Our Little Shopaholic

Fallen asleep with his head in the crocodile's mouth!

I think I've worked out why Felix hasn't been eating well recently. When I was putting him into his car seat this morning, I noticed he has a really big ulcer on the side of his tongue. The other day, he cried but I couldn't work out why. I think he must have bitten his tongue, judging by the ulcer. Poor kid, no wonder he's been miserable when he's offered food. I know I hate to eat when I have one; it's really painful. Hopefully it will heal up soon and it won't bother him any more.

Mum...put the camera away!

It's Nathan's birthday tomorrow, so I needed to go shopping today to buy the ingredients for his cake and pick up his present. Felix was keen to come with me, so I loaded him into the car (along with his favourite monkey), and off we went. I didn't put shoes on Felix because my plan was to put him straight into a trolley at the supermarket, so he wouldn't be on the ground at all. Instead, I decided to pick up the present first, so Felix wriggled out of my arms to go and have a look around the shop. He was in 'cute mode' today. He went up to each customer, tapped them on the leg until they looked down at him, then gave them a huge smile. I love seeing people's faces go from unhappy or grumpy, to a smile when they see Felix beaming at them.

After we'd picked up the present, Felix decided he wanted to walk the rest of the way to the supermarket. I pushed my 'bad mother' thoughts to one side as he walked 'shoeless' through the mall, dragging his monkey by one arm behind him. I realised, quite quickly, that my super fast trip to the shop was going to take a lot longer than first anticipated. Felix wanted to stop and smile at each and every person along the way. Being a Saturday morning, it meant there were quite a few people for him to say hello to. He also decided to go and look at a few of the shops along the way. He checked out the DVD's at the music store, and he went and touched the nice, silky bras hung up in the lingerie shop. He walked into a clothing store and felt some of the clothes on the racks, and took an extra long time in the shoe store, touching several different pairs of shoes. Just as I was about to get him to move on from the shoes, he noticed a CD player, underneath one of the shelves, which was playing music inside the store. Felix squatted down next to it, listening intently.

Fun in the sand

It's funny how we have readjusted to the slower pace, since having Felix. When our other kids were small, I would hurry them up if we were out, because we had things to do or places to be. We're still busy now, but we don't feel the need to hurry any more. We really enjoy just watching Felix explore the world around him. We love watching him interact with people, and seeing the excitement on his face when he experiences something new. Even baking Nathan's cake this afternoon, I enjoyed stopping to let Felix dip his finger into the mixture, to let him try it, and then have him help me turn the mixer back on again, by pressing the button. He went from being a bit worried about the noise the mixer was making, to being intrigued by it instead.

Probably the funniest thing Felix did at the shop today, was when he saw a man on a motorised scooter. Felix stopped dead in his tracks, looked at the scooter, then back at me and signed 'car'. Next thing, he took off to chase the scooter, his hands continuously signing 'car' as he walked along. It looked hilarious, like he was driving an invisible car, as he made his way closer to the man on the scooter (which was, of course, heading in the opposite direction to where I wanted to go). Thankfully, the man was going fairly quickly, so Felix gave up the chase. It certainly gave me, and a few other shoppers, a bit of a giggle.