Last Monday's party had some unintended consequences. On Tuesday I let the kids play in the backyard. Soon I heard a strange noise coming from the bottom of the slide - the noise of a broken glass. I run there to find Little Munchkin sitting at the bottom of the slide surrounded by the shards of broken wine glass and HOLDING shards of glass in each hand. By some miracle he did not get a single cut. I did spend an hour combing the backyard for tiny sparkly bits. I am sure I picked all of them out. The way Little Munchkin is going about life I can well imagine him getting into things like skydiving, car racing, mountain climbing and other activities that would give him extra adrenaline and me extra grey hair.

The long weekend is over. It was a rare case of sunny, lovely weather. On Saturday we went to Chessington World of Adventures. Fortunately, the kids under one meter go free and we had a two for one coupon. Still, it was a total waste of 30 pounds, which is a cost of one adult ticket. This park is a good place to be if your kids are over 7 or even 8 years old, you live close by and you buy an annual pass. If your kids are 3 years and 18 months it is a very wrong place to be.

The next day we spent playing in a park, swimming, and generally having fun. Today was Onam, South Indian New Year. We had invited a few friends over. We had a good time this weekend.

Everyone says not to compare children, but when you have two you can't help it. So, I've decided to do a little comparison on my Munchkins.

Meal time: Big Munchkin always ate badly - cucumber and tomatoes being all time favourites. So, when she is not eating I don't get stressed anymore. She'll ask when she gets hungry. The only predictable thing about Little Munchkin is his unpredictability. One day he might eat a proper adult person's meal - half of the chicken, plate of rice with curry and fruits. Another day he will survive on blueberries. There is no specific food item that can be relied upon. You never know how much and what he will eat and what and how much should be cooked for him. Feeding little guy is a minor pain.

Energy level: I used to complain about Big Munchkin being an active girl. Then, I got Little Munchkin. He really IS active. Big Munchkin was just a normal girl. Little Guy runs as fast as me and , generally, in the opposite direction. Recently he managed to get away from my DH and run under the wheels of a car. Fortunately, the driver had an inclining that it might happen and drove very slowly (he must have been a dad himself). Little Munchkin climbs, moves chairs to help himself climb. Opens anything that can be opened, takes apart anything that can be taken apart. On a positive note: he does not whinge. Big Munchkin does, a lot. Most of the time I don't know what drive me bananas more.

Big Munchkin used to chew things, but by 18 months it was mostly over. Little Munchkin does has constantly something in his mouth - dirt, grass, stones, coins, and right about anything else. In India we rescued a still alive bug out of Little Munchkin's mouth. For a guy who eats pretty much any garbage he finds I would have expected better eating habits - no such luck.

By 18 months Big Munchkin had a very decent vocabulary. Little Munchkin still does not consistently say anything. He sort of says papa and mama. I think he might have said fish, while we were at the aquarium. He might have tried saying Well Done and Ball. That's about it. He finally started producing a wider range of sounds, so I hope there is a breakthrough coming.

Since Big Munchkin was born Baby Blues has been my favourite 'reading'. I read it every time I get depressed. Needless to say, these books are permanently on my bedside table.

How do I do grocery shopping? Like this

Do we have enough money? Look here

Do I have time to exercise? What do you think?

How do I feel? Like this and like this and
like this

How is our health? Look here and here.

How do kids get along? This and this and this.

How does Big Munchkin behave? Like this and like this.

I'll add more later ...

I just love Baby Blues ...

This week I took Little Munchkin for his first theatre performance "Baby Balloon". It is a show designed for babies from 6 months to two years old. He loved it. Little Munchkin went everywhere, touched everything, climbed where he could. He had a good time. The next day we went for a music class and another woman told me that she recognized Little Munchkin as she was at that show as well. Apparently, Little Munchkin made an impression on everyone.

Big Munchkin had her own taste of theatre a couple of weeks ago, when my DH took her for a "Make Way for Noddy" play. Big Munchkin's friend and her daddy went as well. Girls had a highly amusing discussion about the play afterwards.

Last Saturday my DH spent in the emergency room. In the morning Big Munchkin woke up crying and complaining that her ear hurts. We called the out-of-hours medical service and they asked us to come over to the hospital. They don't think that Big Munchkin has an ear infection, but she still got a few medications prescribed. As if that was not enough, Little Munchkin had a nasty fall in the evening. My DH took him to the local Children Emergency room at the local hospital. Little Munchkin had recovered remarkably fast, but the bruise on his forehead will be turning various shades for a while. At present it is a nice shade of black. He looks terrifying. My DH has got quite a few new grey hairs in one day, I think.

I have been feeling very tired lately. I finally found the way to explain 'sostojanie polnoi zamordovannosti' - few days ago I was cooking some curry. I took a block of frozen ginger and put it in a pan with cooking vegetables. I could feel that something is wrong and I kept looking at that pan trying to understand what exactly is wrong with this picture. It took me a few minutes to realize that what I put in the pan was not a block of frozen ginger but a frozen fish finger. It was in a box beside the ginger and I just put it in a curry and my mind was so tired that it refused to process the picture. This story best describes what 'sostojanie polnoi zamordovannosti' is.

I had a lovely day today. In the morning we went to pick up groceries, cooked dinner and went to the Borough market. The weather has been beautiful today - sunny and warm. The prices at the market have gone up a lot. The choice of produce has gone up too. I bought some nice olives stuffed with garlic, some sun-dried tomatoes, chanterelle mushrooms, wild boar Cumberland sausages, and a mix of nut. Big Munchkin has been asking nuts lately. From the market, Little Munchkin and I went to see his daddy at work. Then we went to one of the City Farm. I was hoping that Little Munchkin would enjoy seeing animals like Big Munchkin used to, but he really does not care for all the farm animals much. He had a good time running around. At the farm we made friends with another woman who brought her 18 months old daughter there.

After the farm we went back to our local shopping centre for a coffee. Then, we went to the NCT organized pottery painting session. Little Munchkin helped me to make a gift for his daddy's birthday - a cup with his hand prints on it. I also did his footprint on a plate while it still fits there. We came back home, made few phone calls. After that the evening went as usual. I really enjoyed spending the day outside with Little Munchkin running around. The summer has been a wash out so far and it is nice to get a bit of proper summer weather for a change.