Adventures with Aisling

It's been a roller coaster 2 weeks with Aisling. There's never a dull moment in our household, especially with Aisling. She's always on the move, so much so, we've idly considered buying a kid's leash for her. The other night, as she ran about, she tripped and fell, and bit the inside of her mouth. Yup - lots of blood, some screaming and tears and 5 minutes later, she was off exploring again.

Aisling also had a bit of a cold last week. A gross nose, a bit of grumpiness, and unfortunately for her, constipation too. At one point, the poor kid was whimpering and saying "poo". We were visiting some good friends (Dave and Shelley) and their gorgeous new house. As the evening progressed, Devlin's temper began to show. If that wasn't enough to call the night short, we ran out of diapers and Aisling was not in a happy place. Said our good byes, and into the car before the diaper situation got more dire. (Spent a few moments reflecting on the beautiful house and came to the conclusion, that notwithstanding Shelley's tasteful decorating, the lack of clutter and toys was what really made the house stand out. Maybe one day, we'll be back to the clutter/toy-free status.)

Got home, with one grumpy boy and two little girls. Put grumpy boy in pjs and on naughty stool for a time-out. Put Aisling in tub, and then Ceilidh. All of a sudden, Ceilidh started a fuss. It appeared, that the warm bath water had its desired effect on Aisling's tortured bowels. Yup - poop in tub. And not just a little. Pretty gross. But Aisling appeared to be content.

A few days later, Aisling was back to her usual curious self. I brought in the groceries. Took 30 seconds to take of my jacket, and help Ceilidh unzip her jacket. Maybe it was 45 seconds. I went to grab the grocery bins, and found the entire carton of eggs dumped into the bin. Four eggs had cracked and were oozing onto the floor and vegetables, but miraculously 8 were still intact. And there was one very satisfied toddler looking at her handiwork. In her mind, of course, she was helping me to "unpack" the groceries. She followed me into the kitchen - and yes, I was grumbling, in between trying to scold her - to again offer her assistance with the remaining groceries. She heaved and pulled the milk bags out and dragged them to the fridge. The strawberries landed on the floor, in her eagerness to reach the cucumbers and carrots. She took a bite out of the cucumber (plastic wrap and all), and attempted to chew through the carrot bag. I saw her little hands move towards the butter and managed to scoop her out of the way, much to her displeasure.
She is a great helper, though. When I return home from work, she greets me at the door and eagerly takes my lunch bag into the kitchen and proceeds to dump the containers into the sink. Having observed it many times, when she sees me grab the laundry basket to fill with soiled clothes, she hurries into Devlin's room and drabs out his laundry basket. She then proceeds to transfer all the dirty clothes into the basket. It does take me a few minutes to sort out the darks from the whites after she's assisted, but hey, I'm not about to discourage this helpful behaviour. When it's time for dinner, Aisling eagerly runs to her chair or looks to grab the cutlery from the kitchen and bring it to the dinner table. After she's done her meal, she will announce "Done" and give you her plate. If you're not quick enough, the said plate will get dumped to the ground, along with the food that's fallen to the tray as she's quick to "clear" the tray of the stray bits of food too.
I'm sure next week will bring more tales of Aisling as we head into the holidays, gift wrap and the tempting, prettily wrapped packages under the tree.