PractiGal: Five For Friday

Since I missed the Thursday Thirteen thing yesterday, I thought I'd do Five For Friday

... so here you have it..... five tid-bits....

1. I had a successful shopping trip before anyone else in my family was awake today. During my early-morning run to WalMart for diapers, I spontaneously began my Christmas shopping. I bought something for my young niece -- it starts with "C" and ends with "Patch." I'm so excited! I wish I could see her face when she opens it. Too bad she lives clear across the country. I also bought an Erector set for one of our nephews.

2. We've already had to hide the doll from our little guy, who would really like to get his hands on it. "Baby! baby!" Maybe when he's a little older I'll get him a boy Cabbage Patch doll. Those things are incredibly cute.

3. Do you ever spend part of your day waiting for something to happen? I ended up doing that this morning. I'm not working today and decided I'd take my son for a hair cut after breakfast, and then we'd go do something fun -- maybe go play with the train set at the library. And, by "after breakfast," I mean after breakfast-and-poop, because as sure as the sun rises and sets each day, my little boy fills his diaper after breakfast - 95% of the time. Sometime between 8 and 9:00. You can practically set your watch by his regularity. Apparently he doesn't do this when he knows you're expecting him to go, so that you can get on with your day. No... 9:00 came and went. So did 9:30. 10:00. No poop. I caught hopeful whiffs a couple of times, but he was just teasing me with a little gas. Finally, at 10:30, I realized it was ridiculous to hang around waiting for poop, so I called the hair place to get my guy on the waiting list. Oh well, I figured if it happened at the hair place, c'est la vie. No sooner did I hang up the phone, when that unmistakable scent filled the room. Jackpot. Hooray! Poop at home instead of in the hair chair! It's the little things in life, really.

4. Once at the hair salon, I announced my son's name and said that we had called ahead. There were two stylists ready to wait on customers. I overheard one say to the other "You take this one -- you'll see." And I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Expecting trouble because he's a toddler, huh? OK, understandable. I'm sure it sucks to try to cut hair on a squirmy, screaming kid. Not to mention the fact that it can be dangerous with scissors around an unhappy child. But that's not my kid. I've been taking my little guy for cuts regularly for over a year, and he does amazingly well. He hasn't been injured, nor has a stylist, during any of our visits. Right away, the woman who got "stuck" with us was all business. She barely cracked a smile the whole time, even though I tried to engage her in conversation and insisted that we've done the haircut thing several times and have never had a problem. She ended up being pleasantly surprised, I think, with how well he did with the scissors and trimmers. I always give a generous tip too, because I think it takes extra patience to deal with the little ones -- even when they behave so well. Why must people assume there's going to be trouble, instead of giving you the benefit of the doubt?

5. Do you have a CD or artist that you play over & over & over, and never tire of? For me, it's Alison Krauss and Union Station. I listen to them nearly every day. Of course I'm listening to them as I write this. If I had an iPod, it would be packed with AKUS. If you've been reading this blog for a while, this might sound familiar. I think I have an AKUS obsession. Judging from the album reviews on Amazon, I'm not alone -- there are other freakishly obsessed fans out there too. Phew.