Living in a Cheerio world (to the tune of Madonna's "Material Girl")

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Cheerios these days.

What mother of young children does not have a stash of Cheerios in her purse? They truly are General Mills' gift to moms. Ryan loves them so much the box doesn't even make it back into the cupboard anymore. When I need a few extra minutes to get something done (like dinner or writing a post for this blog), I can usually throw a handful of Cheerios in his direction and he's as happy as a clam. And there's minimal guilt - they're pretty healthy and it helps him improve his manual dexterity.

On the flip side, there are Cheerios everywhere in my house. Hiding in the beige shag carpet in the living room, under the couch, inside the Tupperware cupboard, in the fridge, in the cold air return vent, in my shoe. I've actually taken to issuing a Cheerio warning/apology to anyone coming into our house. Perhaps I should just post something on the front door??

And I can't decide what I hate more: stepping on a dry Cheerio and feeling it disintegrate into a fine powder that immediately disperses throughout the house, or stepping on a soggy Cheerio and feeling it smoosh into the carpet and the bottom of my clean sock. I'm forever on my hands and knees wiping up Cheerio dust/mush and I'm getting tired of it.

Our Cheerio addiction is so extreme that I finally broke down and bought the BIG box of Cheerios. Yes, the industrial size box that sits on the bottom shelf in the cereal aisle that you look at and think: who in the world needs such a big box of Cheerios??

I'm so tempted to ban Cheerios from our house, but that just wouldn't be much fun, would it. And besides, this is just a phase, right?!?!

PS. If you need help getting "Material Girl" out of your head, another sing-along favourite in our house these days is Banana Man, to the tune of Billy Joel's "Piano Man." Happy singing!

The Tooth Fairy's Q1 performance review

Overall Rating: Meets Expectations (just barely)

Areas of Strength: stealth, sparkly outfits

Areas for Improvement: memory, consistency, execution

Comments:
The Tooth Fairy continues to be a pleasure to work with, especially over this past quarter when the demand was higher than usual. She (he??) continues to effectively weave their magical spell over the children in the household and there is no sign that the gig is up.

We have had the opportunity to collaborate several times recently and while all the 'transfers' were ultimately successful, there were some challenges. I acknowledge that the Tooth Fairy implemented successful solutions and helped avoid any awkward "truth" moments, but I think many of the problems could have been avoided in the first place. Forgetting to take the tooth, fumbling the tooth and leaving less money than on previous occasions are unacceptable behaviours in this business. I also believe there was one occasion where the Tooth Fairy was inebriated while performing their duties.

I know the Tooth Fairy has a lot on her (his??) plate these days, but it's important that any outside stressors not impact the execution of their job. I trust these are only temporary distractions and that performance in future quarters will improve.

Overall, I'm pleased that the Tooth Fairy is a member of my team and I look forward to our ongoing partnership. Keep up the great work!

Developmental Opportunities:
The Tooth Fairy should focus on getting back to the basics; I would recommend reviewing the Tooth Fairy Manual, in particular the sections on drinking and flying, cursing and keeping the magic alive. A course in time management or organizational skills may also be helpful. They may also want to consider finding a mentor (or a therapist) - the Easter Bunny is probably pretty busy these days, but Santa may have some time on his hands.

In our house, the Tooth Fairy brings $2 and two chocolate toonies ...
if they remember.

Light bulbs make me go "Grrrr"

If you're looking for a deep, thought-provoking post, this is not it. Today I need to vent about light bulbs. Yup, light bulbs.

Most of the time, light bulbs go along unnoticed. If you think about it, there are likely several dozen light bulbs throughout your house and you probably don't spend a nanosecond of thought on them for days, even weeks or months, at a time. Until they start to burn out.

And light bulbs are sneaky little things. Because they never burn out all at once. Usually not even within a day or two. In my experience, the pot light in the basement likes to wait until just after I've gone to the store to buy a replacement bulb for the fixture in the kitchen before deciding to quit.

And it isn't like the good ol' days when all light bulbs were virtually the same. These days, it seems like every light fixture in our house takes a completely different bulb. And even though we buy multiple packs of bulbs, it never ever seems like we have the GU10 bulb I need for the fixture at the top of the stairs. (Don't even get me started about getting out and climbing the extra long ladder needed to access that fixture.)

I did a quick search on Canadian Tire and there were 56 results for light bulbs. At Home Depot the same search returned 173 products. Seriously people, 173 different kinds of light bulbs!!! No wonder I'm stressed about light bulbs.

Here's a quick look at our current light bulb collection after I stocked up yesterday. Note: after taking this picture I found yet another kind of light bulb hiding at the bottom of the box - I don't even know what fixture it belongs to!

Thank goodness spring is coming and I'll be able to get through the day without needing to turn on a light.