Things to do

This is the kiddo's calendar for May.

It is a pretty typical example of her social life. Chock-a-block with play dates, birthday parties and family outings.

She is a social butterfly.

My MIL was over on the long weekend... 90% of what she said was in Polish but I did catch the comments about how it is so sad that the Kiddo is an only child. She is so lonely. We are cruel for only having one child.

Note: We can't have more kids and she knows this

Note: My husband is an only child

Maybe I should feel bad about this....

As you may recall my MIL thinks of our garden as her garden.

A few years back I was working from home in the morning since I had a photo shoot in my 'hood in the afternoon. At some point during the morning she must have come over because when I went to let the dog out she was working away.

I said 'hello' and she said something about not knowing I was home (my car was in the driveway) and not wanting to bother me (cough). She asked that since it looked like rain could she leave her purse and lunch (!) inside. I agreed and reminded her to lock up when she left.

So, I guess I must have locked the back door behind me (which I always do) because when I got home that night we had a message that she had walked all the way home in the pouring rain (hungry) because I had locked her out of the house.

I did feel a bit bad but quickly got over it.

Birthday Soup

My birthday was last week, I may be entering my Carlsberg years but I do still kinda love 'all about me day'.

My family and friends really do go out of their way to make me feel loved and I love them extra for it. I am a lucky gal.

Then there are my in-laws; every year they forget and every year my Hubz reminds them at the last minute so they feel bad and give me a guilt gift. This year was no exception.

On the big day I got a call from the FIL with wishes and the promise of a little something the following weekend.

My Hubz has been ill for about two months. The in-laws have been showing up randomly with soup, bottled water and tea. The day after my birthday some more soup showed up while we were out at work. It was carrot; the Hubz does not enjoy carrot soup so it sat in our fridge until I got around to pitching it on the weekend.

The day of the arranged in-law visit came and went, without an appearance. There were phone calls made with no response.

So shockingly they aren't speaking to us - this is so not unusual.

As near as we can figure the MIL must have come by during the day to see if the soup had been eaten only to find it sitting untouched in the fridge and now is pissed.

Sounds kinda farfetched, but it is probably true.

Reasons I love My Mother-in-Law - Part Eight

I am not a crier. Don't get me wrong, I am not morally opposed to crying, I just am more of the bottle-it-all-up or bitch-and-complain-about-it type.

So for my husband to call home to find me balling my eyes, was, well, rather off-putting to him.

See, as you may recall my MIL has a charming habit of just stopping by. She did this often in the early days of my maternity leave (before she realized she doesn't like babies). One time when my daughter was about 4 months old she barged in to find us napping on the couch together.

She then proceeded to freak out, wake up the baby and shower me with (ahem) useful advice.

• And I quote "What are you doing? Don't let the baby sleep on you! She will get used to your heartbeat and never want to sleep without you!" Note: not that the 41 weeks in utero would have made her at all used to my heartbeat.
• "When she gets colicy, give her boiling water in a bottle." Note: she was never once colicy, and I am not sure scalding water would make a kid stop crying.
• "Here is a book written by the Pet Psychic with diets you should give the dog. She is very wise and you should do this or the dog will get cancer." Note: It was the same diet that she fed to our dog giving her severe pancreatitis.

It was the Pet Psychic diet that sent me over the end.

Gotta love the view

My MIL feels very comfortable in our home. So much so that she comes by whenever she feels like, usually with no warning or invitation. It could be to garden, to walk the dog or in the past to feed the dog homemade stew (there is a forthcoming post about this one).

You never really know when or what she will be doing.

There have been many times either the Hubz or I have come home one or all of the following scenarios:

• to find her taking up the whole driveway so that no other car can park
• to find her sitting on the couch watching the Y&R
• to find the front door unlocked and her out for a walk with the dog
• to find many small plastic bags of yard waste at the curb (that won't be picked up because the are small plastic bags)
• to find random plantings in our front or back garden
• to find a full and slightly sick dog

Let me put it this way. She is featured in my Google Street View.