A little bit of OCD

Having children has helped me understand myself better. And one aspect of my personality that has become clearer is that I am a little bit obsessive compulsive. Just a little, and only about a few things. Now I am pretty sure that I am not alone in this trait. My mother in particular is very OC about loading the shopping trolley, and hanging out the washing. James needs to have sets of things. My issue is with wastage. I have thought alot about this recently. I wouldn't say I am a hoarder, but I hate to waste things. So I keep items if I think it will be useful. I try to get every last drop out of the toothpaste or the shampoo. I never impulse buy and it takes me ages to consider buying something (I have to weigh up the pros and cons of spending the money vs. buying the item). I remember when I was a uni student I used to re-write my notes, but I would try to write as small as I could so that I didn't waste paper. And James parents particularly press my buttons with their ridiculous Christmas presents (a dressing gown that is 3 sizes too large, seriously).

So you can imagine that having a toddler really stretches my OC tendencies. Particularly at the moment. Charlotte has begun to really enjoy painting, drawing, making pictures. She particularly likes "gooing" or glueing to you and me. I have kept over the years lots of sparkly bits and pieces, and have bought some art and craft kits that contain googly eyes, stickers etc. Charlotte loves this, and we have made lots of pictures. I tape a large piece of paper to the walls and let her paint and stick things on. This week we have been making lots of dinosaurs and monsters. We even made some monsters from egg cartons. But I have found myself reusing all the bits and pieces because I just can't stand the thought of wasting them.

But worst of all is that Charlotte loves to transfer the bits and pieces (hearts, stars, little jewels, dozens and dozens of them) from container to container. And then on the floor. Each time she does I can't help myself, I'm down on all fours trying to pick them up. It is driving me bonkers. Because within 5 minutes of all them being restored to their rightful place, Charlotte has tipped them out again. AAAAARGH. At least I know she is getting some enjoyment from watching her mummy crawl around the floor, madly picking up tiny hearts and stars. I'm sure this will cure my OCD - one day.
Painting on our wall- and wasting paint also bugs me. Deep breaths

5 months

I have been a little remiss in my blog posting of late. I'll summarise what has happened in the last few weeks - I was sick; Charlotte ate medication she shouldn't cue an emergency dash to the hospital, James away in china; James back sick and injured; Charlotte got sick; I got sick (with very severe tonsillitis; Angus has his needles (brave boy); Charlotte gets sick (40 degree temps, scary); I then get sick with the same thing (I think it was the man flu it was that bad). And that is about it. Did you get that we have been sick? I'm really over all the sickness; it is tempting to jsut hide away so that the germs can't get us. Although, a sick toddler is super cuddly and cute.

Oh and of course, Angus is nearly 5 months old. There really has been alot happening in his world. He is nearly rolling. He has done it each way once, but then hasn't done it again. He nearly rolls all the way over, his legs, hips, trunk are over but his head still stays in the one spot. I'm not all that worried though as he has excellent head control and also has really great trunk control. If you stand him up he will stand in the one spot for about a minute or so. He is also getting longer and we now have to bathe him in the big bath as he outgrew the baby bath.

These last few weeks we have been weaning him off his reflux medication. Up to the 4 month mark he actually got a bit worse. He was vomiting from the minute he woke up till bedtime. With Charlotte I felt her needles at 4 months made her worse, so I was dreading that. But it made no difference. They were actually delayed by 2 weeks (I was just too sick to take him) and I wonder if that made all the difference. Ever since then the vomiting has decreased and it seems to bother him less, so we have also cut out the meds. Today I didn't give him anything and the script has now run out. So cross fingers that that is it! I still expect him to puke but hope that it won't hurt him anymore.

The big milestone this week is that we started solids. I thought I would give it a go on the weekend. James actually took the first step. He had let me have an afternoon nap and I slept through Angus waking up (which I never do) and he seemed hungry. So I eventually woke to James feeding him. He took the farex really well, seems to love it. It is very cute, he launches himself at the spoon with a "whooomph" and then chews away. Yesterday we tried pumpkin which was a resounding success - albeit a little messy.

I'm looking forward to the next milestones of beginning to crawl! Eeeep.