The first day of my week long holiday; time to kick back and relax - what could possibly go wrong? Well first thing this morning as everybody was pretty much ready I thought I would pull the car out of the drive to make it easier to put Bethany in before taking Alison to work. With the car on the front I thought I would pop round the newsagents for a paper when the key snapped in the ignition of my car as I was getting out. I quickly grabbed the spare set of keys from upstairs hoping that the end had fallen somewhere under the car seat but that was not to be and told Alison that she had better set off walking which luckily would only add another ten minutes to her journey. Finding some tips on the internet I enlisted the help of my father to help retrieve the broken portion of key using thin pliers, bits of coathanger and blu-tack but all to no avail. Luckily the remaining bit of key still starts the car and it is already booked into the garage for Monday morning for an MOT and service so I waited for them to open and phoned them to tell them of my problem. They were remarkably unfazed and said it wouldn't be a problem making me feel a little foolish for flapping around earlier on.
   Having given up trying to keep pace with Bethany as she runs from one room to another we found it best to hazard proof as best we can so that sockets are blanked off,catches are on cupboard doors and breakable items are out of her reach. The only hazards are the oven in the kitchen and gas fire in the front room which we don't leave unattended and the latter does not go on until she is in bed although she likes to remove the fake pebbles from the fire when you're not looking so causing problems when trying to remember which order they go back in. Earlier this morning then I was puzzled to hear the sound of the window blinds in the dining room rattling and walked in to find Bethany stood on the settee under the window having successfully climbed up and playing with the blinds. Rearranging the cushions in case she should fall I then raised the blinds but she remained content to sit on the settee whilst watching CBeebies. Later on she approached me in the front room as I was sat on the sofa but this one is a bit higher and after an initial attempt she realized that she could not climb up. Bethany then pulled a cushion off and used this as a step and she clambered up to sit next to me rather pleased with herself.
   I wasn't quite so pleased with her later on when I heard paper tearing and wondering whose letter or document she had got hold of this time and went in to find her pulling the wallpaper off the wall. A quick botch job with the blu-tack that was no good for broken car keys has at least stopped it hanging off before I try to paste it back up later.