When one spoon isn't enough

Not a pretty picture I know, but it pretty much sums up my day.

Leila now wants to use cutlery, in fact after the first few mouthfuls she won't open up for food unless it's on a spoon she's in charge of. One spoon is not enough - she wants one in each hand and invariably one falls on the floor, hence the spare third. The mess, yuck. I know that it's to be expected, the learning encouraged, but arrrrgh! Ella was so neat and as I'm realising more and more, so compliant. It's terrible that it's a characteristic that's enviable, but gosh, I never realised until now how terribly well behaved she was/is. That's not to say that Leila is naughty, she's just full on, all the time. I think the only moments when Leila stops are when she's asleep - otherwise she's looking for mischief.

She's also a climber, as I've mentioned before, but now it's everything. She's discovered the kitchen table and is constantly climbing and standing in the middle of it. Ella's constantly calling "Mum, lala's doing the wrong thing" which is code for standing on high piece of furniture. It's also the outside table - she hasn't fallen, yet, but it's a long way down. I've had to stack the chairs, out of the way, so she can't get them, which is a pain when the only adult at home during the day wants to sit down.

At 5 it felt like the only thing keeping me going was being able to have a glass of red - I got the glass out ready and the bottle had been finished - completely forgot, in fact have no recollection of drinking it. That's not because I was in a drunken haze, must have been Geoff. So, I held on until 6 feeling guilty about opening a "good bottle" on a Tuesday night, but then the need overcame me. I used a good glass though, which made me laugh. I shared a similar story another time with my dearest friend Kate and she had a similar occurence herself about the same time during a long drawn out house renovation. The only difference in out situations was that Kate also couldn't find a wine glass and had to drink a good bottle out of a coffee mug!