Monday 31 August 2009

Bank Holiday at the Lopes

Lopes:

“I don’t know what I want to be, A doctor, a dentist, a hairdresser, a p.e teacher, a teacher or just a mummy. But a mummy is boring. That’s what you are, just a mummy”

Ouch, says mummy who has 2 jobs as an analyst, runs an online business and is also “Just a mummy

Later as she was about to make herself some toast, she asked where the bread was. I said it was in a carrier bag in the kitchen as I had brought it out of the bread bin earlier. After looking for about 10 minutes, (I need to tell you how she looks for things; just like I did as a child) she came back annoyed that it was not in a carrier bag but out of the bag. I apologised and she said, “Don’t worry, you were just confused”

Oh dear. I must be doing something wrong.

Then again, I must be doing something right as she wrote me this note.

"I love you mummy, you are the best mummy in the whole world. Tolu, Daddy and baby." This is verbatim but she kept asking me how to spell world. Her writing is getting better and it is something I definitely want to improve as my handwriting is absolutely illegible!

Back to her searching abilities.

When I was younger, my mum would send me to her room to get something. After searching for 2 minutes, I would go back downstairs and say I did not find it. I will get sent back up to look again, then go back down to say I did not find it. Depending on how much patience my mum had at the time, I would get sent back a few times but it always ended with a threat that if she came upstairs and found it, I was in deep trouble. I usually found it after that! Now history is repeating itself. My mum says it’s payback time. Also added to payback time is Lope’s inability to eat “wet” cereal which means she has a bowl of dry cereal and a glass of milk on the side!

One thing I refuse to add to payback is Lopes' ability to give a running commentary on absolutely everything. Men, can she talk and sometimes it gets a bit too wearing and I find myself going to hide in the Loo which gives me a minute before she demands what I am doing there.

She has just come back with 2 slices of toast and 2 plates. Each slice of toast has it’s own plate! I started getting her to do things as my mum came back from staying with my sister and was so upset that her 17 year old grandson could not make a cup of tea. She was around to tak my sister on holiday for her 50th and was even more annoyed that no one else in the house could work the washing machine.

Here in the Lopes abode, it’s everyman for himself. BabaLopes does his own laundry as he does not trust me to do it as he likes. He is fussy about temperatures and detergents and fabric conditioner while I am happy that a wash is complete if it has clothes, detergent and conditioner. He, on the other hand, has different detergents for different fabrics and I have too many loads to wash so everything gets washed at 40 degrees with non-bio detergent and sensitive fabric conditioner.

I am digressing every which way. Anyway, GrandmaLopes asked Lopes to make some toast and I was so sure that she won’t have a clue. Boy was I wrong! As well as Lopes talking 19 to the dozen she follows everything going on around her with eagle eyes. She is getting quite resourceful and loves washing the doors and floors (of her own free will, before I get reported to child services) and is beginning to ask if she can load the dishwasher :)

Any errors on this posting are due to two things. My brain is going too fast and I just poured a full cup of water on my laptop keyboard.

PS. Just had to add this from Lopes. "Mummy do you want millions, gazillions or amenity"??? Apparently amenity is not a number but a kind of number. The largest one. I think she means infinity!