, a smaller version of Whole Foods if you will. We have a WF, but it’s on the other side of the city and it’s just too much of a darn trek. Having this one close to us is nice when we just need little bits of stuff. Anyway, Abby and my sister-in-law had been for a walk and stopped off at the grocery store. Abby loves going there because they have these little kiddy carts and I think she likes to push them around and dump food in. I found out that my daughter actually has a pretty healthy opinion of food. She bought eggs, fresh pineapple, strawberries, two yoghurts (including a black cherry one for me!) and a box of honey graham sticks. I was very proud of her that she didn’t come home with a pallet of cookies or something else outlandish :-p I can’t remember who many times I’ve had arguments with her in the grocery store over cookies. 

“Abby, we’re going to get some apples and that’s that.”                          
“But I want the cookies! COOOOOOOOKIES!!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

Oh boy. I’m glad she at least behaved in a store with my sister-in-law. Trying to chase after a three year old in a department store or getting them to be quiet while you finish the grocery shopping is so much harder than anyone tells you in any of the fangled parenting books.

So I’m eating said black cherry yoghurt and some of the pineapple for my breakfast (we were out of cereal) and Abby is sitting at the kitchen table eating an english muffin with peanut butter. I am sitting on the couch waking my brain up to Taylor Swift chatting her happy butt off on GAC. She’s so perky that it’s almost intolerable this time of the morning. Have you ever zoned out to the tv while mindlessly stuffing your face? I do it every morning and by the time she was on tv, I’d finished the yoghurt and I’d started on the tub of pineapple. Abby by this time, is sitting next to me on the couch complaining loudly about how it was HER pineapple and I shouldn’t be eating it. 

“That’s my pineapple Mummy! You shouldn’t be eating it!”          
“Oh come on. How often do we have fresh pineapple in this house (nom nom nom)”        
“MUMMMMMMMY! No no no!”                                                                                            
“(nom nom nom) What? Oh alright I’m done now. Happy?”

I can’t quite believe I was negotiating with a three year old.

Anyway, I woke up late this morning, so I’m a little behind on everything. I best go get stuff finished.