Underemployed Teacher Seeks Respite from Toddler: May your Tuesday be poltergeist-less and your footwear blessedly bug-free!

So my blog tracker tells me that my blog- Now, when I hear 'blog' I think 'webpage with a large and devoted following. One in which the author has many interesting and intelligent things to say'. So maybe I should call this my bl-email. Or perhaps my blogette. That would make me a dabbling blogger- a blabbler. Anyways, so my blog tracker tells me that my page views are up to 30. We can safely assume that 15 of those were me, but that means that my 6 friends checked it at least twice. Keep up the good work peeps!

Today was our first weekday in our new city. This means it was my first day alone with Ann in our new house. This doesn't sound like a big deal, but due to either our move or her entry into an obnoxious stage of toddlerhood, she has become a monster. Just last week I was commenting on how delightful she was to be around. Sweet, funny, and constantly surprising me with new skills, words and interesting thoughts, I was (almost) looking forward to being with her 24/7 until she turned 5. Or until my EI ran out. Something has clearly happened since then. She kicks, she bites, and she willfully defies me ("GASP! Not willful defiance!" It sounds tame until you tell her to stop walking towards traffic and she willfully defies you). And every time I tell her 'no' she shakes her finger aggressively at me and yells "NO!" right back. Then she tells her father I'm being bossy. Other times she telegraphs her deviousness in advance. When I say 'no', she looks down and to the right and her supermodel eyelashes flutter as she smiles devilishly. One eyebrow twitches and then she does something truly obnoxious. It's almost like she's momentarily possessed when she does this. I actually had a nightmare about her being possessed the other night and had difficulty making eye contact with her yesterday as a result.

So anyways, as Adrian left the house this morning I felt a little bit like I'd just been locked in the cellar with a wolverine. And, sure enough, it was like celebrity rehab here today. Things were thrown, feelings were hurt... So we tried to get out a lot. 3 long walks to be exact. For each one, we had to bring Ann's new bestie- her alligator. He's been around for a while, but now that we have more room to run around and mainly wood floors to do it on, he's a lot more fun.


I think this is Bastion Square. Some square near the Unemployment Office anyways. Alligator went to Service Canada too, but the Agents were displeased enough with his noisy entrance that I didn't stop to capture the moment.


Alligator is afraid of heights.

In this photo he was devastated that Ann wanted to get away from him badly enough that she would jam her head between the posts. This is actually a blatant lie. She loves him so much that when we see other children on the street (or the other side of the street) she does her aggressive finger jab and yells "NO! MINE!" at them.


Ann and Alligator out for another walk. While she was stomping earwigs the other day, one crawled in her shoe. This traumatic event means we have to conduct regular and lengthy bug checks of her feet and footwear. It is progress though, yesterday I couldn't even get her to put her shoes on.