CIRCUS or ZOO? Tuesday - December 23, 2008

Sometimes I feel like my home has become a small circus... or a zoo. Every single day seems to have some sort of chaos involved.

Last week's circus drama included (just the highlights, of course):
* Dan was on a business trip from Tuesday morning to Thursday night. And, I went into the office three days instead of two. Two very busy work schedules = exhaustion for the at-home parent... me.

* Rocco cut his eye-lid open just at the crease above his eye. While playing on what? The dishwasher, of course. Minimal bleeding... but it left a nice black and blue and red bruise. He cried hard. Poor baby! Thank the Lord it wasn't his eyeball.

* Matteo managed to get his two fingers stuck in a kitchen drawer. He was playing in the plastic container drawer. They shut automatically when they get close enough to being closed. I was upstairs getting Rocco out of bed and heard a shrill scream. Poor baby! I'm happy to report all fingers are still working properly. It probably hurt quite a bit, but scared him more than anything.

* Rocco and Matteo managed to OPEN one of the securely sealed, fool-proof, baby-approved and tested (supposedly!), egg-shaped shakers that came in a "Parenting"musical instruments drum. WHAT?! I still can't believe this. I got a call from Julia, our au pair, while driving home from work. She said there were little pieces EVERYWHERE. I get home. I clean up the mess of tiny pieces. I call poison control. Yes... I CALL poison control because what if they swallowed some of these little things? For all I know.... the little pieces came from China and they're loaded with lead. Poison control recommends I go out and buy a lead test, which I did. Test was negative. Boys are fine. Crisis averted. Deep breath... I think to myself "For real? What's next?! No. I can do this. Dan will be home tomorrow night." Then, I try busting open the other egg shaker. I can't get it open. Amazing. These two little guys are unbelieveable. Teamwork results in amazing feats, doesn't it?

* Dan gets home approximately 3 hours late on Thursday night because of flight delays across the country (due to weather). I was SO happy to see him walk in the door. SO HAPPY!

* Then, to top off the already crazy week... on Sunday, Rocco decided to do his first dive off the top and backside of the sofa. I was upstairs helping Gabby get dressed. Dan was putting Matteo down for his morning nap. Dan heard a thump and a cry... ran downstairs and found Rocco on the floor behind the sofa. So this of course is our assumption of what happened. Now we either have to get rid of the sofa in the family room or make sure Rocco is secure in the playroom before he's ever left alone. So... I'm sure you know what our decision was.