I’ve taken on a very big and important parenting challenge this week.  I’ve been wearing earrings, so that Paul can learn not to yank them out of my ears.  Yes, I want violin music.  Always.

Huge win:  I got Paul to eat brussel sprouts and disproved karma (as if it needed disproving) at the same time.  My parents still haven’t managed to get me to eat brussel sprouts.

He got so excited, he decided to try sitting on them.

Win for Paul:  he learned how to walk backwards.  He’s never been so pleased with himself.  He walked backwards the whole length of the living room (which, admittedly, is about 3 1/2 feet) with a huge grin on his face.  It cracked me up, because it wasn’t like he had just learned something really neat that big people do, like walking.  He looked as though he thought he had invented the whole concept of walking backwards.  Try it.  It will totally ruin walking forwards for you.

He’s also learned how to use a spoon to dump food down his overalls.  Really useful skills.

I did lose one battle.  I picked up some bath crayons while I was running errands and intended to give them to Paul as a Valentine or put them in his Easter basket, but he fished them out of the bag before I had a chance to hide them.  He did his usual routine of shoving them into my face and whining, so what could I do?